Turn on intel

Intel is what Scalpel knows about a stock that the tape cannot show: whether the company is about to sell stock into your move, why the stock is moving, and whether shorts are trapped. It runs on free sources only: Interactive Brokers' own data and the news on your account, SEC EDGAR, FINRA and Nasdaq. There is no paid news or data service to subscribe to. The one optional extra is an OpenAI key.

What intel reads, and what each part needs

Intel follows up to 40 symbols at once: the stocks you hold first, then the symbols on your desks, then the IBKR scanner's list (guide 8.1). Everything runs on your own computer: requests go straight from Scalpel to each source.

Set up intel

1. 01

   Open the Intel tab

   Open Settings (Ctrl+,) and click Intel. Enabled, beside Intel (borrow, dilution, catalysts), is ticked by default. Under it, five status lines say what is working. Before setup, the first reads SEC filings: off until a contact email is set below.

   Settings

   ConnectionTradingStopsRiskSizingAppearanceAudioHotkeysIntelAbout

   Intel (borrow, dilution, catalysts)Enabled

   SEC filings: off until a contact email is set belowNews: BRFG, BRFUPDN, DJ-N, DJNLIBKR borrow file: loaded (2026.10.15 09:45:03)OpenAI: no key, keyword grading onlyWatching 32 symbols

   Follows your positions, your desks and the IBKR scanner's list. Borrow comes from IBKR's shortable ticks and stock-loan file, the Reg SHO list and FINRA short volume; dilution from SEC EDGAR; catalysts from the news providers on your IBKR account. All free.

   SEC EDGAR

   Contact emailyou@example.com

   The SEC requires a real contact in every request and refuses anonymous ones. It is sent only to sec.gov, in the User-Agent header. Without it, filings, dilution reads and shares outstanding stay off.

   OpenAI (optional)

   CancelApply

2. 02

   Enter your contact email

   Under SEC EDGAR, type your email in Contact email. The SEC's fair access rules require every automated request to name a real contact, and sec.gov refuses anonymous or placeholder ones, so filings stay off until this is set.

   The address goes only to sec.gov, in the User-Agent header of each request. FINRA, Nasdaq, IBKR's file server and OpenAI see a generic "Scalpel trading cockpit" with no contact details.

3. 03

   Apply and check the status

   Click Apply. Scalpel re-reads every watched company at once, so the dilution chips, SHS OUT and MKT CAP fill in within a minute or so, without a restart. The first status line changes to SEC filings: live.

   Settings

   ConnectionTradingStopsRiskSizingAppearanceAudioHotkeysIntelAbout

   Intel (borrow, dilution, catalysts)Enabled

   SEC filings: liveNews: BRFG, BRFUPDN, DJ-N, DJNLIBKR borrow file: loaded (2026.10.15 09:45:03)OpenAI: onWatching 32 symbols

   Follows your positions, your desks and the IBKR scanner's list. Borrow comes from IBKR's shortable ticks and stock-loan file, the Reg SHO list and FINRA short volume; dilution from SEC EDGAR; catalysts from the news providers on your IBKR account. All free.

   SEC EDGAR

   Contact emailjane.trader@example.com

   The SEC requires a real contact in every request and refuses anonymous ones. It is sent only to sec.gov, in the User-Agent header. Without it, filings, dilution reads and shares outstanding stay off.

   OpenAI (optional)

   CancelApply

4. 04

   Optional: add an OpenAI key

   Scroll down to OpenAI (optional) and paste your key into API key. Two switches, both on by default, decide what it is used for:

   • Grade headlines: each live headline is graded by OpenAI's Decisions API for its kind, strength, whether it raises money and whether it is new. The keyword grade shows first and the AI grade replaces it when it lands, usually within a few seconds. Billed on input only, a few cents a day.
   • Extract filing terms: financing filings are read for their warrant, offering and conversion prices, which become the orange lines on the chart (guide 9.6). Each filing is read once and cached for good.

   Settings

   ConnectionTradingStopsRiskSizingAppearanceAudioHotkeysIntelAbout

   OpenAI (optional)

   API keysk-...4f2a

   Grade headlinesExtract filing terms

   Headlines are graded by the Decisions API (gpt-6-luna, billed on input only, a few cents a day). Filing terms (warrant, offering and conversion prices) are extracted once per filing and cached. Without a key the keyword grader runs and no warrant or offering lines are drawn (switch them per chart in its settings). The OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable also works.

   Alerts and guard

   Strong catalyst alerts

   Dilution entry guardGuard minutes30

   News history days3

   The guard holds back a buy on a symbol with a financing filing or offering headline in the last N minutes; press the same buy again within 4 seconds to send it. Financing filings on a symbol you hold always alert. News history applies on the next start.

   CancelApply

   Instead of pasting the key, you can set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable; Scalpel uses it when the box is empty. The status line reads OpenAI: on once a key is in place.

5. 05

   Set how much news history to load

   News history days is how far back Scalpel loads headlines for a stock when it first starts watching it: 3 by default, from 1 to 30. It applies on the next start.

The status lines

What it costs and what is shared

The SEC, FINRA, Nasdaq and IBKR sources are free. The news is whatever your IBKR account already carries through the API; Scalpel does not add a provider. The OpenAI key is billed by OpenAI to your own account: headline grading is a few cents a day, and filing extraction is a one-off per filing.

When the key is set, OpenAI receives the headline (and up to the first 1,200 characters of the article, when IBKR supplies it) with the ticker, price, change and market cap, and excerpts of financing filings. Nothing about your account or your trades is sent.

What can go wrong

• SEC filings stays on "waiting for sec.gov". Something is blocking the connection to sec.gov (a firewall, a VPN, a proxy), or the address contains characters a web header cannot carry, such as an accented letter. Use a plain ASCII address. See the fix guide.
• News stays on "waiting for IBKR", or no catalyst chips appear. Your IBKR account has no news providers available to the API. Check the news subscriptions on your IBKR account; several are free.
• OpenAI: key rejected. The key is wrong, revoked, or the OpenAI account has no billing. Fix it on OpenAI's side and paste the key again.
• A stock has no chips at all. It may be past the 40 symbols intel follows. Load it onto a desk: desk symbols come before the scanner list.

Questions

Why does Scalpel need my email for SEC filings?

The SEC requires every automated request to sec.gov to carry a real contact in its User-Agent header and refuses anonymous ones. Scalpel sends the address only to sec.gov hosts.

Do I need an OpenAI key?

No. Without one, a keyword grader grades headlines and every dilution, borrow and short interest read still works. The key adds AI grading and the warrant and offering lines on the chart.

How much does the OpenAI key cost to run?

Headline grading is billed on input only and comes to a few cents a day. Filing extraction runs once per financing filing and is cached, so it costs little after the first days.

Does intel need a paid news subscription?

No. Scalpel grades the headlines from whatever news providers your IBKR account already has through the API. It does not use any paid third-party news feed.

Which symbols does intel follow?

Up to 40: the stocks you hold, then the symbols on your desks, then the IBKR scanner's list in IBKR's order. Symbols past 40 get no intel until a slot frees up.

What happens if I untick Enabled?

Intel stops: no chips, no desk strips, no supply lines, no dilution guard and no intel alerts. Running up with Require news catalyst then shows nothing, because no stock has a headline on file.