Terminal and Gateway FAQ¶
This is the technical FAQ for Lavender Terminal and Lavender Gateway — operations, reliability, comparisons, and privacy. Lavender Desk has its own Desk FAQ.
How do I buy?¶
- Lavender Desk — options risk and trading for desks: book a demo at info@lavender-ts.com, then a trial on your own start-of-day file.
- Lavender Terminal — the Windows desktop app, $390/seat/month, month to month, no exchange fees. Start a 7-day free trial (credit card required) at lavender-ts.com/terminal. See Lavender Terminal below.
- Lavender Gateway — the REST API binary, $450/instance/month for up to 3 users, month to month, no exchange fees. Start a 7-day free trial (credit card required) at gateway.lavender-ts.com.
For other company / billing questions (founder, cancellation, procurement), see the marketing FAQ at lavender-ts.com/faq.
Lavender Terminal¶
These answers are Terminal-specific. The Gateway answers elsewhere on this page (multi-OS support) don't apply to Terminal.
What does Terminal cost?¶
$390/seat/month, month to month, no exchange fees. See Lavender Terminal.
How do I start a trial?¶
Start a 7-day free trial (credit card required) at lavender-ts.com/terminal. At first launch, enter the email you subscribed with; if it isn't recognized, email support@lavender-ts.com.
How do I download and install it?¶
Download the app from download.lavender-ts.com/Terminal.exe and run it. On first launch the freshly signed app may trip Windows SmartScreen — choose More info → Run anyway.
What are the system requirements?¶
Windows 10 or later. Terminal is a Windows desktop app only — unlike Gateway, there is no macOS or Linux build.
Does it work out of the box?¶
Yes. Terminal opens on Lavender's paper book the moment you launch it — nothing to configure, no data feed or broker required to start.
Do I need my own market data or broker?¶
No, not to start. Terminal runs on Lavender's paper book as-is. When you're ready, bring your own market-data feed (ThetaData, AlphaVantage, DataBento) and broker (Interactive Brokers, Tastytrade, Tradier) to light it up with live quotes and your live positions (broker connections are read-only; Terminal trades on Lavender's paper book).
Trial and evaluation¶
Gateway offers a 7-day free trial (credit card required). Start at gateway.lavender-ts.com. (Looking for Terminal? It's a separate 7-day trial — see Lavender Terminal.)
For an even lower-friction first look at the engine, the public Lavender Discord is free and runs the same Greeks engine -- 100 commands per day, no credit card. If /greeks ticker:AAPL and /skew ticker:SPX produce numbers that match what you'd expect, the engine is producing them the same way for the API.
You can also evaluate without running anything:
- Every endpoint in the Lavender API and the nine vendor compat layers includes literal JSON / CSV / NDJSON / HTML examples.
- Verify the Greeks shows a worked result: European Greeks reproduce from the inputs we publish -- you can read it without an API key.
Data and licensing¶
Do I need an OPRA license to run Gateway?¶
No. Lavender holds market-data licensing through its data partners; what Gateway returns to you is computed Greeks, not redistributed quotes. See Market Data & Reliability.
What about my fund's data-redistribution compliance review?¶
Gateway does not redistribute exchange data. For specifics required by your firm's data-redistribution review, contact support@lavender-ts.com.
Why are bid, ask, and volume fields zeroed?¶
Lavender computes Greeks; it does not redistribute OPRA quotes. Every vendor compat layer carries a "Differences" section listing the specific zeroed fields. See for example Differences from Polygon.io.
Operations¶
What OS does Gateway support?¶
Windows 10+, macOS 12+, and Linux (x64). See Quickstart. (Lavender Terminal is Windows-only — see Lavender Terminal.)
When does Gateway restart?¶
Every morning, 03:00-04:00 ET. Outside that hour Gateway is not otherwise restarted. See Housekeeping window.
What outbound network access does Gateway need?¶
Outbound HTTPS to prod-gateway.lavender-ts.com. See Network requirements.
Where do Gateway logs go?¶
To stdout/stderr by default. Redirect at launch (Gateway.exe -id=... > gateway.log 2>&1) for long-term capture. See Logs.
Can a trader install this without a developer?¶
Yes. Quickstart is three steps: subscribe, download Gateway.exe (or the macOS / Linux binary), run it. Excel users skip the API entirely -- Power Query and a copy-paste VBA module are designed for traders, not developers. No code, no terminal commands, no API keys.
If you get stuck, Discord and support@lavender-ts.com are both real channels.
What happens if my subscription validation fails?¶
Gateway keeps serving cached data for transient failures. A revoked subscription fails every request with a 502 until it is renewed; at startup, a revoked subscription or an unrecognized email stops Gateway with the reason. See License and entitlement-check failure.
Reliability¶
How do I get help?¶
For help, email support@lavender-ts.com. See Reliability.
What happens if Lavender's central infrastructure has an outage?¶
Upstream feed outages surface as 502 with retry-after-seconds guidance. See Error handling.
Comparisons¶
How do Lavender's Greeks compare with another source?¶
Lavender's Greeks are dividend-aware and early-exercise-aware, so they part from simpler calculations in a few places: near ex-dividend dates, on deep-in-the-money contracts, and in hard-to-borrow names. Elsewhere you should expect them to agree closely.
See Verify the Greeks for a worked result.
Can I run Lavender alongside my existing vendor as a second source?¶
Yes -- that's the primary recommended pattern. The nine vendor-compat layers let you swap a host with a one-line change in your existing code; no auth changes, no field renames. Start there, then migrate to the native API when you want the full feature set. See Migration to native API for the field-rename tables.
What should I expect when I A/B Lavender against my current vendor?¶
For most contracts the numbers will be very close. Where they diverge, it's usually one of:
- Theta -- Lavender splits theta (continuous) from
decay(discrete next-trading-day P&L); a vendor that returns one number is computing one of these conventions. - Greeks near ex-dividend dates -- discrete dividends shift the early-exercise boundary on calls; expect delta and theta to differ from a continuous-yield vendor.
- Deep-ITM American contracts -- early-exercise premium is real and a European-style calculation will miss it.
- Hard-to-borrow names -- Lavender accounts for stock-borrow cost; a source that ignores it will produce inconsistent call/put Greeks.
These are the load-bearing differences Lavender is designed around -- if you don't see them on contracts that don't touch dividends, exercise, or borrow, that's the signal both engines are producing the right answer.
Privacy¶
What information leaves my machine?¶
Both Gateway and Terminal run on your machine and fetch their data from Lavender over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). What they send:
- Your email and Lavender key, with every request.
- What you ask about: the underlyings you open and, for history, the contracts it covers. In Terminal that includes the contracts in your book when it shows P&L since the close, P&L explain or a backtest. Never how many you hold.
- A usage report: the windows and features you use and for how long, the app's version, your PC's processor, memory and Windows version, response times, and error reports.
Your broker and market data logins go from your PC straight to those firms, never to Lavender.
See Network requirements for the outbound hosts.
What happens to my queries when I cancel?¶
Lavender holds none of your positions or trades. Cancellation ends the subscription -- there's nothing for you to migrate, archive, or recover.