Is there a cheap alternative to Morningstar Direct — fund holdings sleeve?

Partially. Some of the product is free public data (SEC N-PORT filings (complete portfolio holdings)), but part of its value is genuinely proprietary. Holdings questions ('what does fund X actually hold?') per-call at $0.25 vs a $17.5k seat.

Is it legal to rebuild Morningstar Direct — fund holdings sleeve from public data?

Facts and public-domain government data are not copyrightable, but there are real traps here: Never reproduce Morningstar categories/ratings — proprietary. Holdings facts are public domain This is research, not legal advice.

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Morningstar Direct — fund holdings sleeve: what you're actually paying for

Partially — some of it is free public data, some is genuinely proprietary

Morningstar Direct — fund holdings sleeve typically costs $17,500/yr per seat. Part of what it sells is free public data (SEC N-PORT filings (complete portfolio holdings)); part is genuinely proprietary. Fund holdings themselves are free: every registered fund files N-PORT with the SEC monthly (public quarterly). Morningstar's proprietary value is its category taxonomy, star ratings, and analyst layer — that part is NOT arbitragable.

The free public data underneath

Source	License	Access
SEC N-PORT filings (complete portfolio holdings)	US public domain	EDGAR, free

Rebuild recipe

Resolve fund → CIK/series via EDGAR company search
Parse latest N-PORT: positions, weights, concentration
Do NOT clone the ratings/taxonomy — that is genuinely theirs

DIY difficulty: moderate — N-PORT XML is large but well-structured

The price math

Holdings questions ('what does fund X actually hold?') per-call at $0.25 vs a $17.5k seat.

Licensing and legal traps

Never reproduce Morningstar categories/ratings — proprietary. Holdings facts are public domain

Our coverage: FilingsPulse (fund-holdings endpoint in active build)

Decompose any data product programmatically: GET https://pulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/unbundle?product=Morningstar — $1.00 per call via x402. 22 products decomposed; honest misses for everything else.

Research as of 2026-07-06 by The Aslan Group LLC (info@theaslangroupllc.com). Product names are used nominatively to identify the products analyzed; all trademarks belong to their owners. Pricing is as publicly reported or contract-disclosed at research time and may change. This is research for build-vs-buy evaluation, not legal advice — verify licenses against the primary source before building.