diff --git a/piker/brokers/core.py b/piker/brokers/core.py
index f92f3e53..f10524f5 100644
--- a/piker/brokers/core.py
+++ b/piker/brokers/core.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import inspect
 from functools import partial
 import socket
 from types import ModuleType
-from typing import Coroutine, Callable
+from typing import Coroutine, Callable, List, Dict, Any
 
 import trio
 import tractor
@@ -19,14 +19,21 @@ log = get_logger('broker.core')
 
 
 async def api(brokermod: ModuleType, methname: str, **kwargs) -> dict:
-    """Make (proxy through) an api call by name and return its result.
+    """Make (proxy through) a broker API call by name and return its result.
     """
     async with brokermod.get_client() as client:
+
         meth = getattr(client.api, methname, None)
+        if meth is None:
+            log.warning(
+                "Couldn't find API method {methname} looking up on client")
+            meth = getattr(client, methname, None)
+
         if meth is None:
             log.error(f"No api method `{methname}` could be found?")
             return
-        elif not kwargs:
+
+        if not kwargs:
             # verify kwargs requirements are met
             sig = inspect.signature(meth)
             if sig.parameters:
@@ -38,7 +45,10 @@ async def api(brokermod: ModuleType, methname: str, **kwargs) -> dict:
         return await meth(**kwargs)
 
 
-async def quote(brokermod: ModuleType, tickers: [str]) -> dict:
+async def stocks_quote(
+    brokermod: ModuleType,
+    tickers: List[str]
+) -> Dict[str, Dict[str, Any]]:
     """Return quotes dict for ``tickers``.
     """
     async with brokermod.get_client() as client:
@@ -74,7 +84,7 @@ async def wait_for_network(net_func: Callable, sleep: int = 1) -> dict:
 async def stream_quotes(
     brokermod: ModuleType,
     get_quotes: Coroutine,
-    tickers2chans: {str: tractor.Channel},
+    tickers2chans: Dict[str, tractor.Channel],
     rate: int = 5,  # delay between quote requests
     diff_cached: bool = True,  # only deliver "new" quotes to the queue
     cid: str = None,
@@ -82,8 +92,8 @@ async def stream_quotes(
     """Stream quotes for a sequence of tickers at the given ``rate``
     per second.
 
-    A broker-client ``quoter`` async context manager must be provided which
-    returns an async quote function.
+    A stock-broker client ``get_quotes()`` async context manager must be
+    provided which returns an async quote retrieval function.
     """
     broker_limit = getattr(brokermod, '_rate_limit', float('inf'))
     if broker_limit < rate:
@@ -133,7 +143,7 @@ async def stream_quotes(
                         {'yield': {}, 'cid': cid}
                     )['yield'][symbol] = quote
 
-        # deliver to each subscriber
+        # deliver to each subscriber (fan out)
         if chan_payloads:
             for chan, payload in chan_payloads.items():
                 try:
@@ -147,6 +157,7 @@ async def stream_quotes(
                     for chanset in tickers2chans.values():
                         chanset.discard((chan, cid))
 
+        # latency monitoring
         req_time = round(postquote_start - prequote_start, 3)
         proc_time = round(time.time() - postquote_start, 3)
         tot = req_time + proc_time
@@ -164,8 +175,7 @@ async def stream_quotes(
 
 
 async def get_cached_client(broker, tickers):
-    """Get the current actor's cached broker client if available or create a
-    new one.
+    """Get or create the current actor's cached broker client.
     """
     # check if a cached client is in the local actor's statespace
     clients = tractor.current_actor().statespace.setdefault('clients', {})
@@ -232,6 +242,8 @@ async def smoke_quote(get_quotes, tickers, broker):
 
 def modify_quote_stream(broker, tickers, chan=None, cid=None):
     """Absolute symbol subscription list for each quote stream.
+
+    Effectively a consumer subscription api.
     """
     log.info(f"{chan} changed symbol subscription to {tickers}")
     ss = tractor.current_actor().statespace
@@ -261,7 +273,8 @@ async def start_quote_stream(
     chan: tractor.Channel = None,
     cid: str = None,
 ) -> None:
-    """Handle per-broker quote stream subscriptions.
+    """Handle per-broker quote stream subscriptions using a "lazy" pub-sub
+    pattern.
 
     Spawns new quoter tasks for each broker backend on-demand.
     Since most brokers seems to support batch quote requests we
@@ -286,7 +299,7 @@ async def start_quote_stream(
         log.info(f"Subscribing with existing `{broker}` daemon")
         tickers2chans = broker2tickersubs[broker]
 
-    # do a smoke quote (not this mutates the input list and filters out bad
+    # do a smoke quote (note this mutates the input list and filters out bad
     # symbols for now)
     payload = await smoke_quote(get_quotes, tickers, broker)
     # push initial smoke quote response for client initialization
@@ -296,11 +309,9 @@ async def start_quote_stream(
     modify_quote_stream(broker, tickers, chan=chan, cid=cid)
 
     try:
-        if broker not in dtasks:  # no quoter task yet
-            # task should begin on the next checkpoint/iteration
-            # with trio.open_cancel_scope(shield=True):
+        if broker not in dtasks:
+            # no quoter task yet so start a daemon task
             log.info(f"Spawning quoter task for {brokermod.name}")
-            # await actor._root_nursery.start(partial(
             async with trio.open_nursery() as nursery:
                 nursery.start_soon(partial(
                     stream_quotes, brokermod, get_quotes, tickers2chans,
@@ -325,21 +336,3 @@ async def start_quote_stream(
             log.info(f"No more subscriptions for {broker}")
             broker2tickersubs.pop(broker, None)
             dtasks.discard(broker)
-
-
-async def _test_price_stream(broker, symbols, *, chan=None, cid=None):
-    """Test function for initial tractor draft.
-    """
-    brokermod = get_brokermod(broker)
-    client_cntxmng = brokermod.get_client()
-    client = await client_cntxmng.__aenter__()
-    get_quotes = await brokermod.quoter(client, symbols)
-    log.info(f"Spawning quoter task for {brokermod.name}")
-    assert chan
-    tickers2chans = {}.fromkeys(symbols, {(chan, cid), })
-
-    async with trio.open_nursery() as nursery:
-        nursery.start_soon(
-            partial(
-                stream_quotes, brokermod, get_quotes, tickers2chans, cid=cid)
-        )
diff --git a/piker/cli.py b/piker/cli.py
index 717d2ef6..74bd1d69 100644
--- a/piker/cli.py
+++ b/piker/cli.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ def api(meth, kwargs, loglevel, broker, keys):
               help='Broker backend to use')
 @click.option('--loglevel', '-l', default='warning', help='Logging level')
 @click.option('--df-output', '-df', flag_value=True,
-              help='Ouput in `pandas.DataFrame` format')
+              help='Output in `pandas.DataFrame` format')
 @click.argument('tickers', nargs=-1, required=True)
 def quote(loglevel, broker, tickers, df_output):
     """Retreive symbol quotes on the console in either json or dataframe
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ def quote(loglevel, broker, tickers, df_output):
     """
     brokermod = get_brokermod(broker)
     get_console_log(loglevel)
-    quotes = trio.run(partial(core.quote, brokermod, tickers))
+    quotes = trio.run(partial(core.stocks_quote, brokermod, tickers))
     if not quotes:
         log.error(f"No quotes could be found for {tickers}?")
         return