Best Practices for Integrating Real-Time Stock Prices into Your Platform

Hello everyone, I’m Rachel, the CEO of Intrinio. Today, we’re diving into an essential topic for fintech developers, founders, and investors alike: The Best Practices for Integrating Real-Time Stock Prices into Your Platform. 

Whether you’re building a trading app, financial analytics software, or any tool that leverages financial data, this article will guide you through everything you need to know to integrate real-time stock prices effectively.

Defining Real-Time Stock Prices

Let’s start with the basics. What exactly are real-time stock prices? 

These are the latest available prices of stocks, updated instantly as trades are executed on the exchange. Unlike delayed data, which can lag behind by 15 to 20 minutes, real-time data gives you and your users the power to make decisions based on the most current market conditions.

Types of Real-Time Stock Prices

There are tons of real-time stock prices products on the market, and they vary in price, coverage, and latency. 

At the top of the pyramid is the SIP or consolidated tape, which includes 100% volume of all trades happening across all exchanges.

Obviously, this is an expensive, but very high-quality way to get real-time stock prices. You can also get stock prices from a single exchange, like IEX. This will have less volume of trades but will be far more affordable.

There are all kinds of products in between these two, like Nasdaq Basic, but it can be confusing to navigate the options.

To learn more, check out some of our videos, like Market Data 101 or Which Real Time Stock Prices Product is Best for Me?

Types of Real-Time Stock Price Integrations

When it comes to integration, there are several approaches. Direct API access to real-time feeds is common, where you integrate directly with a data provider like Intrinio. With an API, your code will “pull” the real-time prices when you need them.

Websockets are another popular method, enabling your platform to receive push updates about price changes, which we also offer at Intrinio.

Each method has its strengths, and the right choice depends on your specific needs in terms of speed, volume, and processing power.

Choosing a Data Provider

Choosing the right data provider is crucial. You need reliable, accurate, and timely data. 

Look for providers who offer comprehensive coverage, robust infrastructure, and excellent support. Pricing transparency and scalability are also important to consider as your user base grows.

Tools & Resources to Be Aware of

There are several tools and resources you should consider. We already covered APIs and WebSockets, but without proper documentation, they can be difficult to use.

Make sure whoever you buy data from has robust, clear documentation and guides. Also, make use of SDKs offered by data providers that can simplify the integration process.

At Intrinio, we understand the importance of not just providing data but also making it easily accessible and usable. We offer API and Websocket access for real-time stock prices, SDKs in all major programming languages, comprehensive documentation, and a supportive developer community to help you get started and troubleshoot any issues you might encounter.

Best Practices for Integration

Here are some best practices to keep in mind: 

• First, always cache frequently accessed data where possible to reduce API calls and improve your platform's responsiveness.
  
  
• Next, fully decouple the ingestion of data from the processing of data to prevent either from blocking the other. This should go without saying, but be sure to implement robust error-handling to manage moments when data feeds may be disrupted.
  
  
• Lastly, plan for failure scenarios. Plan how you want your app to behave when different scenarios happen, because they likely will happen at some point. My engineers call that “tank-ifying” your code!

How to Get Started with Intrinio Real-Time Data

If you’d like to explore getting real-time stock prices data from Intrinio, it’s super easy to start. Just fill out a quick consultation form on our website or chat live with our team to get set up on a free trial.

Check out our documentation and SDKs to start pulling data. And, if you ever get stuck, our support team is just a message away.
Integrating real-time stock prices is a powerful way to enhance your fintech platform. At Intrinio, we’re committed to helping innovators like you succeed by providing the data and tools you need. 

And remember, you can turn those ideas into action with real-time data from Intrinio. Until next time, keep innovating, and see you soon!

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