Real-Time Financial News with WebSocket API: finlight Makes It Effortless

When milliseconds matter, polling a REST API just doesn’t cut it. In modern financial applications, from trading tools to real-time dashboards, instant access to breaking news isn’t just nice to have — it’s essential.

That’s why Finlight now offers a powerful WebSocket API for real-time financial news streaming.

With just a few lines of code, developers can subscribe to live news updates filtered by ticker, language, source, and more — all in a highly structured JSON format, delivered as soon as the article is published.

🚀 Why Real-Time News via WebSocket?

Most traditional news APIs rely on polling — apps repeatedly send requests like “what’s new?” every few seconds or minutes. This wastes resources and often results in missed opportunities.

finlight’s WebSocket API opens a live connection between your application and the finlight backend. As soon as relevant news is detected, it’s pushed to your app instantly.

This allows:

• Faster trading decisions
• Live news dashboards
• Real-time alerts
• Seamless integration with AI pipelines or models

🔧 How It Works (and How Easy It Is)

The WebSocket implementation is simple. Here’s a easy typescript example using native the npm package finlight-client:

`import { FinlightApi } from 'finlight-client'

const client = new FinlightApi({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY', // Replace with your API key
})

client.websocket.connect(
{
query: 'Nvidia',
language: 'en',
extended: true,
},
(article) => {
console.log('New article received:', article)
},
)`

That's all it takes to start receiving structured news in real time.

🧠 Powerful Filtering Options

The finlight WebSocket API supports flexible filters, so developers can zero in on the most relevant articles:

• `query`: Advanced field:filters or simple name searches
• `tickers`: Focus on specific stocks like `["AAPL", "MSFT"]`
• `language`: Limit news to a specific language (e.g., `"en"`, `"de"`)
• `sources`: Include or exclude specific publishers
• `entities`: Subscribe to enriched company mentions
• Many more filters inside the documentation

This ensures that only relevant, actionable data is streamed to your application.

💼 Use Cases Across Financial Products

The WebSocket stream unlocks new possibilities for developers and teams:

• Real-time trading bots that react to market news
• Breaking news dashboards for financial analysts
• Live sentiment monitors for portfolio managers
• News alerts via Slack, email, or mobile push
• AI/ML models that consume real-time news as input

Combined with the REST API (for historical or full-text queries), finlight provides a complete pipeline — from live streaming to deep analytics.

⚙️ Built for Developers

finlight’s WebSocket API works with any major programming language or framework:

• Native `WebSocket` in JavaScript and TypeScript
• Python with `websockets`, `aiohttp`, or `socket.io`
• Quick testing via Postman or `wscat`
• Easy authentication via API key

There’s no need for OAuth, rate-limiting workarounds, or complex enterprise integration.

Why Teams Are Switching to finlight

Compared to legacy financial news APIs, finlight offers:

• ✅ Instant article delivery (no polling)
• ✅ Simple JSON protocol over secure WebSockets
• ✅ Granular filtering by ticker, language, and more
• ✅ Affordable plans with generous trial tiers
• ✅ Developer-first documentation and open libraries

This makes Finlight the perfect choice for startups, fintech builders, analysts, and enterprise teams alike.

Try the WebSocket API

If you have atleast Pro Standard subscription, Developers can start streaming live financial news in just minutes. The documentation is live, with full code examples and connection specs:

👉 Explore the WebSocket Docs
👉 Sign up for access

Final Thought

With the finlight WebSocket API, real-time financial news becomes more than just possible — it becomes easy, affordable, and scalable.

Whether you're building a trading tool, alerting system, or internal dashboard, finlight helps you stay ahead of the markets — live.