Financial Data Feed

A financial data feed is a continuous or regularly updated stream of financial market data delivered to applications via API. Data feeds provide price quotes, trade data, corporate actions, and other events for financial instruments in real time or near-real-time.

Applications that display live prices, calculate portfolio values, or trigger alerts based on price movements depend on reliable, low-latency data feeds. The quality dimensions that matter most are latency (how quickly prices update), accuracy (do prices match exchange data?), and completeness (are all instruments covered?).

For developers building investment apps or fintech products, data feed APIs are the foundation layer. The cost and latency tier should match the use case: a portfolio dashboard can use 15-minute delayed data; an algorithmic trading system requires real-time feeds.