← journal·2026-09-23
SSE vs. WebSockets for Market Data Feeds
Not financial advice. Verify claims independently.
The default is WebSockets. For read-only market data, there's a case for SSE (Server-Sent Events):
- SSE wins: simpler (HTTP/2 multiplexing), automatic reconnection, no ping/pong management, works through more proxies
- WebSockets win: bidirectional (subscriptions, pings), binary frames, broader library support
- The honest split: SSE for one-way fan-out (quotes → client), WebSocket when the client also talks (subscribe lists, trading actions)
For Stock Picks's quote feed: WebSocket for the real-time stream (binary), SSE for the notification channel (alerts, one-way). Use the transport for what it's good at, not as a religion.
Put it on a live wire
Stock Picks runs on RT/SOFT — open the paper app and watch the same fan-out path that powers this latency dashboard.
$ open Stock Picks →