Stream Real-Time Forex Data With NodeJS Websocket

If you found this I assume you are interested in getting real-time data using Websockets. Well at the least this tutorial should be able to help you run your first WebSocket Client in NodeJS if nothing else. The tutorial assumes next to no knowledge of Nodejs but experience with programming, especially Javascript, will be helpful. Javascript and Nodejs is not your cup of tea however, other implementations of Websocket such as Python, C# and Golang is available if you be interested.

You can also read our NodeJS REST API implementation if you prefer.

Before we start with the setup and the code it will be interesting to get a quick overview of what we trying to achieve. We will be downloading Nodejs and setting up our environment to receive real-time forex and CFD (Indices) data via a Websocket by connecting to the TraderMade Websocket API (Server-Side).

To simplify there are three steps:

• Download NodeJS and Setup Environment
• Setup Free Trial and Get API Key
• Setup a NodeJs Websocket Client and Receive Data

Let’s Begin!

Download NodeJS and Setup Environment

Windows and Mac:

Download and Install NodeJs

Linux:

apt-get install nodejs

Once you have Nodejs installed open the command prompt or terminal and get the dependencies (libraries) that are needed to run our client. We will be using “ws” so run the following:

npm install ws

That's all we need for setup lets get the key next.

Setup a trial and Get API Key

This you can do by following the article on how to start a free 14-day trial. Once you have the key keep it safe.

Setup a NodeJs Websocket Client and Receive Data

Once you have the environment setup go to the directory where Nodejs is installed and make a file and name it forexWsClient.js. Now open the file using Atom or VS Code, if you don’t have any installed just use open with a notepad on windows or vi Linux.

Now time to write some code.

const WebSocket = require ('ws');
const ws = new WebSocket ('wss://marketdata.tradermade.com/feedadv');

We will first import the WebSocket object and then connect it to the Tradermade using the wss URL. Once the connection is established we will send our API key (we got from signing for the WebSocket trial) along with the symbols we want to receive from the server. In this case GBPUSD and UK100 (code for FTSE100 CFD).

ws.on('open', function open() {
     ws.send("{"userKey":"streaming_api_key", "symbol":"GBPUSD,UK100"}");
  });
ws.on('message', function incoming(data) {
    if(data != "Connected"){
            data = JSON.parse(data)
            console.log(data)
    }
  });

On passing authentication, we will start getting data on the message which is JSON. It’s really that simple.

To start the program simply save the file forexWsClient.js and write the following in the terminal from the location file is in:

node forexWsClient.js

Voila! we have a forex data stream in real-time.

{
    symbol: 'UK100',
    ts: '1615913144126',
    bid: 6795,
    ask: 6798,
    mid: 6796.5
  }
  {
    symbol: 'GBPUSD',
    ts: '1615913144331',
    bid: 1.38967,
    ask: 1.38969,
    mid: 1.38968
  }

However, there are a few more things we will want to do to make it more stable like reconnection if the server or an error drops the connection otherwise we will not know when the connection breaks.

So to do that we will just make a few changes as shown in the full code below. We wrap our ws object and events in a function called connect which we initiate when we run the program. We also set a timeout function when the connection closes so the connection is established.

const WebSocket = require ('ws');
var reconnectInterval = 1000 * 10
var ws;

var connect = function(){

  const ws = new WebSocket ('wss://marketdata.tradermade.com/feedadv');

  ws.on('open', function open() {
     ws.send("{"userKey":"streaming_api_key", "symbol":"GBPUSD,UK100"}");
  });

  ws.on('close', function() {
    console.log('socket close : will reconnect in ' + reconnectInterval );
    setTimeout(connect, reconnectInterval)
  });

  ws.on('message', function incoming(data) {
    if(data != "Connected"){
            data = JSON.parse(data)
            console.log(data)
    }
  });
};
connect();

If we run the above program our client will not exit and will establish a connection whenever the server is pushing data.

If you need further details just visit TraderMade docs for more details or alternatively leave a message.