Feed Management

PyAlpacaAPI includes intelligent feed management that automatically detects your subscription level and falls back to available data feeds.

Overview

Alpaca provides different data feed levels:

  • SIP: Full market data (requires subscription)

  • IEX: IEX Exchange data (free tier available)

  • OTC: Over-the-counter market data

Automatic Feed Detection

The feed manager automatically detects your subscription level and uses the best available feed:

from py_alpaca_api import PyAlpacaAPI

api = PyAlpacaAPI(
    api_key="your_api_key",
    api_secret="your_secret_key"
)

# Automatic feed selection
quote = api.stock.latest_quote.get("AAPL")
# Tries: SIP → IEX → OTC

How It Works

  1. First Request: Tries the highest tier feed (SIP)

  2. On Failure: Falls back to next tier (IEX, then OTC)

  3. Caching: Remembers successful feed for future requests

  4. Per-Endpoint: Different endpoints may have different available feeds

Manual Feed Selection

Override automatic detection by specifying a feed:

# Force specific feed
quote = api.stock.latest_quote.get("AAPL", feed="iex")
bars = api.stock.history.get_bars("AAPL", feed="sip")

# Available feeds
FEEDS = ["sip", "iex", "otc"]

Feed Availability

Different endpoints support different feeds:

Endpoint

SIP

IEX

OTC

Latest Quote

✅

✅

✅

Historical Bars

✅

✅

❌

Trades

✅

✅

✅

Snapshots

✅

✅

❌

Feed Characteristics

SIP Feed

  • Coverage: All US exchanges

  • Latency: Lowest latency

  • Cost: Requires paid subscription

  • Use Case: Professional trading

IEX Feed

  • Coverage: IEX Exchange only (~2-3% of market volume)

  • Latency: Low latency

  • Cost: Free tier available

  • Use Case: Development, testing, basic trading

OTC Feed

  • Coverage: OTC markets

  • Latency: Variable

  • Cost: Included with account

  • Use Case: OTC securities

Feed Manager Configuration

from py_alpaca_api.http.feed_manager import FeedManager

# Access feed manager
feed_manager = api.feed_manager

# Get current feed for endpoint
current_feed = feed_manager.get_feed("latest_quote")

# Clear feed cache (force re-detection)
feed_manager.clear_cache()

# Check feed availability
is_available = feed_manager.is_feed_available("sip", "latest_quote")

Handling Feed Errors

from py_alpaca_api.exceptions import FeedNotAvailableError

try:
    # Force SIP feed when not subscribed
    quote = api.stock.latest_quote.get("AAPL", feed="sip")
except FeedNotAvailableError as e:
    print(f"Feed not available: {e}")
    # Falls back automatically if feed not specified
    quote = api.stock.latest_quote.get("AAPL")

Multi-Symbol Requests

Feed management works seamlessly with batch operations:

# Automatic feed detection for multiple symbols
symbols = ["AAPL", "GOOGL", "MSFT", "AMZN", "TSLA"]
quotes = api.stock.latest_quote.get_multiple(symbols)
# Uses the best available feed for all symbols

Feed Performance

Latency Comparison

Feed

Average Latency

Update Frequency

SIP

< 1ms

Real-time

IEX

1-5ms

Real-time (IEX only)

OTC

5-15ms

Near real-time

Data Quality

  • SIP: Complete market picture, all trades

  • IEX: ~2-3% of market volume, IEX trades only

  • OTC: OTC market trades only

Best Practices

  1. Use Automatic Detection: Let the system choose the best feed

  2. Test with IEX: Develop using the free IEX feed

  3. Upgrade for Production: Consider SIP for production trading

  4. Cache Feed Results: Reduce detection overhead

  5. Handle Fallbacks: Design for graceful degradation

Feed Subscription

To upgrade your data subscription:

  1. Log into your Alpaca account

  2. Navigate to Account → Market Data Subscriptions

  3. Choose your subscription level

  4. Changes take effect immediately

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Issue: Getting IEX data when expecting SIP

# Solution: Check subscription status
account = api.trading.account.get()
print(f"Data subscription: {account.multiplier}")

Issue: Feed detection slow on first request

# Solution: Pre-warm the feed cache
api.stock.latest_quote.get("AAPL")  # Detects feed
# Subsequent requests use cached feed

Issue: Different feeds for different symbols

# Solution: Some symbols may only be available on specific feeds
# OTC symbols won't be on IEX, for example

Feed Costs

Subscription

Monthly Cost

Features

Free

$0

IEX feed only

Algo Trader

$9

SIP for quotes/trades

Algo Trader Pro

$99

Full SIP access

Prices subject to change. Check Alpaca for current pricing.