Serverless App Development With Real-Time Data

Our Customer

Uptick Stocks is a US-based FinTech company that provides their users with a streamlined stock market experience. The Uptick Stocks application leverages real-time stock market data and gamifies learning and practicing stock trading to gain the highest profit with no risk to their real budget.

The Obstacles They Faced

Unrealistic trading experience within the application – users didn’t receive stock prices in the real time, but only the numbers from the latest prices update, which led to unrealistic stock experience based on delayed data.

Ensuring cost-efficiency of the app’s IT infrastructure – because Uptick was a product in its early stage, it was a key need to enable the further healthy development of the project.

How We Helped

We developed and implemented the solutions which enabled Uptick to provide a better user experience by establishing a realistic learning environment while effectively managing the application’s operational costs.

Steps that were taken to achieve our goal:

• Utilize AWS services, such as Lambda, AppSync, SQS, Fargate, and a 3rd party financial data provider, to implement an efficient and scalable solution for real-time data processing.
• Implement AWS Fargate service with web-socket connection to data provider so as to track price changes for required stocks.
• Develop an AppSync API for trading/tracking symbols, with Lambda running only when clients are using the app in order to ensure maximum efficiency of using servers capacity.
• Subscribe to web-socket changes and recalculate user portfolios when clients trade stocks, triggering recalculation of AWS Lambda via SQS Event. This allows scalable, on-demand data processing.
• Establish GraphQL on-demand functioning subscription for providing real-time graph data, fed by data through AppSync Mutation Lambda. If no users are interested in particular stocks, there is no triggering or storing of data, which minimizes operational costs.

Serverless App Development with Real-Time Data – Architecture Diagram

Based on the implementation we’ve provided, here are two substantial goals that were achieved by Romexsoft’s solution developed for Uptick:

1. Providing a realistic and dynamic trading experience for end-users.

Uptick’s major goal was to provide its users with a mobile learning app for trading that would enable them to buy stock with virtual money and take part in challenges with other players.

By implementing a solution that supplied real-time stock price updates, portfolio value changes, and real-time UI stock graph updates, Uptick was able to deliver a dynamic and engaging trading experience to its users.

2. Keeping application’s operational costs low.

Another important goal achieved by the solution was to keep operational costs low. By leveraging AWS services, such as Lambda, AppSync, SQS, and Fargate, the solution was capable of processing a high volume of tracked symbol changes while remaining cost-effective.

Additionally, by ensuring that server costs were minimized during periods when the stock market was closed and by establishing GraphQL Subscription, which works only on demand, the solution enhanced operational cost minimization, which is a key consideration for any business.