When I first connected to a precious metals WebSocket API, I expected to get a clean stream of prices. What I actually got was a firehose of mixed ticks—gold, silver, platinum—all arriving through the same callback. If you’ve ever tried to build a trading bot or a custom chart, you know this is a recipe for disaster. In this post, I’ll share how I solved the problem with a few lines of Python and a clear mapping strategy.
The scenario: You have one WebSocket URL that pushes quotes for multiple metals. You need to separate them so you can update different UI components, run independent strategies, or store them in distinct database tables. The data pain point: every message uses the same JSON structure, and the only differentiator is a field like symbol. If you don’t act on it immediately, everything gets mixed up.
Identify Assets via the Symbol Field
Start by checking the API docs for the field that carries the instrument code. Usually it’s symbol, but instrumentId or type are also used. Here’s a typical reference table:
Field
