News Feed & Economic Calendar
Finnhub-powered news and economic events
Predite integrates Finnhub (financial news + economic calendar) and a custom news pipeline to surface events that move prediction markets. This doc explains the two feeds and how to use them in your trading.
The News Feed
Source: Finnhub provides real-time finance news from major outlets (Reuters, Bloomberg, WSJ, FT, CNBC, etc.). We supplement with crypto-specific sources for crypto-related markets.
Frequency: The feed is cached for 5 minutes on our side, so a headline shows up within a few minutes of publication — fast enough for repricing that plays out over hours, not a newswire.
Filtering: The feed is filtered to news relevant to active prediction markets. A headline about a celebrity divorce won't appear unless there's an active market about it.
Sentiment scoring: Every headline is scored by our sentiment model on a -100 to +100 scale:
- •+75 to +100: Strongly positive (large rate cut, surprise upside earnings beat)
- •+25 to +74: Moderately positive
- •-24 to +24: Neutral
- •-25 to -74: Moderately negative
- •-75 to -100: Strongly negative (war, major sanctions, disaster)
Direction inference: For each headline, the model also predicts which markets are likely to move and in what direction. Example: "Fed signals June cut more likely" → bullish for "Fed cuts June 2026" YES.
Using the News Feed for Trading
The feed appears in two places:
Dashboard sidebar widget. Shows the last 10 headlines, color-coded by sentiment. Click any headline to read the full article and see the affected markets.
Dashboard → News page. Full feed with filters by category (politics, economics, crypto, etc.), source, sentiment threshold, and time range. Export as CSV.
Practical workflow: 1. Monitor headlines for events you have a directional view on 2. When a headline aligns with your view, check the affected markets 3. If the market has not yet moved to reflect the news (within 5-30 seconds typically), execute 4. If the market has already moved, evaluate whether the move was over- or under-reaction
The News Reactor bot (Bot Strategies doc) automates this workflow.
Economic Calendar
Source: Finnhub economic calendar API.
Coverage:
- •US: Fed meetings, FOMC minutes, CPI, PCE, employment, GDP, ISM, retail sales, housing starts, jobless claims
- •Eurozone: ECB meetings, CPI, GDP
- •UK: BoE meetings, inflation
- •Japan: BoJ, CPI
- •Major emerging markets: India, China, Brazil
Updates: Calendar is refreshed daily. Major event timings (Fed meetings) are usually known 6+ months in advance.
Each event shows:
- •Date and time (your local timezone)
- •Country / central bank
- •Indicator name
- •Previous reading (e.g., last CPI was 3.2%)
- •Forecast (analyst consensus expectation)
- •Actual (filled in when the event publishes)
- •Surprise indicator (actual vs forecast)
Using the Calendar for Trading
Pre-event positioning. Identify markets that depend on the upcoming event. Example: "Will the Fed cut rates in June" depends on Fed meeting outcome. If consensus is "no cut" but you have a view that cuts are likely, position before the meeting.
Post-event reaction. Many markets continue to move for hours after the release as participants digest the news. Watch for over-reactions to fade or under-reactions to ride.
Calendar Bot. The Calendar Bot strategy automates pre-event positioning using historical patterns. Backtest before deploying.
Earnings season: During earnings weeks (Apr, Jul, Oct, Jan), prediction markets exist for many large-cap companies' beat/miss outcomes. The Calendar covers earnings dates for S&P 500 + Nasdaq 100 companies.
IPO Calendar
A separate tab covers upcoming initial public offerings. For each IPO:
- •Company name and ticker
- •Expected listing date (typically firm 1-2 weeks before)
- •Expected price range
- •Underwriters
Markets tend to exist for "Will [company] IPO before [date]" — useful for traders following the IPO calendar.
Setting Up News Alerts
Go to Dashboard → Alerts → New Alert and create a news-based rule:
- •Trigger: "News headline matches keyword [X]" or "Sentiment score above [Y]"
- •Scope: All markets, or specific markets/categories
- •Action: Email, Telegram, WhatsApp, or push notification
- •Cooldown: Prevent the same alert from firing twice within X minutes
Example alert: "Notify me on Telegram whenever a headline contains 'Fed' AND sentiment magnitude > 60". Triggers when Fed-related news drops with strong directional implication.
Common Mistakes
- •Reacting too late. By the time you read a headline and execute, the move is usually 80%+ complete. Bots beat humans here.
- •Trusting sentiment without context. A "+85 positive" headline on a market you don't understand can still mislead you. Always read the article.
- •Trading every event. Most economic data prints are already priced in. Focus on truly surprising results (large gap from forecast).
- •Ignoring revisions. A surprise "good" jobs number gets revised down a month later. Markets sometimes overreact then revert.