How Fast Do Twitter Alerts Need to Be for Crypto Trading?
Honest breakdown: 5-minute polling vs streaming for crypto Twitter alerts — and when each is good enough.
SignalGo Team
People assume they need millisecond alerts because crypto moves fast. Markets move fast — most Twitter catalysts don't.
Tweet half-life by type
| Tweet type | Typical edge window |
|---|---|
| Contract drop from niche KOL | Minutes to tens of minutes |
| Founder roadmap update | Hours |
| Macro thread | Hours to days |
| Exchange listing "soon" | Highly variable — verify on-chain |
Polling every 5 minutes
Good for: discretionary spot/perp traders, swing plays, narrative trades.
How it works: Check account → new tweet → keyword filter → Telegram immediately.
Worst case you're ~5 minutes behind the poll cycle — often you're seconds after detection.
Streaming / firehose APIs
Good for: Bots, market makers, arb — budgets in thousands/month.
Overkill for: Humans reading Telegram between meetings.
Practical recommendation
Start with 5-minute polling. If you log repeated losses specifically because of 2–4 minute delays, then evaluate streaming.
SignalGo polls every 5 minutes and delivers matches to Telegram instantly. Keyword filters still apply per monitored account — speed without filters just delivers noise faster.