An investment firm managing dozens of funds faced a critical challenge: maintaining accurate, real-time financial data across hundreds of tickers, tens of thousands of documents, and performance metrics while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Manually updating market prices, dividend information, performance statistics, and regulatory documents across WordPress creates significant operational overhead and increases the risk of outdated information reaching investors.

Solution

84EM created a custom WordPress plugin from the ground up that automates the entire data pipeline between the FastTrack API and WordPress. The system continuously synchronizes market data, performance statistics, dividend information, and fund details without manual intervention.

Investment teams manage ETFs, closed-end funds, SICAVs, open-end funds, and money market funds through a unified WordPress interface. Background processing handles data updates via the Action Scheduler, ensuring website visitors always see the latest information while administrative staff focus on investment decisions rather than data entry.

The plugin includes bulk import tools for processing Excel and CSV files containing holdings data, SFTP integration for automated file retrieval from custodians like BNY and ICE, and a comprehensive document management system that associates regulatory filings with specific funds and tickers.

Technical Implementation

• FastTrack API integration: Token-based authentication system with automatic synchronization of market data, statistics (daily, monthly, quarterly, yearly), dividend distributions, and fund details.
• Custom WordPress architecture: Multiple custom post types (funds, tickers, separate accounts, documents) with Advanced Custom Fields for financial metadata and Posts-to-Posts relationships linking funds to their tickers.
• Automated background processing: Action Scheduler handles data updates at configurable intervals, including market data, high/low tracking, premium/discount calculations, and growth metrics, without blocking the website.
• Multi-format data importers: PhpSpreadsheet-powered processors handle Excel and CSV files from custodians (BNY, ICE), automatically mapping holdings data, account information, and fund details to WordPress.
• SFTP automation: Scheduled retrieval of data files from external custodians with automatic parsing and validation, eliminating manual file downloads and uploads.
• Bulk document management: ZIP archive processor extracts PDFs and Excel metadata files, creating WordPress document posts with proper taxonomy assignments and fund/ticker associations in a single operation.
• Elementor widget library: Dozens of custom widgets display fund overviews, performance charts, distribution schedules, holdings breakdowns, premium/discount graphs, and document viewers with interactive filtering.
• WP-CLI command suite: Complete command-line interface for data operations, backfilling historical data, testing API connections, and managing scheduled tasks for DevOps integration.
• REST API monitoring: Status endpoint tracks synchronization between FastTrack and the local database, providing real-time visibility into data freshness and update scheduling.
• Comprehensive logging system: Custom database tables capture API requests/responses, data update audit trails, and import operation logs for troubleshooting and compliance reporting.
• Multi-fund type support: Specialized handling for ETFs, closed-end funds, SICAVs, open-end funds, separate accounts, and money market funds with type-specific fields, calculations, and document requirements.
• Smart security, validation, and error handling: Real-time validation of market data, comprehensive audit trails, and WordPress best practices such as user role restrictions and the principle of least privilege.

Results

The plugin transforms financial data and document management from a manual, error-prone process into an automated, continuously running system.

The investment firm maintains accurate, real-time fund information without dedicating significant time to manual data entry.