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Currency Rates API

currencyscoop.com

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Re: Currency Rates API

#2

Post by amluto »

> The real-time mid-market rate is the midpoint between demand and supply at any point in time, making it the most accurate rate.

By which they mean "the real-time mid-market rate is something that some unnamed provider made up and claims is representative of actual rates."

They give EUR/USD to two digits of precision. The actual spreads quoted by anyone who isn't trying to utterly screw you over is much, much tighter than 0.01. Different parties will have different ideas of the current and historical bids and offers.

Using a service like this is probably fine for display purposes and maybe okay for some accounting purposes as long as no one is going to audit it or care about the results being entirely correct. Using it for transactions would be a bad idea.

Re: Currency Rates API

#3

Post by dclusin »

amluto wrote: post #2

> The real-time mid-market rate is the midpoint between demand and supply at any point in time, making it the most accurate rate. By which they mean "the real-time mid-market rate is something that some unnamed provider made up and claims is representative of actual rates." They give EUR/USD to two digits of precision. The actual spreads quoted by anyone who isn't trying to utterly screw you over is much, much tighte…

Amen. The forex market is very different than the stock market. FX is relationship driven. What this means is that the prices you can get are based on the relationship you negotiate with your provider.

When Forex prices flash across cspan or similar they are typically quoting the interbank offered rate. Retail traders don’t get anything close to this rate. You usually go through several intermediaries who each add a spread. There’s not best price law in fx.

Using prices from retail fx brokers usually isn’t a good idea either since their spreads are so outrageous. Oanda has reasonable rate info I’m told, but it’s more geared for professional traders.

Re: Currency Rates API

#4

Post by Scoundreller »

dclusin wrote: post #3
amluto wrote: post #2

> The real-time mid-market rate is the midpoint between demand and supply at any point in time, making it the most accurate rate. By which they mean "the real-time mid-market rate is something that some unnamed provider made up and claims is representative of actual rates." They give EUR/USD to two digits of precision. The actual spreads quoted by anyone who isn't trying to utterly screw you over is much, much tighte…

Amen. The forex market is very different than the stock market. FX is relationship driven. What this means is that the prices you can get are based on the relationship you negotiate with your provider. When Forex prices flash across cspan or similar they are typically quoting the interbank offered rate. Retail traders don’t get anything close to this rate. You usually go through several intermediaries who each add a…

> Using prices from retail fx brokers usually isn’t a good idea either since their spreads are so outrageous.

What's wrong with averaging them together? That should negate the spread unless they're really short of one currency and long on the other. I guess your local bank would post bad rates on some pairs because of their carrying costs, but someone like transferwise?

Back in 2009, I recall one Canadian bank having competitive rates when you wanted to sell them USD, but terrible rates when you wanted to buy their USD. I guess they were in dire need for USD and didn't want to sell what they had to their retail customers.

Re: Currency Rates API

#5

Post by shermanmccoy »

Any serious user of FX data will want to see the bid/offer points and calculate the mid themselves. This is fine for someone creating a pretty ticker on their app, which I suppose is their target market.

Re: Currency Rates API

#6

Post by dclusin »

Scoundreller wrote: post #4
dclusin wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. The forex market is very different than the stock market. FX is relationship driven. What this means is that the prices you can get are based on the relationship you negotiate with your provider. When Forex prices flash across cspan or similar they are typically quoting the interbank offered rate. Retail traders don’t get anything close to this rate. You usually go through several intermediaries who each add a…

> Using prices from retail fx brokers usually isn’t a good idea either since their spreads are so outrageous. What's wrong with averaging them together? That should negate the spread unless they're really short of one currency and long on the other. I guess your local bank would post bad rates on some pairs because of their carrying costs, but someone like transferwise? Back in 2009, I recall one Canadian bank having…

I guess it depends on what your requirements are. I’m not too knowledgeable on the pricing side but your price increases/decreases as you noticed aren’t linear and vary based on the amount you’re buying or selling. Buying or selling currencies from a trading partner exposes them to fluctuations in that currency so they’re going to need to be compensated to cover their trading costs like hedgeing (if your transactions are large enough) as well as some sort of profit for them.

If you’re just doing it for a retail perspective some sort of averaging scheme like you mentioned would probably be okay. If you’re dealing with large amounts regularly you’d probably want to negotiate with multiple liquidity providers to get an idea of what kind of rates you’d get for a given currency pair.

Re: Currency Rates API

#7

Post by 1996 »

Where's the data? Do you have to register to use it?

Here's a better alternative, updated every minute: http://cryptomarketplot.com/api.json

It has the bid and ask (apparently missing given the comments below). For fiat/fiat pairs, use the BTC/fiat pair, for example:

        "id": "fiat-eur",
        "symbol": "EUR",
        "pair": "BTC/EUR",
        "name": "Euro",
        "bid_eur": "8251.26",
        "ask_eur": "8277.58",
        "last_eur": "8231.34",
(...)

        "id": "fiat-try",
        "symbol": "TRY",
        "pair": "BTC/TRY",
        "name": "Turkish Lira",
        "bid_try": "53258.52",
        "ask_try": "54173.34",
        "last_try": "51903.02",
Use the BTC/EUR and BTC/LYR to find the LYR/EUR with one division.

No rate limit, no condition to use the api. It's free for all and will remain free.

Re: Currency Rates API

#9

Post by bdcravens »

1996 wrote: post #7

Where's the data? Do you have to register to use it? Here's a better alternative, updated every minute: http://cryptomarketplot.com/api.json It has the bid and ask (apparently missing given the comments below). For fiat/fiat pairs, use the BTC/fiat pair, for example: "id": "fiat-eur", "symbol": "EUR", "pair": "BTC/EUR", "name": "Euro", "bid_eur": "8251.26", "ask_eur": "8277.58", "last_eur": "8231.34", (...) "id": "fi…

That's not how currency rates work. This requires Bitcoin to be identical in demand. For example, EUR to TRY using Bitcoin is 0.15496, vs 0.15313 according to XE. Moreover, that crypto API only features 15 fiat pairs, vs. well Currenyscoop's 159.

https://currencyscoop.com/supported-currencies

Re: Currency Rates API

#10

Post by lemmox »

apesti wrote: post #8

I see Zendesk listed as one of the businesses that uses this. Does anyone have an idea why Zendesk would need an exchange rate API?

I have no direct knowledge about Zendesk's use case however currency conversion is table stakes for any company doing international business. Purchase orders and employee travel expense reports being top of the list.
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