Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl • Hacker News Board

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#21

Post by chollida1 » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 1:39 PM UTC

marketmonkey wrote: post #2

This is great for small finance startups where previously the costs were astronomical. I'm certainly going to look at incorporating this in to livelystocks.com which could benefit from some realtime finance data.

THere are alot of restrictions on what you can do with financial data in general.

Typically it's tiered pricing model so it's:

- at one rate for viewing internally at your company,

- another rate if it's used for automated trading purposes

-another, open your wallet and dump it out price if you want to redistribute the data to external viewers, ie put it up on a website.

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#22

Post by Ecio78 » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 1:39 PM UTC

justincormack wrote: post #19

Ecio78 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what's the difference between this and the current (previous?) access model where you use their already existing API to interact with their systems? The only difference seems that they have published the API and you dont need to have a real bloomberg machine in order to build your code around them.. am i wrong?

Before this, even if you paid you still did not get api access. Or any documentation. They act as if it is still an analogue teletext service right down to the ghastly UI. The terms of service forbid you from storing the data. This seems to be some sort of tentative step out of the twentieth century.

afaik (please somebody correct me if i'm wrong) if you pay for a bloomberg workstation you can download API and use it on your system, but you're limited to using it on a licensed workstation (you cant interface another system in order to pull these data) and you cant pass it without elaborating them

so, as example:

NO you cant use a program on the licensed workstation that sucks data and push them to a database that is used to power a website that shows stock prices

NO you cant get the data from that workstation from other computers via API

YES you can create a custom C++ program that runs on your licensed bloomberg workstation that get data via API, elaborate them with your own algo and give you signals for buy/sell (or maybe create a report that you send to your customers)

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#23

Post by steve8918 » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 1:45 PM UTC

I'm guessing that previously Bloomberg either charged or didn't allow 3rd party access to their APIs so that you could develop your own apps on top of the datafeed.

By making it open, it opens up the market for 3rd party tool developers to build apps that can access the Bloomberg feed data.

To those that are complaining, I have a developer subscription to IQFeed, which charges a fee of around $70/month for delayed data, and I pay $300/yr, so Bloomberg offering it for free is pretty good. Too bad their data feed costs ~$1000/month.

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#24

Post by half_marathon » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 1:54 PM UTC

steve8918 wrote: post #23

I'm guessing that previously Bloomberg either charged or didn't allow 3rd party access to their APIs so that you could develop your own apps on top of the datafeed. By making it open, it opens up the market for 3rd party tool developers to build apps that can access the Bloomberg feed data. To those that are complaining, I have a developer subscription to IQFeed, which charges a fee of around $70/month for delayed da…

Does the cost depend on the volume of data accessed or is it just a fixed amount per month?

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#25

Post by gducharme » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

Having worked there, I can see that this is a very powerful move towards solidifying marketshare for then. They were drowning in complexity. Opening the API will allow them to acquire any small innovating startup at a fraction of the cost it would have taken them to develop inhouse.

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#26

Post by salsayarroz » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 2:21 PM UTC

They do not give away content, from their press release: "* Bloomberg is offering its programming interface (BLPAPI) under a free-use agreement. This does not apply to any content."

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#27

Post by steve8918 » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 2:25 PM UTC

half_marathon wrote: post #24

steve8918 wrote: post #23

I'm guessing that previously Bloomberg either charged or didn't allow 3rd party access to their APIs so that you could develop your own apps on top of the datafeed. By making it open, it opens up the market for 3rd party tool developers to build apps that can access the Bloomberg feed data. To those that are complaining, I have a developer subscription to IQFeed, which charges a fee of around $70/month for delayed da…

Does the cost depend on the volume of data accessed or is it just a fixed amount per month?

The cost of what, IQFeed? For IQFeed it's a fixed amount per month. I have no idea on Bloomberg.

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#28

Post by apaprocki » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 2:29 PM UTC

travisglines wrote: post #7

I'm not convinced that they're actually offering the data for free here. Merely the use of the API is now free (You used to have to actually purchase Bloomberg terminals/hardware to use it). I've emailed both of their contact addresses requesting more information, will edit this as soon as I get a response.

Disclaimer: I work at Bloomberg.

The point of opening up the API is to allow products to be developed around it without any restrictions on shipping our code within the 3rd party application. That basically sums it up.

In order to receive data you need to have a data subscription and we pass through all exchange fees that exchanges charge depending on which particular pieces of data you would like to access. (We serve 350+ exchanges over this API)

Previously, the 3rd party app market was a bit restricted because app developers themselves couldn't necessarily bundle our SDK into their product due to the restrictive licensing and it was a hassle for the ecosystem of devs who write apps in this space. This makes it easier for them to build and ship products.

In order to become a data customer, you can either talk to a terminal with the SDK, or we sell a managed appliance that only serves the data. The SDK can talk to either without configuring it differently. All the rules on distributing the data apply no matter how you get it because the sources of the data (exchanges) are very, very restrictive about specific use cases of their data. The contracts spell out exactly who can place the numbers where and for what purpose. Basically, no matter who you get data from, displaying it publicly anywhere or distributing it as any part of service requires special legal contracts.

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#29

Post by xelk » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 2:29 PM UTC

justincormack wrote: post #19

Ecio78 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what's the difference between this and the current (previous?) access model where you use their already existing API to interact with their systems? The only difference seems that they have published the API and you dont need to have a real bloomberg machine in order to build your code around them.. am i wrong?

Before this, even if you paid you still did not get api access. Or any documentation. They act as if it is still an analogue teletext service right down to the ghastly UI. The terms of service forbid you from storing the data. This seems to be some sort of tentative step out of the twentieth century.

The market data feed and the terminal are two separate products, priced and sold independently.

Bloomberg Professional (aka Terminal): http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/

Enterprise Solutions: http://www.bloomberg.com/enterprise/ http://www.bloomberg.com/enterprise/enterprise_products/data...

The latter obviously provides programmatic access to the real-time data, whereas the former is mostly intended for homo sapiens users.

Re: Bloomberg market data API made public for C++, .Net, Java, Perl

#30

Post by apaprocki » Wed, Feb 01, 2012, 2:30 PM UTC

travisglines wrote: post #11

travisglines wrote: post #7

I'm not convinced that they're actually offering the data for free here. Merely the use of the API is now free (You used to have to actually purchase Bloomberg terminals/hardware to use it). I've emailed both of their contact addresses requesting more information, will edit this as soon as I get a response.

Yeah I think in retrospect this comment was sort of silly. We all read this post hoping that they were giving away a real time free financial data API (that would be huge), but really that's how they make money. They just want to change their model a bit and have everyone able to access it easily by becoming a data API customer. It's probably a good move for them but I don't like the way they and the press covering t…

You never needed a terminal in order to use our API. We sell a managed 2U appliance that either the customer or we can host and it only serves the data feed.