Accordingly to Cambridge’s Dictionary, a commodity it’s defined as:
A substance or product that can be traded, bought, or sold
Certainly, these substances or products are, subsequently, raw materials for goods and services we use every day.
Additionally, these materials can be divided into categories such as agricultural, energy, metals, and soft ones. Indeed, the last category refers to materials that can’t be stored for long periods of time, like sugar or coffee.
Investment
For the last 30 years, Commodities have grown in popularity as an asset class. That is, investors can now participate in the commodities futures markets in a variety of ways, covering a wide range of commodity holdings.
Moreover, this kind of investment involves three significant benefits: inflation protection, diversification, and ROI possibilities.
Undoubtedly, commodities react to changing economic fundamentals differently than “financial assets” because they are “real assets.”
For example, these are one of the few asset classes that benefit from rising inflation. When demand for items increases, so do the prices of goods and, subsequently, raw materials prices as well.
As the global stock market is influenced by a variety of factors, some commodities may underperform. Also, political and economical factors can represent a risk to investors, depending on particular commodities and it’s performance.
Quandl
Quandl uses an API key to give market data from hundreds of sources (officials and independent vendors). This data can be accessed using a variety of programmatic languages.
You can ask for end-of-day US market data, economic indicators, or even company hiring activities, among many other things, through Quandl.
Also, investment experts can use Quandl to find financial, economic, and alternative datasets
There are several online tools available for getting real-time and historical commodity rates in a variety of currencies (even cryptocurrencies)
However, Commodities-api.com tends to be the better option. This is a website that helps to track the price of a variety of commodities. Finally, you can predict prices and easily convert them to your preferred currency.
What is it, exactly?
This online API delivers precise rate data in a variety of currencies for a large range of commodities.
Commodities-API began as a simple, minimalist Open-Source API for recent and historical commodity prices from financial institutions.
Accuracy
The API can offer real-time commodity data with a precision of two decimal points and a speed of up to every 60 seconds. Commodities-API is built on a strong back-end architecture that ensures high availability and response times of less than 50 milliseconds for specific API calls. Delivering commodity exchange rates, converting single currencies, and returning Time-Series and Fluctuation data are only a few of the functions.
Protected
The Commodities-API uses bank-grade 256-bit SSL encryption to secure your connection.
Thousands of developers, small enterprises, and large corporations use Commodities-API on a daily basis. This API is the most popular site for commodity rates because of its reliable data sources and 6+ years of experience.
Also published on Medium.