Sometimes, it can be hard to find the best API to stay updated on commodities spot rates. It’s important that you know which one can be the best for you and your business, and here we present you with it.
When we talk about spot prices, we’re referring to the current price in the marketplace at which any type of commodity can be sold at that exact moment. While spot prices are time and place-specific, in a global economy, the spot price of most securities or commodities tends to be rather similar globally when exchange rates are taken into consideration.
Spot prices are most commonly used to refer to the price of commodity futures contracts, such as those for oil, wheat, or gold, among others. This is due to the fact that equities are always traded at the current price. You purchase or sell a stock at the specified price and then cash out.
With that being said, it’s pretty obvious that knowing spot prices for the product you’re investing in on working on it’s key for the growth of your company. To access that information, the most useful way to do it is by an API. This is an interface that connects two computers or applications and allows them to communicate with each other. When you send a request to an API, in this case, spot prices for x commodity, the interface will answer with the result you’re expecting.
Sounds easy, right? That’s because it is. However, when you are looking for the perfect API to use for this purpose, you need to understand that not all of them work the same. At the moment, we think that the best one is Commodities-API, a free public API that gives commodity prices for a large list of commodities like coffee, rice, sugar, and wheat, among others.
How To Use It
To use it, you need to go to this website, sign in and obtain an API key and then select the currency and commodity of interest. Then, the software will give you the data you’re looking for and you can adapt that API however you want. Commodities-API works with more than 170 currencies and gives data with an accuracy of 2 decimal points. On the free plan, you’ll obtain 100 monthly API calls and 1-hour updates. If you want to increase those numbers, you’ll have to sign in to a pro plan.
For all commodities and currency rates, the API offers midpoint data. Midpoint rates are calculated using the average median rate of Bid and Ask during a certain time period. In Commodities-API the same API endpoints are used to convert currency and commodity prices, and they may be used to convert any amount from one currency to another, as well as any commodity to any commodity and any currency to any currency.
Another Option
If Commodities-API doesn’t match your needs, you can also use CommoPrices. This API provides access to pricing and value data for over 10,500 commodities and indices. The data may be updated daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the source. The more liquid the market, the more often the data is released.
To obtain the information, go to www.api.commoprices.com and search for the commodity you’re searching for. They utilize HTTPS to secure the requests between your browser and their servers.
Also published on Medium.