The commodity market is large and offers many different types of commodities that can be traded on the global aspect. In this post, we will be examining the ethanol market.
One aspect of trading in commodities that is important to remember is the risk involved with each trade. For this reason, it is important to have a trading plan in place to help mitigate price risk with any type of commodity trading. This will then allow you to sleep at night without wondering what would happen if the price dropped by 150 cents a gallon on you overnight. It’s quick, easy, and affordable!
Ethanol is an alcohol-based biofuel that can be made from renewable feedstocks like corn, sugarcane, and soy. There are several ways to obtain pricing information including stocks, futures, forex, etc. This also includes ethanol prices, which are traded on many different exchanges throughout the world. Ethanol prices can be difficult to obtain in an automated fashion and much of the price data is not consolidated into a standard format that can be used by traders.
The Commodities-API has solved this problem by obtaining pricing data for commodities, in an easy-to-use API interface. In this post, we’ll explore how you can get started and see a real-world example for getting ethanol prices using an API.
What is an application programming interface (API)?
This is a connection that allows two computers or apps to interact with each other in real time. When you submit an API a request, it gathers data from various sources and returns it to you in real time. This may be used for a variety of purposes and will be ideal for you and your money.
You can obtain an API from a piece of software that does so. You must use caution here, as there are many of them available online, but not all of them operate in the same manner. A poor decision can cost you a lot of time and money.
Using Commodities-API
To further illustrate how this works and provide you with a useful tool, we’ll utilize Commodities-API, one of the most comprehensive and effective commodity pricing APIs currently accessible. This platform provides current market prices for things that are ready to ship right away at the moment of the quote.
To obtain these prices, you must:
- Visit get started, go to www.commodities-API.com. After that, you will be issued your personal API key.
- Look for the natural gas as well as the currency symbols of your choosing.
- Insert the commodity and money in the dashboard using these symbols. Make the API call after you’ve decided on them.
- The website will give an API in a number of computer languages, which you will be able to edit, utilize, and adapt as needed.
The result will look like this:
{
"success": true,
"timestamp": 1519296206,
"base": "NG",
"date": "2018-09-10",
"rates": {
"AUD": 1.566015,
"CAD": 1.560132,
"CHF": 1.154727,
"CNY": 7.827874,
"GBP": 0.882047,
"JPY": 132.360679,
"USD": 1.23396,
[...]
}
}
Additional Details about This API
This API gathers commodity pricing data every minute from over 15 trustworthy data sources, including banks and financial data. Keep in mind, however, that the Commodities-API API only gives commodity and currency rate midpoint data. The average median rate of Bid and Ask during a certain period is used to compute midpoint rates.
Also published on Medium.