How Forex API Streamlines Your Development Process | Tech Behind It (2024)

The service of presenting currency data is frequently provided to users on many platforms and applications today. We see instant currency data and their conversions in many e-commerce, trading, banking, and even search engines. If you want to provide currency service to your users in your businesses, you can use a foreign exchange rates API, also known as forex API, to help you in this regard.

A foreign exchange rates API is a unique web service that provides live currency data to businesses. Some even provide currency conversion. Providing users with currency data using a foreign exchange rates API has many unique benefits to your business and business processes. In this article, we will talk about the benefits of this API.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Forex API for Your Business?

A forex API has many advantages for businesses and developers. Of course, before talking about the benefits of a forex API, businesses and developers need to make sure they choose a good forex API.

There are some key features that a good forex API should have. Chief among these is the accuracy of the data provided by this API. This API needs to obtain the data it provides to its users from official financial institutions and update the data it provides in short periods. For example, Fixer API obtains the data it provides to users from official financial institutions such as the European Central Bank and updates the data it provides every 60 seconds.

A good Forex API also supports 100s of official currencies around the world and offers live, historical, and conversion services. There are many excellent benefits that a good forex API can bring to your business. In this section, we will examine them.

Fast and Automatic Transactions

Forex APIs help you automate manual trades and execute fast trades. In this way, you can create automatic trading strategies in your business processes and apply these strategies via API.

Real-Time Data

Forex APIs are web services that provide real-time price information. This makes it possible to monitor market movements in real-time and make quick decisions.

Better Analytics

APIs can provide historical data for hundreds of currencies. Thanks to this historical data, you can see and analyze the changes in currency pairs over the years. This increases the quality of the information you will obtain as a result of the analysis of your business processes.

Various Asset Classes

Some forex APIs can provide access to different asset classes, not just currency pairs, but also various commodities, stocks, and even cryptocurrencies. This increases the variety of assets you offer to your users.

More Flexibility

APIs directly allow you to customize your trading strategy and workflow. You can create your own trading application or analysis tools.

Trading Apps and Tools

Some forex APIs allow you to develop custom trading applications and tools. This can help you create customized trading solutions.

Low Transaction Costs

Forex APIs often offer lower transaction costs. For example, Fixer API charges 500,000 API calls per month for just $79.99 per month. This can provide you with the opportunity to trade with more competitive commissions compared to traditional forex brokers.

Competitive Advantage

Using Forex APIs effectively can give you an edge over your competitors and easily help you achieve better trading results.

How to Use a Free Forex API From a Web Browser?

There are many forex APIs available in the market today that we can use for free. Among them, we will use the Fixer API, which we can use quickly and does not ask for credit card information in its free plan.

Fixer API is a forex API that supports 170 official currencies that offer live, historical, time series, and conversion services and has unique endpoints. It also provides its users with highly accurate and up-to-date data.

Fixer API is a very easy-to-use API. Let’s quickly sign up for its free subscription plan to use it. Then let’s put the following URL in our browser:

http://data.fixer.io/api/latest?access_key=YOUR-ACCESS-KEY&symbols=CAD,GBP,JPY,USD,TRY

With this URL we will get the most up-to-date values of the EUR currency against CAD, GBP, JPY, USD, and TRY. Before requesting this URL in our browser, let’s put our own API key in the ‘YOUR-ACCESS-KEY’ field and make a request.

The JSON response we get as a result of this request is as follows:

{
“success”: true,
“timestamp”: 1693688884,
“base”: “EUR”,
“date”: “2023-09-02”,
“rates”: {
“CAD”: 1.465016,
“GBP”: 0.857678,
“JPY”: 157.835897,
“USD”: 1.079559,
“TRY”: 28.824771
}
}

Conclusion

Ultimately, fixer API are unique service that greatly simplifies your work in building financial applications while optimizing your development process. Real-time data access, automation capabilities, and broad analysis options allow you to quickly implement and test trading strategies. In addition, with APIs, developers can create customized trading applications and analytics tools.

FAQs

Q: How Important is a Forex API to Businesses?

A: Forex APIs are very important for businesses. These APIs help you create automated trading strategies, access real-time data, and improve risk management.

Q: What Should a Good Forex API Be Like?

A: A good forex API should offer reliable and fast data flow, broad currency pair support, and the ability to trade multiple types. It should also have important features such as security measures, documentation, and technical support.

Q: How Many Currencies Does the Fixer API Support?

A: Fixer API supports 170 official currency pairs around the world. This is very useful for businesses and developers to meet different transactional needs.

Q: What Endpoints Does the Fixer API Offer?

A: The endpoints provided by the Fixer API are the following:

• Supported Symbols Endpoint
• Latest Rates Endpoint
• Historical Rates Endpoint
• Convert Endpoint
• Time-Series Endpoint
• Fluctuation Endpoint