Not logged in - Login
< back

XigniteMetals FAQ

Gold & Metal FAQs

Spot metal prices are priced per Troy Ounce. 
Troy Ounces is the global and traditional unit of weight used for precious metals, which was attributed to a weight used in Troyes, France, in medieval times.
  • 1 Troy ounce is equal to 1.0971428 ounces avoirdupois
  • 1 Troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams
  • 1 ounce = 28.3495231 grams
  • 1 Troy ounce contains 2.75 grams more of metal than the standard ounce
Yes, you can integrate the XigniteMetals web service into your eCommerce Shopping Cart.
Many Xignite clients who operate in the precious metal industry use XigniteMetals to price their transactions based on up-to-date accurate metal prices.

The APIs that can be integrated with your shopping cart are:

Xignite receives direct exchange rates for most currency pairs. If an exchange rate is not available for a currency pair, we calculate it by converting through a major currency.

Example: We want to know the exchange rate of Canadian Dollars (CAD) to Egyptian Pounds (EGP). If CAD and EGP did not trade directly, the system will search for a more common, highly-traded currency (USD or EUR). If CAD and USD traded, and EGP and USD traded, Xignite can derive an exchange rate for "CAD to EGP" using USD. This is done for all fields in the data output (not just the Average/Mid Rate).

Xignite calculates highs and lows for forex trades using the time period ranging from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 **London Time** (London is one of the primary markets for forex trades). Closing prices and high and lows are available shortly after 23:59:59 London Time via the XigniteCurrencies APIs. Highs and Lows are calculated as the highest and lowest values for the **mid-rate** throughout that period. Unlike equities, currencies trade 24 hours a day almost 6 days a week. The question as to how highs and lows are calculated when there is no "official" open or close time for forex trades is therefore legitimate. Every vendor tends to use a unique approach in the calculation of highs and lows for forex trades. The important element is to ensure that the method chosen is applied consistently.
We allow the user to specify if they want Bid, Ask, or Mid to be used through the PriceType input parameter. There are a variety of reasons that one may want to use Bid or Ask instead of Mid, so we elected to allow this to be a configurable setting.