Version 6

-+What is the timing and availability of currency data?

Currency markets trade from Sundays 5:00 PM EST (market opening in Tokyo) to Fridays 5:00 PM EST (market close in New York).

Each country also has its own trading hours. The highest activity occurs when multiple markets are open. Sydney begins at 5:00 pm EST, and New York closes at 5:00 pm EST--setting the pace for the start and close of trading. Those hours can be affected by Daylight Savings Time in each country. * **Sydney:** 5:00 pm to 2:00 am EST * **Tokyo:** 7:00 pm to 4:00 am EST * **London:** 3:00 am to 12:00 noon EST * **New York:** 8:00am to 5:00 pm EST

-+Should the inverse of a currency pair always equal to the exchange rate of the opposite pair?

No. The "inverse" of a currency pair is not always equal to the exchange rate of the opposite pair.

Example: Suppose USDEUR has a value of 1.3050. The inverse of this rate is 1 / 1.3050 = 0.7763. You may expect that the exchange rate of EURUSD should equal 0.7763 at the same time.

While the two numbers should be very close, there is no guarantee they will match exactly. While Forex markets are massive and very liquid, they are also very distributed and decentralized. Not all trades occur exactly at the same time, in the same places and with the same price discovery:

For instance:

1. The timing of the last trade in USDEUR versus the last trade for EURUSD would have to match perfectly, and this is unlikely. Even in a very liquid market, there could be small price difference even for trades occurring sub-seconds apart.

2. The contributor for an exchange rates can change for any currency pair. If the quote for USDEUR comes from one contributor and EURUSD comes from another, again it is unlikely to match as those contributors could use different feeds and price discovery mechanisms. The size of the trades on each side of the pair can also vary and affect the rates.

If you still have any questions about this topic, please send an e-mail to [support@xignite.com](mailto:support@xignite.com).

-+What if I want the exchange rate of a currency pair that hasn't traded in a while?

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).

-+How are the Highs and Lows determined for exchange rates if currencies trade 24 hours a day?

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.

-+Does Xignite use Bid, Ask, or Mid as the Exchange Rate?

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.

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