Financial Market Data Web Services – Xignite Blog

Ad hoc Excel financial models are employed across a wide range of applications from stock portfolio management, currency trading, loan processing, etc., but they all have one thing in common: they all need ad-hoc financial market data as the input to the analysis.

This is the third post in a series that describes how to use Xignite on-demand financial market data with Excel. The last post in the series described how to import live market data into Excel using Xignite Web Service XML output. This post will take it to the next level and explore how to create Excel financial models that not only bring in live market data over the Internet, but allow you to modify the market data requested using Excel macros to create dynamic Excel financial models. All the examples in this post are available for download in this Excel spreadsheet.

The first step is to Read more

The beauty of Xignite on-demand market data is that it can power any application from spreadsheets to major financial websites, anywhere, anytime, because it uses industry standard Web service APIs and XML data exchange formats. This is great news for Excel users, because Excel has fantastic XML support.

This is the second post in a series for Xignite customer’s using Excel that explores how to import market data into Excel using XML. The previous post in this series showed how you can import market data into Excel using a CSV file (comma separated values), the most common data exchange format for spreadsheets. As the native data format of Xignite Web services, XML allows you to go beyond the simple file import available with CSV to create direct links to Xignite Web services that allow you to update real-time market data from within Excel.

Importing Market Data into Excel from an XML File

The simplest way to get market data into Excel using XML is to import an XML file just as you would import a CSV file.  Simply go to the Web page on Xignite’s website for any Web service operation, type in the relevant input parameters, and click the “View in XML” button.  This will open a new browser tab with the Web service output in XML.  Let’s try it now on the Web page for the GetLastSales operation in XigniteBATSLastSale, an Xignite Web service providing real-time stock quotes.  Keep in mind you must be logged in to your Xignite Web services account in order to receive data.  If you don’t have an account, just sign up for a free trial.

The output should look something like the image above. The next step is Read more

It may be easier than you think to get the latest financial market data in Excel spreadsheets using Xignite.  Most of our customers use Xignite’s web services to power their custom-built applications and websites with financial market data.  But if you’re a financial analyst or a power user of Microsoft Excel, you may not want to build a new application.  What if you aren’t a programmer?  What if you just want the market data in Excel and you don’t need any other application?  In that case, all you really want is a simple way to get market data in Excel so you can perform your analytical magic without the need to hire a programmer.  In this blog post, I’ll show you a simple, easy way to do just that.

Read more