Switch from Alphavantage to Yahoo for default currency quotes?

[edward-dauvergne]

Alphavantage appear to have recently changed their free access to 25 quotes per day. Previously the limit for their free API key was 5 requests per minute. For me, at least, this is an unacceptable restriction. I have cloned the F::Q repository and my testing quickly stops with annoying output:

[edward@localhost finance_quote_alphavantage_wait]$ ./test.pl 
Using Perl v5.36.0
Using Finance::Quote 1.59

USDAUD: 
$VAR1 = {
          'errormsg' => 'Thank you for using Alpha Vantage! Our standard API rate limit is 25 requests per day. Please subscribe to any of the premium plans at https://www.alphavantage.co/premium/ to instantly remove all daily rate limits.',
          'success' => 0
        };
USDBRL: 
$VAR1 = {
          'success' => 0,
          'errormsg' => 'Thank you for using Alpha Vantage! Our standard API rate limit is 25 requests per day. Please subscribe to any of the premium plans at https://www.alphavantage.co/premium/ to instantly remove all daily rate limits.'
        };

I was wondering if it would be possible to switch to Yahoo web for currency quotes? I have tried in the Gnucash security editor to switch away from the quote source being 'single' and 'Currency', switching to 'Unknown' source set to 'yahooweb', but this is not respected and saved by Gnucash (only 'Currency' via alphavantage can be used).

The queries for the v8 Yahoo interface are very easy, e.g.:

• https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v8/finance/chart/USDAED=X

Edit: I meant to say, switch back to Yahoo web for currency quotes. It is really annoying that Alphavantage is now squeezing their free users to switch to very expensive premium accounts!

Edit2: I now see that YahooJSON.pm and YahooWeb.pm are both not suitable for this.

[edward-dauvergne]

Actually, the YahooJSON.pm module does work of this if the symbol is set to something like USDCHF=X:

• https://query2.finance.yahoo.com/v11/finance/quoteSummary/?symbol=USDCHF=X&modules=price,summaryDetail,defaultKeyStatistics

[edward-dauvergne]

Sorry for the noise. I now see that setting the environmental variable FQ_CURRENCY to YahooJSON is the solution! Should this however be set to the default now that AlphaVantage are becoming more and more restricted?

[bpschuck]

@edward-dauvergne,
Not a problem, glad you found the FQ_CURRENCY information. AlphaVantage has made a few changes over the past year that affects the functionality of the module. I have already been thinking of changing the default currency method, as well as searching for alternative data sources. If you know of any please post to the Additional Currency Source discussion thread.
Thank you.
Bruce S.

[edward-dauvergne]

Thank goodness for FQ_CURRENCY ;) That's a nice addition. Some people may have a paid subscription for AlphaVantage but, for those who don't, their service is becoming quite limited. I travel a bit, so I have more currencies in GnuCash than the new AlphaVantage daily limit. So unfortunately I can't use it any more. Even though Yahoo has a tendency of pulling the rug out from under your feet, I'm sticking with the environmental variable FQ_CURRENCY=YahooJSON. If there was any vote on the subject, I'd go for Yahoo JSON as the default (until they start playing games again).

Regards,
Edward

[bpschuck]

There is a new currency rate source, FinanceAPI. It requires a key from https://financeapi.net/. Their free key is 100 requests per day. Also available is CurrencyFreaks (https://currencyfreaks.com/). Free key 1000 requests/month which is not much better than AV.
The GnuCash team is a bit hesitant to switch defaults. While YahooJSON has been working for a while, we have no guarantee that it will continue to be stable.