Historical Exchange Rates Help

  1. How do I use the Historical Exchange Rates tool?
  2. What is the difference between Rates and % Change in the Values menu option?
  3. What is the Frequency menu option?
  4. Why can't I find the currency I'm looking for?
  5. Why can't I convert currencies?
  6. How do rates differ from the old fxHistory?
  7. What other languages are available for the Historical Exchange Rates tool?
  8. How can I get the historical exchange rates for my business, website, or personal needs?
  9. Can you tell me the best time to exchange my money or to buy or sell currencies?

Help for OANDA Rates and other Currency Tools

1. How do I use the Historical Exchange Rates tool?

Use the Historical Exchange Rates tool to compare exchange rates for up to five currencies against a base currency, for any date range back to January, 1990. Add percentages to get more realistic rates like what you’re charged by banks or credit card companies. Select either a currency graph or table view, or download a CSV file, to get historical exchange rate data in your preferred format.

  • Type currency names, 3-letter ISO currency symbols, or country names to select your currency. Convert world currencies, precious metals, or obsolete currencies, which are marked with an asterisk (*).
  • Select the date range that you would like to view, using either our predefined periods or a custom start and end date. Dates can be selected from the calendar views or typed into the appropriate date fields.
  • Click the Graph tab to view the exchange rates as a currency conversion chart, or choose Table for a currency conversion table.
  • Choose a percentage from the Interbank rate list to better approximate the tourist exchange rates actually charged by your financial institution. (Find out more about interbank rates.)
  • Choose either Bid, Ask, or Midpoint exchange rates—table or graph entries will be updated. (Find out more about bid and ask.)
  • Use the Values menu to view historical rates using the actual exchange rates, or select % change to show the change in the exchange rates relative to the start date of the period.
  • Average exchange rates are available by selecting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, from the Frequency menu.

2. What is the difference between Rates and % Change in the Values menu option?

The Values menu option allows you to see exchange rate trends, either as absolute exchange rates or as a relative change over time.

  • The Rates option displays the actual exchange rate for a particular date.
  • The % Change option displays the percent gain or loss in the value of the currency you want (the quote currency) against the currency you have (the base currency) since the start of the date range you are viewing.

3. What is the Frequency menu option?

The Frequency menu option allows you to select the intervals of time over which an average should be displayed in our tools. Averages are available daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, depending on the date range selected on the tool.

Frequency options will be blocked if the date range you select does not include at least two complete data points. Data points are calculated as follows:

  • Daily rates are the average for the 24-hour period ending 22:00 UTC on the day prior to posting.
  • Weekly rates are the average of the 7 daily averages from Monday to Sunday of the applicable week.
  • Monthly rates are the average of all daily averages for the month specified.
  • Quarterly rates are the average of the daily averages within a calendar quarter (ie: January 1 - March 31, April 1 - June 30, July 1 - September 30, October 1 - December 31).
  • Annual rates are the average of all daily averages for the year specified.

Incomplete averages are excluded from the exchange rates shown in the Historical Exchange Rates tool. For instance, if the Frequency is set to Weekly and the date range starts on a Wednesday, that week will be excluded.

4. Why can't I find the currency I'm looking for?

For the new Historical Exchange Rates tool, you can type in the name of a country or a currency or a three-letter ISO code.

We try to keep the list of countries and currencies up to date for all currencies where there is reliable data available from financial institutions. If you can't find the currency you're looking for, please send us feedback.

5. Why can't I convert currencies?

If one of the currencies you select is not in effect for the date you request (for example, it's obsolete or not yet introduced), you will see a message that the exchange rate data is not available.

If you are not receiving this message, please ensure that you are using a browser that supports Javascript. We have tested with Firefox 3.0, Internet Explorer 6.0+, Safari 3, Google Chrome 3 and Opera 10.

6. How do rates differ from the old fxHistory?

The Historical Exchange Rates tool provides exchange rate history from our new Currency Converter, and hence defaults to the bid rate. This is different from OANDA's old fxHistory tool, which showed the ask rate. To see the ask rate in the new historical rates tool, simply select Ask from the Price pulldown menu.

7. What other languages are available for the Historical Exchange Rates tool?

Aside from English, the Historical Exchange Rates tool is also available in the following languages:  French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

8. How can I get the historical exchange rates for my business, website, or personal needs?

You can access historical rates by signing up for an XML or CSV data feed. These exchange rates feeds can be integrated seamlessly into your external web site or internal transaction system to give you automatic access to the entire OANDA Rates history.

9. Can you tell me the best time to exchange my money or where to buy or sell currencies?

No, we do not give personal consulting on the exact date and time to exchange your money or provide recommendations on where to buy or sell currencies. To find out the best places to change your money, contact your local bank or travel agency.