When you compare prices for commodities or foreign exchange instruments across different platforms, you will often see small differences.
Unlike equities, which trade mainly on centralized exchanges, commodities and forex trade in a decentralized manner.
There is therefore no single authoritative price for gold, oil, or currency pairs such as EUR/USD, and sources may vary by as much as +/- 3%.
As a result, pricing in these asset classes is derived from multiple global liquidity providers, each of which may quote slightly different values depending on market access, infrastructure, and timing.
Twelve Data aggregates quotes from multiple global liquidity providers to offer a composite view that balances accuracy, stability, and broad availability.
What is an aggregated feed?
An aggregated feed is a stream of market data composed of inputs from multiple institutional sources.
For commodities and forex, this typically includes:
Tier 1 banks
Electronic communication networks (ECNs)
Global liquidity providers
Broker-dealer networks
This aggregated pricing model ensures broad coverage and minimizes the risk of relying on a single vendor or venue.
Benefits:
Improved price stability
Greater market depth representation
Reduced exposure to localized anomalies or data outages
However, the result is a consensus price, not an exchange-specific or broker-executable quote.
Why do price deviations occur?
If you are comparing Twelve Data's feed to your broker or trading platform, you may observe differences in price quotes. This is expected and can be attributed to several factors:
Source variation
Each provider (including your broker) uses its own set of liquidity sources. These may differ in quality, geography, or depth, resulting in slight price variances.
Update frequency and latency
Some platforms stream tick-level data, while others may throttle updates to every second or longer. Even small differences in timing can lead to price discrepancies, especially in fast-moving markets.
Price type
Twelve Data reports the mid-price by default (the average of bid and ask), while some brokers display bid, ask, or last trade prices. This distinction can create apparent but harmless differences.
Market session behaviour
Commodities and forex operate across overlapping sessions globally. Volatility may differ depending on the time of day and source regions, particularly during off-peak or transition hours.
Summary
Price deviations in commodities and forex data are a natural result of decentralized markets and the use of aggregated feeds. Twelve Data's approach prioritizes data availability, global coverage, and consistency across asset classes.
While occasional differences with broker platforms are normal, understanding the structure and source of data ensures that you can use it effectively and confidently.
For most applications (including technical analysis, charting, signal generation, or historical backtesting), these small deviations are typically well within acceptable thresholds.
If you have specific concerns about data for a particular symbol or time period, or if you have any other questions, our team is always available to assist.