FTSE 100 (United Kingdom) (FTSE) OHLC API

You need to draw FTSE 100 candles, backfill missing bars, or alert when today’s range breaks last week’s high. By the end of this guide, you’ll pull FTSE 100 (symbol: FTSE) levels and OHLC data from Indices-API, normalize quotes, and wire them into your charting layer without guessing at timestamps, units, or trading-day behavior.

What you’ll build: FTSE 100 candles you can chart, cache, and alert on

We’ll use two endpoints:

Illustration: FTSE 100 (United Kingdom) (FTSE) OHLC API

Latest: to fetch the most recent FTSE 100 level (for dashboards, sanity checks, and intraday reference).
OHLC by date: to retrieve open, high, low, close for a given trading day (for candles and backfills).

All quotes are USD-based. The Latest endpoint provides two FTSE-related keys you’ll actually use:

rates.USDFTSE — the FTSE 100 index level (this is the number you chart as the point/close for today or the latest available).
rates.FTSE — the inverse of the above (avoid this unless you really need the reciprocal).

Confirm the exact symbol on the symbols page before shipping to production: Indices-API Supported Symbols. To explore all endpoints and field details, see the Indices-API Documentation. When you’re ready, get a key (7‑day trial, Pro $49.99/mo): Register.

How FTSE 100 quotes are expressed (read this before you parse)

Indices-API uses a USD base. For FTSE 100 you’ll encounter two keys in rates:

rates.USDFTSE — interpreted as the FTSE 100 level (index points). This is the field most apps need for charting and analytics.
rates.FTSE — the reciprocal of USDFTSE. If you don’t need reciprocal math, ignore this to avoid confusion.

All data timestamps are in Unix epoch seconds and dates are UTC calendar dates. On weekends and holidays, the latest endpoint returns the most recent available trading day. For historical queries and OHLC-by-date, don’t set end_date to “today”; use the most recent completed trading day.

You can always return to the homepage to explore capabilities and plans at indices-api.com, and consult multi-chain processing and data delivery notes here: MCP.

Step 1 — Get the latest FTSE 100 level (for today’s chart anchor, sanity checks, and alerts)

Use the Latest endpoint to anchor your day’s candle or to run pretrade risk checks. This call returns a USD-based snapshot with a per-index unit convention; for FTSE, you’ll read rates.USDFTSE as the index level.

curl request

curl -s "https://indices-api.com/api/latest?access_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

Real response (copy/paste for tests)

{"data":{"success":true,"timestamp":1791765600,"date":"2026-10-12","base":"USD","rates":{"FTSE":7.1559533945142e-5,"USD":1,"USDFTSE":13974.378323461502}}}

What to read from this payload

data.success — boolean success flag.
data.timestamp — Unix epoch seconds for this snapshot (UTC).
data.date — the UTC date corresponding to this payload.
data.base — “USD”; all rates are expressed relative to it.
data.rates.USDFTSE — the FTSE 100 level you chart as the current point or to verify your OHLC close for the last completed trading day.
data.rates.FTSE — the reciprocal; most apps should ignore this for charting.

Python example: fetch and read USDFTSE for charting

import os
import requests
from datetime import datetime, timezone

API_KEY = os.getenv("INDICES_API_KEY", "YOUR_API_KEY")
url = "https://indices-api.com/api/latest"
params = {"access_key": API_KEY}

r = requests.get(url, params=params, timeout=10)
r.raise_for_status()
payload = r.json()

# Basic validations
if not payload.get("data", {}).get("success", False):
    raise RuntimeError("API call unsuccessful")

data = payload["data"]
ts = datetime.fromtimestamp(data["timestamp"], tz=timezone.utc)
base = data["base"]

# The FTSE 100 index level to chart:
ftse_level = data["rates"]["USDFTSE"]

print(f"Timestamp (UTC): {ts.isoformat()}")
print(f"Base currency: {base}")
print(f"FTSE 100 level (rates.USDFTSE): {ftse_level:.2f}")

# Optional reciprocal if you need it (usually you don't for charting):
ftse_inverse = data["rates"]["FTSE"]
assert abs(1.0 / ftse_inverse - ftse_level) < 1e-6

Tip: cache this response for the duration of your plan’s update cadence (e.g., 60 minutes on some plans). If your UI polls more frequently, keep a short-lived in-memory cache to avoid redundant network calls.

Step 2 — Fetch FTSE 100 OHLC for a given date (daily candles)

To build daily candles, call the OHLC-by-date endpoint once per trading day you need to backfill. You’ll specify the date in the path and use the same access_key style. The endpoint returns O/H/L/C values per index; read the FTSE entry for your candle. Endpoints and parameters evolve; follow the shape below and confirm details in the Documentation.

HTTP method: GET
Path template: /api/open-high-low-close/YYYY-MM-DD
Query param: access_key=YOUR_API_KEY
Symbol handling: read the FTSE node in the rates object; confirm the exact key name on the Symbols page.

Notes that save time:

Use a completed trading day for YYYY-MM-DD. Don’t set it to “today” during market hours; use the last settled day.
The payload follows the same base/date/timestamp structure. Read O/H/L/C from the FTSE node.
If a date is a weekend or London Stock Exchange holiday, your app should either skip it or roll to the most recent session, depending on your desired behavior.

Once you have the OHLC payload for a date, join it with the Latest USDFTSE to show an in-progress candle for “today” (mark it as provisional), or keep daily candles strictly as settled OHLCs and show “latest” as a separate intraday indicator.

Backfill strategy: combining OHLC-by-date with timeseries windows

For a large backfill (e.g., a few months of daily candles), your fastest route is:

Use the OHLC-by-date endpoint in a loop over trading days to construct canonical daily bars. Validate you’re on trading days; skip weekends/holidays.
If you also need closes-only or summary stats across a range, consider the time-series and fluctuation endpoints. They provide daily aggregates between two dates, which you can align with the OHLC set. See the Documentation for date constraints and pagination behavior.

Important: the time series end_date must be a completed day, not “today.” For caching, persist completed-day OHLC (it won’t change) and invalidate your “latest” snapshot according to your plan’s update frequency.

Production details: trading days, update cadence, caching, and resilience

Trading sessions: FTSE 100 trades on LSE business days. Weekends/holidays have no new daily candle. The Latest endpoint will still reflect the most recent available day.
Update frequency: latest updates are plan-dependent (for example, every 60 or every 10 minutes). Respect this cadence to avoid stale-vs-fresh mismatches across services.
Timezone: timestamps are UTC. Convert once, centrally, then store in your app’s canonical timezone.
Caching:
- Latest: short TTL (aligned with update cadence).
- OHLC by date: immutable; cache indefinitely once you receive a valid day.
Idempotency: if you retry a given date’s OHLC, you should receive the same values for a settled day.
Validation: verify data.success and ensure base == "USD" before using the values. Log and alert on anomalies.

How to use USDFTSE and FTSE together (math check you can copy)

In Latest responses:

rates.USDFTSE is the field to display or store as the FTSE 100 level.
rates.FTSE is the inverse of rates.USDFTSE. For a simple integrity check: abs(1.0 / rates.FTSE - rates.USDFTSE) should be ~0.

This small check is a low-cost guardrail that catches accidental field swaps when refactoring.

Security, onboarding, and data governance

Key management: store YOUR_API_KEY in a secrets manager or environment variable; don’t hardcode in clients.
Access controls: if you proxy requests through your backend, rate-limit and cache there to avoid exposing the key to browsers.
Data governance: keep a daily snapshot of OHLC in append-only storage to allow reproducible backtests and audits.

For implementation specifics, dig into the Documentation and verify symbol shapes on the Symbols page. You can always revisit indices-api.com to check service status and updates.

Why OHLC for FTSE 100 matters in modern stacks

OHLC candles are the canonical unit for event-driven research and charting. With the FTSE 100, they enable precise intraday and cross-market analysis of U.K. large caps, crucial for global portfolios, smart order routing, and cross-venue risk. They also dovetail with automated analytics and IoT-style telemetry: a back end that streams OHLC snapshots into your alert engine can detect regime shifts, volatility clusters, and sustainability-linked sector rotations as they propagate through the index.

By normalizing on a USD base and a stable field naming (USDFTSE for level), you simplify analytics across indices and downstream systems ranging from web dashboards to batch quant pipelines.

Common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

Using rates.FTSE instead of rates.USDFTSE for the plotted level: always chart rates.USDFTSE.
Assuming “today” has a settled close: OHLC-by-date requires a completed session; use the previous business day or wait for settlement.
Ignoring update cadence: cache Latest according to your plan; don’t over-poll and accidentally display partial consistency across widgets.
Timezone mismatches: keep timestamps in UTC internally; convert for display only.

FAQ

Q: Which field is the actual FTSE 100 level I should chart?
A: Use rates.USDFTSE from the Latest payload. It represents the FTSE 100 index level. The rates.FTSE field is its reciprocal and is usually not what you want to display.

Q: Can I query OHLC for “today” before the market closes?
A: Use a completed trading day for OHLC-by-date. For intraday visuals, combine yesterday’s OHLC with the Latest snapshot (rates.USDFTSE) as a provisional marker, clearly labeled as intraday.

Q: How do weekends and holidays affect results?
A: There is no new daily OHLC on non-trading days. Latest returns the most recent available snapshot. When looping dates, skip weekends/holidays or roll to the latest session according to your app’s behavior.

Q: What timezone do timestamps use?
A: Timestamps are in UTC (Unix epoch seconds). The date field is also UTC.

Q: Where can I confirm the FTSE symbol and see endpoint specifics?
A: Confirm symbols here: Indices-API Supported Symbols. Review endpoints and field definitions in the Documentation.

Get your key and ship

Spin up your pipeline: call Latest for rates.USDFTSE, backfill settled OHLC by date, cache intelligently, and keep everything in UTC. Start with a 7‑day trial (Pro $49.99/mo) and wire this into your chart in under an hour: Register. For architecture notes and multi-chain processing, see MCP.

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