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Starter Guide: How to Use the Time Series Endpoint

An endpoint is essentially one end of a communication connection. When an API communicates with another platform, the touchpoints of that conversation are referred to as time-series endpoints.  In the case of APIs, an endpoint can be a URL to a server or application. Each endpoint is a site where APIs can obtain the resources required to meet their objective.

A time-series endpoint provides daily history data for currency fluctuations between the dates given. Data can be provided for all accessible currencies or a subset of them. It is a predictive learning approach for forecasting future readings of a field based on prior values.  It is applied to time-based data analysis where historical patterns might predict future behaviour, such as share prices, demand planning, internet traffic, warehousing, inventory monitoring, weather prediction, etc. 

In this article, we examined the time-series endpoint and how this can help small and large-scale time series forecasting and anomaly detection in real-time.

What Is a Time-Series Endpoint?

A time-series model must be prepared using time-series data, a field comprising a succession of equally distributed data time points.

Time-series analysis is a statistical approach used to forecast the future by analyzing the pattern of data points collected over time.  Time-series analysis focuses on the following major components or patterns:

  • An increase or decrease in a sequence of data over a long period.
  • Seasonal variations in the pattern are caused by seasonal variables during a short period. 
  • Cyclic variations occur at irregular periods as a result of particular situations.
  • Irregularity or random elements that do not recur in the pattern.

Why Do We Need Time-Series Endpoints?

Any parameter that fluctuates over time can be subjected to a time series.  A time series is commonly used in investing in monitoring the value of a stock over time.  The stock can be monitored in the near term, such as the price of a security at closing on the last day of every month for 365 days, or in the long run, such as the price of a stock at close on the last day of every month for 365 days.

A time-series analysis can be beneficial for determining how a specific asset, security, or macroeconomic parameter evolves.  It can also compare the changes linked with the selected data point to other variables across time.

Furthermore, a time-series analysis assists businesses in understanding the fundamental causes of movements or systemic patterns that emerge throughout time.  Business users may discover seasonal trends and go deeper into why these trends arise by using data visualizations.  These visualizations can go much beyond line graphs with modern analytics solutions. 

When businesses evaluate data at regular intervals, they can utilize time-series forecasting to anticipate the probability of an event occurring.  Predictive analytics techniques include time-series forecasting.  It can predict expected changes in data, such as periodicity or cyclic behaviour, which gives an overview of data variables and aids in predicting.

How to Use a Time-Series Endpoint?

A time-series endpoint gathers stories that match the search parameters and aggregates them by minute, hour, day, month, or whatever you like.  This can be quite useful for recognizing spikes or dips in news volume related to a particular topic of interest. 

A time-series query returns a layered JSON object that lists the number of hits per day in an array.  To make it more legible, we can transform this into a Pandas DataFrame.  Using the time-series endpoint, we can consolidate our search results and evaluate their general pattern. We can do this by: 

Step 1: Gathering the Necessary Information

This step entails going over how to put together the values for the needed arguments in greater detail. You need to focus on two variables:

  • Place – You must provide the coordinates of the location you are concerned about.
  • Statistical Variable – The statistical variable whose value you want to know.

This API accepts additional, optional parameters in addition to these required characteristics.

Here are some arguments that developers frequently use:

  • Measurement Method – The technique employed to assess a statistical variable is the measurement method.
  • Observation Period – The Observation Period is the time over which an analysis is made.
  • Unit – A measurement unit.
  • Scaling Factor – A statistical variable property that indicates the factor by which a metric is amplified to match a specific format is called a scaling factor.

Step 2: Make the Request

Because this endpoint only supports the GET method, you must construct the request using query arguments in the URL.

What About Enterprise Usage of the Time-Series Endpoint?

Large organizations can benefit from news intelligence by identifying threats and opportunities early, allowing them to take swift and decisive action when necessary.  Often, all it takes is one news piece or one needle in a haystack to set off an alarm or discover a market gap.

However, due to the enormous amount and constant nature of news, we must first analyze data at an overall level before determining the necessity to dive down and analyze the details of specific news items.  As a result, rather than interrogating individual items, we may want to gather information at a global level and assess broad trends.

This is made possible through a time-series endpoint. We can use this endpoint to track changes in quantitative data in stories over time.  The data can range from references of a topic or entity to attitude about a topic or the volume of stories produced by a source, to name a few examples. 

It is also considerably faster to pull average time-series data than to query the tales endpoint and retrieve individual stories in batches, which must then be processed to quantify the appearances of domains, sentiment, and so on in each piece.

Check out our documentation for the time-series endpoint via Fixer to get insights on how time-series data is essential for the day-to-day operations of many companies. 

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