API and Spread Betting

[david_blumkey]

Hello,

I have two questions about interacting with the API in conjunction with a spread betting account. There are two things that I don't understand:

- After POSTing to `/session`, I have two accounts that are returned in the response (CFD and Spread Bet), however I don't understand how I can select that account to be used when (for example) creating and viewing trades. In the response object I can see my preferred account is selected as the CFD account, but I'm not sure how I can update this "preferred account" or even programmatically select the Spread Bet account for further use. How can I ensure the spread bet account is used for subsequent API interactions?

- When querying for market epics via `/markets`. How can I tell if a market is a spread betting market or a CFD (or other) market? There doesn't appear to be a clear way of knowing.

Thanks in advance for you time! Please let me know if I can provide any further information.

[KoketsoIG]

21 hours ago, david_blumkey said:

Hello,

I have two questions about interacting with the API in conjunction with a spread betting account. There are two things that I don't understand:

- After POSTing to `/session`, I have two accounts that are returned in the response (CFD and Spread Bet), however I don't understand how I can select that account to be used when (for example) creating and viewing trades. In the response object I can see my preferred account is selected as the CFD account, but I'm not sure how I can update this "preferred account" or even programmatically select the Spread Bet account for further use. How can I ensure the spread bet account is used for subsequent API interactions?

- When querying for market epics via `/markets`. How can I tell if a market is a spread betting market or a CFD (or other) market? There doesn't appear to be a clear way of knowing.

Thanks in advance for you time! Please let me know if I can provide any further information.

Hi @david_blumkey,

Welcome to the IG community and thank you for your post. Please see the below answers to your questions:

1. The API will always use the account that has been set as the 'default' account as the preferred account, once logged in to the API there is a 'Switch account' function that can be used to switch between Spread Bet and CFD accounts but preferred account will always be the default account on login.

2. Most Spread Bet market EPICs will have 'Daily' or 'Cash' and CFD market EPICs will normally have 'Today' in the EPIC. The best option is to get the EPIC from the market for the specific account (Spread Bet/CFD) to ensure the right EPIC is used for the correct account and for the correct market EPIC.

All the best,

KoketsoIG
 

[david_blumkey]

On 13/11/2023 at 09:17, KoketsoIG said:

Hi @david_blumkey,

Welcome to the IG community and thank you for your post. Please see the below answers to your questions:

1. The API will always use the account that has been set as the 'default' account as the preferred account, once logged in to the API there is a 'Switch account' function that can be used to switch between Spread Bet and CFD accounts but preferred account will always be the default account on login.

2. Most Spread Bet market EPICs will have 'Daily' or 'Cash' and CFD market EPICs will normally have 'Today' in the EPIC. The best option is to get the EPIC from the market for the specific account (Spread Bet/CFD) to ensure the right EPIC is used for the correct account and for the correct market EPIC.

All the best,

KoketsoIG
 

Thank you for getting back to me, and thank you for the information. Would you have a link to the endpoint that you were referring to in regards to the switching accounts function?

I thought it might the PUT /accounts/preferences endpoint, but accoring to the documentation that only allows you to enable / disable trailing stop losses:
https://labs.ig.com/rest-trading-api-reference/service-detail?id=654

Would it be possible to set in the UI? I can't seem to find the setting if so. I tried changing the "Default View", but that doesn't appear to set affect the API account

[KoketsoIG]

On 25/11/2023 at 13:37, david_blumkey said:

Thank you for getting back to me, and thank you for the information. Would you have a link to the endpoint that you were referring to in regards to the switching accounts function?

I thought it might the PUT /accounts/preferences endpoint, but accoring to the documentation that only allows you to enable / disable trailing stop losses:
https://labs.ig.com/rest-trading-api-reference/service-detail?id=654

Would it be possible to set in the UI? I can't seem to find the setting if so. I tried changing the "Default View", but that doesn't appear to set affect the API account

Hi @david_blumkey,

Thank you for your post.

Please note that you can find the details in the following: /session | IG Labs it's under Login and Session. 

This can be done in the UI, changing 'Default view' in the web platform only changes the default account for Live accounts. You might have changed the default account for live and logged in with your demo API which is why you might have not noticed a change.

Changing the default account for the demo can only be done on the IG mobile app (Account > Manage accounts).