Data Methodology
Every price on ALTIN carries three pieces of information: the data's source, its type and its timestamp. This page explains how each of the three is determined.
Data Types
Free-market data streamed continuously from the source. It updates within seconds. The “Live — Free Market” label makes no exchange-licensed price claim; it shows the current buy–sell level in the free market.
Data the source publishes with a fixed delay. The delay is stated next to the data.
Official or periodic publications — e.g. CBRT (TCMB) indicative rates (business days, ~15:30) and central bank reference rates. Reference data is not a tradable price; its timestamp shows the publication date and time (e.g. “25.09.2026 15:30 bulletin”), not the moment we fetched it.
A value we derive from other prices with a formula, e.g. theoretical gram gold = (ounce ÷ 31.1035) × USD/TRY, 1 kg gold = gram × 1,000. The formula is shown next to it. It is not a market price and is never labeled “Live”.
Sources and update frequency
The source names printed next to prices, and how often each one updates. We name no brands; we say where the data comes from and how.
- Live — Free Market
- Buy and sell prices for gold and currencies on Türkiye's free market, arriving within seconds from a commercial data feed. A jeweler's or bank's price may differ slightly by seller. While the source is live, a thinly traded price counts as current for up to 15 minutes; if the source stops, the price is marked “stale”.
- Exchange Office — Cash
- Exchange offices' cash buy and sell rates. The cash rate usually differs from the market rate; the converter uses the buy or sell side of the transaction you choose. Updates continuously during market hours; the buy and sell sides are shown separately.
- CBRT Reference (TCMB)
- The indicative rates the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye publishes every business day, and its monthly gold reference series. An official reference, not a live trading price. Indicative rates are announced every business day around 15:30; the timestamp is the bulletin's. Gold reference series are published as monthly averages, a few months in arrears.
- CBRT Effective (banknote) · Reference
- The effective (banknote) buying and selling rates the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye announces in the same daily bulletin as its currency rates. An official reference, not an exchange office's cash price, and always shown apart from the currency rates. Announced in the same bulletin as the currency rates, every business day around 15:30; the timestamp is the bulletin's. Only for the currencies the CBRT publishes an effective rate for.
- ECB Reference
- For currencies without a live rate: rates based on central-bank reference rates, updated once a day. Its source is the European Central Bank's business-day rates; no new rate is published at weekends.
- Calculated Value
- A value we calculate from other prices; for example theoretical gram gold = gold ounce × dollar rate ÷ 31.1035. Not a market price; it is for comparison. Recalculated only while the prices it rests on are current; if one of them stops, the last value is marked “stale”.
- Crypto Market (TR)
- Live TRY prices formed on a crypto market in Türkiye (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether). Updates within seconds.
- Crypto Market
- Live prices on an international crypto market. Updates within seconds.
- Crypto Registry Data
- International market data for hundreds of cryptocurrencies, collected a few minutes delayed. Each value's timestamp shows how delayed it is.
- Tether Rate — Iran Free Market
- Iranian toman only: the price on Iran's Tether (USDT) market, crossed with the USDT/TRY rate in Türkiye and shown in toman. It is neither the dollar rate nor Iran's official rate. Refreshes about every 30 seconds.
Cross rates
When there is no direct rate between two units, the converter goes through a TL, USD or USDT bridge. The real rate for the direction of the trade is used: the unit you hold is sold at the buy rate and the target unit bought at the sell rate, so each step's spread shows in the result. If a source does not publish separate buy and sell prices, the mid rate is used and noted next to the result. The result's timestamp is that of the oldest data used.
Source Rules
- Data comes only from sources we have API access to; no site's content is scraped.
- Calculated values are presented with their formula: theoretical gram = (ounce ÷ 31.1035) × USD/TRY. Calculated data is never labeled as a “live market price”.
- During data outages the last valid value stays on screen, marked “stale”. We never show an empty card, a zero or an invented value.
- In demo mode every value is marked with a prominent DEMO DATA badge and is never presented as a real price.
- Source comparisons rank factual values only; sponsored content never affects organic rankings.
Historical Data
The long-term series in charts are reference data from the CBRT EVDS service and are labeled “Reference”; each series starts on its own first publication day (2005 for most currencies, 2012–2021 for some). Intraday series are produced from our own data feed. While a currency's own series is shorter than a year, the performance strip and the “Where does today's rate sit in history?” section are computed from that currency's CBRT series alone: the latest CBRT bulletin is compared with CBRT history, the free-market rate is never mixed with CBRT data, and the section says so. Once the own series covers a year, the figures switch back to it automatically. Monthly-published series (e.g. some gold reference series) are shown as month-start points on charts.
This content is for information only; it is not investment advice.