finance::quote(3)

NAME

Finance::Quote - Get stock and mutual fund quotes from
various exchanges

SYNOPSIS

use Finance::Quote;
$q = Finance::Quote->new;
$q->timeout(60);
$conversion_rate = $q->currency("AUD","USD");
$q->set_currency("EUR");  # Return all info in Euros.
$q->require_labels(qw/price date high low volume/);
$q->failover(1);     # Set failover support (on by  default).
%quotes  = $q->fetch("nasdaq",@stocks);
$hashref = $q->fetch("nyse",@stocks);

DESCRIPTION

This module gets stock quotes from various internet
sources, including Yahoo! Finance, Fidelity Investments,
and the Australian Stock Exchange. There are two methods
of using this module -- a functional interface that is
depreciated, and an object-orientated method that provides
greater flexibility and stability.

With the exception of straight currency exchange rates, all information is returned as a two-dimensional hash (or a reference to such a hash, if called in a scalar con text). For example:: %info = $q->fetch("australia","CML");
print "The price of CML is ".$info{"CML","price"};
The first part of the hash (eg, "CML") is referred to as the stock. The second part (in this case, "price") is referred to as the label.
LABELS
When information about a stock is returned, the following
standard labels may be used. Some custom-written modules
may use labels not mentioned here. If you wish to be cer
tain that you obtain a certain set of labels for a given
stock, you can specify that using require_labels().: name Company or Mutual Fund Name
last Last Price
high Highest trade today
low Lowest trade today
date Last Trade Date (MM/DD/YY format)
time Last Trade Time
net Net Change
p_change Percent Change from previous day's close
volume Volume
avg_vol Average Daily Vol
bid Bid
ask Ask
close Previous Close
open Today's Open
day_range Day's Range
year_range 52-Week Range
eps Earnings per Share
pe P/E Ratio
div_date Dividend Pay Date
div Dividend per Share
div_yield Dividend Yield
cap Market Capitalization
ex_div Ex-Dividend Date.
nav Net Asset Value
yield Yield (usually 30 day avg)
exchange The exchange the information was obtained; from.
success Did the stock successfully return infor; mation? (true/false)
errormsg If success is false, this field may con; tain the reason why.
method The module (as could be passed to fetch); which found
this information.
If all stock lookups fail (possibly because of a failed connection) then the empty list may be returned, or undef in a scalar context.

AVAILABLE METHODS

NEW: my $q = Finance::Quote->new;
my $q = Finance::Quote->new("ASX");
my $q = Finance::Quote->new("-defaults", "CustomMod; ule");
With no arguents, this creates a new Finance::Quote object with the default methods. If the environment variable FQ_LOAD_QUOTELETS is set, then the contents of FQ_LOAD_QUOTELETS (split on whitespace) will be used as the argument list. This allows users to load their own custom modules without having to change existing code. If you do not want users to be able to load their own modules at run-time, pass an explicit argumetn to ->new() (usually "-defaults").
When new() is passed one or more arguments, an object is created with only the specified modules loaded. If the first argument is "-defaults", then the default modules will be loaded first, followed by any other specified mod ules.
Note that the FQ_LOAD_QUOTELETS environment variable must begin with "-defaults" if you wish the default modules to be loaded.
Any modules specified will automatically be looked for in the Finance::Quote:: module-space. Hence, Finance::Quote->new("ASX") will load the module Finance::Quote::ASX.
Please read the Finance::Quote hacker's guide for informa tion on how to create new modules for Finance::Quote.
FETCH: my %stocks = $q->fetch("usa","IBM","MSFT","LNUX");
my $hashref = $q->fetch("usa","IBM","MSFT","LNUX");
Fetch takes an exchange as its first argument. The second and remaining arguments are treated as stock-names. In the standard Finance::Quote distribution, the following exchanges are recognised:: australia Australan Stock Exchange
dwsfunds Deutsche Bank Gruppe funds
fidelity Fidelity Investments
tiaacref TIAA-CREF
troweprice T. Rowe Price
europe European Markets
canada Canadian Markets
usa USA Markets
nyse New York Stock Exchange
nasdaq NASDAQ
uk_unit_trusts UK Unit Trusts
vanguard Vanguard Investments
vwd Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste GmbH
When called in an array context, a hash is returned. In a scalar context, a reference to a hash will be returned. The structure of this hash is described earlier in this document.
The fetch method automatically arranges for failover sup port and currency conversion if requested.
If you wish to fetch information from only one particular source, then consult the documentation of that sub-module for further information.
SOURCES: my @sources = $q->sources;
my $listref = $q->sources;
The sources method returns a list of sources that have currently been loaded and can be passed to the fetch method. If you're providing a user with a list of sources to choose from, then it is recommended that you use this method.
CURRENCY: $conversion_rate = $q->currency("USD","AUD");
The currency method takes two arguments, and returns a conversion rate that can be used to convert from the first currency into the second. In the example above, we've requested the factor that would convert US dollars into Australian dollars.
The currency method will return a false value if a given currency conversion cannot be fetched.
At the moment, currency rates are fetched from Yahoo!, and the information returned is governed by Yahoo!'s terms and conditions. See Finance::Quote::Yahoo for more informa tion.
SET_CURRENCY: $q->set_currency("FRF"); # Get results in French; Francs.
The set_currency method can be used to request that all information be returned in the specified currency. Note that this increases the chance stock-lookup failure, as remote requests must be made to fetch both the stock information and the currency rates. In order to improve reliability and speed performance, currency conversion rates are cached and are assumed not to change for the duration of the Finance::Quote object.
At this time, currency conversions are only looked up using Yahoo!'s services, and hence information obtained with automatic currency conversion is bound by Yahoo!'s terms and conditions.
FAILOVER: $q->failover(1); # Set automatic failover support.
$q->failover(0); # Disable failover support.
The failover method takes a single argument which either sets (if true) or unsets (if false) automatic failover support. If automatic failover support is enabled (default) then multiple information sources will be tried if one or more sources fail to return the requested infor mation. Failover support will significantly increase the time spent looking for a non-existant stock.
If the failover method is called with no arguments, or with an undefined argument, it will return the current failover state (true/false).
USER_AGENT: my $ua = $q->user_agent;
The user_agent method returns the LWP::UserAgent object that Finance::Quote and its helpers use. Normally this would not be useful to an application, however it is pos sible to modify the user-agent directly using this method:: $q->user_agent->timeout(10); # Set the timeout; directly.
SCALE_FIELD: my $pounds = $q->scale_field($item_in_pence,0.01);
The scale_field() function is a helper that can scale com plex fields such as ranges (eg, "102.5 - 103.8") and other
fields where the numbers should be scaled but any sur
rounding text preserved. It's most useful in writing new
Finance::Quote modules where you may retrieve information
in a non-ISO4217 unit (such as cents) and would like to
scale it to a more useful unit (like dollars).

ENVIRONMENT

Finance::Quote respects all environment that your
installed version of LWP::UserAgent respects. Most impor
tantly, it respects the http_proxy environment variable.

BUGS

There are no ways for a user to define a failover list.

The two-dimensional hash is a somewhat unwieldly method of
passing around information when compared to references. A
future release is planned that will allow for information
to be returned in a more flexible $hash{$stock}{$label}
style format.

There is no way to override the default behaviour to cache
currency conversion rates.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1998, Dj Padzensky
Copyright 1998, 1999 Linas Vepstas
Copyright 2000, Yannick LE NY (update for Yahoo Europe
tainence and release) Copyright 2000-2001, Brent Neal (update for TIAA-CREF) Copyright 2000 Volker Stuerzl (DWS and VWD support) Copyright 2000 Keith Refson (Trustnet support) Copyright 2001 Rob Sessink (AEX support) Copyright 2001 Leigh Wedding (ASX updates) Copyright 2001 Tobias Vancura (Fool support) Copyright 2001 James Treacy (TD Waterhouse support)
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Currency information fetched through this module is bound by Yahoo!'s terms and conditons.
Other copyrights and conditions may apply to data fetched through this module. Please refer to the sub-modules for further information.

AUTHORS

Dj Padzensky (C<djpadz@padz.net>), PadzNet, Inc.
Linas Vepstas (C<linas@linas.org>)
Yannick LE NY (C<y-le-ny@ifrance.com>)
Paul Fenwick (C<pjf@schools.net.au>)
Brent Neal (C<brentn@users.sourceforge.net>)
Volker Stuerzl (C<volker.stuerzl@gmx.de>)
Keith Refson (C<Keith.Refson#earth.ox.ac.uk>)
Rob Sessink (C<rob_ses@users.sourceforge.net>)
Leigh Wedding (C<leigh.wedding@telstra.com>)
Tobias Vancura (C<tvancura@altavista.net>)
James Treacy (C<treacy@debian.org>)
The Finance::Quote home page can be found at http://finance-quote.sourceforge.net/
The Finance::YahooQuote home page can be found at http://www.padz.net/~djpadz/YahooQuote/
The GnuCash home page can be found at http://www.gnu cash.org/

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