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

   use Finance::Quote;
   $q = Finance::Quote->new;

   $q->timeout(6);

   $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);

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 context). 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.

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 certain 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 information? (true/false)
    errormsg     If success is false, this field may contain 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.

    my $q = Finance::Quote->new;
    my $q = Finance::Quote->new("ASX");
    my $q = Finance::Quote->new("-defaults", "CustomModule");

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 modules.

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 information on how to create new modules for Finance::Quote.

    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 support 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.

    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.

    $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 information.

    $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.

    $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 information. 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).

    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 possible to modify the user-agent directly using this method:

    $q->user_agent->timeout(1);        # Set the timeout directly.

    my $pounds = $q->scale_field($item_in_pence,0.01);

The scale_field() function is a helper that can scale complex fields such as ranges (eg, 102.5 - 103.8) and other fields where the numbers should be scaled but any surrounding 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).

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

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 CW$hash{$stock}{$label} style format.

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

 Copyright 1998, Dj Padzensky
 Copyright 1998, 1999 Linas Vepstas
 Copyright 2000, Yannick LE NY (update for Yahoo Europe and YahooQuote)
 Copyright 2000-2001, Paul Fenwick (updates for ASX, maintainence 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.

  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.gnucash.org/

Finance::Quote::AEX, Finance::Quote::ASX, Finance::Quote::Cdnfundlibrary, Finance::Quote::DWS, Finance::Quote::Fidelity, Finance::Quote::Fool, Finance::Quote::FTPortfolios, Finance::Quote::Tdwaterhouse, Finance::Quote::Tiaacref, Finance::Quote::Troweprice, Finance::Quote::Trustnet, Finance::Quote::VWD, Finance::Quote::Yahoo::Australia, Finance::Quote::Yahoo::Europe, Finance::Quote::Yahoo::USA, LWP::UserAgent

You should have also received the Finance::Quote hacker's guide with this package. Please read it if you are interested in adding extra methods to this package. The hacker's guide can also be found on the Finance::Quote website, http://finance-quote.sourceforge.net/