Need to download historical stock data? Need a large amount ie: since 1962? Well look no further, I got you covered!
How to Download Historical Stock Information from Yahoo
Yahoo has a secret API they use on there own pages that lets you display historical stock data. The API is REST based and very easy to use.
You need to specify each stock ticker your looking for and the start date you want the history from. (The oldest date appears to be around 1962.)
An example of an historical query on Apple (AAPL) looks like so:
http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=AAPL&c=1962
C# Historical Stock Downloading Code
To use the undocumented Yahoo! API to download historical stock data you will need to define a stock like so:
HistoricalStock.cs
using System;
namespace Jarloo.YahooHistoricalLoader
{
public class HistoricalStock
{
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public double Open { get; set; }
public double High { get; set; }
public double Low { get; set; }
public double Close { get; set; }
public double Volume { get; set; }
public double AdjClose { get; set; }
}
}
The code to actually download and parse the results of the historical stock data, you will need something similiar to the C# code below:
HistoricalStockDownloader.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net;
namespace Jarloo.YahooHistoricalLoader
{
public class HistoricalStockDownloader
{
public static List<HistoricalStock> DownloadData(string ticker, int yearToStartFrom)
{
List<HistoricalStock> retval = new List<HistoricalStock>();
using (WebClient web = new WebClient())
{
string data = web.DownloadString(string.Format("http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s={0}&c={1}", ticker, yearToStartFrom));
data = data.Replace("r","");
string[] rows = data.Split('n');
//First row is headers so Ignore it
for (int i = 1; i < rows.Length; i++)
{
if (rows[i].Replace("n","").Trim() == "") continue;
string[] cols = rows[i].Split(',');
HistoricalStock hs = new HistoricalStock();
hs.Date = Convert.ToDateTime(cols[0]);
hs.Open = Convert.ToDouble(cols[1]);
hs.High = Convert.ToDouble(cols[2]);
hs.Low = Convert.ToDouble(cols[3]);
hs.Close = Convert.ToDouble(cols[4]);
hs.Volume = Convert.ToDouble(cols[5]);
hs.AdjClose = Convert.ToDouble(cols[6]);
retval.Add(hs);
}
return retval;
}
}
}
}
Example of using the C# Historical Stock Downloader
Create a simple C# console application then add this code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace Jarloo.YahooHistoricalLoader
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<HistoricalStock> data = HistoricalStockDownloader.DownloadData("AAPL", 1962);
foreach (HistoricalStock stock in data)
{
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Date={0} High={1} Low={2} Open={3} Close{4}",stock.Date,stock.High,stock.Low,stock.Open,stock.Close));
}
Console.Read();
}
}
}
13 Comments
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Take this with you
This is optimized to work on your phone. Just scan the code above to bring Jarloo with you.
Good info
Hells yes! Big fan of your articles on stock market data. Thanks you for being so open Kellas.
Specifying the start year in the query doesn’t seem to have any effect – it still downloads the entire archive?
For example: http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=AAPL&c=2008
To specify daily quote stop and start dates try this:
“http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=” & ticker & “&d=” & (endDate.Month – 1) & “&e=” & endDate.Day & “&f=” & endDate.Year & “&g=d&a=” & (startDate.Month – 1) & “&b=” & startDate.Day & “&c=” & startDate.Year & “&ignore=.csv”
So to get AAPL from Jan 1, 2008 til May 2, 2011 you could use:
http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=AAPL&d=4&e=2&f=2011&g=d&a=0&b=1&c=2008&ignore.csv
If you want weekly quotes you can follow the format:
“http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=” & ticker & “&a=” & (startDate.Month – 1) & “&b=” & startDate.Day & “&c=” & startDate.Year & “&d=” & (endDate.Month – 1) & “&e=” & endDate.Day & “&f=” & endDate.Year & “&g=w&ignore=.csv”
-Brad
Hi,
is there anyway to download 60 min forex data using the Yahoo API.
I know how to fetch a quote etc and daily dats but not historical intraday data so would appreciate any pointers on this,
Daniel
HI, Thanks for the code. Very nice. I am coding everything in C# using visual studios. I want to create a windows form application. I passed the values of stock.date and stock.close to arrays. Now I want to plot it using the charting control in VS 2010. When I replace the console.read() part with chart1, the code does not seem to identify that i have a chart in the form. it does not recognize it? What to do?
Thanks.
Thanks!
I need help! I’m using this code and it works great when i define just one ticker. But i need the data for >1000 stocks. I store tickers in the text file and run this code in the loop for tickers from file. On 2nd or 3rd iteration webexception appears telling that operatuon is timed out. Completely stocked with this problem. Anybody can advise something please.
HI!
Can anyone suggest how can i get data Indian market data because in query “s=tcs” or “s=500463″
or “s=sensex” doesn;t work…
Thanks…..
Hi!
I got API providing Historical data of Indian Stock Market.
Yahoo API:
http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=TCS.bo&a=02&b=11&c=2010&d=02&e=15&f=2011&g=d&ignore=.csv
I have also found Google API to draw chart as image.
Google API:
https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=t:60,40&chs=250×100&chl=Hello|world
NOW CAN ANYONE SUGGEST HOW I CAN INPUT THAT API TO GOOGLE CHART API SO
I CAN GET CHART IN MY WEBPAGE FINALLY…
Thank You….
Great job but Please I want to know how to download a the call and put options from yahoo finance. Will appreciate your response. Thanks
Hi, can you please tell me how can I retrieve stocj market info such as the NIKKEI, NASDAQ and so on. All I found is company information but I need the Stock market info. Is that possible?
Nice article. I had to make one minor tweak in order for the example to work with Mono on OS X, change this line:
string[] rows = data.Split(‘n’);
to
string[] rows = data.Split(‘\n’);
I had to make one change:
//string[] rows = data.Split(‘n’);
string[] rows = Regex.Split(data, @”\n”);