This document discusses using R instead of Excel to fetch stock data programmatically. It notes that Excel and Datastream are slow and crash when fetching large amounts of data. The document then recommends using R scripts to fetch stock data, providing links to download RStudio and sample R scripts, and shows how the fetched data can then be used to create a customizable website to view the stock data.

1. PROGRAMATICALLY
GETTING STOCK DATA WITH R
SCHWANNDEN KUO

2. SCHWANNDEN KUO
DATASTREAM IS NOT PERFECT
▸ Datastream has a nice interface
when looking at data, but a bad
one when fetching data with excel.
▸ It is extremely slow when fetching
large amount of data.
▸ Slow is fine, but sometimes it
crashes for fetching too many data.

3. SCHWANNDEN KUO
DATASTREAM IS NOT PERFECT
▸ If I want all stock data from
NASDAQ listing, I can’t select all
symbols, because symbol strings
are too long, it exceeds excel’s limit.
▸ Even if I create my own token for
the list of symbol, Datastream
fetches all data at once, filling up
the entire RAM, causing the
computer to crash.
▸ Slow is fine, but crash is not
acceptable.

4. USE R TO GET THE
DATA
github.com/schwannden/
stock.data

5. DOWNLOAD RSTUDIO
https://www.rstudio.com/

6. DOWNLOAD R SCRIPT
github.com/schwannden/stock.data

7. RUN SCRIPT

8. SCHWANNDEN KUO
MINIMAL SETUP

9. SCHWANNDEN KUO
MY SETUP

10. SCHWANNDEN KUO
MY SETUP

11. USE DATA TO
CREATE WEBSITE
github.com/schwannden/
statock

12. SCHWANNDEN KUO
WHY WEBSITE
▸ platform independent
▸ highly customisable
▸ just for fun
▸ don’t repeat yourself
▸ live at:
statock.schwannden.com