NAME

Finance::QuoteHist::MotleyFool - Site-specific class for retrieving historical stock quotes.

SYNOPSIS

use Finance::QuoteHist::MotleyFool;
$q = new Finance::QuoteHist::MotleyFool
   (
    symbols    => [qw(IBM UPS AMZN)],
    start_date => '01/01/1999',
    end_date   => 'today',      
   );

foreach $row ($q->quotes()) {
  ($symbol, $date, $open, $high, $low, $close, $volume) = @$row;
  ...
}

DESCRIPTION

Finance::QuoteHist::MotleyFool is a subclass of Finance::QuoteHist::Generic, specifically tailored to read historical quotes from the Motley Fool web site (http://www.fool.com/). Motley Fool does not currently supply information on dividend distributions or splits.

For quote queries in particular, at the time of this writing, the Motley Fool web site utilizes start and end dates, but never returns more than a month worth of data for a particular symbol. The quote_urls() method provides all the URLs necessary given the date range and symbols. These are automatically utilized by the native methods of Finance::QuoteHist::Generic.

Please see Finance::QuoteHist::Generic(3) for more details on usage and available methods. If you just want to get historical quotes and are not interested in the details of how it is done, check out Finance::QuoteHist(3).

METHODS

The basic user interface consists of a single method, as shown in the example above. That method is:

quotes()

Returns a list of rows (or a reference to an array containing those rows, if in scalar context). Each row contains the Date, Open, High, Low, Close, and Volume for that date. Quote values are pre-adjusted for this site.

REQUIRES

Finance::QuoteHist::Generic

DISCLAIMER

The data returned from these modules is in no way guaranteed, nor are the developers responsible in any way for how this data (or lack thereof) is used. The interface is based on URLs and page layouts that might change at any time. Even though these modules are designed to be adaptive under these circumstances, they will at some point probably be unable to retrieve data unless fixed or provided with new parameters. Furthermore, the data from these web sites is usually not even guaranteed by the web sites themselves, and oftentimes is acquired elsewhere.

In the case of The Motley Fool, as of September 13, 2000, their statement reads, in part:

We do our best to get you timely, accurate information,
but we reserve the right to be late, wrong, stupid, or
even foolish. Use this data for your own information,
not for trading. The Fool and its data or content
providers (such as S&P Comstock, BigCharts, AFX, or
Comtex) won't be liable for any delays or errors in the
data, or for any losses you suffer because you relied
upon it.

There you have it. If you feel like you might have concerns with this then first double check the statement on the bottom of this page:

http://quote.fool.com/historical/historicalquotes.asp

In addition, you might want to read their disclaimer:

http://www.fool.com/help/disclaimer.htm

If you still have concerns, then use another site-specific historical quote instance, or none at all.

Above all, play nice.

AUTHOR

Matthew P. Sisk, <sisk@mojotoad.com>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2000 Matthew P. Sisk. All rights reserved. All wrongs revenged. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

Finance::QuoteHist::Generic(3), Finance::QuoteHist(3), perl(1).