5 Lines of Python to Automate Getting the S&P 500
In this quick story, I am going to tell you how to get a consistent list of the stocks listed on the S&P 500 via web scraping.
For any developer interested in trading stocks or algorithmic trading, I would suggest checking out the Alpaca API.
I have been actively trading for the past couple years, and as a developer, I have been interested in the intersection between programming knowledge and the world of finance.
Value in Scraping S&P 500 Stocks
Most of the tutorials relating to grabbing stock data involve the Yahoo or Google Finance APIs.
Both APIs no longer allow access, which makes getting the initial data difficult.
Pulling the list of companies listed in the S&P 500 is important for stock trading analysis because it can be used as a benchmark for comparing other trading strategies.
Since the S&P 500 offers an annualized return of around 10%, the value of a trading strategy (alpha) can be measured in comparison.
Purpose of Using Python to Obtain Stocks in the S&P 500
Today, we will be pulling a regularly updated list of all companies currently listed in the S&P 500.
