Datafeed Toolbox

Datafeed Toolbox Graphical User Interface

The Datafeed Toolbox provides a graphical user interface (GUI) consisting of two dialog boxes. The Datafeed dialog box consists of two tabbed dialogs, one to establish a data server connection, and the second to retrieve data from the server. The second dialog box, the Securities Lookup dialog box, enables you to find the ticker symbol for a specific security when you know at least part of the name of the security.

For additional information about the Datafeed dialog box, see

• Connecting to a Data Server
• Data Retrieval

For additional information about the Securities Lookup dialog box, see

• Securities Lookup Dialog Box (Bloomberg, FT Interactive Data)

Datafeed Dialog Box

The Datafeed dialog box establishes the connection with the data server and manages the retrieval of data. Enter the command dftool to display the Datafeed dialog box on your screen. The Datafeed dialog box consists of two tabbed dialogs:

• The Connection tab establishes communication with a data server. (See Connecting to a Data Server.)
• The Data tab specifies the data request. (See Data Retrieval.)

Connecting to a Data Server

The Connection tab establishes a connection to one or more data servers. For Yahoo and FT Interactive Data connections, choose the data server from the Data Source choices and click on the Connect button. For a Bloomberg connection, you can specify a specific IP address and port number on the Bloomberg server, or alternatively, just click on the Connect button and accept the default values provided when the Bloomberg software was installed on your machine.

1. (Bloomberg only) Enter the port number on the data server in the Port Number box (or use default).
2. (Bloomberg only) Enter the IP address of the data server in the IP Address box (or use default).
3. Click the Connect button to establish the connection.
4. When the Connected message appears in the Status box, click on the Data tab to begin the process of retrieving data from the data server. (For information on the Data tab, see Data Retrieval.
5. Click the Disconnect button to terminate the session highlighted in the Current Connections box.

Data Retrieval

The Data tab manages the retrieval of data from the data server.

1. Enter security symbol in the Enter Security box.
2. Indicate the type of data you are seeking in the Data Selection panel.
3. Indicate whether you want the default or full set of data in the Fields panel.
4. Click the Get Data button to retrieve data from the data server.

Note    If you do not know the symbol for a security, you can use the Lookup button to find the name of the security. (See Securities Lookup Dialog Box (Bloomberg, FT Interactive Data).)

Retrieving Data

Securities Lookup Dialog Box (Bloomberg, FT Interactive Data)