Computing Stock Data in Real Time

For active investors, the fast-paced nature of the trading floor requires having tools available to make confident decisions in a timely manner. Wolfram|Alpha offers a collection of money and finance tools ideal for finance professionals and personal finance matters. This data flows into Wolfram|Alpha in real time, providing traders with computation results in charts and graphs. In this post, we’ll look at a variety of ways Wolfram|Alpha can compute and present stock data.

Let’s start with the basics. Simply enter the name of a stock, such as Starbucks or its ticker symbol SBUX, into the computation bar. Wolfram|Alpha retrieves and analyzes both real-time and historical data, and presents the output in category pods. The pods display information such as the stock’s current value at last trade, its value at open and close, and range for that trading period. The “Fundamentals and financials” pod displays information such as the stock’s market share, revenue, number of employees, dividends, and more. Change the “Fundamentals” option on the right side of the pod to see additional information, including ratios, balance sheets, and income and cash flow statements.

Wolfram|Alpha can also produce historical analysis for values such as recent returns, including a price history pod that allows you to adjust the time frame and view the data in a variety of formats such as a basic, a candlestick, or trend chart. The performance pods, for which you can adjust the time period, compare daily and annual returns along with daily and annual volatility. Other pods include a daily correlations matrix, daily returns analysis, projections, and basic company information. Click on the image below to see the full results.

Wolfram|Alpha can compute and compare properties for multiple stocks, too:

Wolfram|Alpha can also tell you a particular company’s stock properties during a specific period of time. For example: “GE 2000 through 2004”:

Wolfram|Alpha can present a company’s data in a candlestick chart:

Want multiple-step computations for specific properties, such as the market cap for car makers Toyota and Ford? No problem. The “market cap” (market capitalization) is the current price of the company’s stock, multiplied by the number of shares issued. This number represents the value of the company as a whole. At the time of this writing, Toyota’s market cap was $121.2 billion and Ford’s was 23 billion. Enter the query “market cap Toyota / Ford”, and Wolfram|Alpha draws the market cap value for each of these companies and then divides Toyota’s market cap value by Ford’s. See the full results in the graphic below:

Here is an example of how Wolfram|Alpha can compute properties from different domains, such as its database of financial data and its employment database. When you query “Starbucks net income / a barista salary”, Wolfram|Alpha first draws Starbucks’s 2009 net income of $246.2 million from the financial database. Next, it computes the median annual salary of a coffee-shop attendant, then divides that $16,890 result into Starbucks’s net profit. See the full results below:

Currency conversions are easy, too—here we ask Wolfram|Alpha to retrieve dividends of Walmart stock and convert the data from U.S. dollars to euros:

We will continue to highlight Wolfram|Alpha’s handy financial tools here on the blog. Until our next post, please browse Wolfram|Alpha’s examples for more, and join other finance and investing enthusiasts who are exchanging inputs and tips on the Wolfram|Alpha Community site.