How to automatically retrieve, save and update FDC data to a remote location (e.g. a server).

1.  Retrieval

When you log onto FDC, FDC will activate the data in the default directory.  Unless otherwise specified, that default directory will be the Data subfolder within the FDC folder.  It is certainly possible to have FDC automatically activate other data folders.  In fact, you may be connected to a network and store you data on the server.  So how do you automatically activate the data on the server?

Go to the Options menu and Choose Starting Data Directories

You will then be presented with:

Click on

And you will be presented with a browser to enable you to pick the directory you wish to add:

Choose the directory and click .  The browser will go away and your directory will be added to the activation list, until you remove it.

Note that the first directory activated will be the FDC Data subdirectory on your PC, followed by the remote directories.  If you have a dataset in the remote directory with the same name as a dataset in the local PC, the remote dataset will overwrite the local one.  So be careful.

2.  Saving Datasets to a Remote Location

Any time you wish to save a dataset, you an always

and then manually pick the location, either on your PC, or on a server.  You can also save a dataset to any location via the command line.  The syntax is:

‘path’ gets [dataset]

Note that the quotes are important, and the path must be specific, including the name of the stored file.  For example:

The above command sends the dataset (yen1 merge (yen col 4)) to a location in the S drive (specifically the archive of data subfolder of the data subfolder of the fdc files folder) and gives it the name yentest. 

Now there’s an easier way to find the path:

Just go back to the Options menu and Choose Starting Data Directories, and select the remote directory you have previously saved, and click on .  Then close out of .

Go back to the Command set, pick a line and paste in the directory path you just copied.

The following will appear in your command line:

S:\fdc files\data\archive of data

Remember to complete the path, adding quotes, and the remaining part of the command.  In this example, that becomes:

'S:\fdc files\data\archive of data\yentest' gets (yen1 merge (yen col 4))

3.  Automatic Updating to a Remote Location

Okay, that’s great for one dataset, but what if you have hundreds of datasets that you need to update and save to a remote location?  Do it in a loop from a list.  Here goes:

For clarity we assume that you are downloading data from Yahoo! Finance.  If you consult with “Yahoo price updating routines” you will see the construction of a loop for updating ETF prices from that source.  Then, all you have to do is provide the path.  Your command set would then appear:

This command set creates a loop in which, for each item in the list etf_s, FDC retrieves the current day’s prices from Yahoo! Finance, and updates those datasets.  Then FDC saves them in the named folder and subfolder on the server (the S drive). 

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'S:\fdc files\data\archive of data\yentest' gets (yen1 merge (yen col 4))

reset

:for #1 :in etf_s

'S:\fdc files\data\etf_s\#1' (('yahoo' getdata '#1' (today back 0) today) cols 1 2 3 4) mergein #1

:endfor