This is a command line utility that can be used to generate one symbols file containing symbols from several sources:

any number of other symbols files
Nasdaq, NYSE and/or Amex symbols downloaded from www.nasdaq.com - note: some of the downloaded symbols will be transformed to make them compatible with the Yahoo symbol format.

For example, one may have different lists of symbols, each for a different portfolio. These lists can be stored in different files, and a larger list containing all of the symbols can be generated by this tool and fed to YLoader for data downloading.

Also, symbols on the three exchanges are constantly modified, added and removed, and this tool can be used to make sure the lists for these exchanges are always up to date.

The whole process of downloading the symbols for the exchanges, combining various symbols lists into one, and downloading the market data can be automated by invoking both these tools with the right parameters from the command line or from a batch file (a sample is provided in the installation directory).

Inspect the session.bat file for an illustration of a completely automated symbol and data downloading session.

Here are the transformation rules currently used for the downloaded symbols:

/ becomes -
^ becomes -P
: becomes -P

Even using these transformation rules, some of the downloaded symbols will still have no Yahoo equivalent. Please let us know if you any other such rules that will increase the number of symbols that are recognized by Yahoo! Finance and we'll incorporate them to the product.

Command line parameters

To run the utility, enter a line with the following format in a command line window or batch file:

symbols.exe -o output_file -n -q -a -d input_file_1 input_file_2 input_file_n

-? - displays a message showing various command line options

-o "output_file" - the resulting file that will contain all the symbols gathered from the various other sources

-n - optional, if present will download NYSE symbols

-q - optional, if present will download Nasdaq symbols,

-a - optional, if present will download AMEX symbols

-d - optional, if not present (default behavior) will remove duplicate symbols

-t - optonal, if not present (default behavior), symbols downloaded from Nasdaq.com will be transformed, if present, symbols will not be transformed.

input_file1, 2...n - the names of any number of file containing lists of symbols to be added to the resulting output file.

Examples:

To download NYSE symbols to the file c:\sym.txt:

symbols.exe -o c:\sym.txt -n

To combine symbols from c:\sym1.txt and c:\sym2.text and save them to c:\sym.txt

symbols.exe -o c:\sym.txt c:\sym1.txt c:\sym2.txt

To combine symbols from c:\sym1.txt, c:\sym2.text and downloaded symbols for NYSE and Nasdaq

symbols.exe -o c:\sym.txt -n -q c:\sym1.txt c:\sym2.txt