Integrating Google Finance Data with QlikView

QlikView is a powerful data visualization and business intelligence platform that allows users to analyze and explore data from various sources. Integrating financial data is a common use case, and Google Finance offers a readily available source of stock market information and other financial metrics. However, a direct connection between QlikView and Google Finance is not natively supported.

To bring Google Finance data into QlikView, you typically need to utilize an intermediary method. One common approach involves:

1. Data Extraction: This involves obtaining the data from Google Finance. Unfortunately, Google deprecated its official Google Finance API. Therefore, methods typically involve scraping the data from the Google Finance website or using third-party APIs that aggregate and provide financial data. Web scraping requires careful consideration as the website structure can change, breaking your extraction process. Third-party APIs usually require a subscription, but offer a more stable and reliable source.
2. Data Transformation: Once the data is extracted, it usually needs to be transformed into a format that QlikView can readily understand. This might involve cleaning the data, converting data types (e.g., text to numeric), and structuring the data into a tabular format suitable for loading into QlikView. This step often involves scripting, using languages such as Python or PowerShell.
3. Data Loading: The transformed data is then loaded into QlikView. QlikView offers several ways to load data, including loading from text files, Excel spreadsheets, databases, and more. The specific method will depend on the format of the transformed data.

Example using a Third-Party API and CSV:

Imagine using a third-party API to retrieve historical stock prices for a specific ticker symbol (e.g., GOOG). The API returns the data in JSON format. A script (e.g., Python) would parse the JSON response, extract the relevant data (date, open, high, low, close, volume), and write it to a CSV file. This CSV file can then be loaded into QlikView using the “Load Data from File” option.

QlikView Script Example (loading from CSV):

LOAD Date, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume FROM 'C:DataGoogleFinance_GOOG.csv' (txt, codepage is 1252, embedded labels, delimiter is ',', msdq);

Once the data is loaded into QlikView, you can then create various visualizations, such as line charts showing the stock price over time, or bar charts comparing the volume of trading on different days. You can also combine this data with other data sources within QlikView to perform more comprehensive financial analysis.

Considerations:

• Data Freshness: Google Finance data is typically updated in real-time or near real-time. You will need to schedule your data extraction and loading process to ensure that your QlikView dashboards are kept up-to-date. QlikView offers scheduling capabilities for data reloads.
• Data Accuracy: While Google Finance is generally considered a reliable source, it’s always important to verify the accuracy of the data, especially when making critical financial decisions.
• API Usage and Rate Limiting: If using a third-party API, be aware of usage limits and potential rate limiting. Respect the terms of service of the API provider.

By integrating Google Finance data (or data from similar sources) with QlikView, users can gain valuable insights into market trends, track investment performance, and make more informed financial decisions.