I think I remember seeing something about how you guys plan to add some sort of news reader/article scanner but I'm pretty sure that'll be a huge project. Is it possible to add urllib or urllib2 (or selenium, heh) to the available libraries? That way, as a community, we could build our own in the interim?
Edit:
Also, is there anything I could do to help? Anything users can build to act as a roundabout without stressing or making major changes to the back end?
Zach,
I don't think the urllib packages will make it on the approved imports list in the near future for security reasons. The only resource available right now to import external data is the fetcher (see api docs), which allows you to import a csv stored somewhere public, dropbox works well for this. Quandl has a huge amount of datasets that can be imported via the fetcher as well, this post is an example a way import any quandl data set into Quantopian.
As far as helping goes, I can't think of anything specific, just continue to do what you're doing, share code that you have found useful, report any bugs that you come across, and contribute to discussions. Being active in the community is more than enough, opportunities to help out will show up in the threads all the time.
Hi Zachary,
Currently the only way to import non-Quantopian data into your algorithm is to use fetch_csv to fetch a remotely-hosted data file. So if you wanted to build your own version of this feature it would involve something like:
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In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.
