finance

Market Tracker Skill

This skill helps you fetch latest quotes and historical series for:

• Stocks / ETFs / Indices (e.g., AAPL, MSFT, ^GSPC, VOO)
• FX pairs (e.g., USD/ZAR, EURUSD, GBP-JPY)
• Crypto tickers supported by the chosen provider (best-effort)

It is optimized for:

• fast “what’s the price now?” queries
• lightweight tracking with a local watchlist
• caching to avoid rate-limits

When to use

Use this skill when the user asks:

• “What’s the latest price of ___?”
• “Track ___ and ___ and show me daily changes.”
• “Give me a 30-day series for ___.”
• “Convert USD to ZAR (or track USD/ZAR).”
• “Maintain a watchlist and summarize performance.”

Provider strategy (important)

• Stocks/ETFs/indices default: Yahoo Finance via yfinance (no key, broad coverage), but it is unofficial and can rate-limit.
• FX default: ExchangeRate-API Open Access endpoint (no key, daily update).
• If the user needs high-frequency or many symbols, recommend adding a paid provider later.

See providers.md for details and symbol formats.

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Quick start (how you run it)

These scripts are intended to be run from a terminal. The agent should:

1. ensure dependencies installed
2. run the scripts
3. summarize results cleanly

Install:

• python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate (or Windows equivalent)
• pip install -r requirements.txt

Commands

1) Latest quote (stock/ETF/index)

Examples:

• python scripts/market_quote.py AAPL
• python scripts/market_quote.py ^GSPC
• python scripts/market_quote.py VOO

2) Latest FX rate

Examples:

• python scripts/market_quote.py USD/ZAR
• python scripts/market_quote.py EURUSD
• python scripts/market_quote.py GBP-JPY

3) Historical series (CSV to stdout)

Examples:

• python scripts/market_series.py AAPL --days 30
• python scripts/market_series.py USD/ZAR --days 30

4) Watchlist summary (local file)

• Add tickers: python scripts/market_watchlist.py add AAPL MSFT USD/ZAR
• Remove: python scripts/market_watchlist.py remove MSFT
• Show summary: python scripts/market_watchlist.py summary

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Output expectations (what you should return to the user)

• For quotes: price, change %, timestamp/source, and any caveats (like “FX updates daily”).
• For series: confirm date range, number of points, and show a small preview (first/last few rows).
• If rate-limited: explain what happened and retry with backoff OR advise to reduce frequency.

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Safety / correctness

• Never claim “real-time” unless the provider is truly real-time. FX open access updates daily.
• Always cache responses and throttle repeated calls.
• If Yahoo blocks requests, propose a paid provider or increase cache TTL.