=============
What is ecal?
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``ecal`` (pronounced ee-cal) is a package for getting a US equity earnings announcement calendar.
For more documentation, please see http://ecal.readthedocs.io.
Installation
------------
``ecal`` can be easily installed with pip::
$ pip install ecal
Usage
-----
``ecal`` is really simple to use. Below you'll find the basics.
Getting the earnings announcements for a single date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To get the earnings announcements for a single date simply import ``ecal`` and call ``get()``:
.. code-block:: python
import ecal
cal_df = ecal.get('2017-03-30')
The results will be an earnings calendar in a pandas DataFrame:
.. code-block:: none
ticker when
date
2017-03-30 AEHR amc
2017-03-30 ANGO bmo
2017-03-30 BSET --
2017-03-30 FC amc
2017-03-30 LNN bmo
2017-03-30 SAIC bmo
2017-03-30 TITN bmo
The returned DataFrame has the following columns:
*ticker*
is the ticker symbol on NYSE or NASDAQ.
*when*
can be ``bmo`` which means *before market open*, ``amc`` which means *after market close* or
``--`` which means *no time reported*.
If there were no announcements for this day, an empty DataFrame will be returned.
Getting the earnings announcements for a date range
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is equally easy to get the earnings announcements for a date range:
.. code-block:: python
import ecal
cal_df = ecal.get('2018-01-01', '2018-01-05')
Once again the results will be an earnings calendar in a pandas DataFrame:
.. code-block:: none
ticker when
date
2018-01-04 CMC bmo
2018-01-04 LNDC amc
2018-01-04 NEOG bmo
2018-01-04 RAD amc
2018-01-04 RECN amc
2018-01-04 UNF bmo
2018-01-05 AEHR amc
2018-01-05 ANGO bmo
2018-01-05 FC amc
2018-01-05 LW bmo
2018-01-05 PKE bmo
2018-01-05 PSMT amc
2018-01-05 RPM bmo
2018-01-05 SONC amc
2018-01-05 WBA bmo
Days with no earnings announcements will have no rows in the DataFrame. In the example above, there were no announcements on Jan first, second and third.
It should be noted that ``ecal`` fetches earnings announcements from ``api.earningscalendar.net`` by default. This source limits us to 1 call per second. However you don't have to worry about this because the ``ecal.ECNFetcher`` throttles calls to the API to prevent rate limiting. That said, please note that this fetcher gets announcements one day at a time which means if you want 30 days, it's going to take 30 seconds to get that data. Yikes. Fear not... that's why ``ecal`` comes with caching.
Caching
~~~~~~~
``ecal`` supports caching so that repeated calls to ``ecal.get()`` don't actually make calls to the server. Runtime caching is enabled by default which means calls during your program's execution will be cached. However, the ``ecal.RuntimeCache`` is only temporary and the next time your program runs it will call the API again.
Persistent on disk caching is provided via ``ecal.SqliteCache`` and can be easily enabled by setting ``ecal.default_cache`` once before calls to ``ecal.get()``:
.. code-block:: python
import ecal
ecal.default_cache = ecal.SqliteCache('ecal.db')
cal_df = ecal.get('2017-03-30')
Extension
~~~~~~~~~
``ecal`` is very easy to extend in case you want to support another caching system or even create an earnings announcement fetcher. For more documentation, please see http://ecal.readthedocs.io.