Financial data is quantitative information about a company’s financial condition and performance. It supports comparison across companies, analysis over time, and investment research using measures such as revenue, profit margin, and price-to-earnings ratio. section 1.3.1
Financial data supports several analytical views:
- Fundamental data changes at reporting intervals and includes income statements, balance sheets, and cash-flow statements. section 3.1
- Technical data changes continuously during market hours and includes share prices and trading activity used to identify trends. section 3.1
- Quantitative research aggregates these measures across companies and time, supporting factor comparisons and potential machine-learning forecasts. section 1.3.1
Accounting standards and regular audits make reported financial data comparatively standardized, but presentation choices can conceal problems or exaggerate profits. Treat clean numbers as inputs for interpretation, not guarantees of investment insight. section 3.1
From market data to an asset monitor
A Python workflow can collect financial data with yfinance, prepare metrics, convert holdings to one currency, and export the results to Google Sheets. Worksheets can show tickers, shares, position values, yields, gains, losses, and portfolio distribution. section 3.0 section 6.2
Figure 6.3 A reference example of the Google Sheets worksheet with stock information
A worksheet view makes collected financial data tangible by organizing stock reference data, holdings, values, yields, and gains or losses. section 6.2
