Finki API - For getting dividend payout dates and ex-dates

Hi all,

I made a blog post on how Iā€™m using Finki API to pull the dividend payout date and ex-dividend date into my Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Also how Iā€™m using Finviz to pull the dividend payout amount and forward P/E.

Youtube video shows a spreadsheet and portfolio.

Itā€™s really nice being able to pull the data automatically now.

Thanks,
Sean

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Glad youā€™re enjoying it :grinning:

You know you can get PE and prices via my API too? You could ditch finvis and google finance from your spreadsheet entirely! :upside_down_face:

Loads more API functions than I actually list on the site! Must update that site at some point!

Havnā€™t checked Finki out yet, but what language have you done all this in? Curious :slight_smile:

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Backend is mostly powered by VB.NET sprinkled with a little Javascript.
Finki.io runs on PHPā€¦ but really Iā€™m just cURLā€™ing the VB.NET pages

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Hi Mr Finki,

Yes its really good so far, no issues have cropped up yet.

I was not sure if there was a limit to how many API calls can be done so thought I would spread the load across Google Finance/Finviz/Finki .

How come your system uses the ISIN rather than the ticker? Itā€™s not an issue as the URL you gave to convert works perfectly. I just wondered thatā€™s all.

Also when pulling the US dividend pay date - I left the function at ukDividendPayDate and it still returns the correct date - as checked against seeking alpha. This is the case for companies that only trade on the NYSE.

Is this just a sort of bug? I left it as it was because it worked flawlessly. I randomly picked 5 US and 5 UK stocks to double checked all is well against seeking alpha and it was all good.

Thanks,
Sean

None - but Iā€™ve instigated the ā€œkeyā€ so I can monitor usage. ā€œSomeoneā€ remaining unnamed hits me up for about 100k calls a day ā€¦ and itā€™s slowing certain other services down! I donā€™t plan on limiting use right now but never say never. No user (other than the one mentioned) is hitting me with too many calls per day.

Ticker is not unique across exchanges. You can have IHP on London and IHP on NYSE. Therefore youā€™d still need a prefix/suffix to identify. ISIN is 99% unique except in the annoying instances of multi currency ETFs. In those instances SEDOL is the best identifier but thatā€™s got restricted publishication rules due to the LSEs ā€œownershipā€ of this identifier.

Yep. Everyone is annoyed with the ā€œusā€ or ā€œukā€ prefix and Iā€™m gradually moving away from it. There is a generic ā€œdividendLastā€ , ā€œdividendNextā€, ā€œbidā€ and ā€œaskā€ functions that do not require this prefix. The ukDividend function looks for UK and when it doesnā€™t find it it defaults to USā€¦ so you can call ukDividend and get a US result - I put that in place last week as it annoyed a few users who didnā€™t want to ā€œukā€ ā€œusā€ prefixā€¦ I know itā€™s weirdā€¦but it kinda works for now until I kill the prefix off entirely.

Currently overhauling the entire dividend process behind the scenes as some ā€œheavyā€ users require the API to query multiple ISINs and Exchanges at once. ie. Give me all dividends going Ex today on the LSE. Give me all dividends paying next week. Give me the entire history of dividend payments for Vodafone etcā€¦ This is a bit of a beast but itā€™s looking and working well. Hopefully Iā€™ll bang it out for demo soon. Those with ā€œkeysā€ get notified for testing first.

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Thank you very much for your informative response. I only have around 30 positions so I may just switch over to your API completely then.

Yeah that makes sense with regards to the tickers.

Thanks for the extra info!

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@Seanyc5 Hi Sean - Iā€™ve been trying to sign up to your mail list for a copy of your google sheet but I get a Cloudflare error when I submit my email addy?

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@solfer Thanks for letting me know!

I just tested it and its back up now. Must of went down for a minute or two, may have been an update running the in the background or something.

Let me know if you cant get through still. You can DM me on Instagram @usefulrandom_investing

Thanks,
Sean

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@Seanyc5 Thanks for getting back - Iā€™ve tried again, still get the same error. Have been getting it all morning tbh.

Sorry for pinging you back here, Iā€™m not on insta :blush:

Cheers,
Solfer

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Wondered why I had a flurry of FinKi API sign ups all specifically referencing dividend dataā€¦

FinKi.io if any one else is interested. Super cool dividend api (pro and free versions) thatā€™s pretty much ā€˜liveā€™ (kinda, minus some lag for validation)

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@Finki Oh wow, loving the new site!

Will have a look through to see if Iā€™m missing out on any goodies!

Just seen your location as well. I would of put money on you being in Aberdeen as well haha

Edinburgh

Wannabe-Scottish but born down South

ā€˜Sassenachā€™ as my Father In Law loves to call me

Youā€™re not missing much on the free API. There are hundreds of functions in the background but I just donā€™t advertise them as Dividends are peoples key thing.

ETF Search, ISA Eligibility determination, Key Information as-a-serviceā€¦etcā€¦etcā€¦ all built outā€¦ but for Retail Investors : Dividends ā€¦ via the Free API

(but the pro version runs 10x faster!!!)

:grinning: