Hi. I'm currently working on an application that will run during the day and periodically needs to retrieve the current stock price for various stocks. I just need the stock price at that time. I don't need streaming quotes from that time forward.

I'm using the IQFeed Developer 4.2 and am using the TCP/IP interface. In reading the online documentation, it would seem that the request that forces a summary message would be ideal, for example, fIBM. But, I never seem to get anything back from these type of requests. I have no problems with the watch symbol requests, e.g. wIBM. They seem to work great. Am I missing something basic?

Thanks in advance for your help.

The Force message only functions when you are currently watching a symbol.

It is designed to force IQFeed to give you a complete record (including Fundamental Data) from the server.

Thanks, Steve. Two things though. The force message doesn't seem to work even if I am currently watching a message. I never see anything come back after the force.

Secondly, as a follow-up given your answer, is the best way to get a one-time price quote on a stock to put a watch on the stock, get the latest price quote and then remove the watch?

Thanks again for your help.

I will concur with this, I have yet to see the current force message deliver any data....I gave up on it.

Additionally, I would agree and would VERY much like to have a force message for both Summary and Fundamental data, without having the requirment of setting interest in the symbol. There are multitude of reasons to do this and they will be app-specific but I think anybody writing trading apps for awhile can tell you there are definately circumstances you want the summaries without having to set a stream interest (IE pre-prepping a system before turning on the stream or app may be technical and need no stream or on and on and on)...

I was actually logging in to request this very thing and saw this message.

- Jeff
Edited by JDonovan on Feb 12, 2007 at 11:28 AM

I am not sure why either of you would be having a problem with the force message. I am not able to get it to fail.

The following demonstrates how it should be used.

If you issue a force before watching the symbol, you should get no response
<force GOOG>
<no response>

If you watch the symbol...
<watch GOOG>
<receive Fundamental and Summary messages>
<receive Update Messages>

and then sometime later force the symbol...you should receive a current Fundamental and Summary again and continue to get updates...
<force GOOG>
<receive Fundamental and Summary messages>
<continue to receive Update Messages>

but if you remove the sysmbol...
<remove GOOG>
<update messages stop>

and then force the symbol...you should get no response.
<force GOOG>
<no response>


As for :

IQFeed is not designed to be used in this manner (as a "snapshot" service). The recommended way of getting the information you want would be to simply issue a watch on the symbol and then parse through the data that is returned. If you are only interested in the Fundamental and Summary messages (and not the tick by tick data), then I would recommend that you only parse the Fundamental and Summary messages for the symbols you are watching (and ignore the update messages) and simply send a force request when you need to update your app again (which will send another Summary and Fundamental message). This assumes we can figure out what is causing the problems you are having with the Force command.

Apologies I was in error.....I didn't realize yesterday when I was testing this the issue had to be being watched in order to get the force message. It does indeed work when being watched.

- Jeff

Okay. Thanks, Steve, Jeff. I can live with the watch and remove commands to do what I want to do. I'm probably missing something on the force command, I'll revisit that as well.

I agree with Jeff though. A "snapshot" command for a one-time request of summary information would be very useful. I would think it would help you guys out too in the sense that there would be less overhead and less back and forth messaging for applications like mine.

Anyway, thanks again for your help!

-- Jay