yf-finance
Query Yahoo Finance data from the command line using yf-cli.
Pre-flight Check
Always run this before any yf command.
command -v yf
If the command is not found, install it:
uv tool install yf-cli
Confirm the tool is ready before continuing:
yf --version
Never skip this check — assume nothing about the environment.
Command Catalogue
Real-time Quote
yf quote TICKER
Returns current price, daily change, volume, and market cap.
Historical OHLCV
yf history TICKER [--period PERIOD] [--interval INTERVAL] [--output FORMAT]
| Flag | Default | Common values |
|---|
--period | 1mo | 1d 5d 1mo 3mo 6mo 1y 2y 5y 10y ytd max |
--interval | 1d | 1m 5m 15m 30m 60m 1d 1wk 1mo |
--output | table | json csv |
Company Info
yf info TICKER
Returns business summary, sector, industry, employee count, and key ratios.
Financials
yf financials TICKER [--type TYPE]
--type values: income (default), balance, cashflow. Returns the most recent annual statements.
Corporate Actions
yf dividends TICKER # dividend history
yf splits TICKER # stock split history
yf actions TICKER # combined dividends and splits
Analyst Data
yf analyst TICKER
Returns price targets (low / mean / high), buy/hold/sell recommendation counts, and EPS estimates.
Ownership
yf holders TICKER
Returns major holders, institutional holders, and insider transactions.
Earnings Calendar
yf calendar TICKER
Returns next earnings date, EPS estimate, and revenue estimate.
Options Chain
yf options TICKER [--output FORMAT]
Returns calls and puts for the nearest expiry. Use --output json to process programmatically.
Search
yf search QUERY
Resolves a company name or partial ticker to a symbol. Use this when the user does not know the exact ticker.
Market Screener
yf screen --preset PRESET
Common presets: most_actives, day_gainers, day_losers, undervalued_large_caps,
growth_technology_stocks, aggressive_small_caps.
Market Overview
yf market
Returns sector performance and broad market indices.
News
yf news TICKER
Returns the latest headlines and article links for a ticker.
Output Format Guidance
| Format | Flag | Use when |
|---|
| Table (default) | (none) | Displaying results directly to the user |
| JSON | --output json | Parsing values, computing statistics, chaining commands |
| CSV | --output csv | Exporting data for spreadsheet use |
Add --no-color in environments that do not support ANSI escape codes.
Decision Guide
| User intent | Command |
|---|
| "What is the current price of X?" | yf quote TICKER |
| "Show me X's stock history / chart data" | yf history TICKER |
| "Tell me about company X" | yf info TICKER |
| "Show X's income statement / balance sheet" | yf financials TICKER --type income|balance|cashflow |
| "When does X report earnings?" | yf calendar TICKER |
| "What do analysts think of X?" | yf analyst TICKER |
| "Who owns X?" | yf holders TICKER |
| "Show X's options" | yf options TICKER |
| "What are today's top movers?" | yf screen --preset most_actives|day_gainers|day_losers |
| "How is the market doing?" | yf market |
| "Latest news on X" | yf news TICKER |
| Unknown ticker or company name | yf search "company name" |
Edge Cases
- Unknown ticker — if
yf quote returns no data, run yf search QUERY first to resolve the correct symbol.
- Delisted or OTC tickers — some symbols are unavailable on Yahoo Finance; inform the user and suggest an alternative ticker if known.
- Rate limiting — if Yahoo Finance returns an error or empty response, wait a few seconds and retry once before reporting failure.
- Empty options chain — not all tickers have listed options; handle gracefully and inform the user.
- Market closed —
yf quote still returns the last closing price; note this to the user when markets are closed.
Reference Files
