Why do I get 403 message when trying to download stock historical data from yahoo from 3/5/21? Before works

Hi,

I always use [temp, status] = urlread(url) to get data from yahoo.

For example here is what I used.

t1 = strcat('https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v7/finance/chart/AAPL?range=3y&interval=1d&indicators=quote&includeTimestamps=true');

[temp, status] = urlread(t1)

Last Friday I tried to use this same, but all return w/ 0.

I tried to use webread as Matlab recommended, but got the following error message, can you help here? Thanks,

t1 = strcat('https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v7/finance/chart/AAPL?range=3y&interval=1d&indicators=quote&includeTimestamps=true');

data = webread(t1)

Error message:

Error using readContentFromWebService (line 46)

The server returned the status 403 with message "Forbidden" in response to the request to URL

https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v7/finance/chart/AAPL?range=3y&interval=1d&indicators=quote&includeTimestamps=true.

Error in webread (line 125)

[varargout{1:nargout}] = readContentFromWebService(connection, options);

How should I use?

[Michael]

Intereting ... I am getting the same error message from code that used to work fine a couple of months ago. Did something change on Yahoo side?

[Anthony John]

Same for me. Have either of you found a solution? Yahoo's URL appears unchanged.

Answer 1

[Ralph N]

Two things changed: (1) they updated the URL (2) they limit particular user agents (Matlab is explicitly rejected)

The URL as of 6/16/2021 is:

symbolString = 'TGT'; % look up Target prices as an example

urlBase = 'https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v7/finance/download/'; % base as of 6/16/2021

url = [urlBase,symbolString];

Then we explicitly set the user agent:

options = weboptions('UserAgent',''); % as of 6/16/2021 it is enough to submit a blank user agent

[James morgenstern]

Ralph N -- I could kiss you! I have struggled with this one for months ... I read that Yahoo changed their interface to prevent, among other things my trying to read some finance info tables. This solved the problem: Many thanks.