Top Features of BSE Datadownloader and How to Get StartedThe BSE Datadownloader is a tool designed to help traders, researchers, and financial analysts retrieve bulk historical and intraday data from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Whether you’re building backtests, feeding a model, or maintaining a personal dataset, a reliable downloader saves time and reduces manual errors. This article covers the top features of a good BSE Datadownloader, practical use cases, setup and configuration steps, data formats and handling tips, common pitfalls, and a quick start guide with examples.
Why use a dedicated BSE Datadownloader?
- Automates bulk downloads of historical price and volume data for multiple scrips.
- Standardizes data formats so downstream tools (backtesters, machine learning pipelines) can ingest data consistently.
- Supports scheduling and incremental updates to keep datasets current without re-downloading everything.
- Handles rate limits and retries, preventing IP blocking and partial file corruption.
- Offers filtering and aggregation, such as date ranges, intervals (daily, minute), and adjusted/unadjusted prices.
Top features to look for
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Clear data source support
- Official BSE endpoints (when available) or well-maintained scraping/parsing logic for BSE’s public data pages and CSVs.
- Fall-back mechanisms when endpoints change.
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Multiple interval support
- Daily, weekly, monthly, and intraday (minute-level) data.
- Ability to specify custom time ranges for intraday retrieval.
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Ticker mapping and metadata handling
- Resolves BSE security codes (scrip codes) from common tickers and names.
- Fetches and stores metadata like ISIN, company name, sector, and listing date.
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Adjustable/Unadjusted prices
- Provides both adjusted (for dividends and corporate actions) and raw price series.
- Includes corporate action parsing and price adjustment algorithms.
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Efficient bulk download and parallelism
- Parallel worker pools with configurable concurrency to speed up large downloads while respecting server limits.
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Caching and incremental updates
- Stores last download timestamps and fetches only new data.
- Supports local caching to avoid repeated downloads.
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Robust error handling and retries
- Exponential backoff, logging of failed items, and resume functionality.
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Output format flexibility
- Exports to CSV, Parquet, JSON, or directly to databases (SQLite, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse).
- Timezone-aware timestamps and consistent column naming.
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Scheduling and automation
- Cron-like scheduling or integration with task runners (Airflow, Prefect) for automated refreshes.
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Documentation and community support
- Clear README, usage examples, and active issue tracker or forum for updates.
Common use cases
- Backtesting trading strategies across Indian equities.
- Training machine learning models with historical market data.
- Building dashboards for portfolio analytics.
- Academic research and financial data analysis.
- Compliance and archival of market data.
Installation and prerequisites
Typical prerequisites:
- Python 3.8+ (or another supported runtime).
- Required libraries: requests or httpx, pandas, aiohttp or multiprocessing for concurrency, pyarrow for Parquet, SQL drivers for DB export.
- API keys or authentication tokens if using a paid BSE data provider.
- Adequate disk space for storing historical datasets.
Example (Python environment):
python -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install bse-datadownloader pandas pyarrow requests
Configuration essentials
- BSE scrip code mapping file (CSV or API).
- Output directory and file naming convention (e.g., data/{ticker}.parquet).
- Concurrency limits and retry policy (e.g., max_workers=5, retries=3).
- Date range defaults and timezone settings (Asia/Kolkata).
- Adjustment preferences (apply corporate actions: true/false).
A sample config (YAML):
output_dir: ./bse_data format: parquet interval: daily start_date: 2010-01-01 end_date: 2025-08-30 timezone: Asia/Kolkata concurrency: 4 retries: 3 adjust_for_dividends: true
Quick start — example workflows
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Single-ticker daily download
- Provide a ticker (or scrip code) and date range, then save to CSV/Parquet.
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Bulk download for a watchlist
- Supply a list of tickers; downloader runs in parallel and writes each file separately.
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Incremental update for a local database
- Query the DB for the latest date per ticker; fetch only newer rows and append.
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Intraday capture for live monitoring
- Run scheduled intraday jobs to capture minute-level bars during market hours; store in a time-series DB.
Example Python snippet (conceptual):
from bse_datadownloader import Downloader dl = Downloader(output_dir='bse_data', concurrency=4) dl.download_ticker('500325', start='2020-01-01', end='2025-08-29', interval='daily', adjust=True)
Data formats and column conventions
- Typical columns: date/time, open, high, low, close, volume, turnover, adjusted_close, scrip_code, isin.
- Use timezone-aware ISO 8601 timestamps: 2025-08-30T09:15:00+05:30.
- Parquet recommended for large datasets (smaller size, faster reads).
Handling corporate actions and adjustments
- Dividends, splits, bonus issues, and rights issues must be parsed from corporate action feeds.
- Apply backward adjustments to historical prices for consistent return calculations.
- Maintain both adjusted and raw series since some strategies require raw prices.
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
- Broken scrip code mappings — keep mapping updated from official sources.
- Rate limits — throttle requests and use exponential backoff.
- Timezone mistakes — convert all timestamps to Asia/Kolkata for consistency.
- Partial downloads — implement atomic file writes (download to .tmp then move).
- Data gaps — cross-check against alternate sources and fill only when appropriate (do not fabricate prices).
Privacy, licensing, and legal considerations
- Verify BSE’s terms of service for automated scraping or bulk downloads.
- If using a paid data provider, respect their license and attribution requirements.
- Store any API keys securely (environment variables, encrypted vaults).
Troubleshooting checklist
- Check network connectivity and proxy settings.
- Verify scrip codes and date ranges.
- Inspect logs for HTTP status codes (403, 429, 500).
- Re-run failed tickers individually to gather error messages.
- Update the downloader if BSE changes page structure or endpoints.
Example project layout
- config/
- watchlist.csv
- mapping.csv
- data/
- daily/
- intraday/
- scripts/
- download_all.py
- update_db.py
- logs/
- README.md
Final tips
- Start small: test on a few tickers and short date ranges.
- Use Parquet for long-term storage and fast reads.
- Automate incremental updates instead of full re-downloads.
- Keep a changelog for data schema or mapping updates.
If you want, I can:
- Provide a ready-to-run Python script for bulk downloading BSE daily data.
- Generate a sample mapping CSV for common tickers.
- Show how to store downloaded data in PostgreSQL or ClickHouse.
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