TendiesTown.com – WallStreetBets gain and loss analysis

For a 16 month period, from February 2020 to June 2021, TendiesTown.com used the Reddit API in an automated process to retrieve r/wallstreetbets posts tagged with “Gain” or “Loss” flair. The subReddit r/wallstreetbets is a stock and option trading discussion board that gained popularity during the 2020/2021 “meme stock” media frenzy.

The retrieved posts were automatically categorized by gain or loss, post date, Reddit username, trade verification image url, and post url.

These posts were then manually processed to identify the gain or loss amount and reported stock ticker(s).

As of June 9, 2021, there were 4,582 trades with 2,585 gains and 1,997 losses recorded. Gain amounts totalled USD $389 million and losses USD $117 million.

While 6,844 posts were retrieved from the subreddit, 2,262 (33%) of these were rejected because they were either duplicate posts, not actual gain or loss trades (per r/wallstreetbets flair guidelines) or it was not possible to identify the amount.

The trades and more detailed analysis are available on the tendiestown.com website. As of June 9, 2021, the manual processing is no longer being done, so no new data will appear on the site.

“Gain” and “Loss” flair are described in more detail in the community flair guidelines but essentially “Gain” = trade made money and “Loss”= trade lost money.

Table 1: Summary statistics

Gains Losses
Count 2,585 1,997
Sum $389,329,571 $117,347,985
Avg $150,611 $58,762
Median $24,138 $12,120
Min $138 $100
Max $8,000,000 $14,776,725

The 4,582 trades were made by 3,903 unique Reddit users. 492 of these Reddit users have more than one trade as shown in table 2 below.

Table 2: Trade counts by unique Reddit users

# trades count of Reddit users
1 3,411
2 378
3 73
4 22
5 11
6 5
7 1
8

2

 

Charts 1 & 2: Daily and cumulative counts

Bar charts daily count of gain and loss

Bar charts cumulative count of gain and loss

Charts 3 & 4: Daily and cumulative amounts

Bar charts daily amount of gain and loss

Bar charts cumulative amount of gain and loss

Notable observations

Early 2021 increase in trades

The count and amount of trades rose significantly in the early months of 2021.  This can be explained by the surge of new users to the r/wallstreetbets subreddit due to huge increase in popular media reporting surrounding the GME, AMC meme stock craze.

Gains greater than losses

Gains consistently lead losses over the 16 month period.  Rather than simply concluding that r/wallstreetbets traders gain more than they lose, it suspected that the variance can be explained due to fact that it is easier to tell the world that you won, and harder to say you have lost.

@SirPatStew #ASonnetADay dashboard

Sir Patrick Stewart @SirPatStew was doing Shakespeare Sonnet readings from his home during the COVID-19 lockdown and they were really good.

I wanted to track the sonnet reading tweets’ like and retweet counts over time and show this to other @SirPatStew fans. I also thought it would be very helpful to provide an automatically updated list of links to the sonnet tweets.

So I created a daily automated job that retrieved Sir Patrick’s Twitter data, saved it in the cloud. I also created a web page that included a visualization showing the #ASonnetADay hashtag tweets like and retweet counts (screenshot below) along with a table listing the tweets in chronological order  with like and retweet counts and as well as a link to the tweet.

@SirPatStew finished has long finished posting new #ASonnetADay tweets and his tweets continue to get visitors and like and retweet counts continue increasing.  The automated daily job is still ongoing and the visualization continues to be updated.

View visualization: https://sitrucp.github.io/sir_pat_sonnet_a_day_tweets/

Code hosted on Github: https://github.com/sitrucp/sir_pat_sonnet_a_day_tweets

Data was retrieved from Twitter using the Twitter API and Tweepy and the visualization was created using Plotly.js dot plot and is hosted on Github.io

The Tweet data was used to create the following:

    • A categorical dot plot of each sonnet’s tweet like and retweet counts.
    • A tabular list of #ASonnetADay tweets with links to tweet to allow others to easily find and watch them.

 

Twitter Followers and List Membership Tracking

I have created my own historical reporting of my Twitter account followers and list memberships. I have hosted the reporting on this open webpage.

Most people know what followers are but the list memberships aren’t as well known so here are definitions of them.

Twitter Followers – Twitter followers are other Twitter accounts who follow my account. A Twitter Follower may follow my account for a few days and then unfollow me at any time afterwards.

Twitter List Memberships – Twitter accounts can also create their own Lists and then add other Twitter accounts to the lists. For example a Twitter account may create a List called “Tweet about Big Data” to track Twitter accounts they believe “Tweet about Big Data”. Twitter accounts may add my account to their List and remove it at any time afterwards.

The Twitter data retrieval, writing to database, and data querying are all done on a web server.

In order to record changes in counts of these you need to have daily historical data. The Twitter API doesn’t provide historical data so you need create it yourself by retrieving and saving daily data somewhere.

Three Python scripts using Twitter API, Python Tweepy and AWS SDK are scheduled to run daily using cron jobs.

Two scripts retrieve followers and list memberships and insert the data into a PostgreSQL database. This daily retrieval builds the daily history.

Another script queries the database table to create reporting datasets of new, active and dropped followers and list memberships that are exported as csv files to a AWS S3 folder which also has files for a AWS S3 hosted static website.

The AWS S3 hosted static website uses Chart.js and D3.js Javascript charting libraries to read and visualize the data. This post does not describe how to read the csv files but I have written another post that describes this AWS S3 csv file as D3 report data source

Screenshots of visualizations are shown below.

Daily Follower Counts

Weekly New and Dropped Follow Counts

Follower Duration Days

The Python code to retrieve the Twitter data, transform it and create csv files and upload them to AWS is below.

The code to retrieve Twitter followers:

import sys, os
import csv
from datetime import datetime, date
import tweepy
from dateutil import tz
import psycopg2

## get secrets
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/secrets/')
from secrets import secrets
from twitter_keys_tokens import twitter_api_keys

conn = psycopg2.connect(
    host = secrets['host'],
    dbname = secrets['dbname'],
    user = secrets['user'],
    password = secrets['password']
    )
cursor = conn.cursor()

## twitter consumer key and secret
consumer_key = twitter_api_keys['consumer_key']
consumer_secret = twitter_api_keys['consumer_secret']

#get twitter auth
auth = tweepy.AppAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
api = tweepy.API(auth, wait_on_rate_limit=True, wait_on_rate_limit_notify=True)

today = datetime.now().date()

def get_followers():

    twitter_followers = []
    
    for user in tweepy.Cursor(api.followers, screen_name="twitterusername").items():
        twitter_followers.append(user)
        
    for user in twitter_followers:
        query = "INSERT INTO twitter_followers \
                (date, \
                follower_id, \
                name, \
                screen_name) \
                VALUES \
                (%s, %s, %s, %s)";
        data = (today,
                str(user.id).strip(),
                str(user.name.encode('utf8','ignore')).replace(',','').strip(),
                str(user.screen_name.encode('utf8','ignore')).strip()
                )
        cursor.execute(query, data)
        conn.commit()

    conn.close()
    
    ## print job status to log
    print str(datetime.now()) + ' twitter followers'    
            
if __name__ == '__main__':
	get_followers()

The code to retrieve Twitter list memberships:

import sys, os
import csv
from datetime import datetime, date
import tweepy
from dateutil import tz
import psycopg2

## get database creds
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/secrets/') 
from secrets import secrets
from twitter_keys_tokens import twitter_api_keys

conn = psycopg2.connect(
    host = secrets['host'],
    dbname = secrets['dbname'],
    user = secrets['user'],
    password = secrets['password']
    )
cursor = conn.cursor()

## twitter consumer key and secret
consumer_key = twitter_api_keys['consumer_key']
consumer_secret = twitter_api_keys['consumer_secret']

#get twitter auth
auth = tweepy.AppAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
api = tweepy.API(auth, wait_on_rate_limit=True, wait_on_rate_limit_notify=True)

today = datetime.now().date()

def get_list_memberships():

    twitter_list_memberships = []
    
    for list in tweepy.Cursor(api.lists_memberships, screen_name="twitterusername").items():
        twitter_list_memberships.append(list)
        #print list.full_name
        
    for list in twitter_list_memberships:

        query = "INSERT INTO twitter_list_memberships \
                (date, \
                id_str, \
                name, \
                full_name, \
                member_count, \
                subscriber_count, \
                mode, \
                following, \
                user_screen_name) \
                VALUES \
                (%s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s)";
        data = (today,
                list.id_str.encode('utf8','ignore'),
                list.name.encode('utf8','ignore'),
                list.full_name.encode('utf8','ignore'),
                list.member_count,
                list.subscriber_count,
                list.mode,
                list.following,
                list.user.screen_name.encode('utf8','ignore'))
        cursor.execute(query, data)
        conn.commit()
        
    conn.close()
    
    ## print status for log
    print str(datetime.now()) + ' twitter list memberships'    
            
if __name__ == '__main__':
	get_list_memberships()

The code to create csv files and upload to AWS S3 bucket:

from boto.s3.connection import S3Connection
from boto.s3.key import Key
from datetime import datetime
from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join
import sys
import csv
import psycopg2
import re
from collections import Counter

upload_path = '/home/twitter/aws_s3_site/'

sys.path.insert(0, '/home/secret/')
from aws_keys import aws_keys
from secrets import secrets

## create aws S3 connection
conn = S3Connection(aws_keys['AWS_KEY'], aws_keys['AWS_SECRET'])
bucket = conn.get_bucket('twitter-bucket', validate=False)

## create db connection
conn = psycopg2.connect(
    host = secrets['host'],
    dbname = secrets['dbname'],
    user = secrets['user'],
    password = secrets['password']
    )
cur = conn.cursor()

## get data sets from db

## followers
cur.execute ("select something here;")
followers = list(cur.fetchall())

## lists
cur.execute ("select something here;")
lists = list(cur.fetchall())

conn.close()

## write db data to csv files, save in upload folder

## followers
with open(upload_path + 'followers.csv', 'wb') as file:
    writer = csv.writer(file, delimiter = ',', lineterminator='\n')
    for row in followers:
        writer.writerow(row)

## lists
with open(upload_path + 'lists.csv', 'wb') as file:
    writer = csv.writer(file, delimiter = ',', lineterminator='\n')
    for row in lists:
        writer.writerow(row)
            	
## upload csv files to S3 twitter-bucket
    
upload_files = [f for f in listdir(upload_path) if isfile(join(upload_path, f))]

# delete existing bucket keys to reset
for key in bucket.list():
    if '.csv' in key:
        bucket.delete_key(key)
  
# complete uploading to AWS
for file in upload_files:
    k = Key(bucket)
    k.key = file
    k.set_contents_from_filename(upload_path + file)
    
## write success to cron log
print str(datetime.now()) + ' aws s3 twitter upload'

How to use Google Adsense API to download Adsense data

Google’s APIs make getting Adsense (or any other Google service) data easy to download. The code below downloads Adsense data saving results to csv file.

The code uses Google’s AdSense Management API, OAuth 2.0 authorization and the google-api-python-client SDK.

Overview

When you run this code for the first time it will open a web browser to get approval for the API application to access your Adsense account data.

When this approval is granted the code saves a refresh token that is used for all future executions of the code instead of requiring the web browser approval. This is handy if you want to run this code using a cron job like I do.

Here is the code

In summary, the code does the following:

  • Authenticates against API application
  • Queries the scope to get list of accounts
  • Loops through accounts
  • Returns requested metrics and dimensions from Adsense account
  • Writes results to csv file
 
import csv
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from apiclient import sample_tools
from apiclient.discovery import build
from oauth2client import client

todaydate = datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d')

def main():    
    ## Authenticate and construct service
    scope = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adsense.readonly']
    client_secrets_file = 'client_secrets.json' 
    
    ## Authenticate and construct service
    service, flags = sample_tools.init('', 'adsense', 'v1.4', __doc__, client_secrets_file, parents=[], scope=scope)
    
    ## Get accounts
    accounts = service.accounts().list().execute()
     
    try:
        ## Get account(s) data
        results = service.accounts().reports().generate(
            accountId='pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
            startDate='2012-01-01', # choose your own start date
            endDate= todaydate,
            metric=['EARNINGS', 'CLICKS','AD_REQUESTS'],
            dimension=['DOMAIN_NAME','DATE','AD_FORMAT_NAME']).execute()
    
    except client.AccessTokenRefreshError:
        print ('The credentials have been revoked or expired, please re-run the '
           'application to re-authorize')
           
    ## output results into csv
    header = ['hostname','date','type','earnings','clicks','ad_requests']
    
    with open('output_adsense.csv', 'wb') as file:
        file.write(','.join(header) + '\n')        
        for row in results.get('rows'):
            file.write(','.join(row) + '\n')

    ## print status for log
    print str(datetime.now()) + ' adsense'
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
	main()

Create API Application, get client_secrets.json

As alluded to above you need to create an API application. This is done in the Google Developers Console . If you haven’t already signed up for this you have to do that first.

Create Project

If you haven’t already you will also have to create a Project. Your API application will be inside this Project. In the Developers Console you can create new Project with drop down at top right.

create app - create project

 

Once you have a Project you can go to the Enabled APIs tab to select which Google service API(s) you want to include in the project. For this code’s purposes you can just select Adsense Management API.

Create Application – Select API Type

Use the Create credentials button to create your new application. (You are creating the credentials for your new app.)

When you click the button you get choice of three options (see below).  Important point that raises lots of questions: Adsense cannot use a Service Account to authenticate.  That was what I thought I could use to avoid having to do user authentication since I am running code on my server in cron job.

No problem though because as you will see later, there is a one time only step to have user authorize Adsense account access. From that point on, the authentication is done using a refresh token.

So my code above uses the OAuth client ID. So select that for your application too.

create app - choose auth type

Create Application – Select Application Type

Then you will be asked to choose the application type. For my purposes I do not want web application which will require real redirect URIs. I just want simple plain app. So I chose Other.

create app - choose app type

You will then get client secret and client id which you can copy or get later. You don’t need these as you will get them in the client_secret.json file you download next.

So just change default application name to something unique so you can identify it later.

Create Application – OAuth Consent Screen

This is not something critical but you have to provide an email and application name to show in the browser pop up for authentication.

The idea is to give a user (you) information about who is asking for permission to access your Adsense account (you are).

create app - consent screen

 

Create Application – Download Client Secret JSON File

Then click the download button to download the client_secret.sjon file.  Once the JSON file is downloaded click create.

create app - download secret json

The JSON file downloads with longer name like “client_secret-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.json”. You will have to rename the JSON file so it is spelled “client_secret.json”.

Use Code and client_secret.json File to Authenticate 

Put the python code above into .py file along with the client_secret.json file into a folder.

Local server (desktop/laptop)

Run the .py file using the command line which should do the following:

  • Pop up browser and go to Google login page where and ask you to sign in and allow or allow if you already logged in.
  • The command line will advance and finish.
  • Creates a .dat file in your folder.

The .dat file name will be whatever you named your .py file. This dat file is your refresh token that will be used to authenticate access in future.

Remote Server

Copy your Python, client_secret and .dat (refresh token) files to server and run their by cron jobs.

 

Code Variables

You may want to change the Python code to select different Adsense metrics and dimensions. I am only selecting a handful of the API metrics and dimensions. You can check out  these in more detail AdSense Management API Metrics and Dimensions documentation.

 

Power BI Online – get data from Office 365 Sharepoint file

I want to create a Power BI Online report with a data source from a file on a remote web server that updates automatically so my Power BI report is always up to date.

Power BI Desktop and Online have lots of data connectors to third party ‘Online Services’ eg Salesforce, Mailchimp, Github, etc, as well as file and database connectors. But none of these help to get the file from my remote server directly.

There is no feature to connect to a file on a remote server. I could put my remote file data into MySQL or Postgres database and Power BI could connect to those but my remote server doesn’t allow external connections to hosted databases. So that is not an option for me.

A Power BI Online report can get data from a Sharepoint site file that will update automatically on schedule.

Since I have an Office 365 E3 account which has Sharepoint site I upload my remote file to the Sharepoint site and create a Power BI Online report linked to that Sharepoint file.

I would still have to figure out how to automate uploading my remote server file to my Office 365 E3 account Sharepoint site. But I am pretty sure I can do that with the OneDrive API but more on that in Part 2.

Here is a diagram outlining what I think my solution could be.

powerbidatapath

In the meantime to test using Office 365 Sharepoint file as data source for a Power BI Online report, I created a Power BI report in Desktop with file data source from my Office 365 Sharepoint site and Published it to my Power BI Online account.

After publishing the report to my Power BI Online account, I logged into Power BI Online, opened the newly published report and went to data source options and selected ‘Schedule Refresh’ which produced screen below.

onedriverefresh

I set ‘Keep your data up to date’ to ‘Yes’ and selected ‘Connect Directly’ which gave me error message telling me I had to update credentials.

Not surprisingly the report I published to Power BI Online didn’t ‘remember’ that I had already authorized the Power BI Desktop report to get file from my Office 365 Sharepoint site so I have to do it again in Power BI Online.

So I selected ‘Edit Credentials’ and then selected ‘oAuth’ as type of credentials which popped up Office 365 login screen where I entered my user and password clicked login and was returned back to Power BI online page.

The error message was gone so this must have created oAuth authentication to link the file data source from my Office 365 Sharepoint site into the data source in Power BI Online.

Then I set the automatic refresh to one of the daily 6-hour windows (below i have selected 12 pm to 6 pm) for refresh to run (hourly refresh is a Power BI Pro feature).

The report data source now refreshes from my Sharepoint file on daily automatic schedule so it looks like I am half way to my solution.

I will write another blog post detailing how I will automate moving my data file from my remote server to my Office 365 Sharepoint site. Pretty sure I will be using the OneDrive API https://dev.onedrive.com but there are other options too.

In the meantime talk a look at the previous blog post summarizing the OneDrive and Sharepoint API options.

One challenge I have encountered so far is that the OneDrive Python SDK is made for web apps and I want to setup server app (native client app).  More to come.