This downloader gets analyst comments from an RSS feed at the streetinsider.com and insert the extracted data into your local database. The 'analyst_comments' database that will be created contains two columns, the date and the title. The title column will contain the analyst comments for a particular stock, and the date column will host the date and time at which the comment was released.
Analysts are people working for brokerage firms; they monitor and analyze thousands of publicly traded companies. They issue comments, options, upgrades, downgrades, earnings estimate... on the companies they are following. Analyst comments can be good, bad or neutral news, it can influence stock prices, and sometimes send price to a very high or low levels.
Here is an example of the latest POT (The ticker symbol of a company whose name is the Potash Corp./Saskatchewan) analyst comments:
24/07/2009 15:12 - Soleil Securities Reiterates a 'Buy' on Potash Corp. (POT), Raises Price Target
22/07/2009 13:36 - TD Cuts Price Target on Potash (POT) to $95; Maintains Neutral
Downloading these comments takes only a few seconds. This process should be done on a daily basis.
