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Identifiers

identifier is the first argument to HOODLEFINANCE. It tells the function what instrument or pair you want to resolve before retrieving an attribute such as price, name, symbol, or exchange.

The same security can often be described in more than one way. This page explains the supported forms, when each one is a good fit, and how direct ISIN input behaves in practice.

Supported Identifier Forms

  • Bare ticker, such as GOOG: Best for common U.S. symbols or other identifiers that are unambiguous on their own. For non-U.S. listings, prefer an exchange-qualified, Yahoo-style, or ISIN identifier.
  • GoogleFinance-style ticker, such as LON:SJPA or FRA:ZPRX: Use this when you want to specify the listing venue explicitly with an exchange prefix.
  • Yahoo-style symbol, such as SJPA.L or ZPRX.DE: Use this when you want to specify the listing venue explicitly with an exchange suffix.
  • Direct ISIN, such as IE00B4L5YX21: Use this when you want to start from the security itself rather than a specific exchange ticker. HoodleFinance resolves the ISIN to one supported listing before retrieving the requested value.
  • Currency pair, such as EURUSD or CURRENCY:BTC.USDT: Use this for spot FX or crypto-style pair lookups.

Examples:

=HOODLEFINANCE("GOOG", "price")
=HOODLEFINANCE("LON:SJPA", "price")
=HOODLEFINANCE("SJPA.L", "price")
=HOODLEFINANCE("IE00B4L5YX21", "name")
=HOODLEFINANCE("EURUSD", "price")

Choosing An Identifier Style

In general:

  • the more specific the identifier, the less guesswork is required
  • non-U.S. listings are usually better expressed with a GoogleFinance-style, Yahoo-style, or ISIN input than with a bare ticker
  • ISIN is useful when one security appears under multiple tickers across exchanges, even though the final quote still has to come from one supported listing
  • if you want to verify what an identifier resolved to, query the identifier with attributes such as name, symbol, or exchange

GoogleFinance-Style And Yahoo-Style Tickers

GoogleFinance-style and Yahoo-style identifiers are often two ways to refer to the same listing.

  • LON:SJPA identifies the listing with an exchange prefix
  • SJPA.L identifies that same listing with an exchange suffix

Use the style that best matches your data:

  • prefer GoogleFinance-style symbols when you want an exchange prefix
  • prefer Yahoo-style symbols when your source data already uses exchange suffixes such as .L, .DE, .TA, or .PS

Examples:

=HOODLEFINANCE("LON:SJPA", "name") // San Juan Basin Royalty Trust
=HOODLEFINANCE("SJPA.L", "name") // San Juan Basin Royalty Trust

Direct ISIN Input

If the identifier itself is an ISIN, HOODLEFINANCE resolves it automatically before retrieving the requested attribute:

=HOODLEFINANCE("IE00B4L5YX21", "name")         // iShares Core MSCI Japan IMI UCITS ETF USD (Acc)
=HOODLEFINANCE("ISIN:IE00B4L5YX21", "price") // price

This is helpful when the same security may trade under different tickers on different exchanges, but still shares one underlying ISIN.

In HoodleFinance, direct ISIN input does not return every matching listing. Instead, the function resolves the ISIN to one supported listing and continues the lookup from there.

For the isin attribute itself, explicit ISIN source overrides, and exchange-specific ISIN behavior, see Supported Attributes.