How to download the historical data from two random picked stocks

Question

I'm trying to randomly select 2 stocks out of the Swiss Market Index, which contains of 30 stocks.

Until now I solved the random pick of the 2 stocks with the following code:

SMI_components <- cbind("ABB (ABBN.VX)", "ADECCO (ADEN.VX)", "ACTELION (ATLN.VX)", "JULIUS BAER GRP (BAER.VX)", "RICHEMONT (CFR.VX)", "CREDIT SUISSE (CSGN.VX)", "GEBERIT (GEBN.VX)", "GIVAUDAN (GIVN.VX)", "HOLCIM (HOLN.VX)", "NESTLE (NESN.VX)", "NOVARTIS (NOVN.VX)", "TRANSOCEAN (RIGN.VX)", "ROCHE HOLDING (ROG.VX)", "SWISSCOM (SCMN.VX)", "SGS (SGSN.VX)", "SWISS RE (SREN.VX)", "SYNGENTA (SYNN.VX)", "UBS (UBSG.VX)", "SWATCH GROUP (UHR.VX)", "ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP (ZURN.VX)")

 for(i in 1:1){
 print(sample(SMI_components, 2))
}

How do I continue my code, if I want to download the historical data from these two random picked stocks?

Answer 1

assign the output of sample into a variable.

my_picks <- sample(SMI_components, 2)

Extract ticker symbol between parens (courtesy the comment below):

my_picks <- sub(".*\\((.*)\\).*", "\\1", my_picks)

Then you can use lapply, to call a function (yahooSeries) for each value in my_picks.

series_list <- lapply(my_picks, yahooSeries, from = "2005-01-01", to = "2015-07-30", frequency = "daily")

Then you'll get the output in a list. series_list[[1]] will have the output of yahooSeries for the first value of my_picks, and series_list[[2]] for the second