OpenBB-finance/OpenBB · error · RuntimeError

The benchmark symbol was not found in the data.

Error message

The benchmark symbol was not found in the data.

What it means

Raised in RelativeRotation after pivoting the data by symbol: the uppercased benchmark argument is not among the resulting columns, so there is no benchmark series to compute relative strength against.

Source

Thrown at openbb_platform/extensions/technical/openbb_technical/relative_rotation.py:295

        ):
            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
                df = basemodel_to_df(convert_to_basemodel(data), index="date")

        if isinstance(data, DataFrame) and not df.empty:
            df = data.copy()
            if "date" in df.columns:
                df.set_index("date", inplace=True)

        if df.empty:
            raise ValueError(
                "Data must be a list of Data objects or a DataFrame with a 'date' column."
            )

        if "symbol" in df.columns:
            df = df.pivot(columns="symbol", values=target_col)

        if benchmark not in df.columns:
            raise RuntimeError("The benchmark symbol was not found in the data.")

        benchmark_data = df.pop(benchmark).to_frame()
        symbols_data = df

        if len(symbols_data) <= 252 and study in ["price", "volume"]:  # type: ignore
            raise ValueError(
                "Supplied data must be daily intervals and have more than one year of back data to calculate"
                " the most recent day in the time series."
            )

        if study == "volatility" and len(symbols_data) <= 504:  # type: ignore
            raise ValueError(
                "Supplied data must be daily intervals and have more than two years of back data to calculate"
                " the most recent day in the time series as a volatility study."
            )
        self.symbols = df.columns.to_list()
        self.benchmark = benchmark
        self.study = study

View on GitHub (pinned to 3e071fcc2c)

Solutions

  1. Include the benchmark ticker in the fetched symbol list before constructing the RRG.
  2. Use the exact ticker symbol the provider returns (e.g. 'SPY', 'BTC/USD').
  3. Drop rows with NaN in the target column before passing so the pivot keeps all symbols.
  4. Verify with set(df['symbol'].unique()) that the benchmark is present.

Example fix

# before
data = obb.equity.price.historical(["AAPL", "MSFT"], provider="...")
rrg = RelativeRotation(data=data, benchmark="SPY")  # SPY not fetched

# after
data = obb.equity.price.historical(["AAPL", "MSFT", "SPY"], provider="...")
rrg = RelativeRotation(data=data, benchmark="SPY")
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

symbols_in_data = set(df["symbol"].str.upper().unique()) if "symbol" in df.columns else set(df.columns)
assert benchmark.upper() in symbols_in_data, f"benchmark {benchmark} missing; have {symbols_in_data}"

Type guard

def benchmark_present(df, benchmark: str) -> bool:
    if "symbol" in df.columns:
        return benchmark.upper() in set(df["symbol"].str.upper().unique())
    return benchmark.upper() in df.columns

Try / catch

try:
    rrg = RelativeRotation(data=data, benchmark=benchmark)
except RuntimeError as e:
    if "benchmark symbol was not found" in str(e):
        raise SystemExit(f"add {benchmark} to the fetched symbols and retry") from e
    raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling RelativeRotation(benchmark='spy') where the data contains no 'SPY' column (benchmark not included in the fetched symbols), or where the pivot dropped it because target_col values were missing for it.

Common situations: Fetching history for a symbol list that omits the benchmark; benchmark ticker not supported by the provider; benchmark name casing handled (auto-uppered) but provider symbols differing (e.g. '^SPX' vs 'SPY'); NaN close values causing the pivot to drop the column.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of OpenBB-finance/OpenBB@3e071fcc2c (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b35ea5b6c6c1c709. Report an issue: GitHub.