Send yourself an email if the Federal Reserve interest rate rises above a trigger value

interest_rate_alert.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""
Monitor the Federal Reserve Interest rates and email
an alert if the risk-free rate exceeds a certain percentage
"""
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
import os

# This is a percent value
THRESHOLD = float(os.environ.get('INTEREST_RATE_THRESHOLD'))

def scrape_xml(url):
    response = requests.get(url)
    if response.status_code < 200 or response.status_code >= 400:
        exit(1)

    return response.text

def notify_email(term, rate=0.0):
    MAKER_SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('IFTTT_SECRET_KEY')
    IFTTT_URL = 'https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{event}/with/key/{secret_key}?value1={threshold}&value2={term}&value3={rate}'.format(
        event='fed_funds_rate_alert',
        secret_key=MAKER_SECRET_KEY,
        threshold=str(THRESHOLD),
        term=term,
        rate=str(rate))

    requests.get(IFTTT_URL)

def num_obs(num_observations):
    return '&lastObs=' + str(num_observations)

def main():
    """Look at the 3-month and 1-year Treasury Bill"""

    FEDERAL_RESERVE_URL = 'http://www.federalreserve.gov/datadownload/Output.aspx'
    SERIES = '?rel=H15&series=35c19fa888ceba3f5a29a2b21eff936f'
    OPTIONS = '&from=&to=&filetype=sdmx&label=include&layout=seriescolumn'

    result = scrape_xml(FEDERAL_RESERVE_URL + SERIES + num_obs(1) + OPTIONS)

    soup = BeautifulSoup(result, 'lxml')

    rates = [float(i['obs_value']) for i in soup.findAll('frb:obs')]
    terms = [i['maturity'] for i in soup.findAll('kf:series')]

    TERM_FULLTEXT = {
        'M3' : '3-Month',
        'Y1' : '1-Year',
    }

    for i, rate in enumerate(rates):
        if rate > THRESHOLD:
            notify_email(TERM_FULLTEXT[terms[i]], rate)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()