How to Monitor Stock Prices in Microsoft Excel

Whether you have a large stock portfolio or own a few shares of stock, monitoring the performance of your investments can be done with Microsoft Excel, a product in the Microsoft Office software suite. After setting up your stock information in Microsoft Excel, you can update your stock prices with the click of a mouse button.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Microsoft Excel
• Internet connection

1. Open a blank Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
2. Click on a cell where you want to show a stock price.
3. Click on “Data” in the top menu bar.
4. Scroll down to “Import External Data,” then over to “New Web Query.”
5. In the window that pops up, type the URL http://finance.yahoo.com in the address.
6. Enter the stock symbol you wish to track. Be sure to double check that you entered the correct stock symbol by checking the company name that shows.
7. Scroll down to “Last trade:” and click on the arrow to the left. The arrow will change to a check mark. The data highlighted will be shown on your spreadsheet.
8. Choose the data you wish to be in your spreadsheet, then click on the “Import” button at the bottom of the window. You may choose to add any data with an arrow next to it into your spreadsheet by clicking on the arrow to the left of the data.
9. Verify the cell where you want the data to appear when prompted. You can click on any cell in the spreadsheet if you wish to change the location. Click on “OK” after choosing the cell.
10. Save the spreadsheet. You can update the stock price(s) any time by clicking on “Data” in the top menu bar. Then scroll down to “Refresh Data” and click on it.
11. Know that you can also update the stock prices in the “External Data” toolbar. Just click on the red exclamation point in that toolbar.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have multiple stock holdings, be sure to label your spreadsheet properly to differentiate your stock prices.
• Use formulas to show your total stock value by multiplying the stock price by the number of shares you own. The formulas will update your total stock value when the stock price is updated