How to Download Stock History
Downloading stock data in order to study trends of individual companies or the market at large is very easy to undertake with the proper tools. Data can be downloaded with respect to historic balance sheet entries or the trading activity of the stock. Most of these sources are for free. Enhanced information can also be downloaded at per pay sites depending on the type and quality of information required. Investors should understand that any database of recent information may contain data mistakes.
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Instructions
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Decide on the historical record of data that is appropriate to your needs. Find stock data vendors who offer price history with at least five to ten year price records. Look for data that includes the opening, high, low and closing price of the day. Most investors also choose to download the stock volume for the appropriate period as well as the balance sheet history.
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Choose the appropriate stock or stock index you wish to download from a reputable financial information website. Open that stock's information page and then choose the historical data link. The page that opens will have the most recent historical data available.
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Choose the length of the historical period (one month, one year, one decade). Decide whether you want each data point to be representative of prices for a day, week, or month.
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Place the cursor at the beginning of the data period you wish to download. Left-click the box of the period that begins the data, while also pressing the "Ctrl" key. While still holding the "Ctrl" key, left-click the last data period you desire. Choose the download data button below the data box and all the appropriate data should be stored in your computer's flash memory. Do not look for the data in the hard drive of the computer. Proceed to paste the data in the spreadsheet.
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Open your spreadsheet program and place the cursor in the cell where you want the data to start. Right-click the mouse button and choose "Paste." The data should begin to fill in immediately. Note that the program will format and place all data in the appropriate row and column. The titles of each column will appear automatically as well.
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Use the Tools tab of the spreadsheet program to create and customize stock charts. Charts will appear either below the downloaded data or on a new spreadsheet page. Choose a new column or row next to the downloaded data and use the Formula tab to choose an appropriate statistical manipulation of the downloaded data. Press save and name the chart. Note that charts do not automatically update the next day's data. You must replicate the steps described above with the additional data.
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Tips & Warnings
This article describes downloading individual stock prices. Fee based programs are available for downloading multiple sets of stock data at once.
Most data feeds represent close-of-trading-day information. Data feeds representing minute or hourly data are usually quite expensive.
Use the data with care as recent data from recent periods are usually adjusted after official stock exchange data is complete.
Note that volume data is always adjusted for stock splits.
Stock prices are not adjusted for cash dividends.
