Downloading Quotes Manually
CompuServe CIM (CompuServe Information Manager) Quotes
Current stock quotes can be obtained from CompuServe when using the CompuServe Information Manager (DosCim or WinCIM) by selecting the Quotes option under the Services menu. The CompuServe software permits you to pre-define the ticker symbols for the quotes you want to retrieve. Once you have defined a group of ticker symbols, select "Quotes" followed by "Get All" to display the current quotes for all pre-defined issues. To download these quotes to your hard disk select "SAVE" or "SAVE AS" under the File menu.
Make a note of the directory in which you save the file as well as the file name. You will need to enter this information to import the saved data. We recommend that you use the same file name each time you download quotes and select the overwrite option to replace the previously downloaded file.
WARNING: Data downloaded using the CIM Quotes option often contains an update time and not an update date. Records that do not contain an update date are assumed to be dated on the ending date of the import time span.
Dow Jones News Retrieval Service (DJNRS)
MI supports quotes retrieved from Dow Jones News Retrieval's current quotes (//CQ), historical quotes (//HQ) and Dow Jones Averages (//DJA) databases.
//HQ: The historical quotes database allows you to retrieve up to one year's worth of daily quotes for stocks. After selecting the HQ database set your communications program to begin logging to a new file. Enter the symbol of the stock followed by "P1" (e.g., IBM P1). DJNRS will display 12 days of quotes for the selected stock. Each time you press the return key, the preceding 12 days of quotes will be displayed until a full year's of quotes have been displayed. After you have retrieved all the quotes you are interested in, set your communications program to stop logging. Hint: you may save historical quotes for multiple stocks to a single log file.
//CQ: The current quotes database allows you to retrieve current quotes for stocks and mutual funds. After selecting the CQ database set your communications program to begin logging to a new file. Enter the symbols of the stock or mutual funds you want to retrieve. You may enter up to 5 symbols at a time separated by a space. DJNRS will display current quotes for each selected security. You may enter more symbols as needed. After you have retrieved all the current quotes you are interested in, set your communications program to stop logging. Warning: do not save current quotes for multiple dates in the same log file. Since the DJNRS CQ database does not display the date, MI is unable to distinguish the date that the quote applies to.
//DJA: The Dow Jones Averages database allows you to retrieve up to one year's worth of daily quotes for the various Dow Jones Averages. After selecting the DJA database set your communications program to begin logging to a new file. Enter the symbol of the average you want to retrieve quotes for followed by "P1" (e.g., DJI P1). DJNRS will display 12 days of quotes for the selected average. Each time you press the return key, the preceding 12 days of quotes will be displayed until a full year's of quotes have been displayed. After you have retrieved all the quotes for a selected Dow Jones Average, set your communications program to stop logging. Warning: do not save different averages to the same log file. MI reduces volumes of Dow Jones Averages by a factor of 10. When loaded, DJA volumes are in units of thousands instead of hundreds as shown in the DJA download file.
America Online (AOL)
Current or closing stock and mutual fund quotes can be obtained using the Display Portfolio feature of America Online for Windows. After signing onto America Online, click on the Quotes and Portfolios Icon then Click on “Portfolios.”
If you have not already entered ticker symbols for the issues you wish to track, enter each ticker symbol then click on “Add to Portfolio.” The ticker symbols you add to your portfolio are retained for all future sessions so you only need to enter them once.
To display current prices for issues in your AOL portfolio, click on “Display Portfolio.” To download the quotes, click the “Download button” in the portfolio window then select the download format (we recommend using the Metastock format. These quotes can be imported using the predefined “AOL Portfolio Metastock” format. (Note: other formats are also predefined but the Metastock format provides more data).
Historic quotes can also be downloaded from AOL and imported using the predefined “AOL Historic” format. To access historic quotes on AOL, click the Historic Quotes icon on AOL’s Quotes and Portfolios screen.
PRN-5 Format (Farpoint BBS)
The PRN-5 format is an ASCII -- comma delimited format having records of the following form:
date,high,low,close,volume
where the date is in the form "YYMMDD" and prices are in decimal format. For example, a record for 30 October 1993 would be written:
931030,27.5,26.125,27.25,30643
All records in a given PRN-5 file are for a single issue (ticker symbol). The Farpoint BBS provides free (except for the cost of the phone call) downloading of historical stock quotes in PRN-5 format. Data is available for most stocks listed on US stock exchanges. When downloading from this service you will download one file for each stock using one of several supported file transfer protocols such as XModem. The phone number for Farpoint BBS is (312) 274- 6128.
PRN-7 Format (Quote.Com single issue historical data).
The PRN-7 format is an ASCII -- comma delimited format having records of the following form:
date,open,high,low,close,volume,open interest
where the date is in the form "YYMMDD" and prices are in decimal format. For example, a record for 30 October 1993 would be written:
931030,26.750,27.500,26.125,27.250,30643,0
Mutual fund data is written as date,NAV (net asset value)
Quotes in this form are available via Internet FTP from Quote.Com (there is a charge for each file downloaded). For information about this service send EMail to: support@quote.com or visit their web page at http://www.quote.com.
PRN-8 Format (Quote.Com EMail)
The PRN-8 format is an ASCII -- comma delimited format having records of the following form:
symbol,date,open,high,low,close,volume,open interest
where the date is in the form "YYMMDD" and prices are in decimal format. For example, a record for 30 October 1993 would be written:
GE,931030,26.750,27.500,26.125,27.250,30643,0
Mutual fund data is written as symbol,date,NAV (net asset value)
Quotes in this form are available via Internet EMail and FTP from Quote.Com. For information about this service send EMail to: support@quote.com or visit their web page at http://www.quote.com.
Just Data (Australian Stock Exchange)
MI will import daily stock quotes downloaded from "Just Data" data service in Australia (Just Data, 26 Bellevue Street, Highgate Hill, Q 4101, Phone 008 777 972 or (07) 899 2148). Downloaded file data should be in the following form:
ad19900814cnAdtSdbJDvn1.0 Header / date record cABCs1f1050h1100l1050a1100v65000 Stock price records cCBAs1f990h1020l980a1000v1022 cDBAs1z2200v45000 yUGa2220.7 Index price records. The above format is exactly as the data is downloaded from Just Data and should not be modified by any of Just Data's available data conversion utilities. If multiple days of data are contained in a single file, the price records for each day must be separated by a Header/Date record.
Microsoft Investor: http://investor.msn.com/ Microsoft Investor offers relatively convenient downloads of current quotes via their “Portfolio” feature and is the only site that we are aware of at this time to offer free historic quotes. Before you can download quotes, you will need to download and install Microsoft’s “Investor” software (a free browser plug-in).
Downloading Current Quotes
Once you have downloaded and installed the plug-in, you will be able to set-up a tracking portfolio containing the ticker symbols of the stocks you want to track. The system also has the capability of recording the number of shares and purchase cost. For the purposes of downloading current quotes, only the ticker symbol is required. For privacy reasons, we recommend that you do not enter your number of shares and purchase cost information.
After setting up the portfolio find the File menu on the portfolio screen and choose “Export” > “Prices to Text File” or “Portfolio to Tab Delimited File”. A dialog box will appear asking you to supply the file name and optionally choose a directory. Remember the name you give the file and the directory where the file is saved. You will need this information when you later import the quotes into MI.
When importing this data to MI, choose the import format that corresponds to the export option chosen (i.e., MS Investor Prices for “Prices to Text File” and MS Investor Port for “Portfolio to Tab Delimited File”).
Downloading Historic Quotes
In MS Investor choose the “Stocks” link from the links in the title bar of the Microsoft Investor site. Under Stock Research choose “Historical Charts.” Enter the symbol for a stock or mutual fund. Once the chart is displayed, click the “Options” button followed by the view tab to choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly qoutes. Click the Period button to choose the number of months or years of data you want to download. After selecting all your options, choose the “Export Data” button to download the prices.
Depending on your system and browser configuration, one of the following actions will occur.
- A dialog box will appear giving you the option of saving the file or specifying what application you want to use to view the file. Choose the Save File option.
- The file will be displayed in your browser as plain text. Click the File menu in your browser and choose Save As. In the file dialog box under file type choose “Plain Text.”
- The file will be displayed using Notepad. Click the File menu in Notepad and choose Save. You can then close the Notepad application.
- The file will be displayed in an Excel spreadsheet. Click the File menu in Excel and choose Save. Note, that when closing Excel, it may display a dialog box asking if you want to re-save the file in Excel format. Answer NO.
In each case, make a note of the name of the file you saved and the exact directory where it was saved. You will need to supply this information to MI when you import the file.
When importing this data to MI, choose the “MS Invest Historical” import format in Master Investor.
Quote.Com: http://www.quote.com/
Both current and historic quotes can be obtained from Quote.Com. There is a usage fee for this service. See PRN - 7 and PRN - 8, above for information on importing two of the available formats.
Moneyworld: http://www.moneyworld.co.uk
Moneyworld offers free quotes from the London Exchange. Downloadable quotes include the FT-100 and FT-250.
Yahoo Finance: finance.yahoo.com
Yahoo offers both current and historic quotes in downloadable formats. While MI 6 can automatically download and import the current quotes from Yahoo, historic quotes must be manually downloaded then imported. To download historic quotes go to http://finance.yahoo.com. Enter the ticker symbol you want to download then choose “Chart” then “Historic Prices.” Note that only 200 entries can be displayed at a time. Once the entries are displayed, choose the “Download Spreadsheet” option at the bottom of the quotes and save the quotes to a file. Make a note of the file name and location because you will need to select this file to import the data into MI 6. Hint: when saving the file, give it the name of the ticker symbol that was downloaded.
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