yahoo finance historical data downloader
One of the most commonly refered to sources of free historical stock data online is yahoo finance. And I'd have to agree with the general consensus. Why is yahoo finance so good? This article will go through this topic in brief.
OK. point one: why is yahoo finance so good? There are many other rivals to yahoo finance historical data. Google finanace have released a free historical data download function in the past few years, in an attempt to compete with yahoo finance. However, googe finance, and many other competitors still have a long way to go before they are any where near as good as yahoo finance. First, yahoo finance are relatively old. They've provided free historical data for many years. Google finance is still a baby compared to yahoo. And as such still has a lot of growing up to do. There's many functions that yahoo have that google still doesn't have yet. The main limiting factor is availability of historical data. Yahoo will let you download ANY historical data they contain in a csv file. Google limits what data you can automatically download. Others, you have to view it on screen, page by page at a time. This is probably because of copyright reasons, and data licensing regulations. Most American stocks can be downloaded. If you're looking for historical stock data of other countries from GOogle Finance, good luck to you.
Its debatable whether the data on yahoo should be freely available for download. Or if its only available because they turn a blind eye to the fact that thousands of peple world wide download this data. Eh, We don't care. As long as it continues to be freely available to everyone, its a sure winner.
Maybe one day, Google Finance will catch up. It seems inevitable, as Google does seem to be making really good progress with almost everything else. However, until that day, Yahoo Finance is still the KING and QUEEN of the online world of free historical stock data.
The main limitation tho, and yes, there is a limitation. The data for download is not in metastock format. If you're using the data as input into software for technical analysis, you'll need it in this format (or equivalent). And if you're not using it for this purpose, I have no idea what else you could use it for. Maybe you can print it out, bind it, and use it as a shelf filler. For the rest of us who use it for technical analysis programs, getting it into metastock format can be a pain. You would have to remove one of the close price columns, adjust the date to the required format, and insert the symbol name at the front. This is OK for one or two stocks, but if you want to investigate hundreds or thousands of stocks, this is annoying.
I've made an excel spreadsheet that will download historical data from yahoo finance for you, and place it in metastock format. No more manual work, prone to human error. I hope it helps you with your technical analysis. Good trading.
yahoo finance historical data downloader
Oh, and by the way, the spreadsheet is free to use. Just download and start using.
Webbed Master