I want a list of stock prices for a 10- or 20-year history of a stock.
 I'll specify the stock ticker symbol, the history range, and the
website will return me all the daily prices of that stock during that
range.  The website will return it to me in some way that I can
download it (rather than just look at it).

I do NOT want to look up each day, one at a time.

When I say "stock", I mean anything that has a ticker symbol,
including mutual funds.

When I say "spreadsheet", I mean anything I can easily convert into a
Word table, or an Excel spreadsheet.  It would be fine to have plain
text, with one line per day, each line showing the date and the price.

I have found http://table.finance.yahoo.com/t?s=AHG&g=m does this, but
its history goes back only 10 years.  I need at least 20 years.

Obviously I'd prefer this source to be free, but I'm willing to pay. 
If you can't find any free sources, I'll take whatever you can find.

Thanks!

---

Request for Question Clarification by elmarto-ga on 10 Mar 2005 10:51 PST

Hi magic mark!
According to the NYSE site, the AHG stock you mention in your question
has only been listed since 1996, so there shouldn't be a 20-year price
history for it. Are you looking for data on any other stock for which
you think Yahoo's data is incomplete?

Best regards,
elmarto

Hello Mark,


The Yahoo Finance site actually does allow customizable downloads of
historical price information -- I've used the feature many times
myself both for my own purposes as well as a tool for fielding
questions here at Google Answers.

For instance, historical information for IBM can be found here:



http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=IBM


NOTE that you can change the symbol to any stock/fund of your choice
by simply altering the URL, and replacing "IBM" with the symbol of
your choice.


The link leads to a table that labelled "Historical Prices" that gives
you a number of options:



SET DATE RANGE  allows you to <<ahem>> set the date range.

For IBM, the "Start Date" goes back as far as 1962.

You can also select the frequency of the data:  either Daily, Weekly,
Monthly, or "Dividends Only"


By clickin on the "Get Prices" button, you'll retrieve some of the
data, but at the bottom of the table is a link that reads:  "Download
To Spreadsheet"

Clicking on this will get you the full history -- volume, prices, dividends, etc.


As elmarto-ga noted, stocks with less historical information can mean,
simply, that the stock has not been trading for very long.


The Yahoo Finance tools should do the trick.  But before rating this
answer, please let me know if anything is unclear, or if you need
additional information.  Just post a Request for Clarification, and
I'm at your service.


pafalafa-ga



search strategy -- Used bookmarked site for Yahoo Finance.

I am ebarrassed by my own mistake, of chosing an investment that had
only a 10-year history, and not checking with another investment. 
Pafalafa-ga provided me with exactly the right answer, and didn't do
the gloating to which he was, IMO, entitled.

Well done!

Magic Mark,

Thanks!

Good luck in your endeavors, financial and otherwise.


paf

paf--

On second thought, I originally asked the quesiton because Yahoo
Finance didn't give me the total time range of PAXWX.  It goes back
only to 1995, but BigCharts.com shows me a graph all the way back to
1980.

I'm happy that you did answer my origin question.  I'd also like some
additional help with this extension of my original question.  Should I
create a new question, with a new payment?  I'd be happy to.

--Mark

URL's:

http://table.finance.yahoo.com/m?a=0&b=1&c=1980&d=11&e=31&f=1995&g=d&s=paxwx

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/intchart/frames/frames.asp?symb=PAXWX&time=&freq=

Mark,

Interesting development.

I took a look at the links, along with the prospectus for PAXWX
(which, oddly enough, only gives history back to 1993).

In my experience, I've noted that different systems handle changes in
different ways -- a change in symbol, for instance, may lead one data
source to start all over, while another simply combines data for the
old and new symbols.

I don't know quite what the case is with PAXWX.  Nor do I know whether
BigCharts routinely has more historical info than Yahoo, or whether
they flip-flop -- Yahoo better on some, BigCharts better on others.  I
suspect it's the latter, though.

Anyway, this is way more than I can investigate in any depth under the
scope of your current question.  But if you want to post a new one, by
all means, be my guest.  Hopefully, one of the GA researchers will
have the requisite skills to figure out the mystery of the missing
timelines!

paf

Paf--

Thanks.  I agree with everything you said.

I'll ask the two sources directly about their descepancy.

--Mark

Be careful of data you download from bigcharts or yahoo. Especially
mutual fund data. Without adjustments for dividends, the results are
highly misleading. For example the PAXWX you cited shows a 5-year -10%
loss on yahoo and bigcharts whereas www.fasttrack.net using
dividend-adjusted data shows a +10% gain for the period.

PaulFT--

Wow, thanks for the valuable warning!

I had been fumbling around, looking for dividend data.

Do you know a reliable source, where I can find current value, and
dividends separately, for mutual funds?

I'd be happy to pay for your time.

--Mark