Stock Quotes Pro Help

Stock Quotes Pro Help

This guide explains how to use Stock Quotes Pro to download end-of-day historical quotes for stocks, ETFs and indices for any date range, and how to prepare the data for your charting software.

Contents

What Stock Quotes Pro does

Before you start

Quick start: your first download

The main window

Symbol lists (.tlf files)

Finding a company symbol

Settings

Choosing the date range

Data servers

Symbol formats: stocks, indices, international

Output data format

Using the data in charting software

What the status messages mean

Troubleshooting - questions and answers

Registration and support

1. What Stock Quotes Pro does

Stock Quotes Pro downloads end-of-day (daily) historical prices from free internet quote servers and saves them as plain text (ASCII) files, one file per symbol.

Daily Open, High, Low, Close and Volume for stocks, ETFs and indices.

Any date range: 3 months to 10 years with one click, or your own From and To dates.

Six data servers to choose from. If one server has no data for a symbol, you can switch to another.

Custom date format, header, column order and ready-made formats for MetaStock, TradeStation, SuperCharts, Advanced Get, Elliott Wave Analyzer and Sierra Chart.

The files also open in Microsoft Excel.

No subscription or data fees.

Quotes from the free servers are end-of-day data and may be delayed. Stock Quotes Pro is meant for historical analysis, not for real-time trading.

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2. Before you start

Installation

Download sqpsetup.exe, run it and follow the setup wizard. Stock Quotes Pro runs on Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 and needs an internet connection.

Where your files are kept

By default the program uses these folders inside your Documents folder. You can change the data folder in Tools > Settings (section 7). If the data folder does not exist yet, it is created with the first download.

Folder What it contains

Stock Quotes Pro\Data Downloaded data files

Stock Quotes Pro\Symbols Your symbol lists (.tlf files)

Evaluation (trial) version

The unregistered copy is fully functional for a 10-day evaluation period. Until you register, a window appears at start-up that shows which day of the evaluation period it is:

Continue - opens Stock Quotes Pro.

Register - opens the web page where you can buy a license.

Quit - closes the program.

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3. Quick start: your first download

Start Stock Quotes Pro and choose Tools > Settings... (or click the Settings button on the toolbar).

Under Data Server select a server (see section 9).

Under Time Interval select a period, for example One Year, or select Custom Range and set the From and to dates (see section 8).

Check the Data Output Folder path. Click ... to choose another folder. Click OK.

Click Add on the toolbar. Type a symbol, for example MSFT, and click OK. Repeat for other symbols, or click Open to load a saved symbol list.

Click Update on the toolbar.

When the status shows Download Complete, double-click the symbol to see the data.

Click Save to keep the symbol list for next time.

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4. The main window

Part What it does

Toolbar Open, Save, Update, Cancel, Add, Delete, Settings and Help. Point at a button to see what it does.

The list One symbol per row, with the columns Symbol, Download Status and Result (section 13).

Status bar At the bottom: the name of the symbol list that is open.

The program remembers the window size and position and the column widths.

Toolbar buttons

Button What it does

Open Opens a saved symbol list (.tlf or .txt).

Save Saves the current symbols to a symbol list file.

Update Downloads data for all symbols in the list.

Cancel Stops the download. Symbols that have not been downloaded yet are marked Download Cancelled.

Add Adds a new symbol to the end of the list.

Delete Deletes the selected symbols from the list.

Settings Opens the Settings window (section 7).

Help Opens this help page in your web browser.

Menus

Menu Commands

File New, Open..., Save, Save As..., Exit

Symbols Add..., Delete, Edit..., Find...

Quotes Update Highlighted, Update All, Cancel Update, Preview..., Open Data Folder...

Tools Settings...

Help Contents, About...

Handy shortcuts

Action What it does

Right-click the list Menu with Update All and Update Highlighted. When a symbol is selected, the menu also has View data for, Edit and Report for that symbol.

Update Highlighted (Quotes menu or right-click menu) Downloads only the selected symbols.

Report for <symbol> (right-click menu) Opens the company page for the symbol on ashkon.com in your web browser.

Double-click a row Opens the downloaded data file in Notepad.

F2 Edits the symbol in the selected row.

Delete Deletes the selected symbols.

Click a column heading Sorts the list by that column. Click again to reverse the order.

Ctrl+A Selects all symbols.

Ctrl+O / Ctrl+S Open / Save symbol list.

F1 Opens this help page.

To select several rows, hold Ctrl and click, or hold Shift and click to select a range.

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5. Symbol lists (.tlf files)

A symbol list is a plain text file with one symbol per line, saved with the .tlf extension. You can keep several lists, for example one for NASDAQ-100 stocks, one for indices and one for your watch list, and open whichever one you need. Text files (.txt) with one symbol per line can be opened too.

Save and Save As ask for a file name. If you type a name without an extension, .tlf is added.

A symbol list file can be up to 32 KB, which is several thousand symbols. If a file is larger, split it into several files.

If you choose New or Open after changing the list, you are asked whether to save the changes. Click OK to save them, or Cancel to discard them.

A symbol cannot contain spaces or any of these characters: < > : \ " / | ? * &

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6. Finding a company symbol

If you do not know a company's ticker symbol, choose Symbols > Find... to open the Stock Symbol Search window.

Type the full or partial company name in Search for.

Select Starts with or Contains and click Find.

The matching companies are listed with their symbols, and the first symbol is put in Add Symbol. Use the arrow keys to move to another company, or type the symbol in Add Symbol yourself.

Click Add to add the symbol to the current list. You can add several symbols before you click Close.

Symbol search covers stocks listed on NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX.

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7. Settings

Choose Tools > Settings... or click Settings on the toolbar. Settings are saved when you click OK and are used for every download until you change them.

Setting What it does

Data Output Folder Where data files are saved. Click ... to choose a folder. You must be allowed to write to it.

Date - Format MMDDYY, MMDDYYYY, DDMMYY, DDMMYYYY, DDMMMYY, DDMMMYYYY, YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD. MMM is the short month name, for example Sep. Default: MM/DD/YYYY.

Date - Separator -, ., / or None. Default: /.

Time Interval 3 Months, 6 Months, One Year, 2 Years, 3 Years, 5 Years, 10 Years or Custom Range (section 8).

Custom Dates The From and to dates of the range. They can be changed only when Custom Range is selected.

File Extension Extension of the data files (default .txt). The file name is always the symbol, for example msft.txt.

Data Server The quote server to download from (section 9).

Adjust data for splits / dvd Kept for compatibility with older versions. Whether prices are adjusted depends on the data server (section 14).

Special Formatting

Option What it does

Add symbol in front Adds the ticker as the first column of every line. Useful when you combine several files into one.

Reverse time order Checked: the oldest day comes first. Unchecked: the newest day comes first. Most charting programs expect the oldest day first.

Metastock format Writes each line as SYMBOL,D,Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume and turns on the MetaStock header. The file is still plain text.

Add header Writes a line with column names at the top of each file.

Add open interest Adds a ,0 column at the end of each line, for programs that expect an Open Interest field.

Customize Header Changes the header text. Default: Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume.

Select Custom Format

Select a charting program in the list and click Apply to set the date format, order, header and columns it needs in one step (section 12). You can still change any option afterwards.

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8. Choosing the date range

The dates in Custom Dates decide exactly which days are written to the data files.

3 Months ... 10 Years - the range ends today and starts that far back. The From and to dates are filled in for you and cannot be edited.

Custom Range - the From and to date pickers become available. Set any start and end date, for example the year 2020 only. The start date must not be later than the end date.

If you ask for more history than the server has, Stock Quotes Pro writes the days that are available and leaves out the rest. For example, CNBC keeps about 2 years of daily data, so a 10-year range from CNBC gives about 2 years. If there is no data at all in the range, the status shows Connection Error or Symbol Not Found and any existing file for that symbol is not changed.

Days with no trading volume (market holidays) are left out. For indices, which have no volume, every day is kept and the volume is written as 0.

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9. Data servers

Each server has a different history length and set of symbols. If one server does not return data for a symbol, try another one.

Server History Notes

1. SA Up to the full history US stocks and ETFs. A good default choice. Indices are not available.

2. NASDAQ About the last 10 years US stocks, ETFs and major indices. ETFs are found automatically.

3. Yahoo Full history Longest history. US and international stocks, ETFs, indices, mutual funds and cryptocurrencies. The only server for international exchanges.

4. CBOE Since January 2, 2004 US stocks, ETFs and CBOE indices such as VIX.

5. CNBC About the last 2 years US stocks, ETFs and major indices. Use when other servers are not available.

6. FinViz About the last 10 years US stocks and ETFs. Share-class symbols such as BRK.B are converted automatically.

Symbols are downloaded one after another. With a long list, a server may slow down or refuse requests for a while; if many symbols fail with Connection Error, wait a few minutes or switch to another server.

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10. Symbol formats: stocks, indices, international

US stocks and ETFs

Type the ticker as it is listed on the exchange, for example AAPL, MSFT, SPY or QQQ. Upper or lower case does not matter.

Indices

Type index symbols with a caret (^) in front. Stock Quotes Pro converts the caret into the form each server expects. Index codes differ between servers:

Server Example index symbols

Yahoo ^GSPC (S&P 500), ^DJI (Dow Jones), ^IXIC (NASDAQ Composite), ^VIX

NASDAQ ^SPX, ^NDX (NASDAQ-100), ^COMP (NASDAQ Composite)

CBOE ^SPX, ^VIX

CNBC ^SPX, ^DJI, ^IXIC

SA and FinViz do not provide index data.

International exchanges

International exchanges are available only with the Yahoo server. Tickers with an exchange suffix, such as BMO.TO (Bank of Montreal, traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange), work only when 3. Yahoo is selected as the Data Server. The other servers cover US-listed symbols only.

Add the exchange suffix to the company's symbol:

Symbol Company Exchange

BMO.TO Bank of Montreal Toronto Stock Exchange

RY.TO Royal Bank of Canada Toronto Stock Exchange

BARC.L Barclays PLC London Stock Exchange

SIE.DE Siemens AG XETRA (Germany)

8306.T Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Tokyo Stock Exchange

To find the right suffix, look the company up on finance.yahoo.com and use the symbol shown there.

Mutual funds and cryptocurrencies

Use the Yahoo server. Mutual funds use their fund ticker, for example VFIAX. Cryptocurrencies use a pair symbol, for example BTC-USD or ETH-USD.

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11. Output data format

Each symbol is saved in its own text file named after the symbol in lower case, for example msft.txt. Characters that Windows does not allow in file names, such as : or /, are replaced with _. Each line is one trading day, and fields are separated by commas.

Layout Fields, in order

Normal [Symbol], Date, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume, [Open Interest]

Metastock format Symbol, D, Date, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume

[Symbol] is included only when Add symbol in front is checked, and [Open Interest] (always 0) only when Add open interest is checked. Prices are written as the server sends them; volume is a whole number.

Example - default settings (MM/DD/YYYY, "/", newest day first):

09/25/2026,254.10,257.60,253.78,256.87,55202100
09/24/2026,252.95,255.40,251.10,254.30,48115300
09/23/2026,250.20,253.15,249.80,252.60,51287400

Example - Add header and Reverse time order checked (oldest day first):

Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume
09/23/2026,250.20,253.15,249.80,252.60,51287400
09/24/2026,252.95,255.40,251.10,254.30,48115300
09/25/2026,254.10,257.60,253.78,256.87,55202100

Example - Metastock format, date format YYYYMMDD:

<ticker>,<per>,<date>,<open>,<high>,<low>,<close>,<vol>
AAPL,D,20260923,250.20,253.15,249.80,252.60,51287400
AAPL,D,20260924,252.95,255.40,251.10,254.30,48115300

The numbers above are only examples. Downloading the same symbol again replaces its file. If a download fails, the existing file is left unchanged.

Viewing the data

Double-click a symbol with the status Download Complete to open its file in Notepad, or select it and choose Quotes > Preview....

Quotes > Open Data Folder... opens the data folder in Windows Explorer.

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12. Using the data in charting software

In Settings, select the program under Select Custom Format and click Apply. Then click OK and download the data.

Custom Format What Apply sets

Default Settings Date MMDDYY, no separator, oldest day first, no header

Advanced Get Date MM/DD/YY, open interest column, no header

Elliott Wave Analyzer Date YYMMDD, no separator, oldest day first, no header

MetaStock Downloader Metastock format, date YYYYMMDD, oldest day first, header <ticker>,<per>,<date>,<open>,<high>,<low>,<close>,<vol>

Sierra Chart Date MM/DD/YY, oldest day first, open interest column, header Date Open High Low Close Volume OpenInterest

SuperCharts Date YYYY/MM/DD, oldest day first, header "Date","O","H","L","C","V"

TradeStation 4 Same as SuperCharts

TradeStation 2000i Date MM/DD/YYYY, oldest day first, header "Date","O","H","L","C","V"

User Defined Keeps your own settings

Program How to use the data

Microsoft Excel Open the .txt file and choose comma as the delimiter, or set the file extension to .csv so Excel opens it directly.

MetaStock Apply MetaStock Downloader, download, then use MetaStock's ASCII converter. Read more...

Advanced Get Read more...

Elliott Wave Analyzer Read more...

SuperCharts / TradeStation Import as ASCII data with the date format you selected. Read more...

If your chart looks reversed, check or uncheck Reverse time order and download again. Most charting programs expect the oldest day first.

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13. What the status messages mean

The Download Status column shows what is happening, and the Result column shows In Progress, OK or Failed.

Download Status Meaning

Pending... The symbol is waiting to be downloaded.

Loading Historical Quotes The download is in progress. Asterisks (*) are added as the data arrives.

Download Complete The file has been saved. Double-click the row to see it.

Download Cancelled The download was stopped with Cancel, or it was stopped because a data file could not be saved.

Connection Error The server could not be reached or refused the request: no internet connection, a firewall blocking the program, or the server is busy.

Connection Error or Symbol Not Found The server answered but sent no usable data. The symbol may be wrong for this server, or the server has no data in the selected date range.

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14. Troubleshooting - questions and answers

I get "Connection Error or Symbol Not Found" for a symbol I know is correct.

Select another server in Settings and click Update again. Not every server has every symbol; Yahoo has the widest coverage, especially for mutual funds and indices. Also check that your date range is inside the history the server keeps (section 9).

I cannot download BMO.TO or other international symbols.

International symbols work only with the Yahoo server. Select 3. Yahoo in Settings (section 10).

Every symbol fails with "Connection Error".

Check your internet connection, and make sure your firewall or antivirus allows Stock Quotes Pro to connect to the internet. If only a long list fails part-way, the server may be limiting requests; wait a few minutes or switch servers.

A message says "Could not write to the output file".

You are not allowed to write to the Data Output Folder, or the file is open in another program. Close the file, or open Settings, click ... and choose a folder inside your Documents folder.

I cannot change the From and to dates.

The dates can be edited only when Custom Range is selected under Time Interval.

I asked for 10 years but got less.

The server does not have that much history for the symbol. Stock Quotes Pro writes the days that are available. Use Yahoo or SA for the longest history.

There is no quote for today.

End-of-day quotes appear on the servers after the market closes, sometimes later in the evening.

Is the data adjusted for splits and dividends?

Yahoo prices are adjusted for splits. Whether other servers adjust prices depends on the source. If you see a large jump on a split date, download the symbol from Yahoo.

Can I download intraday, options or futures prices?

No. Stock Quotes Pro downloads end-of-day data for stocks, ETFs, indices, mutual funds and cryptocurrencies. For intraday data see Historical Quotes Downloader.

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15. Registration and support

Register (buy a license) USD $49.95, one-time fee, no subscription. See Order to order online or by phone, fax or mail.

Applying your license A license.key file is emailed to you within two business days. Run the license.key file, then close Stock Quotes Pro and start it again. Help > About shows your name under Registered to.

Online help Help > Contents, the Help toolbar button or F1

Program version Help > About...

Product page Stock Quotes Pro

Contact Contact Us - questions about ordering: order@ashkon.com

When asking for help, please include the program version, the Data Server and date range you used, the symbol, and the status message you see.

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