BulkQuotesXL is the more robust sibling of DownloaderXL. BulkQuotesXL has a greater range of functionality and is more geared towards mass data acquisition. One of the standout features of BulkQuotesXL is the ability to obtain Futures data from PiFin the contracts are continuous and rolled on expiration. You can also download stock, indices and mutual fund data via Yahoo. The image below shows the BulkQuotesXL menu and the addins core functionality.
You can download a free 10 day trial of TraderXL Pro.
The most striking difference between BulkQuotesXL and DownloaderXL is the variable input screen. Instead of entering data via a dialog box you enter the data directly into cells in a control sheet. After clicking on the New Download Project you will be presented with a similar screen as shown below.
By adopting this approach it is a lot easier to automate your data acquisition and presentation. You can run Macros directly after data is imported. The one criticism I have is there is not enough documentation of all the available functions. BulkQuotesXL also has added templates that make the data import process that much easier. The screenshot below shows the standard templates.
The templates include:
- Column-by-column template.
- Row-by-row template.
- Summary template.
- Major world indexes template.
- Export data template.
- Historical futures data template.
We will select the Historical futures data template in order to showcase the features of this addin. It is a simple matter of clicking on the Historical Futures data icon and a new worksheet will be opened as shown below:
We will use these default settings for this project. The next step is to click on the Download/refresh data button and the data will be downloaded and inserted into different sheets as shown below.
The full range of futures contracts you can obtain are shown here.
You can download a free 10 day trial of TraderXL Pro.
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In our previous article we used a simple method for importing stock quote data into Excel. Today we will look at a robust automated method for querying more data sources then just Yahoo finance. The Stock Market Functions Add-in for Excel is a free tool developed by by Randy Harmelink. The stock market functions Add-In allows you to import data from sites like Yahoo, Business Week, Reuters, Google, Bloomberg, MSN and many more. In the latest release there are beta features for several technical analysis functions like
