Excel Plug-ins

Dear CI readers,

Welcome to another installment of the CI "Discussion of the Month." The ultimate success of this segment rests solely on the shoulders of you, our readers. If you haven't visited the AAII Discussion Boards, they are an excellent means of interacting with fellow CI readers and AAII members.

Last month, RailFan was looking for a "plug-in" for Excel that would automatically collect data from the Internet and help in the investment analysis process. For many computer users, spreadsheets represent the original investment analysis and tracking tool. Long before the advent of graphical user interfaces for software programs or the Internet, spreadsheets allowed users to manipulate and plot data. Today, you can use various Excel companion programs or plug-ins to perform a variety of tasks beyond the standard functionality of the program.

A favorite of ours here at Computerized Investing is XLQ from QMatix (www.qmatix.com). This utility, which is written by AAII member Leo van Rijswijk, can retrieve a variety of market and security data from free sources such as Yahoo! Finance and MSN Money. The "plus" version even allows you to pull Stock Investor Pro data directly into a spreadsheet. To learn more about XLQ, check out the Fourth Quarter 2009 issue of Computerized Investing, which is available online at ComputerizedInvesting.com or click here.

The Q&A section below links to a comment posted by one of our readers. To read them all, click here.

Also, be sure to check out next month's question and log on to the Computerized Investing discussion board to offer your solution or to post your own question to your fellow readers.

Until next month,

Wayne A. Thorp, CFA

Editor, Computerized Investing

Have a question or comment to share with fellow CI readers? Post it online at the Computerized Investing discussion board.

Last Month's Discussion

Excel Plug-ins

Q: Does anyone have any thoughts on the differences, advantages, or disadvantages of the XLQ Excel plug-in from QMatix (reviewed in the Fourth Quarter 2009 issue of Computerized Investing) versus AnalyzerXL? Are there any other Excel plug-ins you would recommend?

- Submitted by RailFan

A: Featured reader solutions to last month's question: "I have been using xlqPlus for years and find it very, very helpful."

-- Submitted by shawn

Read the entire discussion thread

Thanks to all who contributed!

Previous Discussions

• Excel Plug-ins
• Back up your data!
• What portfolio management software will classify stocks by industry?

Next Month's Discussion

Source for Daily Company E-mailed News Stories

Q: I'm looking for daily news stories (earnings reports, press releases, analyst commentaries, etc.) about specific companies. I need stories, not just summaries or headlines. Also, I don't want "filtered" stories where someone decides which ones are important and you don't see all the stories for your companies. The delivery method could be a daily e-mail containing all news stories for a portfolio of companies. Or, the stories could each be in a separate e-mail (e-mail news alerts). Another delivery method might also work. I don't need real time alerts, just end of day.

- Submitted by aaiianalyst (this person has no affiliation with AAII)

> Have an answer for aaiianalyst? Click here to submit your thoughts!