In the modern world of finance, keeping a real-time track of stock prices is crucial. Google Sheets, a free and convenient alternative to Excel, offers a simple way to fetch live stock prices. This blog post will guide you on how to get stock prices in Google Sheets.
Using GOOGLEFINANCE Function
Google Sheets has a built-in function called GOOGLEFINANCE which fetches current or historical securities information from Google Finance. To get the real-time price of a stock, you can use this function in the following format:
=GOOGLEFINANCE(“Ticker”, “attribute”)
Where “Ticker” is the symbol of the stock, and “attribute” is the type of information you want to fetch. Let’s see how to use it.
Step 1: Create a New Google Sheet
Go to Google Drive, click on “New,” and then click on “Google Sheets” to create a new spreadsheet.
Step 2: Use the GOOGLEFINANCE Function
In a cell, type the following formula:
=GOOGLEFINANCE("GOOG", "price")
This formula will return the current price of Google’s stock (ticker symbol “GOOG”).
Step 3: Press Enter and Get the Price
Once you press enter, the current stock price will be displayed in the cell where you typed the formula.
Fetching Historical Stock Prices
If you want to fetch historical stock price data, you can modify the function like this:
=GOOGLEFINANCE("GOOG", "close", DATE(2020,1,1), DATE(2020,12,31), "DAILY")
This formula will return the closing price of Google’s stock for each day of the year 2020.
Conclusion
Google Sheets offers a simple yet powerful function to monitor real-time and historical stock prices. However, remember that GOOGLEFINANCE data should not be used as a basis for critical investment decisions as it may not always be perfectly accurate and up-to-the-minute.