Historical Quotes Downloader
Historical Quotes Downloader User Guide
This guide explains how to use Historical Quotes Downloader to download end-of-day and intraday historical quotes for stocks, ETFs and indices, and how to prepare the data for your charting software.
Contents
- What Historical Quotes Downloader does
- Before you start
- Quick start: your first download
- The main window
- Symbol lists (.tlf files)
- Finding a company symbol
- Download Settings
- Data servers and data ranges
- Symbol formats: stocks, indices, international
- Output data format
- Using the data in charting software
- Command line options and scheduled downloads
- What the status messages mean
- Troubleshooting - questions and answers
- Registration and support
1. What Historical Quotes Downloader does
Historical Quotes Downloader downloads historical price data from free internet quote servers and saves it as plain text (ASCII) files, one file per symbol.
- End-of-day (daily) quotes for stocks, ETFs and indices.
- Intraday 1-minute and 5-minute quotes.
- Several data servers to choose from. If one server has no data for a symbol, you can switch to another.
- Up to 1000 symbols in one list, downloaded at the same time.
- Custom date, time, header and column formatting, including a MetaStock-ready layout.
- The files open in Microsoft Excel and import into MetaStock, TradeStation, SuperCharts, Advanced Get, Elliott Wave Analyzer and other charting programs.
- No subscription or data fees.
Quotes from the free servers are usually delayed by 15 minutes or more. Historical Quotes Downloader is meant for historical analysis, not for real-time trading.
2. Before you start
Installation
Download hqdsetup.exe, run it and follow the setup wizard. Historical Quotes Downloader runs on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and 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 folders on the Download Settings tab (section 7).
| Folder | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Historical Quotes Downloader\Data | End-of-day data files |
| Historical Quotes Downloader\Intraday | Intraday data files |
| Historical Quotes Downloader\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 Historical Quotes Downloader.
- Register - opens the web page where you can buy a license.
- Quit - closes the program.
3. Quick start: your first download
- Start Historical Quotes Downloader and open the Download Settings tab.
- Under Quotes Type select EOD (daily data) or Intraday.
- Select a Data Server and a Data Range (see section 8).
- Check the Data Output Folder path. Click ... to choose another folder.
- Switch to the Portfolio tab and click Add. Type a symbol, for example
MSFT, and click OK. Repeat for other symbols, or click Open to load a saved symbol list. - Make sure the symbols you want are checked and click Update.
- When the status shows Download complete, double-click the symbol to see the data.
- Click Save to keep the symbol list for next time.
4. The main window
The main window has two tabs: Portfolio, where you manage symbols and start downloads, and Download Settings (section 7).
Portfolio tab
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Buttons | On the left: New, Open, Save, Add, Delete, Up, Down, Update, Cancel and Quit. Point at a button to see what it does. |
| The list | One symbol per row, with a checkbox and a status column. Checked symbols are downloaded when you click Update. |
| Progress bar | Under the list: the overall progress of the current download. |
Buttons
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| New | Starts a new, empty symbol list. |
| Open | Opens a saved symbol list (.tlf or .txt). |
| Save | Saves the current symbols to a symbol list file. |
| Add | Adds a new symbol to the list. |
| Delete | Deletes the selected symbols from the list. |
| Up / Down | Moves the selected symbol up or down one row. |
| Update | Downloads data for all checked symbols. |
| Cancel | Stops the download. Available only while a download is running. |
| Quit | Closes the program. |
Menus
| Menu | Commands |
|---|---|
| File | New, Open, Save, Save As, Exit |
| Edit | Add Symbol, Delete Symbol, Check All, Uncheck All |
| Data | Update, Find Symbol, Preview Quotes, Open Data Folder |
| Help | Contents, Online Support, About |
Handy shortcuts
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Right-click the list | Menu with Check All, Uncheck All, Check Highlighted, Uncheck Highlighted, Update and Update Highlighted. |
| Update Highlighted | (right-click menu) Downloads only the selected symbols, whether they are checked or not. |
| Double-click a row | Opens the downloaded data file in Notepad. |
| Click a column heading | Sorts the list alphabetically (not during a download). |
| Ctrl+N / Ctrl+O / Ctrl+S | New / Open / Save symbol list. |
| Ctrl+A / Ctrl+D | Add symbol / Delete symbol. |
To select several rows, hold Ctrl and click, or hold Shift and click to select a range.
5. Symbol lists (.tlf files)
A symbol list (also called a portfolio file) is 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.
- One list can hold up to 1000 symbols. If a file has more, split it into several files and update them one at a time.
- If you close the program or open another list after making changes, you are asked whether to save the current list.
6. Finding a company symbol
If you do not know a company's ticker symbol, choose Data > Find Symbol... to open the Stock Symbol Search window.
- Type the full or partial company name in Search for.
- Select Starts with or Contains and click Search.
- Click the company in the results. Its symbol appears in Add Symbol.
- Click Add to add the symbol to the current list, then Close.
Symbol search covers stocks listed on NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX.
7. Download Settings
Settings are saved automatically and are used for every download until you change them.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Quotes Type | EOD downloads daily bars; Intraday downloads 1-minute or 5-minute bars. Switching the type reloads the list of servers and ranges. |
| Data Output Folder | Where data files are saved. EOD and intraday data have separate folders. Click ... to choose a folder. The folder must exist and you must be allowed to write to it. |
| Data Server | The quote server to download from (section 8). |
| Data Range | How far back to download. The choices depend on the server. |
| File extension | Extension of the data files (default
.txt). The file name is always the symbol, for example MSFT.txt.
Use different extensions to keep several timeframes of the same symbol, for example
.d1 for daily and .m5 for 5-minute data. |
| Date Format | MMDDYY, MMDDYYYY, DDMMYY, DDMMYYYY, YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD. |
| Date Separator | /, -, . or
None. |
| Time Format | Intraday time as HHMM or
HH:MM. |
| Reset to Defaults | Puts all settings back as they were right after installation. |
Special formatting options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Add Symbol | Adds the ticker as the first column of every line. Useful when you combine several files into one. |
| Add Header | Writes a line with column names at the top of each file. |
| Edit Header | Changes the header text. Defaults:
Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume (EOD) and
Date,Time,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume (intraday). |
| Reverse Dates Order | Reverses the order of the rows (newest first or oldest first). Most charting programs expect the oldest bar first. |
| MetaStock | Sets the date format, field order and header so the file can be converted with MetaStock's ASCII converter. The file is still plain text. |
8. Data servers and data ranges
Each server has a different history length and set of symbols. If one server does not return data for a symbol, try another one.
End-of-day (EOD) servers
| Server | Data Range choices | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. SA Finance | 3 Months, 6 Months, YTD, 1 Year, 5 Years, 10 Years, Max | US stocks and ETFs. A good default choice. |
| 2. NASDAQ API | 1, 3, 6, 9 Months; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Years | US stocks, ETFs and major indices. |
| 3. Yahoo API | All available history, as 1-day, 5-day, 1-month or 3-month bars | Longest history. US and international stocks, ETFs, indices, mutual funds and cryptocurrencies. Split and dividend adjusted. The only EOD server for international exchanges. |
| 4. CBOE | 1, 3, 6, 9 Months; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 Years; Max | US stocks, ETFs and CBOE indices such as VIX. History starts on January 2, 2004. |
| 5. CNBC | 2 Years (daily), 5 Years (weekly), All available (quarterly) | Use when other servers are not available. The longer ranges return weekly or quarterly bars, not daily. |
Intraday servers
| Server | Data Range choices | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. SA Finance | 1 Day [1-Min Data], 5 Days [5-Min Data] | US stocks and ETFs, regular trading hours. |
| 2. Yahoo Finance | 1 Day [1-Min], 7 Days [1-Min] | US and international symbols. The only intraday server for international exchanges. |
- Free servers keep only a few days of intraday history. To build a longer history, download every day (section 12) and keep each day's files in a separate folder or under a different extension.
- If the Data Range you had selected is not offered by the server you switch to, the program selects the first range available for that server. Check the Data Range after changing servers.
9. 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. Historical Quotes Downloader
converts the caret into the form each server expects. Index codes differ between
servers:
| Server | Example index symbols |
|---|---|
| Yahoo API | ^GSPC (S&P 500), ^DJI (Dow Jones),
^IXIC (NASDAQ Composite), ^VIX |
| NASDAQ API | ^SPX, ^NDX (NASDAQ-100),
^COMP (NASDAQ Composite) |
| CBOE | ^SPX, ^VIX |
| CNBC | ^SPX, ^DJI, ^IXIC |
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 API (EOD) or 2. Yahoo Finance
(Intraday) is selected as the Data Server. The other servers cover US-listed symbols only
and return an error for these tickers.
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 |
See Supported exchanges for the suffix of each exchange. To find the right suffix, you can also look the company up on finance.yahoo.com and use the symbol shown there. See also intraday quotes for international exchanges.
Mutual funds and cryptocurrencies
Use the Yahoo server. Mutual funds use their fund ticker, for example
VFIAX (volume is not reported for mutual funds). Cryptocurrencies use a pair
symbol, for example BTC-USD or ETH-USD.
10. Output data format
Each symbol is saved in its own text file named after the symbol, for example
MSFT.txt. Each line is one bar, and fields are separated by commas.
| Quotes Type | Fields, in order |
|---|---|
| EOD | [Symbol], Date, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume |
| Intraday | [Symbol], Date, Time, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume |
[Symbol] is included only when Add Symbol is checked.
EOD example - Add Header on, date format MMDDYYYY, separator "/":
Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume
09/21/2026,512.40,516.85,510.20,515.63,18234500
09/22/2026,515.90,519.10,513.75,518.02,16987200
09/23/2026,517.60,518.40,511.05,512.44,21456800Intraday example - Add Symbol on, time format HH:MM:
MSFT,09/23/2026,09:30,517.60,518.10,516.90,517.25,412300
MSFT,09/23/2026,09:31,517.25,517.80,516.70,517.55,198400The numbers above are only examples. Downloading the same symbol again replaces its file.
Viewing the data
- Double-click a symbol with the status Download complete to open its file in Notepad, or choose Data > Preview Quotes....
- Data > Open Data Folder... opens the output folder in Windows Explorer.
11. Using the data in charting software
| 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 | Check MetaStock in Download Settings, 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 Dates Order and download again. Most charting programs expect the oldest bar first.
12. Command line options and scheduled downloads
Command line options let you run Historical Quotes Downloader from a script or from Windows Task Scheduler. Put paths that contain spaces in quotes.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
-o <file> | Starts the program and opens the symbol list. |
-auto <file> | Opens the symbol list, checks all symbols and starts Update right away, using the current Download Settings. |
Example - open a list and download all its symbols:
"C:\Program Files\Ashkon Technology\HQDownload\hdown.exe" -auto
"C:\Users\John\Documents\Historical Quotes Downloader\Symbols\NASDAQ-100.tlf"Replace the paths with the ones on your computer.
To download automatically every day
- Set Quotes Type, Data Server, Data Range and formatting in Download Settings. Command line runs use these settings.
- Open Task Scheduler in Windows and choose Create Basic Task.
- Choose a daily trigger after the market closes.
- For the action choose Start a program, browse to
hdown.exeand type-auto "full path to your .tlf file"as the arguments.
13. What the status messages mean
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending... | The symbol is waiting to be downloaded. |
| Loading historical data... | The download is in progress. |
| Parsing data... | The data has arrived and is being written to the file. |
| Download complete | The file has been saved. Double-click the row to see it. |
| Canceled download | The download was stopped with Cancel. |
| Connection error | The server could not be reached: no internet connection, a firewall blocking the program, or the server did not answer. |
| Connection error or wrong symbol | The server answered but sent no data. The server may be busy, or the symbol may be wrong for this server. |
| Wrong symbol or data is not available | The server has no data for this symbol in the selected range. |
| Invalid symbol | The symbol is empty or in a form the server does not accept. |
| Parsing error | The server sent data in an unexpected form. Try again later or use another server. |
| File error | The data file could not be saved. Check the Data Output Folder and that you are allowed to write to it. |
14. Troubleshooting - questions and answers
I get "Connection error or wrong symbol" for a symbol I know is correct.
Select another server on the Download Settings tab and click Update again. Not every server has every symbol; Yahoo has the widest coverage, especially for mutual funds and indices.
I cannot download BMO.TO or other international symbols.
International symbols work only with the Yahoo server. Select 3. Yahoo API (EOD) or 2. Yahoo Finance (Intraday) on the Download Settings tab (section 9).
Every symbol fails with "Connection error".
Check your internet connection, and make sure your firewall or antivirus allows
Historical Quotes Downloader (hdown.exe) to connect to the internet.
A message says "Could not open file to write downloaded data!"
The Data Output Folder does not exist or you are not allowed to write to it. Click ... and choose a folder inside your Documents folder.
Is the data real-time?
No. Data from the free servers is usually delayed by 15 minutes or more.
How far back does the data go?
It depends on the server: Yahoo returns all available history, CBOE starts in January 2004, SA Finance offers up to Max, and NASDAQ API up to 5 years. Intraday data covers the last 1 to 7 trading days (section 8).
Is the data adjusted for splits and dividends?
Yahoo data is split and dividend adjusted. For other servers it depends on the source.
How do I get 15-minute, 30-minute or hourly bars?
The free servers provide 1-minute and 5-minute bars. Load that file into your charting program and use its timeframe (compression) setting to build longer bars.
The CNBC server gave me weekly data.
That is expected. CNBC returns daily bars only for the 2 Years range; 5 Years is weekly and All available is quarterly.
Can I download options or futures prices?
No. Options and commodity futures data are no longer supported.
15. Registration and support
| Register (buy a license) | USD $49.95, one-time fee, no subscription. Order Historical Quotes Downloader online. |
| Applying your license | A license.key file is emailed to you within two business days. Run the license.key file, then close Historical Quotes Downloader and start it again. Help > About shows your name under Registered to. |
| Online help | Help > Contents |
| Program version | Help > About... |
| Product page | Historical Quotes Downloader |
| Contact | Contact Us or Help > Online Support - questions about ordering: order@ashkon.com |
When asking for help, please include the program version, the Data Server and Quotes Type you used, the symbol, and the status message you see.