Stock Quotes Pro

Stock Quotes Pro User Guide

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

1. What Stock Quotes Pro does
2. Before you start
3. Quick start: your first download
4. The main window
5. Symbol lists (.tlf files)
6. Finding a company symbol
7. Settings
8. Choosing the date range
9. Data servers
10. Symbol formats: stocks, indices, international
11. Output data format
12. Using the data in charting software
13. What the status messages mean
14. Troubleshooting - questions and answers
15. 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.

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.

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.

3. Quick start: your first download

1. Start Stock Quotes Pro and choose Tools > Settings... (or click the Settings button on the toolbar).
2. Under Data Server select a server (see section 9).
3. Under Time Interval select a period, for example One Year, or select Custom Range and set the From and to dates (see section 8).
4. Check the Data Output Folder path. Click ... to choose another folder. Click OK.
5. 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.
6. Click Update on the toolbar.
7. When the status shows Download Complete, double-click the symbol to see the data.
8. Click Save to keep the symbol list for next time.

4. The main window

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

Toolbar buttons

Menus

Handy shortcuts

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 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: < > : \ " / | ? * &

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.

1. Type the full or partial company name in Search for.
2. Select Starts with or Contains and click Find.
3. 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.
4. 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.

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.

Special Formatting

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

SA and FinViz do not provide index data.

International exchanges

Add the exchange suffix to the company's symbol:

See Supported exchanges for the suffix of each exchange, or 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.

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.

[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.

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.

13. What the status messages mean

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

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.

15. Registration and support

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.