Excel; Stock Quotes; Smart Tags: doesn't always recognize symbol.

[Guest]

Having problems with the Smart Tag recognizing Stock Symbols. Sometimes it
does and sometimes it doesn’t. Like “T†for AT&T it doesn’t recognize it but
“MSFT†it does. It’d be nice if I could format a cell for a Smart Tag.

It's a nice feature, I like it.

thanks

 

[David McRitchie]

Not familiar with that but perhaps you have an extra character
=LEN(A2) should be 1 for a symbol of "T"
if it is not perhaps you might use TrimALL macro at
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#trimall

 

[Guest]

Good tip but it's length is 1.

thanks

Not familiar with that but perhaps you have an extra character
=LEN(A2) should be 1 for a symbol of "T"
if it is not perhaps you might use TrimALL macro at
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#trimall

 

[Guest]

You lost me on that one Don. Are you using the Smart Tag or other software to
get Stock Quotes?

 

[Don Guillett]

I was explaining that T is THE symbol. I just used yahoo finance but you can
use an excel query to get the data from yahoo.

 

[Guest]

Hi Don,

How would I go about using an Excel Query? Do you have an example?
Thanks

 

[Don Guillett]

Maybe this will help.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/EY010504821033.aspx?HelpLCID=1033

 

[Don Guillett]

Goto xltraders (a yahoo group) and download free files there. Look for
author donalb36
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xltraders/
Symbol Name Date Time last open high low Prev Cl Volume
AKS A K STEEL HLDG CO 2/21/2006 11:09am 11.26 11.26 11.44 11.07 11.19
535700
AVT AVNET INC 2/21/2006 11:10am 25.7 25.95 25.96 25.59 25.9 512900
AWE AWE N/A 7:50pm 0 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
BNI BURLINGTN N SANTE 2/21/2006 11:09am 80.63 80.65 80.82 80.4 80.35
452000
IBM INTL BUSINESS MAC 2/21/2006 11:09am 80.39 80.1 80.48 79.97 80.71
2128900
CSCO CISCO SYS INC 2/21/2006 11:15am 19.69 19.71 19.9 19.58 19.86
18912412
T AT&T INC. 2/21/2006 11:10am 28.25 28.25 28.47 28.16 28.28 4291900
X UNITED STATES STE 2/21/2006 11:09am 55.83 55.2 56.37 55.11 55.1
806300
FE FIRSTENERGY CP 2/21/2006 11:10am 50.13 50.22 50.86 49.99 49.9
585200
DELL DELL INC 2/21/2006 11:15am 30.09 30.15 30.23 29.91 30.38 9774879
QAVIF.X QQQQ Sep 2006 32. N/A N/A 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

[Guest]

I understand your question Sled. I have the same question. I can put MSFT in
Excel and it offers the smart tag drop down. I can put in HAMP and it works.
I put in SU which is the symbol for Suncor and it does not offer the smart
tage drop down. Maybe it wants to see four characters. I will experiment.

 

[Guest]

Maybe its a bug. This Hotfix addresses the problem.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=871251#3

 

[johnevo]

try putting US: in front of it, like US:T

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have been trying that with no success.

 

[Guest]

This Hotfix includes the following explanation. "When you type certain
established stock symbols in an Office XP document and then press SPACEBAR,
the symbol is not recognized by the smart tags feature. This issue occurs
because the Stocks.dat and the Stocks.xml files are either missing or
out-of-date." Apart from the reference to Spacebar, I think this describes
the problem. Unfortunately I can't download the missing or out-of-date files.
Not the first time one problem led to another.