Showing posts with label cool tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cool tools. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2016

Cool tool - IBorrow shows you short stock availability and borrow rates

While reading one of the many blogs I follow I ran across this cool tool which I'd like to share with you:

https://www.iborrowdesk.com/

Interactive Brokers provides data showing borrow availability and the rate you'll pay to borrow the stock.  Using this data however is a bit clunky.  Fortunately IBorrow has come along allowing one to quickly pull up and visualize the data.


For those looking at option strategies, which broad based etf's to short, or other strategies, knowing the quantity and rate of shares available can be important.  I suggest you give it a try.

ht: Glenn Chan

Friday, March 4, 2016

Free delayed quotes and a plethora of other financial data

If you are looking to import quotes into an excel spreadsheet, I haven't found anything else as convenient or extensive.  It can take you a while to get up to speed on the data available but it is worth it.   The range of data available, for free, is mind boggling.  



Here's just a sample of the data available from the Yahoo feed:

Basic QuoteFundamentalsTechnicalsEstimatesReal-Time (ECN)
CodeDescriptionCodeDescriptionCodeDescriptionCodeDescriptionCodeDescription
sSymbolj1Market Capitalizationa2Average Daily Volumet81yr Target Pricek1Last Trade (ECN with Time)
nNamef6Float Sharest7Ticker Trende9EPS Est. Next Quarterb3Bid (ECN)
pPrevious Closer5PEG Ratioj52-week Lowe7EPS Est. Current Yrb2Ask (ECN)
oOpenp5Price/Salesj5Change From 52-week Lowe8EPS Est. Next Yearc6Change (ECN)
hHighp6Price/Bookj6Pct Chg From 52-week Lowr6Price/EPS Est. Current Yrw4Day's Value Change (ECN)
gLowb4Book Valuek52-week Highr7Price/EPS Est. Next Yrc8After Hours Change (ECN)
xExchangerP/E Ratiok4Change From 52-week Highj3Market Cap (ECN)
l1Last Trade (Price Only)eEarnings/Sharek5Pct Chg From 52-week Highr2P/E (ECN)
lLast Trade (With Time)j4EBITDAm350-day Moving Avgk2Change & Percent (ECN)
d1Date of Last Trades7Short Ratiom7Change From 50-day Moving Avgv7Holdings Value (ECN)
t1Time of Last TradedDividend/Sharem8Pct Chg From 50-day Moving Avgg5Holdings Gain & Percent (ECN)
k3Last Trade SizeyDividend Yieldm4200-day Moving Avgg6Holdings Gain (ECN)
c1Changer1Dividend Pay Datem5Change From 200-day Moving Avgm2Day's Range (ECN)
p2Percent ChangeqEx-Dividend Datem6Pct Chg From 200-day Moving Avgi5Order Book (ECN)
cChange & Percent
vVolumeOption Quote Additions
mDay's RangeCodeDescription
j52-week Lowo1Open interest?
k52-week Highp3Type of option
w52-week Rangee3Expiration date
bBids3Strike price
b6Bid SizenName of option
aAsk
a5Ask Size
note, the last trade quote is l1 (lowercase 'L' then the number '1')  (that drove me nuts for a while)
here's how it looks in my spreadsheet  =RCHGetYahooQuotes(+Z2,"l1")

This is only one small segment of the data,  The full excel list of all the data points available can be found here:  http://ogres-crypt.com/SMF/Elements/ and it is a truly phenominal amount of data.  Yes, some of it is repetitive but if you are looking for data on a security, start here.  


There's also an active message board if you have any questions on implementation:


Of course you can get one cell to refer to another, so one can populate quite a bit of data in a spreadsheet by just entering the symbol.  Best part is it's all free.  

I use the plug-in almost daily and would honestly be lost without it.  I suggest you give it a try as well.


Monday, May 7, 2012

A free file sharing virtual hard drive on the cloud -- Dropbox

While there are other competing services out there from Microsoft and Google I like this companies' offering for its simplicity and ability to share folders and files with specific friends or the public at large.

In short, you download a program and create a folder (originally called Dropbox, but you can change the name and location) on your hard drive. Anything you place in this folder is uploaded to the cloud and stored in a virtual location. Now comes the fun part. You download the software on another machine and kaboom, Dropbox automatically syncs the two folders. You place a file in the Dropbox folder on your home machine and it is automatically synced with your work machine.  You can control the bandwidth allocated to the Dropbox app if you are concerned about it hogging all your resources if needed.

It gets better:

  • You can share certain sub directories with specific people and there is also a Public directory so you can share files with the general public.  Their blog reports they are rolling out an auto archive capability of all your photos and video on your smart phone.
  • They keep revisions of all your files for 30 days. If someone screws up a file or mis crops a photo, no problem, roll back the file! 
  • It's free with 2GB of storage. They sell very large plans (up to Terabyte + sized!) if you are needing something more. 
You can download the free software here.
(I get an increase in my free storage space allocation if you use their software through that link, but that is the extent of my compensation from Dropbox)

I don't put my business data on Dropbox as I'm a bit concerned about security but for pictures, company research I'm doing at home, etc it is a great way to move files about. Several years ago I spent a lot of time and effort maintaining something similar at a small business and it was a pain in the ass that never quite worked right.

 It's a testament to the blinding pace of technological progress that a company now provides the same service in a much faster and easier format, for free.

Monday, March 29, 2010

A clever etf tool with a reverse stock lookup feature.

http://www.xtf.com/ has a great feature on their web site I have been looking for -- reverse stock lookup. You can type in a stock symbol and find what etf's hold that company. Sort by size and you can instantly find sector etfs.  This is a great way to find similiar stock or etfs.

http://www.xtf.com/

The reverse stock / etf lookup feature is free after signup.  Give it a try!