How to Get Live Market Data in Excel

Pulling live market data directly into Microsoft Excel transforms your spreadsheet from a static page of numbers into a dynamic financial dashboard. Instead of manually updating stock prices or copying data from financial websites, you can set it up once and let Excel do the heavy lifting for you. This article will show you the most effective methods to get live and refreshable market data into your spreadsheets, from simple built-in tools to more powerful, custom solutions.

Use Excel’s Built-In Stocks Data Type

For most users, the easiest way to get stock data into Excel is by using the native “Stocks” data type. This feature, available for Microsoft 365 subscribers, converts plain text (like a company name or ticker symbol) into a rich data object connected to a live online source. It’s simple, fast, and requires no formulas.

How to Use the Stocks Data Type Step-by-Step:

1. Enter Your Tickers: In a column, type the ticker symbols, company names, or fund names you want to track. For example, you might type MSFT, AAPL, and GOOG.
2. Convert to Stocks Data: Select the cells containing your text. Go to the Data tab on the Ribbon and click the Stocks button in the “Data Types” group.
3. Confirm the Data: Excel will analyze your text and try to match it with a financial instrument. A small stock exchange icon will appear next to the text. If Excel finds multiple potential matches, a question mark will appear, allowing you to select the correct one from a list.

Once your text is converted, you’ve unlocked a wealth of information.

How to Add Specific Data Points

With your cells converted, you can now pull in dozens of specific data fields.

• Select one or more of your converted cells (e.g., the cell with "MSFT").
• A small "Add Column" button (it looks like a small grid with a plus sign) will appear to the right of your selection.
• Click the button to see a dropdown list of available data fields like Price, Change, % Change, 52-week high, Market cap, P/E ratio, and more.
• Select a field, and Excel will instantly populate the adjacent column with that data for all of your selected stocks. You can repeat this process to build out a complete table.

Refreshing Your Data

The data from the Stocks feature isn't real-time in the sense that it streams continuously, but it can be updated easily. To get the latest quotes (which are typically delayed by about 15-20 minutes), simply go to the Data tab and click Refresh All. Excel will ping its data source and update all the values.

Best for: Quickly building personal portfolio dashboards, creating watchlists, and performing fundamental analysis without leaving Excel.

Track Historical Performance with the STOCKHISTORY Function

While the Stocks data type is great for a current snapshot, what if you need to analyze a stock’s performance over time? For that, Excel provides the STOCKHISTORY function. This powerful formula returns a dynamic array of historical data, including open, high, low, close, and volume, for any given period.

Understanding the STOCKHISTORY Syntax

The basic structure of the function is:

=STOCKHISTORY(stock, start_date, [end_date], [interval], [headers], [properties...])

• stock: The ticker symbol of the stock (e.g., "MSFT").
• start_date: The first date for which you want to retrieve data (e.g., "1/1/2023" or using the TODAY()-365 function for the last year).
• end_date: (Optional) The last date for your range. If omitted, it defaults to the start_date.
• interval: (Optional) How frequent the data points should be: 0 for daily (default), 1 for weekly, or 2 for monthly.
• headers: (Optional) Whether to show column headers in the results.
• properties: (Optional) Which data columns to include. You can specify a sequence like 0 for Date, 1 for Close, 2 for Open, etc.

Example in Action

Let's say you want to see the daily closing price for Apple Inc. (AAPL) for all of 2023. You could use this formula:

=STOCKHISTORY("AAPL", "1/1/2023", "12/31/2023", 0, 1, 1)

This tells Excel:

• "AAPL": Get data for Apple.
• "1/1/2023", "12/31/2023": For the period of January 1st to December 31st, 2023.
• 0: Give me daily data.
• 1: Show headers.
• 1: Only show me the "Close" price column.

Because STOCKHISTORY creates a dynamic array, the results will "spill" into the cells below and to the right of where you entered the formula. This makes it perfect for feeding into charts to visualize a stock's historical performance.

Best for: Backtesting trading strategies, visualizing historical price movements, and comparing the performance of different assets over time.

Build a Custom Scraper with Power Query (Get & Transform)

For maximum flexibility, you can use Power Query to pull data from almost any financial website, such as Yahoo Finance or MarketWatch. Power Query is a data connection and transformation tool built into Excel. It's like a superpower for importing and cleaning up data from the web.

Let's walk through an example of grabbing a stock quote table from Yahoo Finance.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to the Data Tab: On the Ribbon, click Data > From Web.
2. Enter the URL: A dialog box will appear. You need a URL that points to a specific stock page. For example, to get data for NVDA, you might use: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NVDA. Paste the URL and click OK.
3. Select a Table: Excel will analyze the webpage and open the Navigator window. Here, you'll see a list of all the tables Power Query found on the page. Click through them until you see the one containing the key information you want (like "Previous Close," "Day's Range," etc.). Select it.
4. Load the Data: You'll have two options:

Set up Automatic Refresh

A static data pull isn't very useful, but Power Query really shines by making it refreshable.

• Right-click anywhere within your new data table and select Table > Refresh.
• To make it automatic, right-click the table, go to Table > External Data Properties.
• In the settings, you can check the box for "Refresh every X minutes" (you can set this to as low as one minute) or "Refresh data when opening the file."

A Quick Warning: This method is extremely powerful, but it comes with one major caveat: if the source website ever changes its structure or HTML code, your query may break and need to be fixed.

Best for: Pulling in data fields not available with Excel's built-in Stocks feature, scraping data from less common sources, and creating fully automated dashboards that refresh on a schedule.

Leverage Financial Data Add-ins

If you find the built-in methods too limiting and Power Query too finicky, a third-party Excel add-in might be the perfect solution. These are specialized tools built by financial data companies to seamlessly integrate their feeds directly into your spreadsheets. They often provide more reliable connections and a wider range of data points than any free method.

What to Expect from Add-ins

Many add-ins come with custom functions you can use directly in cells, similar to the STOCKHISTORY function but often more versatile. For example, a function might look like =MARKETDATA("AAPL","PRICE").

Popular options include:

• Stock Connector: A straightforward add-in for connecting to real-time U.S. stock quotes.
• MarketXLS: A more comprehensive add-in offering historical data, options data, technical indicators, and more.
• FactSet / Bloomberg Terminal: These are professional-grade, enterprise-level solutions with deep integration into Excel, but they come with a significant subscription cost and are usually reserved for institutional traders and analysts.

The main trade-off with add-ins is cost. While some offer limited free tiers, most professional tools require a paid subscription. However, for serious traders and investors, the cost is often justified by the reliability, data depth, and extra features they provide.

Best for: Day traders who need true real-time streaming data, advanced analysts who require obscure financial metrics, or anyone who wants a "just-works" solution without the risk of a Power Query breaking.

Final Thoughts

Excel offers multiple paths to creating a powerful and dynamic financial dashboard. From its simple, built-in Stocks data type and STOCKHISTORY function to the endless customization of Power Query, you have plenty of free tools at your disposal to stop updating data manually. For those needing enterprise-grade reliability and real-time feeds, dedicated add-ins provide an excellent upgrade.

While handling financial analysis in Excel is a great start, the real challenge often comes when trying to connect market performance to your actual business results from platforms like Shopify, Google Analytics, or Salesforce. To solve that, we created Graphed that acts as an AI data analyst that instantly connects all your business data sources into one place, allowing you to ask questions in plain English and get live, interactive dashboards in seconds. This saves you from the tedious work of manually exporting reports and trying to piece them all together, giving you more time to focus on making smart, data-driven decisions that grow your business.