How to Use GOOGLEFINANCE Function in Google Sheets ( Easy Essential Guide )

In this article, you will learn, How to Use GOOGLEFINANCE Function in Google Sheets

How to Use GOOGLEFINANCE Function in Google Sheets

Accessing the financial data of a company is essential in analyzing its financial position and predicting its future performance.

Many companies have invested in the financial market and before buying their securities, you need to analyze their past performance and predict their future. The easiest way to access their financial data is through Googlefinance.

The Googlefinance function allows you to access and import financial and currency market data and trends for a specified period or a specific day. Through the function, you can track and share the current performance of different securities for further analysis.

Through the historical data tab, you can retrieve the past performance of currency pairs, different company shares, and annual dividends in various companies.

How to Use GOOGLEFINANCE Function in Google Sheets

This article outlines the various terms used in the Googlefinance function and how you can use them to access and import real-time financial data into Google Sheets.

Terms Used in Google Finance Function

  • There are different terms to use when accessing the financial data and performance of different securities in the stock market. They include:

Symbol

  • This is an acronym or word that represents the company whose data you want to track. For example, the stock symbol for Broadcom international is AVGO.  The symbol is also known as ticker.

Attribute

  • This is the type of information you want to track about a stock. This can be the highest price of a security in the last 24 hours, the opening and closing price, or the volume of traded shares.

Historical Data

  • The performance of a stock over a specified period is accessible through the historical data tab. The period can be a week, a month, three months, and so on. Dividends, the highest price, and the lowest price are some of the data you can access through the historical data tab.

If you want to access financial data starting from 1st Jan 2022 to 30th June 2022, 1st Jan is the start date while 30th June is the end date.

Instead of keying in the end date, you can type the number of days from the start date whose data you want to track. For example, 1st Jan followed by num-30 will give you a thirty-day historical data of security starting from January 1st.

Interval

  • The frequency of the data you are retrieving is stated in intervals, for example daily, weekly, semi-annually, and annually.

How to Use Googlefinance Function in Google Sheets

  • The Googlefinance function works best on Google sheets. To access and retrieve data, you should open the Google sheets (blank) and type GOOGLEFINANCE on an empty tab followed by the ticker symbol for the company whose share performance you want to track. 
  • Note that you should use the correct ticker symbol or you may end up accessing the wrong data. For clarity, visit the company’s website and confirm its ticker symbol.

Example: if you want to access the share price of the securities in Walmart Company, you should start by typing GOOGLEFINANCE followed by WMT in brackets. 

  • After the ticker symbol, add a comma and type the attribute. In this case, the attribute is the share price normally written in uppercase. Both the ticker symbol and attribute should be under quotation marks as follows.

GOOGLEFINANCE (“WMT”, [“PRICE”].

  • Suppose you want to access the variation in share dividends for Walmart over three months starting from 1st Jan to 31st March 2022. 
  • After typing the ticker symbol and attribute, add a comma and key in the start date in parenthesis. Add another comma and write the end date or num-days in a parenthesis.
GOOGLEFINANCE (“WMT”, [“Dividends”], [“2022,1,1”], [“2022,3,31”].
  • Num- days apply for a period less than 50 days, in the above case, you use end-date.
  • It is important to specify the two dates, otherwise, the function never displays unspecified data on the sheets.
  • You can also type the interval after the end-date but this is optional. 

GOOGLEFINANCE (“WMT”, [“Dividends”], [“2022,1,1”], [“2022,3,31”], [“DIVIDENDS90”]

  • In the above example, you should provide all the parameters in the right format to retrieve the correct and complete data for the period. Failing to enter the start date or the end date will give you incomplete data. For example, entering the start date alone will give you data for that specific date and not the whole interval.

Other parameters that you retrieve by this procedure include opening and closing price, highest and lowest share price, market capital, the percentage change in price, and the currency under which the security is priced.

How to Use GOOGLEFINANCE Function in Google Sheets (Summary)

The Googlefinance function has simplified access to financial data which is crucial for anyone hoping to join the financial market or invest in securities. It also helps financial analysts access accurate data for gauging the financial position of different companies. 

It is important to use the right format for various parameters to access the right information.

We hope this tutorial on How to Use GOOGLEFINANCE Function in Google Sheets was useful

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