Skip to content
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

  • Home
  • Books
  • Videos
  • Bio
  • Archives
  • Links
  • Me-Mail
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Historical Prices, Living and Not-So-Living Rich Uncles

June 24, 1997March 25, 2012

One of you asks: "What’s the best site for historical prices?"

Good question. The best I’ve seen — don’t be shy about letting me know of even better — is http://www.quote.com. They have daily data going back to 1988 for individual stocks. I just registered for their trial period (for free), and I’m not yet sure what services of theirs will be free forever and what will require payment in the future. But I was able to get historical quotes for a specific date (adjusted for stock splits, importantly), for individual stocks for free. Just go to the QUOTES section, then the RESEARCH pull-down menu, then HISTORICAL.

This can be extremely useful when trying to establish the basis for stock you’ve inherited (the stock’s price on the date of death) or received as a gift (its price the day your rich uncle bought it, because if he’s living, his basis is supposed to transfer to you). It also appears that you can get the entire database back to 1988 for a single stock in comma-delimited form (great for statistical analysis) including open, high, low, close, volume for an absolute pittance ($1.95 for a single file). If you’re only looking for a file of daily data going back about a year or so, then http://www.i-soft.com provides it for free.

Post navigation

← Urban Legends
A Guilt-Free Upgrade →

Quote of the Day

"You see those charts that say if you put away $500 a year starting at age 20, by the time you're 50 you'd have a gazillion dollars. It just makes you ill that you didn't do it. You almost want to grab young people and shake 'em and say, 'Please don't make the same mistake I did. Please.'"

James Carville

Subscribe

 Advice

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

"So full of tips and angles that only a booby or a billionaire could not benefit." -- The New York Times

Help

MYM Emergency?

Too Much Junk?

Tax Questions?

Ask Less

Recent Posts

  • Food For Thought

    September 4, 2026
  • They're Leaving!

    September 3, 2026
  • Promises / Chutzpah / Stock Updates

    September 1, 2026
  • Ron, Jerry, And Ben

    August 31, 2026
  • Ay-eye-ay-aye -- Oh!

    August 29, 2026
  • Taking Back Religion -- And Trump's Attempt to Annex Canada

    August 27, 2026
  • The Mar-A-Lago Mafia

    August 25, 2026
  • Has The WSJ Gone Commie?

    August 24, 2026
  • Vaguely Related Good News

    August 23, 2026
  • Socialism and Spam

    August 22, 2026
Andrew Tobias Books
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
©2026 Andrew Tobias - All Rights Reserved | Website: Whirled Pixels | Author Photo: Tony Adams