INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Stocker.  Quite a bit of time and effort have gone into making it a viable, practical tool 
for stock portfolio management.  The limited information I have included in this brief helpfile 
should be enough to get you started; however, a more complete and detailed explanation about 
function and features will be sent at your request.  Feedback is appreciated, and I would welcome 
any recommendations for improvements and/or enhancements to include in future versions.  This 
product is considered shareware, so if you find it useful and decide to keep it (either during or 
after the 21-day trial period) please send the $10 registration fee to the name and address 
appearing at the end of this document.  (The Registration button allows you to complete a 
standard form with your name, address, E-mail address, and comments.)

REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for successfully using Stocker are as follows:  Windows 3.1, 4MB RAM, a meg 
or so of hard disk space, and Excel 5.0c.  Two fonts are also used:  Arial and ZapfDingbats.  Use 
of Arial is pretty much optional, but if you dont have ZapfDingbats you wont see the up/down 
trend indicator arrows that appear on one of the screens (youll see what I mean when you fire it 
up).  Other that that you wont need anything special except a CompuServe account accessed 
using WinCim (the source of the stock quote data).  The screens have been optimized for an 
800x600 screen resolution, but everything works fine in 640x480, too.

BACKGROUND
Stocker was created to provide you with some tools for managing and tracking stocks without 
taking away from Excels inherent functionality.  Care has been taken to create an environment 
that gives your data some structure, while at the same time allowing you to utilize Excels myriad 
tools as you see fit.

Two files are necessary for running Stocker- STOCKER.XLS, and STOCKVBA.XLA.  They both 
need to be in the same directory in order for everything to function.  The first of the two files 
(STOCKER.XLS) consists of basically two sheets- Stocks, which contains the daily historical 
information for each of the stocks you choose to track, and Sample Portfolio, which is a sample 
portfolio of selected stocks.  While you will only need one database (Stocks) you may have as 
many portfolios as you wish; they can be added and removed as desired.

The second of the two files (STOCKVBA.XLA) is more or less the brains behind everything; it 
stays in the background.  The only one youll ever see open is STOCKER.XLS.  (A third file, 
STOCKER.STK, will also appear in your directory.  It contains default preference information for 
the application and is automatically created when Stocker is launched.) 

QUICKSTART
Already included in the Stocks database is a smattering of stocks which can be used for 
experimentation.  You can play around with just whats there or you can begin to add your own 
(and delete the ones already there if desired).  Ill get around to explaining everything in a bit more 
detail later on, but in order to see how to get some of your information into Stocker use the 
following steps:
1.  Launch WinCim and hit the Quotes button (to get the Stock Quotes dialog).
2.  Follow the directions for adding the ticker symbols for the stocks you wish to track.
3.  Retrieve the stock quotes (use either Get or Get All).
4.  Once the stock quotes appear, go to the File menu and select Save or Save As...
5.  Save the file somewhere on your hard disk.  Name it anything you want.  (The default path is 
c:\cserve\wincim\untitled.txt, which is fine.)  Subsequent to the first time youll always be 
overwriting the previous file, so use Overwrite and not Append if you happen to get that dialog 
box message.
6.  Exit CompuServe and launch STOCKER.XLS.  (If you launch STOCKVBA.XLA youll get a 
message that says launch STOCKER.XLS first.)
7.  Hit the Update button.  (If Stocker cant find the CompuServe file itll let you know.  Just follow 
the directions.)
8.  For each new stock youre adding to the database youll be prompted for a name and a 
description.  The name is required but the description is not.  If you dont know the exact name of 
the company dont worry about it, just put something in; you can change the name (and 
description) later if you want to.
9.  Finished.

OVERVIEW
This will serve as a very brief overview of the application and some of its basic features.

STOCKS
On the Stocks database you will find a number of buttons; HgLts..., 4, 2, 1, T, one with an 
asterisk, and Update.  HgLts... will display the highlighting parameters dialog box, which allows 
you to identify the price and percentage thresholds you wish to see highlighted.  The next five are 
toggle switches; each will either display or hide information.  The last button, Update, is the one 
you used to update your database with the stock quote data you retrieved from CompuServe.
The database consists of a rolling 40 weeks of stock information.  As you approach week 40 the 
database will automatically drop the oldest weeks information and add another week to the end.  
(You can also move the start date of your database forward at any time.)  A few weeks of stock 
history is included in the sample database.  If you skip a couple of days between updates, the 
gaps in your database will be filled based on a linear trend from the last recorded closing price to 
yesterdays close.  (The calculated trend figures will be marked with an asterisk to differentiate 
them from the actual stock closing prices.)
To get more information about a certain stock in your database, double-click anywhere on its line 
(you dont have to double-click its ticker symbol, although you can).  The dialog box that appears 
will give you some additional options including the ability to perform stock splits and charting.  
The Stocker menu contains five commands (in addition to the About command):  Update 
Database, Add/Del Portfolios..., Set Database Dates..., Import Data... and Preferences...
Update Database performs the same operation as the Update button; Preferences... brings up 
the Preferences dialog box.  Set Database Dates... allows you to change the start date of your 
database if you so desire, and Add/Del Portfolios... allows you to add and delete portfolios to your 
hearts content.  Import Data... allows you to import information from previous releases of 
Stocker into the latest version and/or merge multiple Stocker databases and portfolio collections 
into one workbook.  Speaking of portfolios...

PORTFOLIOS
The same Stocker menu exists for each of the portfolios, and operates as outlined above.
There are three buttons on each portfolio:  Transactions..., Add..., and Refresh.  Transactions... 
allows you to buy and sell stocks, adding those transactions to your portfolio.  (Commission 
amounts are calculated based on the commission structure of Quick&Reilly, one of the brokerage 
houses represented on CompuServe.)
Add... allows you to add stock transaction information to your portfolio without actually performing 
a transaction.  (This comes in handy if you want to add transaction history to your portfolio.)  
Refresh simply refreshes the market price of each stock (from your Stocks database), sorts your 
portfolio by transaction date and ticker symbol, and recalculates the Target and Stop Loss 
indicators based on the specified thresholds.  (The Refresh operation is automatically done during 
a database Update, so the only time you may need to use it is if you manually add some 
transaction history or change your Target and Stop Loss percentages and want to see the results 
immediately.)
Each portfolio is protected but without a password, so it can be unprotected at any time.  (It is re-
protected during normal operations.)  Its protected only to prevent accidental data loss.  To 
modify any transaction, double-click on its line.  In addition to being able to modify the transaction 
information (in case the actual stock price, date, or commission amounts vary) some additional 
options appear, including charting and the ability to immediately effect a transaction.  This dialog 
box also shows you how your stock is performing with Return and Loaded percentage 
calculations.
(*Note:  The Return percentage does not take into consideration commission amounts; Loaded 
considers both the purchase and sale commission.)
Also, for your convenience (and because I liked the idea), you may enter pertinent information 
about your broker by clicking on the Broker graphic.

CHARTS
There are two types of charts offered:  Line and 3D Line.  The Line option also give you the ability 
to add either a linear trend, a moving average, or both to the chart.  You can also choose from 
one of four time periods for your chart- One month, three months, six months, or the entire stock 
history.  The value axis of each chart can be changed to float or be set (pegged) at zero.  All of 
these options are found as commands from the Stocker menu, which is modified based on 
whether or not youre looking at a chart or a portfolio.  (By the way, since a chart can be re-
created at any time, the chart is removed once you leave the chart screen.)

There is quite a bit more to cover but this is enough to get you started.  Good luck... hope you 
make a killing in the market.

Gregg Harris
NorthWind Development Group Inc.
9372 S Crestmore Way
Highlands Ranch, CO  80126-2723
CompuServe ID: 74727,1410
Internet: 74727.1410@compuserve.com
