1. Stock Challenge Directions Part 1 Labeling Categories and Format the Basic Setup Don’t forget to continue to autosize you columns as you see text overlap or not fit in a cell. If you see #### symbols, it means the text is too wide to be seen and autosize will fix that as well. Change the tab name at the bottom of the sheet to Stocks. Right click on the tab name and give it a Tab Color

2. In cell A1, type the text Today’s Date Use Control+B to bold the text in A1 and raise the font size to 12 Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around this cell.

3. Select cells D1 and E1. On the Home tab, Alignment section, select Merge & Center. In the merged cells, type the text Gift. Use Control+B to bold the text, raise the font to size 12. Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around these merged cells.

4. Select cells F1 and G1. On the Home tab, Alignment section, select Merge & Center. In the merged cells, put the number 10,000. Bold and raise the font size to 12. Use the Control+1, the Number tab, and select Currency to format the amount. Make sure the $ sign is selected in the Symbol box. Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around these merged cells.

5. Select cells B3, C3, D3, E3. On the Home tab, Alignment section, select Merge & Center. In the merged cells, type the text Purchase Information Use Control+B to bold the text in the merged cells, raise the font size to 12. Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around these merged cells.

6. Select cells F3, G3, H3, and I3. On the Home tab, Alignment section, select Merge & Center. In the merged cells, type the text Current Information Use Control+B to bold the text in the merged cells, raise the font size to 12. Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around these cells.

7. In cell A4, type the text Company In cell B4, type the text Date In cell C4, type the text Shares In cell D4, type the text Price In cell E4, type the text Cost Select the text in A4 trough I4 and bold it using Control+B In cell F4, type the text Price In cell G4, type the text Value In cell H4, type the text Gain/Loss In cell I4, type the text Days Held

8. Select cells D5 through H11. Use Control+1, Number tab, and select Currency. The Decimal places should read 2, Symbol should be a $, and choose the “red” selection without parentheses for Negative numbers.

9. Select cells A4 through I9. Use the border icon on the toolbar or Control+1 and the Border tab, All Borders to put borders around each of the cells in the range.

10. In cell A11, type the text Total Bold and raise the font size of this text to 12. Select cells A11, E11, G11, and H11 (remember, using the control key lets you select non-contiguous cells). Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around these cells.

11. You should now have a document that looks like the picture below: If not, carefully go back and find out what direction you missed.

12. Stock Challenge Directions Part 2 Formulas and Retrieving External Data In cell B1, type the formula=TODAY() Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around this cell. Inserting Formulas (don’t forget to use the Enter or Return key after typing a formula)

13. In the cell H1, type the formula=F1-E11 Use the Borders dropdown on your toolbar and select the Thick Box Border to put around this cell. Format the cell by using Control+1, Number tab, and select Currency. The Decimal places should read 2, Symbol should be a $, and choose the “red” selection without parentheses for Negative numbers.

14. In cell E5, type the formula =C5*D5 Use the “smart” copy and paste feature to put this formula in E6 through E9

15. In cell G5, put the formula=F5*C5 Use “smart” copy and paste to put this formula in G6 through G9

16. In cell H5, put the formula=G5-E5 Use “smart” copy and paste to put this formula in H6 through H9

17. In cell E11, put the formula=SUM(E5:E9) (This can also be done by selecting E11, the Sigma key on the toolbar and then selecting E5 through E9)

18. In cell G11, put the formula =SUM(G5:G9)

19. In cell H11, put the formula =G11-E11

20. In cell I5, put the formula=$B$1-B5 After entering this formula autosize the column. To make the absolute value read correctly, click the comma symbol on the toolbar under the Home Tab in the Number section.

21. Click the Decrease Decimal icon on the toolbar in the same section to get rid of decimals if they appear. Don’t worry if you get an odd number … this will fix itself after one day on its own.

22. Use “smart” copy and paste to put this formula in I6 through I9 (don’t worry if the cell gives you a “strange answer with that formula... it will eventually “fix itself” as we go further in the directions and time passes).

23. Conditional Formatting to add “stationary” background color to rows. Select cells B3-I3. Then, hold down the control key and also select A4 through I9. Select the Conditional Formatting dropdown Select New Rule… Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format. In Format values where this formula is true: put the formula =MOD(ROW(),2) Choose the background fill color by selecting Format… ; then from the Fill tab, select a light shade pastel color.

24. Follow the same process again … select the same cells, and conditional format with a second formula =AND(MOD(ROW(),2)=0) Shade this formula with an opposing light shade pastel color… You will end up with something like the picture below.

25. Select cells A11, E11, G11, and H11 (remember, using the control key lets you select non-contiguous cells). Use the paintbucket icon on the toolbar to choose a contrasting light pastel fill color that is different from the other 2 previously chosen.

26. Stock Challenge Directions Part 3 Shop For Stocks—Do you feel lucky !!! Choose 5 companies from the stock market to invest your $10,000 gift. They must be publicly traded on NYSE. Use the link to the NYSE to search for company symbols.NYSE Use the links under Subsector to choose the types of businesses you would like to invest in.

27. Use the Symbol column to get their “call” letters for your Excel chart and the Last Trade column for the price per share you will pay.

28. In cells A5, A6, A7, A8, and A9 record the “call” letters for your 5 companies. In B5, B6, B7, B8, and B9 record todays date when you picked each company using the MM/DD/YYYY format.

29. Record the Purchase price for each company’ shares in D5, D6, D7, D8, and D9 by going to the links where you found your company.

30. In cells C5, C6, C7, C8, and C9 select the number of shares you would like to buy. Keep an eye on cell H1 as you do this. You may not let the number in that cell go below 0. Get as close to 0 as possible by adjusting your shares. If it turns red, you must decrease your shares of stock until it is a positive number. Ignore what happens in H5 through H11 … that will fix itself in the next directive.

31. Retrieve External Data Select cell A14 Under the DATA tab, in the Get External Data section select Existing Connections, MSN MoneyCentral Investor Stock Quotes.

32. When the Import Data box appears, it should say =$A$14 If it does, click the Properties tab in the lower left and also check the Refresh Control section box for Refresh every and change the number from 60 minutes to 1 minute. Then, click OK.

33. When the Enter Parameter Value box appears, use your mouse to select cells A5 through A9. The formula =Stocks!$A$5:$A$9 should appear in the box (another way would be to type each companies symbols and separate each with a comma and a space. Check the box below it that says Use this value/ reference for future refreshes, then click OK.

34. Your spreadsheet should now look something like this.

35. Select cell F5. Type the = sign and then click the price for that company in the column that says Last in the chart that just appeared (now F5 should read =D17 in the fx formula bar.

36. If it does, “smart” copy and paste this formula from F6 through F9. Fix the fill colors that change as a result of this.

37. Don’t forget to autosize your columns 1 last time. You should now have a file that looks like this Save your file in your “H” drive Email to your instructor. Be sure to follow business email protocol. Every once in a while, you might be curious and want to open the file and see how your stocks are doing. It is fully automated now and will give you new totals every time you open it. On exam day, let’s see who made the most.