Creating a Stock Analysis Chart

Background: You (your group) work as an intern(s) at a brokerage firm. You offer to
create worksheets and charts.

Skills Covered: Converting an Excel Spreadsheet to a line graph, and plotting stock
prices on it.

Purpose: Within your group, you are to analyze one company’s stock by graphing the
closing cost of the stock during a 10-day period. You research a stock for 10 consecutive
market days, create a worksheet showing dates and prices, and convert the worksheet to a
line graph chart.

Procedure:
1. Create a new Excel Spreadsheet.
2. Format Columns A, B, C, and D widths to 12.0 and choose right alignment.
3. Format Column A to Dates (choose the 0/00/0000 option in the Dates menu).
4. Format Column B through Column E to Numbers with two decimal places, and use
the 1000 separator.
5. Key the following information:
a. Make Column A heading Date (bold and underline).
b. Make Column B heading Open (bold and underline).
c. Make Column C heading High (bold and underline).
d. Make Column D heading Low (bold and underline).
e. Make Column E heading Close (bold and underline).
6. Open the date file BA_Project_11_SF in your Finance folder. Key in your group’s
company data in place of what is shown in the data file, including dates and closing price.
7. Highlight Column E, including the heading.
8. Click the Chart Wizard.
9. Choose the Line Graph icon and click Next.
10. Chose the default line graph and click Next.
11. Key the following information:
a. Chart title (Your Group’s Company Closing Prices)
b. Category X (Day)
c. Category Y (Price)
12. Click Next. Click as new sheet. Click Finish.
13. Right-click in gray area of the chart, click Format Plot Area, and choose a color.
14. Right-click in the white area outside the chart, click Format Chart Area, and choose a
color.
15. Highlight the chart title and set the font to 24 and bold.
16. Highlight the X- and Y-axis titles (Day and Price) and set the font size to 16 and
bold.
17. Save the worksheet.