I wrote this in response to a question last week from Susan
about SPY quotation data:
Susan,
Beware of SPY on Stockcharts.com (or any equity that issues
dividends and cap gains), including stocks. I think Stockcharts is
generally fine for intraday charts, however Stcokcharts is one of
the few (I can't find another) that adjusts past prices not just
for splits (they all do that)
but also for dividends
and cap gains distributions!
You can verify this by checking some major SPY top or bottom in
the past on another charting service and comparing to Stockcharts.
They are different! Stockcharts historical data is artificially
adjusted downward.
What does it mean? Stockcharts is fabulous for comparing long
term total returns because it includes dividends. Good for buy and
hold investors and value investors. However, for short term
traders, you can't pinpoint old gaps, tops and bottoms that may
come into play.
It is generally fine for intraday charts as they usually do the
adjustments for dividends and cap gains once a quarter. Know when
SPY is adjusted so this doesn't throw you a head scrathing
curveball the day after.
I discussed this with the owner of Stockcharts, Chip Anderson, a
couple months ago when he spoke at our monthly cycles meeting in
Buena Park, CA and he confirmed what I just said. There is info
about it on stoccharts if you snoop around.
Doug Milliken
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Beware Stockcharts data is Total Return !
SPY Historical
Posted by dougmil on 11th of May 2011 at 12:27 pm
Ascr,
I wrote this in response to a question last week from Susan about SPY quotation data:
Susan,
Beware of SPY on Stockcharts.com (or any equity that issues dividends and cap gains), including stocks. I think Stockcharts is generally fine for intraday charts, however Stcokcharts is one of the few (I can't find another) that adjusts past prices not just for splits (they all do that) but also for dividends and cap gains distributions!
You can verify this by checking some major SPY top or bottom in the past on another charting service and comparing to Stockcharts. They are different! Stockcharts historical data is artificially adjusted downward.
What does it mean? Stockcharts is fabulous for comparing long term total returns because it includes dividends. Good for buy and hold investors and value investors. However, for short term traders, you can't pinpoint old gaps, tops and bottoms that may come into play.
It is generally fine for intraday charts as they usually do the adjustments for dividends and cap gains once a quarter. Know when SPY is adjusted so this doesn't throw you a head scrathing curveball the day after.
I discussed this with the owner of Stockcharts, Chip Anderson, a couple months ago when he spoke at our monthly cycles meeting in Buena Park, CA and he confirmed what I just said. There is info about it on stoccharts if you snoop around.
Doug Milliken