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| Author | Keeping track of my stock portfolio on System 7 (Read 211980 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023 
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on: October 04, 2025, 17:42
The dear wife and I have a small portfolio of individual stocks that we keep around for retirement. Following Andrey Kostolanyi's advice (anyone remember him?), we buy our stock, go to sleep and check again in 10 years and rejoice. Well, I check them a little bit more often and this is where System 7 comes in, because I keep track with my IIci / 7.1! Since I don't trade much, checking the stock quotes to satisfy my curiosity is enough. I'd like to share my way with you, perhaps one of you wants to join in on the fun or has any suggestions :-) Disclaimer: Before getting into the details: I'm well aware that I could be doing this on modern hardware, in a modern Online Banking / Online Brokerage system with fancy graphics (which I don't need) and lots of analytics and tracking with the goal of trying to sell me more (ugh ...) So, System 7 to the rescue. All that I'm using is a spreadsheet (or just use whatever suits you, BBedit etc.) and a Gopher client. I'm using TurboGopher but MacLynx can do it too. I then once wrote down all the stock ticker symbols of the companies whose stock we hold and put them into the spreadsheet, e.g. AAPL for Apple Inc. I then fire up the Gopher client on the IIci and head to this Gopher hole, which allows you to retrieve real time stock quotes: gopher://magical.fish/stockquotes If you hit the "enter a stock ticker symbol" line, you'll be prompted with an input field. Enter the stock ticker symbol of the company in question, e.g. AAPL for Apple Inc. as in the above example. It'll then present you with a real time stock ticker quote. (courtesy of the NYSE exchange). Here's one I've requested for SAP: http://revontulet.org/2025/10/04/7407bb6881d647eea5a34afcca9f9bc3.jpg I usually copy the "last price" given into my spreadsheet and multiply it with the number of stocks we hold to get a rough estimate of where the stock portfolio is going. (I've since also added the price we bought the individual stock for and do a little more calculations, but I won't go into detail for now) Bottom line: It's something Sytem 7 is capable of, it's fun to do it on System 7 and if you value your anonymity (my bank won't know what stocks I viewed, and won't try to cross-sell / up-sell) it serves a purpose, I guess. I personally just like to keep records locally, no matter how "safe" my bank claims their Online Banking to be. Of course, if there'd be a free API, a dedicated application requesting the stock quotes might work even better than via gopher (anybody looking for programming project?). Be aware it only features NYSE stock ticker symbols, so if you have something very country specific that isn't traded there, it'll return a 500 error akin to a "not found". I have this issue with 1 or 2 of our stocks. This could be fixed by adding more exchanges ... I guess I'll e-mail the author and ask, won't hurt. There is btw also a gopher service for precious metals, so you could keep track of your gold & silver investments as well. I won't screenshot my portfolio for obvious reasons (sorry ;-) ) but I think the above gives a good explanation of the setup. It can be all done in System 7, in 2025! :-) |
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Last Edit: October 05, 2025, 06:15 by Bolkonskij
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mac-cellar
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128 MB  Posts: 176 Gotta love System 7
Reply #1 on: October 04, 2025, 18:21
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Clever! I like this - thanks for sharing this, Bolkonskij. - System 7 and these Macs of ours may be old, but they are still useful for organizing bits and pieces of everyday life, just like you've described. Recently, I sorted through a collection of toy trains to find a selection my child could give to a friend for his birthday. I needed a detailed list to make things easier. I created a database in ClarisWorks, that I later converted to a big Excel spreadsheet. It was a fun project, and System 7 software was the right tool. - The magical.fish Gopher hole is deep and connects to a variety of information sources like this. It is well worth checking out!
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ovalking
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128 MB Posts: 199
Reply #2 on: October 06, 2025, 15:07
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The only shares I've got are from my employer, and couldn't find them (maybe I need a UK version?), but this is still cool! I think this is the URL gopher://magical.fish:70/1/stockquotes
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Lichen Software
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128 MB Posts: 252 
Reply #3 on: October 07, 2025, 00:20
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I went looking. You could also do this with Filemaker Pro. With some hunting, becausemthe apple aite no longer carries the info, I found FMP 2 FMP3.0v1 FMP4.0v1 and FMP5.0v1 Will all work with system 7. Interesting aside... If you can find Filemaker Pro 3 developer version, once you have a program, you can make your own stand alone runtime versions that will network. This is the only version that will do this. They only made that mistake once.  my.oditech.knowledgebase/83/Filemaker-Operating-Systems-Compatibility.html
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snes1423
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256 MB Posts: 458 A Man born of Mechina
Reply #4 on: October 07, 2025, 01:05
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would be nice to have a dedicated app with ability to export to 68k/ early ppc excel
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #5 on: October 07, 2025, 07:00
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Quote from: Lichen Software If you can find Filemaker Pro 3 developer version, once you have a program, you can make your own stand alone runtime versions that will network. This is the only version that will do this. They only made that mistake once. Good to read from you again, thanks for dropping by Yeah, that'd be another route to go. Unfortunately, I have next to zero actual Filemaker know how. Wasn't @cballero getting into this? You happen to have a stock portfolio that needs managing, C. ? :-D
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #6 on: October 08, 2025, 06:15
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I don't have stocks..yet anyway?  so, as far as FileMaker 3 Developer Edition, even finding mentions of that particular FMP version have been as scarce as a snowball in summer: the closest I found in my quest of the ultimate FileMaker version has been scoring a few sleeved CD-ROMs of FMP 4.1 on eBay  but I haven't given up hope yet, so let's keep searching for a copy! at first, I thought that the FMP 3 SDK was the version that produced multi-user runtime database programs, but it didn't yield me a networkable database I could run freely (but I'm not 100% sure if I built it right or if it cannot produce networkable databases; I would thrilled to know that I just messed things up!)  maybe MTT or 68040 can help me determine the likely and/or potential error of my ways!  As small side note: while FMP version indeed runs on System 7.6.1 as Lichen Software correctly listed, just be aware that this version only runs on PPC Macs; the last 68k version is FMP 4.1.
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MTT
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256 MB Posts: 394 SSW7 Oldtimer
Reply #7 on: October 08, 2025, 08:21
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Yeah I think that if you have the 3.0 SDK, then combined with a FMPro 3 install, you have the dev kit. The version 3 SDK has been available from the MG for some time. @cballero; the v3 SDK does include network ability. Now, I've never had much to do with this SDK, but the included ReadMe had a chapter beginning: "3. Network Considerations With Filemaker Pro Runtime", so I guess that networkability is in there somewhere. I did find a FileMaker Pro 4.0 Developers Edition, located in a "Holy Grail" CD issue #30 on the Web Archive... before you get too excited @CB, it appears to be a Swedish* copy. Inside the image it has a full installer for FMP 4.0, the version 4 Runtime SDK, HomePage 3, plus some other files. * "Denna CD-ROM-skiva innehåller följande:" Swedish?
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #8 on: October 08, 2025, 16:40
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Awesome sleuthing as usual, MTT! I may have to keep trying to get it working; it may mean firing up my older Macs to try it sans emulation; networking has worked perfectly via Basilisk II and SheepShaver, so I'm hoping that v3 will play nice in that space (granted, the server needs to run on a real Mac, but I don't mind that limitation; and if I ever actually get good at the inner-workings of emulator networking options, I might even crack that code! someday, that is, lol!) Initial thoughts on FMP 4.0 Developer: I admit that standalone apps are awesome all in themselves for just about anything you can think of for sure, so locating that version in English would truly be golden! but compared to something that can network, well to me, databases were really designed to live on a network, kind of like a good grilled piece of choice burger versus boiled meat (although granted, I've done a bit of both when I'm in a real hurry to cook something! I know.. sacrilege, right? or beyond burgers for the grazers among us!) Swedish, huh? We might have to get cracking and learn some Swedish, lol!
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Lichen Software
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128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #9 on: October 09, 2025, 21:44
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LOL ... I am around. I check in from time to time and read the forum. i have nothing up and running in the System 7/8 world right now.
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MTT
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256 MB Posts: 394 SSW7 Oldtimer
Reply #10 on: October 11, 2025, 07:02
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Quote from: cballero: "Swedish, huh? We might have to get cracking and learn some Swedish, lol!"I should've looked closer to home FMPro 4 Developer Edition (Eng) has been at the MG for years (I'd forgotten it was there). I've added the Svensk copy to that MG page as well. I think however, the 3.0 version of the SDK is the one to use, if you want the networkable solution with the Runtimes.
Last Edit: October 11, 2025, 07:04 by MTT
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Lichen Software
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128 MB Posts: 252
Reply #11 on: October 11, 2025, 20:57
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Fmp3 runtimes are the only runtimes that will network. For all other versions, even running peer to peer without server, you need full versions of fmp on each work station.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #12 on: October 11, 2025, 23:54
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Awesome, Mike and cool tip, Lichen Software! so once you build a runtime database app, do they network like other FileMaker files by using the same menu options? I think I tried to use one I created using FMP 3, but I couldn't get it to work
Last Edit: October 11, 2025, 23:56 by cballero
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #13 on: October 12, 2025, 10:56
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Dumb question: Why don't you use one of the many FMP based solutions or even some of the custom written stock market apps for that? I got tons of those flying around on my system. Updating stock quotes can easily be done via scripting with QuicKeys or even Apple Script (obviously I prefer QK for that). Then the rest goes automagically. If you involve LegacyAI you can even get stock tips or predictions of future developments (if you trust the AI with that). Your approach just sounds way to ... manual for me.
Last Edit: October 12, 2025, 10:59 by 68040
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #14 on: October 12, 2025, 15:27
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@m68k: as our resident AI guru, we’d love to have a foolproof guide to mix-in AI into our soon-to-be state-of-the-art workflows!
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