Frustration - A Story in 36 Steps

1. Read that Google Spreadsheets now support dynamic updates of stock information.
2. Get excited!
3. I can have all my stock info aggregated together! In a useful layout!!
4. (I don’t care about daily info so much. Online portfolio deals do.)
5. Read the help documentation for GoogleFinance().
6. Figure out maths involved.
7. Enlist Lane’s help with maths.
8. Play around with fields until the layout is optimal.
9. Add in 9 more stocks.
10. Adjust design till it’s readable and pretty.
11. Create next section for mutual funds.
12. Enter ‘WGGFX’.
13. Get a “#N/A WGGFX is not a stock symbol” error.
14. Go to finance.google.com to double check it.
15. It is a stock symbol.
16. Get confused.
17. Wonder what it is I’m doing wrong.
18. Try entering the symbol directly into GoogleFinance() (rather than referencing it in another cell)
19. No luck.
20. Try pulling information other than the price.
21. No luck.
22. Try the original way again.
23. No luck.
24. Try another mutual fund.
25. It doesn’t work either.
26. Search the help for “Mutual Fund”.
27. Your search – Mutual Fund – did not match any answers in our Help Center.
28. Search for Mutual Fund in the discussion group
29. Find two posts from users mentioning that they don’t work.
30. Realize I didn’t do anything wrong.
31. Realize Google was too busy hyping features to mention they were incomplete.
32. Realize how much time I just wasted – Trying to save time in the future.
33. Go to the international grocery.
34. Buy a tub of goats blood.
35. Return home.
36. Curse Google.