Let A1:D17 house the sample you provided, with A1:D1 housing the labels
Date, Symbol, etc.

In E2 enter & copy down:

=SUMIF($B$2:B2,B2,$D$2:D2)

F2: FFF

which is a symbol of interest.

G1: Buy

H1: Sell

I1: 0

G2:

=MIN(IF($B$2:$B$17=$F2,IF($C$2:$C$17=G$1,$A$2:$A$1 7)))

which you need to confirm with control+shift+enter then copy across to H2.

I2:

=INDEX($A$2:$A$17,MATCH(1,($B$2:$B$17=F2)*($E$2:$E $17=I$1),0))

which you also need to confirm with control+shift+enter.

Hope the latter is sufficient regarding your 2nd query.

mcarrington wrote:
Hi, I have four columns of data and would like to identify:
1-what is the first date a symbol was bought or sold
2-On what dates did the number of shares for that symbol = 0 (like if
we bought 1000 and sold a total of 1000 a few days later)
Does anybody have any thoughts on this? I am at a loss and would love
your input!

Date Symbol Action Shares
12/1/2005 BBB Sell -1200
12/1/2005 FFF Sell -1000
11/30/2005 BBB Buy 400
11/30/2005 AAA Sell -200
11/29/2005 GGG Sell -500
11/29/2005 CCC Sell -1000
11/28/2005 DDD Buy 700
11/28/2005 BBB Sell -200
11/25/2005 GGG Sell -500
11/23/2005 GGG Buy 1000
11/23/2005 FFF Buy 1000
11/23/2005 EEE Buy 1000
11/23/2005 DDD Sell -1000
11/22/2005 CCC Buy 1000
11/22/2005 BBB Buy 1000
11/22/2005 AAA Sell -1000