Ask Agatha
Excel tips

Over the years, Agatha is built some expertise in using Excel for solving problems in finance. She is willing to share her experience with you. Below you will find some of the tricks that she considers as most useful. Some are quite basic, other are more elaborate. If you have any questions that you would like to ask Agatha, send a message to Professor Farber who will forward your questions.

Sensitivity analysis with the Data|Table command
An analysis of coupon-bond prices to interest rates and coupons.
Breakeven analysis with the Tools|Goal Seek command
Computing the quantity sold to set NPV=0
Operations on matrices in Excel
Calculating the expected return and risk of a portfolio using matrix algebra.
Matrix inversion in Excel
Finding an optimal portfolio
Finding an optimum (max or min) with the Tools|Solver command
Calculting the composition of an efficient portfolio
Mutiple regression with Tools|DataAnalysis|Regression
Finding the sensitivity of bond prices to futures prices

Last update 17/02/00