financial-modeling on S Anand

How to discover new functions in Excel

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:00:00 +0000

Firstly, believe that Excel can do anything.

It’s true. Excel is a functional programming language. Not with the same power as some programming languages, maybe. But power is just a way of making a little go a long way (power = succinctness, according to Paul Graham). And Fred Brooks, in No Silver Bullet, argues:

I believe the single most powerful software-productivity strategy for many organizations today is to equip the computer-naive intellectual workers who are on the firing line with personal computers and good generalized writing, drawing, file, and spreadsheet programs and then to turn them loose.

Next, believe that Excel probably already has the function you’re looking for. Excel 2003 has over 300 functions. Presumably these are the most popular functions people use. Fair chance your function is one of them. Excellent chance that you don’t know about it.

So first, search through Excel’s help. I’ll admit, it’s not the best way to do it. I’ve learnt a trick to help me out. I search for a function that does similar stuff, and see the “See Also” section. Let me give you an example.

Once, we were modelling the revenues of a leasing company. Their finance manager had prepared a model to calculate the interest accruing from a lease. We needed the interest across several leases. With his model, we’d have to create 1 sheet for each lease. We were going to model thousands of leases. Clearly impossible.

Since I knew PMT could calculate the EMI, I checked the help on PMT, clicked the “See Also” link, and found a bunch of related functions. This, among others, lists the IPMT function, which can be used to calculate the interest at a single stroke, and a bunch of other useful functions. (That’s how I first learnt about IPMT.

But the really useful link is the “Financial functions” one, which lists every single financial function in Excel. That’s worth going through in detail. In fact, there are many such categories that are useful: database functions, information functions, lookup and reference functions and text functions have some unexplored gems. Check out the List of worksheet functions on Excel.

Comments

Rajlaxmi 13 Jan 2007 8:44 pm: Hi Anand. i ve 50+ location data in pivot format. i imported this in a template using sumif. issue is editing the formula manually in the template to take the right location. any other way? Thx.
ania 13 Feb 2007 8:36 am: how to calucate simpleinterest in excel or in m.s sheet? help me
Firdas 22 Mar 2009 4:23 am: I am surprised that you can make motion with excel. Very powerful.

Calculating IRR

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Recently, I was helping a bank define Basel 2 requirements.

For every dollar a bank lends, at least 8 cents should come from its own pocket, and the rest from its depositors. But a risky $1 loan may be like a $1.5 loan, whereas a $1 Government loan may be like a $0.5 loan. This is the "risk-weighted asset" (RWA) value. Basel 2 says 8% of risk-weighted assets should come from the bank's pocket.

I was trying to convince the people who were maintaining the leasing software that the RWA of a lease is the NPV of its future cash flows, and they had a whole lot of questions.

"What is this NPV?"

You can put 90 cents in the bank today at 11% and get $1 next year. So $1 next year is worth 90 cents today. When a customer pays $100 over the next 10 months, it's worth less than $1000 today. That's the NPV. The NPV is what you put in the bank today to get that cash flow: $100 over the next 10 months

"So why should we use NPV for leases?"

That's because when a lease is cancelled, the closure payment is the NPV. If you take a lease for 10 months at $100 a month, this includes the interest. If you terminate the lease after 5 months, you won't pay $500 for the remaining 5 months. You'll pay less -- the NPV of those $100 for 5 months. So there is some logic to using NPV as the RWA.

"OK, so how do we calculate the NPV?"

You divide each cash flow by (1 + r)^n, where r is the internal rate of return, and n is the number of years. Then you add them up. You'll get a number less than the sum of cash flows.

"And how do we calculate this IRR?"

(sheepishly) The IRR is that interest rate for which the NPV is zero.

And we got stuck here, because their software didn't have an IRR function, and the definitions for IRR and NPV are circular.

To do this in Excel is simple. Just enter the cash flow values. So, if on a cash loan of $500, you paid $100 for 6 months, and use the IRR function, as shown below. Your monthly IRR is 5.47%.

But we needed their AS/400 system to do it as well, and it didn't have the IRR function.

After a few weeks of digging around, I found a paper that said you can calculate the IRR iteratively. Let

npv be the NPV given an IRR and cash flows
sum be the sum of cash flows
p be the principal amount

Then irr = irr * log(p/sum) / log(npv/sum) is the iteration you need to successively apply.

We decided to start with 1.85 times the stated interest rate (which was a pretty good guess for most leases), and kept applying this formula until it stays more or less the same. Worked like a charm.

Here's the spreadsheet with the calculation.

Comments

pegasus 26 Dec 2006 5:38 am: very informative article
URap 28 Feb 2007 12:45 am: Thank you! This helped with my assignment.
Easy 10 Apr 2007 10:39 am: Is it possible to calculate IRR manualy and if it is, how?
ganesh 12 Apr 2007 10:46 am: how to calculate remaining EMIs (new tenure ) keeping the amount of EMI constant.
Farah 25 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: Thanks, but i need to know how to calcualte it manualy.
Haseeb 25 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: Farah IRR can only be calculated manually by using hit and trial method. It the interest rate at which the NPV should equal zero. So try with different values. However if you have a financial calculator then you can find IRR just by inputing the data into it. thanks
NAGARAJA M 25 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: Suppose this is the scenario: Principal 100,000 IRR 10% Number of months 12 Monthly payment 8,792 Total interest 4,627 But you only have this information Principal 100,000 = p Monthly payment 8,792 Number of years 12 APR 4.63% Here’s how you can calculate IRR Month Payment 1 8,792 2 8,792 3 8,792 4 8,792 5 8,792 6 8,792 7 8,792 8 8,792 9 8,792 10 8,792 11 8,792 12 8,792 Total payment 105,499 = sum First guess of IRR 8.56% 1.85 times APR NPV using first guess 100,766 = npv Second guess of IRR 9.98% irr x log(p/sum) / log(npv/sum) NPV using second guess 100,009 = npv Third guess of IRR 10.00% irr x log(p/sum) / log(npv/sum) NPV using third guess 100,000 Stop iteration
JITENDRA 25 Aug 2006 12:00 pm: pls attached finance dictionary like irr,roi,and all related collection sales
sanjeev kumar 19 Sep 2008 9:00 am: I want to ask that at what basis i can guess first IRR ,second IRR & what is about about APR.
Shishir 30 Sep 2008 12:01 pm: Hi,
Had a question regarding building a cashflow table when only IRR and the initial outlay are stated along with the period.

The project has an $80,000 investment outlay and is expected to yield an IRR of 30% over a 5 year economic life and the investment outlay is depreciated on a straight line basis towards a zero estimated salvage value

Could you please help me with this?

Thanks
Khan Nuzhat 14 Dec 2008 4:30 am: the data is good but there should be more examples of different cases, so that it surve all purpose.

Thank You
Wayne 21 Jan 2009 4:10 pm: Seems to be some mix ups between Months and Years, If you do monthly calculations, isn’t the IRR then a monthly percentage rate not an anual percentage rate?
S Anand 21 Jan 2009 4:25 pm: IRR by itself does typically refer to an annual rate, Wayne. I happen to
have used a monthly IRR in the example, and you’re right in pointing out
that it makes things a little confusing. Please replace “month” with “year”
right through the article, and I believe it would read right then.
Su 10 Feb 2009 10:32 pm: This is so fantastic. Thank you!

However I want to know how annual interest is 4627 when the sum of 8792 x12 months = 105504 and the difference between the principal amount = 5,504.

Can you explain?
Su
S Anand 14 Feb 2009 5:26 am: The interest is not on 100000, Su. It’s on a DIMINISHING balance that
just happens to be 100000 at the beginning. After making the first
payment of 8792, the principal reduces, and it’s not easy to find out
how much of that 8792 was for the principal, and how much of it was
for the interest. That’s what the article tries to explain.
Abhijit Sen 10 Feb 2010 12:23 am: Anand, can you tell me how to learn excel quickly? i dont even know how to use pivot table. Need to ramp up quickly, any suggestions?
Thomas 18 Mar 2009 9:06 am: Hi, could you state a reference to the paper you dug out? Since this will provide a good starting point for further research on my site. Thx in advance Thomas
S Anand 18 Mar 2009 12:56 pm: I’m afraid I couldn’t find it when I searched again, Thomas. Maybe a fresh Google search will work, except I can’t remember what I looked for, except that it was in a PDF file.
S Anand 25 Mar 2009 4:41 pm: Just type in the date, and the amount you received or paid on that date (as positive or negative values respectively). Then use Excel’s IRR function.
George Venesis 25 Mar 2009 2:47 pm: Hello, I have a question regarding IRR. If I have a portfolio of stocks how it is possible to calculate the IRR? For example, suppose that I invest $100.000 and I’m buying few stocks for $10.000 and $30.000. In total I have paid $40.000.The next day I have a 10% profit, that makes me $4.000 better off. How it is possible to calculate IRR? Regards George
S Anand 10 Feb 2010 4:51 pm: Excel for Dummies is a good starting point.
Saravna Kumar 5 Aug 2010 7:03 am: Sir, Realy your excell tips and macros are very usefull to every one those who are not familiar in excell thankfull to you thanking you
Moin Siddiqui, Dubai 20 Jul 2010 8:28 pm: Hi Anand, Nice Examples and answers above, unfortunately i never worked on this before, but this method is using in my new job, i want to learn IRR & ROI in detail with practical. Dear anand pls help me to learn it in a very easy and quick way, new job is in OIL & GAS Sector. Request for quick reply Thnx in advance Moin Siddiqui
Jean 29 Sep 2010 10:46 pm: If one is calculating the IRR on a project that requires debt capital, in determining the annual net income of the project does one have to include principal repayment on the loan
Fahad 17 Oct 2011 2:27 pm: Internal rate of return (IRR) is the rate of return at which the project will generate returns of a PV of 0 or simply at which the NPV of the project will be zero. it is calculated using a test & trail method.Formula is first you will calculate 2 NPVs of projected cashflows of the project using any 2 cost of capital rates. suppose if company’s Own cost of capital is 8% you will calculate the NPV first @ 8% and a second NPV at any rate higher than 8 % …..say 15%.The answer with the higher NPV will result in negative NPV then apply the rates to this formula to get the IRR Lower rate + (NPV @ Lower rate /(Npv @ Lower rate - Npv @ Higher Rate)) x (Higher rate -Lower rate) suppose LR = 8% HR =15 % NPV @ LR = 1000 NPV @ HR=500 IRR will be 14.5 %
Albert Akankwasa 25 Nov 2011 8:52 am: Suppose a cost of the project is 84,418,780, the annual return is 20,000,000 and the annual growth rate is 20%. What is the IRR and PAY BACK PERIOD?
sagar 9 Aug 2011 9:05 am: what is meaning of IRR and how it is calculate. where it is use /
Sunidhi Gupta 22 Nov 2011 7:05 pm: that was really helpful and understandable. can I access daily updates of it on my id.
Srinivas 2 Feb 2012 2:36 pm: In the context of a finance company, how to calculate cost of capital of an entity and then compare it with IRR of a loan proposal, to arrive at the break-even rate. Pls. elucidate with an example.

ATM breakeven

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Banks install ATMs to lower their branch costs, and to attract new customers. When working out the economics of ATMs, we found that lowering branch costs alone could not be a viable reason to install an ATM.

The bank argued as follows:

“Every time someone withdraws money from an ATM, they avoid going to the branch. With enough people going to the ATM, I can afford not to increase my branch size, and that saves me money. Since it costs me Rs 20 every time a person withdraws cash (in terms of salary, rent, etc.) and an ATM costs about Rs 2,200 a day, I’ll break even if there are 110 cash withdrawals from the ATM.”

The argument misses a crucial point: every ATM transaction does not replace a branch transaction. People visit ATMs more frequently than branches, thanks to them having smaller queues and being open 24 hours. As a rule of thumb, people visit ATMs twice as often as a branch to withdraw cash.

A teammate didn’t believe me. We argued.

“When I used the branch, I would withdraw money for the entire month at the beginning of the month. I continue the same with an ATM.”

“But I withdraw cash whenever I need money. And in smaller chunks. Sometimes, I just withdraw Rs 200. That way, I get to carry less cash too.”

“Ah, you may be the exception, as always. Very well, I will find out.”

He went to a fairly representative branch, and asked them how much money would people withdraw before their ATM was installed. Since ATMs impose a limit of Rs 15,000, he discarded transactions above Rs 15,000. The answer was: people used to withdraw about Rs 3,600 every time they came to the branch. Then he asked, what’s the average ATM withdrawal. Answer: Rs 1,900. In other words, people seemed to withdraw only half as much from an ATM as from a branch. (And therefore, on average would withdraw twice as often every month.) My teammate was finally convinced.

So, in order to break even, the ATM must be used about 220 times a day, not 110 times. This is nearly impossible. ATMs are used mostly in peak hours: morning while travelling to work, during lunch, and evening when travelling back to work. Apart from these hours, the ATM is practically unused. This gives roughly a 4-hour window. The time between two ATM transactions is at least a minute. So a very busy ATM might be able to make the 220 transactions in that time. Most ATMs will not.

In fact, we found that only 4 ATMs managed to break even, among their 250. The cost-saving argument alone is difficult to justify an ATM.

Comments

Jayant 15 Jan 2006 1:31 am: Good argument. This is typical of any service/utility. When the cost comes down, people use the service more frequently. Banks never make money on ATM. They are used for customer stickiness. In fact, retail customers keep accounts which has highest ATM density. Now that ATMs can take deposit, interesting will be to see %age of money kept by bank in ATMs and received by ATMs as deposits vs branches. Then answer what is the right mix of cash to be kept and at what frequency ATMs need to be cleared? My suspicion is banks will make money on float is ATMs are cleared more often
Arun 15 Jan 2006 2:08 am: Interesting analysis. Another thing that interests me is these inter-bank ATM tieups. HDFC does not charge ATM charges for salary account holders if they withdraw from other bank ATMs (if they use the visa debit card, that is). Normally, if you withdraw from a different bank’s ATM, the charge is Rs. 50. When I was in Meerut, HDFC’s ATM was in some godforsaken place, and I used to withdraw at least once a week from a different ATM. And I wasn’t being charged either. I must be the most loss making ATM customer for HDFC :-)
Madhu 15 Jan 2006 3:13 am: Also in some sense the money kept in the ATM is locking of capital for the bank on which it could earn some amount of interest. How is that taken in to account in the cost?
Madhu 16 Jan 2006 6:16 am: Just a thought, how is the cost variable (per transaction)? would that also not be a fixed cost, say salary of a teller or something like that?
Jayant 16 Jan 2006 9:54 am: Madhu, if I am not mistaken, it is the largely rent (in a mall, etc) for the ATM (assuming bank owns the ATM; electricity, etc should be small). Anand, correct me if wrong.
Madhu 16 Jan 2006 11:54 am: That is for the ATM, I meant for the bank branch. Also there will be a particular variable cost in accessing info from an ATM as well.
S Anand 17 Jan 2006 7:59 am: Arun, the inter-ATM withdrawal is usually not a problem. Some banks enter into agreements not to charge each other. Others charge Rs 10 or so. Given the low frequency of such usage, and especially only by high profit customers, banks usually don’t mind the small charge here.
S Anand 17 Jan 2006 8:18 am: Madhu, the money in ATMs is like money in a bank branch. It stays on the banks accounts, and can be “lent” overnight, notionally. The bank doesn’t lose the interest.
S Anand 17 Jan 2006 8:22 am: Regarding the branch cost, over 85% of the cost is manpower-driven (i.e. salary and rent). But that’s not to say it’s a fixed cost. Thanks to an ATM, a branch can move some of tellers out, So an ATM can save real money, even for apparantly fixed costs.
Arun 17 Jan 2006 11:59 am: Ah, ok. Yeah, I guess the frequency of inter-bank transfers isn’t really that much. And if they don’t charge each other, then it’s not an issue at all. Not everyone’s as lazy as me! ;-)
S Anand 17 Jan 2006 2:34 pm: If Bank X’s customer withdraws from Bank Y’s ATM, Bank X typically pays Bank Y Rs 10. But Bank X has (notionally) saved Rs 10 because an ATM transaction anyway saves the bank Rs 10. So banks that don’t charge customers for inter-bank ATM withdrawals aren’t doing their customers that much of a favour, actually.
Arun 17 Jan 2006 3:50 pm: But they do charge Rs. 50 normally, which is quite high, really. It’s only in some salary accounts (depends on the company, i guess) that they don’t charge. So, i would think they are either paying the other bank more than Rs. 10/- or they are making money off the customer for not using their own ATM.
Arun 17 Jan 2006 3:52 pm: In other words, I think they are actually doing a favour to salary account holders (probably because salary account holders keep more of their money lying with the bank and are more profitable in other ways)
S Anand 17 Jan 2006 4:29 pm: The banks I worked with were paying only Rs 10, so guess the banks are skimming their non-salaried customers. Or creating an artificial feature for the account.
Arun 18 Jan 2006 4:31 am: Ah, Ok. Then methinks it’s a bit of both.
Kakul 15 Mar 2006 8:24 pm: Did you consider the money the bank will make on float? due to less amount being withdrawn
S Anand 24 Mar 2006 6:29 am: Yes, we did look at increased float. But it was negligible. In fact, I was finding float to be marginal in several instances. See my post on demand drafts on 23rd March, for instance.
Rahul 3 Nov 2010 11:00 pm: Hi Anand, Great Work! Can you tell when does a typical bank branch break even? What are costs associated with setting up of a branch? Building, Salary of employees, etc How many years does a branch take to reach its peak of acquiring business (deposits+loans)? How does it reach profitability? Thanks
Prasanna Bontha 18 Jul 2014 6:24 am: The costs of setting up an ATM can reach its break even if the up time of the ATM is maintained at its highest. The location of the ATM can also fetch interchange charges as well.

Excel - Avoid manual labour 3

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 12:00:00 +0000

A corollary of Rule 3: Never type the same formula twice. Design the formula so that if you cut and paste it elsewhere, it works correctly. The $ symbol and the F4 key for cell references help in 90% of the cases. For complex requirements and large data, 5 functions come in handy: INDIRECT, OFFSET, ADDRESS, ROW and COLUMN.

I once did a survey, and had data spread across 300 sheets (same format on all sheets). I needed cell D3 across all sheets in a column, to summarise the results. The image explains what I did.

INDIRECT returns the value of a cell. INDIRECT(“Sheet2!D3”) is the value of cell D3 in Sheet2. And INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(A2,"!D3")) will give you the value of cell D3 in whatever sheet A2 specifies! I created a list of sheet names in column A, and column B had “D3” in each of those sheets. In effect, INDIRECT can transpose sheets into columns.

Getting a list of sheet names on to a column is tough, however. If your sheets are sequentially numbered, this image shows a trick that may help.

If you need multiple cells from a sheet, say D3:Z3, use the ADDRESS, ROW and COLUMN functions. ROW(D3) returns 3, and COLUMN(D3) returns 4 – the respective row and column. If you copy ROW(D3) to multiple rows, you will see ROW(D3), ROW(D4), ROW(D5), … which are 3, 4, 5 respectively. Similarly for COLUMN. It’s a useful way of linking values to position.

ADDRESS does the opposite. ADDRESS(ROW(D3),COLUMN(D3)) = ADDRESS(3,4) = “$D$3”. ADDRESS(3,4,1,1,“Sheet2”) returns “Sheet2!$D$3”. (See help for the ,1,1 in the middle, and just put it in always.) To cells D3:Z3 from all the sheets, copy the formula INDIRECT(ADDRESS(3,COLUMN(D3),1,1,$A2)) to the entire range. The INDIRECT, ADDRESS, ROW/COLUMN combination can slice contiguous data across sheets in any way you want.

Another useful function is OFFSET. OFFSET(D3,2,1) returns the value in cell E5. It shifts the reference D3 down by 2 rows and right by 1 column. OFFSET can be used instead of the INDIRECT and ADDRESS when multiple sheets are not involved. OFFSET can also return a range. OFFSET(D3,0,0,2,2) returns the range D3:E4, which is the 2x2 range starting from 0,0. So SUM(OFFSET(D3,0,0,2,2)) is the same as SUM(D3:E4). With OFFSET, you can specify a range with variable position and variable size (which you can’t with $ references).

Once, we were modelling a leasing company’s accounts. (Warning: this is a complex example.) We knew the volume of loans they would disburse over the next 3 years. The monthly interest rate is, say, 1%. What would be their interest income every month? Well, it’s not just 1% of what they’ve lent out. Customers pay back in equal monthly installments (EMIs). The EMI includes the principal and the interest. Initially, the EMI has a large interest component and very little principal, because there’s a lot left to repay. Towards the end, the balance dies down and so does the interest; it’s mainly the balance principal that’s being repaid. The interest income is not the same every month even for a single lease.

The calculation is conceptually simple. The IPMT function tells you the monthly interest each month. Let’s say all leases are for 36 months. So, to calculate the March interest income, take the January disbursals and multiply it by the third month interest component: IPMT(1%,3,36,-1). Take the Feb disbursals and multiply it by IPMT(1%,2,36,-1). Take the March disbursals and multiply it by IPMT(1%,1,36,-1). And add them up. For April, you’d add 4 terms. And so on. Mathematicians call this a convolution. It’s like a SUMPRODUCT of a series with another series in reverse.

Cell E4 on the image alongside does exactly that for month 3 (March). There are 5 columns:
A: Month
B: Amount disbursed that month
C: Months in reverse
D: Interest component for month in reverse
E: Interest income for month
E4 is the sumproduct of B2 to B4 (the Jan, Feb and March disbursals) with something else – an OFFSET. The offset says, from D1, move down C4 (34) rows and select A4 (3) cells further down. This has the interest components for the first, second and third months in reverse. So, the disbursal for Jan is multiplied with the 3rd month’s interest, Feb with the 2nd month’s interest, and Mar with the 1st month’s interest. That’s exactly what we wanted.

It may look complex. But remember: you have to type this complex formula only once, not 36 times. (And in my case, I had 18 product types.) Also, you’re less likely to make typing errors when cutting and pasting. So this saves you debugging time as well.

Comments

Ashwin 18 Dec 2005 6:20 am: Anand, even i would like to know about Infosys consulting. Can you mail to me regarding that ?
Ashwin 18 Dec 2005 6:26 am: my mail Id is ashwin.cfa@gmail.com
Al-Hamour 23 Mar 2009 8:44 am: Hi, I am using the offset function’s variable range and wanted to use the ADDRESS and MATCH functions to return the cell reference. However, it is not working when i insert the ADDRESS into the offset. Do you know how to fix this? =ADDRESS(ROW(),MATCH(BV10,$A$10:$Y$10,0),3)

Excel - Never use the mouse

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 12:00:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time building models on Excel. I have 4 rules that help me get things done fast.

Never use the mouse. The keyboard is much faster.
Never type in data. You can always import it.
Avoid manual labour. Use Excel to automate the task.
Make your data visually obvious.

Let’s look at Rule #1: Never use the mouse.

Using the keyboard can be 10 times faster than the mouse. It takes time to move one hand from the keyboard to the mouse, locate the item you want to click at, move the mouse there, adjust it finely so it’s pointing at the exact spot, and then click it. For example, to insert text without formatting, I’d just go Alt-E, S, enter. It takes half a second. It took me 5 seconds with a mouse. (I timed 10 continuous attempts in both cases.)

A factor of 10 speed advantage like that is good for two reasons: it saves you time, and it doesn’t distract you from what you’re doing (provided the keyboard shortcuts have become a habit.)

For newbies: To use menus using keyboard shortcuts, first go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Display - Appearance tab - Effects button - Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key. Make sure it is turned off. To use a menu, let’s say “Insert - Row”. look for the underlined letter on the menu bar (the “I” on “Insert”), press Alt and the underlined letter (Alt-I in this case), and look for the underlined letter on the next menu item (“R” on the “Rows” in this case) and press that letter. So, Alt-I-R is the shortcut to insert a row. Now, just practice Alt-I-R, Alt-I-R, Alt-I-R repeatedly.

Shortcuts next to the menu are quicker, where they exist. For example, the Ctrl-C next to the Edit-Copy menu.

Apart from the arrow keys, Ctrl-S, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, the keys I use frequently are:

F2: edit the current cell
F4: repeat the last action (very useful)
Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y: Undo, Redo
Ctrl-1: Format cells
Ctrl-Shift-down arrow: Select all filled cells below selection (also works with other arrow keys)
Ctrl-PgUp/PgDn: Shift between tabs
Ctrl-Home/End: Go to top-left, or bottom-right of the sheet (or cell, if you’re editing a cell)
Ctrl-`: Show formulae
Shift-Space, Ctrl-Space: Select row, select column
Alt-Enter: To create a new line while you’re typing in a cell
Alt-E-I-S-Enter: Select a set of cells and fill a continuous series of numbers in it
Alt-E-S-Enter: Paste unformatted text
Alt-D-G-G: Group a set of rows (use Alt-D-G-U for ungroup)
Alt-D-G-S: Show a collapsed group (use Alt-D-G-H to collapse a group)
Alt-O-D: Conditional formatting
Alt-F8: Macros

Comments

bluski 1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm: wqo
Nametest 1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm: Test
Jayant 3 Nov 2005 2:44 am: Thanks Anand. Good set of tips. Ofcourse, one can always go to microsoft page and download the entire set of shortcuts.
bluski 8 Nov 2005 2:35 am: rules 2,3,4??
bluski 8 Nov 2005 2:36 am: ignore the one above…just testing
Aditya 11 Nov 2005 5:40 am: Good Post! Really useful.
Sathish 15 Nov 2005 5:56 pm: How will this be displayed if I don’t type my name?
ANIA 13 Feb 2007 8:33 am: HOW TO CALUCATE SIMPLE INTEREST IN EXCEL?HELP ME
vic 8 Mar 2007 6:05 pm: F4 seems to have changed! Used to be able to keep on pressing F4 multiple times to repeat. Now it only works once or twice. Why?
E R Suresh Narain 1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm: very useful
afreen 1 Nov 2005 12:00 pm: how to arrange all cells alphabetically without modify any thing , like date ,amount & other things For e.g. Dt Party name Amount 12.03.08 Tema 2000 13.03.08 L& T 6000 It is arrange alphabetically Party wise
yowan 2 Jan 2009 9:17 am: thanks for the excel tips and song search engine
Subramanian S 30 Mar 2009 5:50 am: VEry useful tips Anand. Helps me a lot at work.
Payal 22 Sep 2009 12:21 pm: Hey can any1 help me with how to go to other spreadsheet (ie. from sheet1 to sheet 2) without the use of mouse?
Ian 17 Nov 2009 3:44 pm: Change sheets with keyboard? Ctrl-Pgup/Ctrl-PgDn
Kalevi 26 Nov 2010 10:32 pm: Shift+F8 allows you to select cells from different parts of the document.
remove keys 9 Mar 2011 7:08 pm: remove the f1, caps, left windows keys. maybe numlock.
Vinnie 22 Aug 2012 8:52 pm: I came up with article on citehr where they show how you can work without any formula. This was a good article How you can work in Excel without knowing any formulas
1. How to change CASE in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2JdQuybKjU&feature=plcp
2. How to Convert Columnar Data into Tabular Form http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbHh41qMsHQ&feature=plcp
3. How to COLOUR Duplicate Rows in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRckmKTRbYE&feature=plcp
4. How to Change UPPER & lower Case in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ6Ud8MgrfY&feature=plcp
5. How to Remove all DUPLICATES in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh-8D_AklwM&feature=plcp
6. How to REMOVE Extra SPACES in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7lh1tX7EeY&feature=plcp
7. How to Remove NUMBERS & ALPHABETS in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMj89gqizzA&feature=plcp
8. How to CLEAN Data in Excel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhFroHy8tqw&feature=plcp Hope this helps and this is from a tool from http://exceladdins.net
J.V.SSUBBARAO 26 Oct 2012 7:39 am: Dragging The lines of Tables margins without mouse support
Laura 2 Feb 2013 12:18 am: For the new Excel 2010, how do we create and modify a Pivot table without using the mouse? We know that we hit ALT + D, P to get the Pivot table and then select through the Pivot wizard. However, once the pivot is created and becomes time to select the criteria, we cannot figure out how to get onto the selection panel without using a mouse. Suggestions?
Saleem Ullah 18 Dec 2015 11:30 am: how can i coloured a text in excel without touching the keyboard…. plz resolve my problem thanks
Saleem Ullah 18 Dec 2015 11:31 am: plz ignore my first mail, how can i coloured a text in excel without touching the mouse…. plz resolve my problem Thanks
Jennifer 6 Feb 2018 9:51 pm: Thanks for the useful tips!
Pranav Sukumaran 9 Apr 2017 7:15 am: Usefulllllllll
Abhik 17 May 2016 5:33 am: How Draw Formula With out mouse

Asian option calculators

Thu, 25 Jan 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Asian option calculators from Enron and DerivativesModels.com.

Currency forwards

Mon, 03 Jul 2000 12:00:00 +0000

Prof. Apte mentioned that the currency forward is not an unbiased estimator of the future spot rate, but is the certainty equivalent of it. The Kelly FAQ gives a good description of what certainty equivalence means.