Category: data

  • Simulating Stock Price Paths with Random Walks in Excel

    Simulating Stock Price Paths with Random Walks in Excel

    In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to simulate random stock price paths in Excel. In particular, we’ll assume that the stock price movements are determined by Geometric Brownian Motion as follows: where Pt is the stock price at time t (say, today), Pt-1 is the stock price at time t-1 (say, yesterday), μ represents…

  • How to calculate payback period in Excel?

    How to calculate payback period in Excel?

    In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to compute both the payback period and the discounted payback period in Excel. If you’ve arrived here from our Youtube channel, click on “Video tutorial and Excel template” section in the Contents box below to download the Excel template. If you’d like to learn more about the payback…

  • Expected return, standard deviation, covariance in Excel

    Expected return, standard deviation, covariance in Excel

    In this tutorial, we will explain how you can use Excel to calculate a stock’s expected return, standard deviation, and its covariance with another stock. See the last item in the Contents box below to follow this tutorial in a video format and/or download the Excel template we use. If it is an online calculator…

  • How to calculate Jensen’s alpha in Excel

    How to calculate Jensen’s alpha in Excel

    The purpose of this tutorial is to teach you to calculate Jensen’s alpha in Excel. We’ll estimate the Jensen’s alpha on Amazon (AMZN) shares using the S&P500 as the market benchmark and the 13-week T-bill as the proxy of risk-free asset. Our analysis will be based on five years of monthly data (i.e., 60 observations…

  • How to calculate portfolio risk and return in Excel

    How to calculate portfolio risk and return in Excel

    In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to calculate portfolio risk and return in Excel. We’ll focus on an example where we construct a portfolio of the following three stocks: Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN), and Netflix (NFLX). If you’re unfamiliar with the formulas for portfolio return and portfolio risk, we’d recommend you check the following…

  • How to calculate beta in Excel

    How to calculate beta in Excel

    In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to calculate beta in Excel. First, we explain the data you need before getting started. Then, we offer four different ways of computing betas in Excel (the first one is the fastest if you’re in a rush!). If you prefer a video tutorial, that is provided at the…

  • Calculating the correlation between two stocks

    Calculating the correlation between two stocks

    In this tutorial, we explain how to calculate the correlation between two stocks in Excel. We demonstrate how to construct a correlation matrix as well. Contents Using Excel to calculate correlations between pairs of stocks Here is a simple, step-by-step guide to obtaining the correlation coefficient between the returns of two stocks. That is it!…

  • Descriptive statistics for stock returns

    Descriptive statistics for stock returns

    Descriptive statistics offer a simple way of understanding distributions of stock returns. They give us an idea about a distribution’s centrality, dispersion, symmetry, and other features. In this tutorial, we will show you how to generate descriptive statistics for stock returns using Excel’s data analysis tool. Using Excel to get descriptive statistics for stock returns…

  • Creating a histogram of stock returns with Excel

    Creating a histogram of stock returns with Excel

    An easy way to visualize the distribution of stock returns is to plot a histogram. In this tutorial, we will teach you how to create histograms of stock returns using Excel and explain how to interpret them. Using Excel’s “data analysis” tool to plot a histogram We’ll be working with the monthly returns of two…

  • Plotting stock prices and returns

    Plotting stock prices and returns

    In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to plot time series of stock prices and returns using Excel. We’ll explain how to interpret these plots as well. We’ve chosen to examine Microsoft (MSFT) and Kellogg (K) shares for the 30-year period between January 1, 1990 and January 1, 2020. The data is obtained from Yahoo! Finance…