To calculate the return for this Microsoft investment, we simply need to go to an empty cell and type in the formula. In cell A24 I typed in "XIRR," to remind me later what I've calculated.

Excel and Google Sheets have IRR functions programmed to run 20 iterations to find a value that is accurate to within 0.00001%. 6 7 If the program can’t find one, then it returns "#NUM" in the cell.

Excel 2013 provides the DATE and XIRR functions, which derive the final annual interest rate from a series of payments on known dates.

Discover what a log-normal distribution is, its financial applications, and how to calculate it, including using Excel for ...

Next, have Excel run the regression on the two columns of return data you generated. Under the Data menu, the Data Analysis button allows you to select Regression.