Need help with bond yields

I work for an investment management firm and I am having trouble calculating municipal bond yields with Excel. My problem is two fold.

The first has to do with the how you write the formula or input the data. My traders use the following format:

yield(trade price, redemption price, rate, 2, settlement date, redemption date, "MUNI")

If you use insert function in Excel, the format is:

yield(settlement date, redemption date, rate, trade price, redemption price, 2)

If one of my traders sends me a spreadsheet using the first format/formula, it will properly calculate on my PC. But if I try to edit the formula in any way or replicate it on my own, Excel returns #NUM! We all appear to be using the same add-ins (I have the bond add-in installed).

The other problem is that if I use the second format, the one built into Excel, it returns the wrong yield. The first format of course returns the correct yield. How do I know it is wrong? If I check the yield using a financial calculator or a Bloomberg terminal it matches what the first formula returns.

Any help would be very much appreciated!!!

I work for an investment management firm and I am having trouble calculating municipal bond yields with Excel. My problem is two fold.

The first has to do with the how you write the formula or input the data. My traders use the following format:

yield(trade price, redemption price, rate, 2, settlement date, redemption date, "MUNI")

If you use insert function in Excel, the format is:

yield(settlement date, redemption date, rate, trade price, redemption price, 2)

If one of my traders sends me a spreadsheet using the first format/formula, it will properly calculate on my PC. But if I try to edit the formula in any way or replicate it on my own, Excel returns #NUM! We all appear to be using the same add-ins (I have the bond add-in installed).

The other problem is that if I use the second format, the one built into Excel, it returns the wrong yield. The first format of course returns the correct yield. How do I know it is wrong? If I check the yield using a financial calculator or a Bloomberg terminal it matches what the first formula returns.

Any help would be very much appreciated!!!

Thanks for the idea.

The settings are the same. If they send me a spreadsheet and I change any of the data/variables, the yield will calculate. The problems comes if I try to replicate the formula on my own or edit it. Even if I just hit enter on the cell, I get the #NUM! error.

Originally Posted by Bryan Hessey

Hi,

the #NUM seems to indicate that the first two fields are not valid Dates, with the second being later than the first.

Check your settings via Start, Control Panel, Regional & Language options, that your date format is the same as your trader, and that correct dates are being submitted to the formula.

hth
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