MarketXLS Blog

Sharpe ratio = (portfolio return minus risk-free rate) divided by the standard deviation of returns. How to calculate it with a calculator or in Excel.

What the Scott Burns retirement calculator asks for, what it estimates, and how to track the investments behind your retirement plan in Excel.

The five principles of factor investing: pick factors with persistent premiums, diversify across them, apply rules consistently, hold long term, and review regularly.

Portfolio rebalancing sells what has grown above target and buys what has lagged, restoring your chosen asset mix and risk level.

Carhart Four Factor Model extends Fama-French by adding momentum to explain portfolio returns. Learn the formula, how to calculate each factor in Excel, and perform portfolio attribution using MarketXLS.

A REIT screener filters real estate investment trusts by property type, dividend yield, FFO or AFFO payout, leverage, and valuation, so you research a shortlist instead of every REIT.

Negative correlation means two securities tend to move in opposite directions. What causes it, how to measure it in Excel, and how investors use it to reduce portfolio risk.

Larry Swedroe's investing principles in brief: diversify across asset classes and countries, keep costs low with funds such as ETFs, manage risk, and follow a written plan.

The Dogs of the Dow strategy buys the 10 highest-yielding Dow stocks each year in equal amounts. How to pick them, review them, and track them in Excel.

10 portfolio management tips for retirement planning with diversification, rebalancing, and tax efficiency strategies

An efficient frontier calculator uses expected returns, volatilities, and correlations to find the asset mixes with the highest expected return for each level of risk.

A reverse CAGR calculation works backward from a target value to the starting amount or growth rate you need. Formulas and Excel examples.

Asset allocation calculators turn your risk tolerance, time horizon, and goals into a target mix of stocks, bonds, and cash. What they measure and how to model allocation in Excel.

Vega of an option measures how much the option's price changes when implied volatility moves by 1%. Learn the vega formula, how vega behaves across strikes and expirations, long vs short vega strategies, and how to track vega in Excel with MarketXLS.

Options analytics measures an option position: value, Greeks, implied volatility, breakevens, and P&L across prices. What each tells you and how to use it for risk.

How common option strategies work: bull call and bear put spreads, calendars, covered calls, protective puts, strangles, straddles, risk reversals, guts, and butterflies.