Custom Beta Nine Months Formula in Excel

Custom Beta Nine Months is a powerful Excel formula from MarketXLS that helps you measure a stock’s volatility relative to a chosen benchmark over a nine-month period. By leveraging daily (or optional weekly/monthly) return data, it helps you assess how sensitive a stock is to market movements.

Understanding Custom Beta Nine Months

• Purpose and Use Cases
  The primary purpose of the Custom Beta Nine Months formula is to calculate how volatile a given security is compared to a benchmark index (e.g., SPY) over nine months. This is particularly helpful for portfolio risk assessment and comparative analysis.

• Key Benefits

  • Quickly obtain a nine-month beta value to gauge stock risk.
  • Compare volatility across different securities.
  • Make informed decisions about portfolio diversification.

• When to Use

  • Before making investment decisions based on volatility.
  • When performing short- to mid-term trend analyses.
  • For routine portfolio reviews involving market correlation checks.

Syntax and Parameters

Below is the standard syntax for the CustomBetaNineMonths formula:

=CustomBetaNineMonths(Symbol, [Benchmark], [Period])

?? Note: If an invalid symbol is provided, or the data retrieval fails, the function will return "NA".

Return Value

• The formula returns a numeric beta value (e.g., 1.20).
• If the symbol or data is invalid, the function returns "NA".

? Pro Tip: Use this formula alongside other MarketXLS analytics to gain a comprehensive view of your portfolio’s performance against the market.

Examples and Usage

Below are some practical examples demonstrating how to use CustomBetaNineMonths in Excel:

1. Calculate beta against the SPY benchmark on a daily basis:

   =CustomBetaNineMonths("MSFT")

2. Calculate beta against an alternative benchmark (e.g., AAPL) on a daily basis:

   =CustomBetaNineMonths("MSFT", "AAPL")

3. Calculate beta against AAPL using monthly frequency:

   =CustomBetaNineMonths("MSFT", "AAPL", "monthly")

4. Calculate beta against AAPL using weekly frequency:

   =CustomBetaNineMonths("MSFT", "AAPL", "weekly")

Special Cases & Limitations

• License Validity: The function requires a valid MarketXLS license. Otherwise, it returns the license-related error.
• Data Coverage: Data is automatically retrieved from the last nine months. No explicit start/end date input is necessary.
• Performance Considerations: Selecting "weekly" or "monthly" period may reduce the number of data points and speed up calculations.

Common Questions

1. How do I handle date inputs?
   The function automatically calculates the beta for the last nine months. You do not need to specify dates.

   • If needed for other MarketXLS functions that require dates, you can provide them as:
     • Direct quoting: =Function("2024-03-15")
     • Cell references: =Function(A1)
     • Wrapped with Excel’s date functions: =Function(TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-dd"))

2. Why am I seeing "NA" as a result?

   • The ticker symbol might be invalid or unsupported.
   • The benchmark symbol may be invalid or unsupported.
   • Data retrieval issues or an invalid MarketXLS license can also cause this error.

3. Which symbols can I use?

   • Regular stocks: "MSFT"
   • Indices: "^SPX"
   • Options: "@MSFT 110122C00020000"
   • Crypto: "BTCUSD:DEFAULT"

4. Can I use this to analyze multiple stocks at once?

   • Yes, you can repeat the formula across multiple cells for different symbols, each referencing its own benchmark or period.

By integrating the Custom Beta Nine Months formula into your workflow, you’ll gain insightful volatility metrics for more informed decision-making. Combine it with other MarketXLS formulas to build a robust financial analysis toolkit.