Standard Deviation on Close Price to Analyze Volatility

The StandardDeviationOnClosePrice function retrieves the standard deviation of a stock’s closing prices over a specified number of days, starting from a particular date. This is especially useful for understanding price volatility—how much prices vary from the average—so you can better gauge risk and volatility trends in the market.

By leveraging MarketXLS’s powerful data-fetching capabilities, the function seamlessly pulls the latest data and calculates the close-price standard deviation for any valid symbol, giving you invaluable insights for smarter investing decisions.

Why Use This Function?

• Calculate Historical Volatility: Standard deviation is a key metric to measure how spread out the close prices are over time, indicating volatility.
• Flexible Date Range: Optionally set a start date to focus on specific trading periods.
• Ideal for Risk Assessment: Compare different stocks or the same stock over different periods to gauge relative volatility.
• Real-Time Integration: Pull live or cached data from MarketXLS’s API to keep your analysis up to date without manual importing.
• Easy Excel Implementation: Enter a simple MarketXLS formula directly into Excel cells for near-instant results.

How to Use in Excel

=StandardDeviationOnClosePrice(Symbol, [Days], [StartDate])

Where:
• Symbol is the ticker symbol (e.g., "AAPL"),
• Days is optional (defaults to 14),
• StartDate is optional (defaults to today's date).

Just type this formula into an Excel cell with MarketXLS installed, and press Enter.

Parameters Explained

Example Usage

Basic Examples

1. Using Defaults (14 Days, Today’s Date)
   Enter in Excel:
   =StandardDeviationOnClosePrice("AAPL")
   • Returns the standard deviation of Apple’s closing prices over the last 14 trading days.

2. Specifying a Different Number of Days
   =StandardDeviationOnClosePrice("MSFT", 30)
   • Returns the standard deviation of Microsoft’s closing prices over the last 30 trading days, starting from the current date.

3. Including a Specific Start Date
   =StandardDeviationOnClosePrice("IBM", 60, "1/1/2023")
   • Returns the standard deviation of IBM’s closing prices for 60 trading days starting on January 1, 2023.

Advanced Scenarios

1. Using a Short Date Range for Volatile Periods
   =StandardDeviationOnClosePrice("TSLA", 10, "7/1/2023")
   • Focus your analysis on a volatile summer month to see quick changes in Tesla’s closing prices.

2. Comparing Volatility Across Multiple Stocks

   • In one sheet, list several symbols in column A (e.g., "AMZN", "NFLX", "GOOG").
   • In column B, use the formula =StandardDeviationOnClosePrice(A2, 14).
   • Drag down for each row to compare daily volatility across popular growth stocks.

3. Integrating With Other Excel Functions
   =IF(StandardDeviationOnClosePrice("AAPL", 14)>2, "High Volatility", "Normal Volatility")
   • Combine with conditional logic to flag unusually high or low volatility in your spreadsheet.

Common Questions and Troubleshooting

• “NA” Returned:

  1. Check if your symbol is valid. An invalid or mistyped ticker will return “NA.”
  2. Ensure your MarketXLS license is active. An expired license might return a generic “NA” or error message.
  3. Very short date ranges (e.g., 1 day) are not supported by the API, so you might see “NA.”

• Data or “Refreshing” Response:
  • If MarketXLS is currently refreshing data, the function may return “Refreshing” momentarily. Wait and recalculate later.

• Start Date Handling:
  • Dates before 1978 revert to an alternate API call (no date parameter). Make sure to supply realistic date inputs for historical data.

Remember that StandardDeviationOnClosePrice is particularly helpful in gauging risk over a given period. By making it part of your daily workflow, you can quickly compare volatility across diverse portfolios or zero in on a single stock’s recent price fluctuations, all within the familiarity of Excel.