Zero or negative rates and XNPV?

Hi,

Does anybody know why XNPV appears not to accept negative rates?

e.g. using the example in the Excel 2003 help: (i.e. amounts = -10000,
2750, 4250, 3250, 2750, dates = 01 Jan 2008, 01 Mar 2008, 30 Oct 2008,
15 Feb 2009, 01 Apr 2009) returns #NUM! for rates 0 or below. That is
=XNPV(0,amounts, dates). However when I composed a VBA function to
duplicate the formula for XNPV, as shown in the help, the value is 3000
when the rate is zero.

thanks,
L.

=IF(A1-B1<0,"-","")&TEXT(ABS(A1-B1),"hh:mm")

If you want to calculate with it, use just =A1-B1. It will not show the way you want, but further calculations are correct.

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten

"LAHM" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> Does anybody know why XNPV appears not to accept negative rates?
>
> e.g. using the example in the Excel 2003 help: (i.e. amounts = -10000,
> 2750, 4250, 3250, 2750, dates = 01 Jan 2008, 01 Mar 2008, 30 Oct 2008,
> 15 Feb 2009, 01 Apr 2009) returns #NUM! for rates 0 or below. That is
> =XNPV(0,amounts, dates). However when I composed a VBA function to
> duplicate the formula for XNPV, as shown in the help, the value is 3000
> when the rate is zero.
>
> thanks,
> L.
>

Sorry, posted reply to another question!
--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten

"Niek Otten" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:%[email protected]...
> =IF(A1-B1<0,"-","")&TEXT(ABS(A1-B1),"hh:mm")
>
> If you want to calculate with it, use just =A1-B1. It will not show the way you want, but further calculations are correct.
>
> --
> Kind regards,
>
> Niek Otten
>
> "LAHM" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Does anybody know why XNPV appears not to accept negative rates?
>>
>> e.g. using the example in the Excel 2003 help: (i.e. amounts = -10000,
>> 2750, 4250, 3250, 2750, dates = 01 Jan 2008, 01 Mar 2008, 30 Oct 2008,
>> 15 Feb 2009, 01 Apr 2009) returns #NUM! for rates 0 or below. That is
>> =XNPV(0,amounts, dates). However when I composed a VBA function to
>> duplicate the formula for XNPV, as shown in the help, the value is 3000
>> when the rate is zero.
>>
>> thanks,
>> L.
>>
>
>

Your VBA code is right.
If rate = 0, the NPV should be $3000.
If you use 0.0000001 as rate for XNPV function, you also get 3000.
Excel, or Microsoft makes XNPV function work only for positive rate - that's
normal in real world.

--
Best regards,
---
Yongjun CHEN
=================================
XLDataSoft - Data Analysis Expert, Excel/VBA Specialist
- - - - www.XLDataSoft.com - - - -
Free Excel-Based Data Processing Tool is Available for Download

=================================
"LAHM" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi,
>
> Does anybody know why XNPV appears not to accept negative rates?
>
> e.g. using the example in the Excel 2003 help: (i.e. amounts = -10000,
> 2750, 4250, 3250, 2750, dates = 01 Jan 2008, 01 Mar 2008, 30 Oct 2008,
> 15 Feb 2009, 01 Apr 2009) returns #NUM! for rates 0 or below. That is
> =XNPV(0,amounts, dates). However when I composed a VBA function to
> duplicate the formula for XNPV, as shown in the help, the value is 3000
> when the rate is zero.
>
> thanks,
> L.
>

Thanks for your reply, that's what I suspected, but it's surprising
that Excel doesn't mention this in the help. On a related matter, do
you think that the XNPV function would be used or called by the XIRR
function? The reason I ask is because it might explain why XIRR, in the
case of a cashflow which has two possible solutions, one of which is
negative, always appears to return the higher result?

Rgds,

Lachlan.