Beta Finance Function

[John C. Harris]

Is there a function in Excel to determine beta for finance?

[Harlan Grove]

John C. Harris wrote...
>Is there a function in Excel to determine beta for finance?

Excel provides both covariance, COVAR, and variance, VAR, functions, so
with those and A LOT of corresponding historical market and individual
asset returns you can calculate beta for those assets. beta is just the
covariance of individual asset returns with the market return divided
by the variance of the market return. So simple AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A
LOT OF HISTORICAL RETURN STATISTICS. This is a data-driven problem, so
easy to calculate after the rather difficult work of collecting the
necessary data.