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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > The Investment Banking Thread: Our Excel Models Smell of Rich Mahogany
 
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AJzer
Nov 28, 2004
Tally Ho!
Hey! Programmers over in the Cavern of COBOL have no idea what I'm talking about when I discuss deep excel financial models! Go figure...

So here's some questions for anyone using Excel for complex modeling: What do you do when your model gets too big for Excel? Specifically, I'm getting into some ridiculous lookup tables, nested conditionals 3 deep, and 100x5000 cell-count worksheets (x6) that just need to be pushed into a database.

So what kind of solutions are out there using MS products and/or free ones? The theoretical underpinnings for my needs are pretty basic: linear regression and simple algebra, so Excel can handle the manipulations and reporting just fine. It's breaking every formula when you need to make a small change, and waiting 30 minutes to load a Workbook that I'm hoping to change.

I'm more proficient with the theory than the tools, but I'm not afraid to learn some scripting (Powershell, possibly VB), basic SQL or Access use, etc. Any wonks out there have suggestions?

* # ¿ Aug 19, 2011 21:05
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# ¿ May 14, 2024 02:52
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AJzer
Nov 28, 2004
Tally Ho!
I'm using Excel 2010.

f2a posted:

Looked at MATLAB? Failing that, Python with Numpy+SciPy is a very good (and free alternative). Both have more of a learning curve than Excel, but you get a lot more power and flexibility.

I haven't. My issues are largely data management, model transparency, and non-expert use issues. Ultimately, my long-term goal is to bring future models in this direction:
  • Move input and intermediate (and even summary?) data out of Excel and into a database of some kind
  • Leave most or all of the actual math to a program dedicated to querying the DB and performing calculations for summarization
  • The ability to actually read model underpinnings (basically anything that can help me visualize data relationships)
  • Flexibility when it comes to model improvements
  • In the long run, the ability to package the model and build a simple GUI so non-analysts can use it.
Can MATLAB or Python get me there? What I'm finding is that Excel sucks at storing large amounts of data within its program and showing relationships in a simple way. I don't understand why it's even used for anything but small projects.

Nam Taf posted:

The alternative is VBA, since you can shove it behind excel and integrate with your existing work. It's probably less of a step than resorting to numpy or the like.

I've been considering this, though replacing VBA with Powershell. I'm worried that in the next couple years, MS is going to completely phase out VBA in favor of Powershell, and I'm looking down the line. Still, there's nothing I can really do about my current project; it's a bloated, half-broken mess of a model built by two different staff, each writing it for a different purpose, and both leaving before I could talk with them about it.

I have a buddy who works in genomics that uses Python a lot, I'll also pick his brain. Thanks for your help so far.

* # ¿ Aug 20, 2011 17:22
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > The Investment Banking Thread: Our Excel Models Smell of Rich Mahogany