Reverse a String of Text with Power Query

Reversing text or a string of text seems like something that is common task in software development either as a entry into how to perform this task by writing code instead of using built in function (or it's an interview question!). It seems to be an simple task but thinking it through and putting it into code is something that helps engineers think about how to write code elegantly. How does Excel help in this? By using it to already reverse the text output, you can use Excel to help validate the output of the code. And using Power Query, it's really easy to get this output. Check out the video to see how.

Calculate Future Amount based on Changing Rates in Excel

If you were offered a guaranteed interest rate for a couple of years but the rates changed depending on the year, how would you know know what the future value would be? Say you're investing $1000 and for year one the interest rate is 5%, year two is 4.5% and year three is 4%. This is basically compounded interest on top of each year. It's fairly easy to do manually and even easier to do with the FVSCHEDULE function. Another fun way to use this function is to find out what historical figures would be worth today based on an inflation adjusted amount. The video will cover how this could be done.

Compare Economic Data and Stocks with CORREL Function

If you're doing any investing whether it be stocks, bonds or ETFs you're going to do research. One of the avenues of research is to look at macro economic data to help you forecast. One great repository of economic data is the St. Louis Federal Reserve. They actually have an Excel Add-in where you can get decades past data and it's all free! Couple that with stock data you can get from Google or Yahoo finance, and you've got all the data you need to do some correlation analysis with macro economic data and individual stock data.