Microsoft Excel April 2023 Update: Takeaways for Investment Managers

The April 2023 Microsoft Excel update introduces several features that can help investment managers perform complex calculations more quickly, search large datasets more easily, and leverage AI-powered insights into their portfolios.

Below are the three key takeaways from the update and why they are important for investment management professionals who rely on Excel. You can view the full Microsoft release note here.

Dynamic Arrays Feature: Investment management professionals can now perform complex calculations more quickly and accurately using dynamic arrays. This new feature allows users to populate a range of cells with formulas that can spill over both horizontally and vertically. Dynamic arrays enable investment managers to use fewer lines of code to execute extensive calculations, which saves time.

Enhanced Data Analysis and Visualization Tools: The update includes XLOOKUP, a powerful new function that performs searches and returns values for a specified range of columns. Professionals can search large datasets more easily, making it simpler to find specific information such as stock prices or performance data. The improved charting capabilities allow investment managers to monitor trends and better understand their portfolio’s performance.

AI-Powered Features: Excel’s AI-powered features, such as Ideas and machine learning model import/export, enable investment management professionals to gain new insights into their portfolios quickly. Ideas scans user data and suggests charts, tables, and graphs that help visualize data better. Machine learning model import/export empowers users to execute predictions and other tasks more accurately.

By staying up-to-date with the latest Excel features and leveraging the dynamic arrays feature, enhanced data analysis and visualization tools, and AI-powered features, investment managers can perform complex calculations more efficiently, search large datasets more easily, and gain new insights into their portfolios quickly.