I have been given an excel sheet with the monthly stock prices of Stock A. I am asked to calculate continuously compounded monthly returns for stock A. I want to understand how to do that in excel. Could you please explain in detail with an example just like the one below:

Stock A

Month	Price	Monthly return
Jan	$2,000
Feb	$2,100	=(2100-2000)/2000
March	$2,800	=(2800-2100)/2100
April	$1,000	=(1000-2800)/2800
May	$1,500
Average Monthly Return		=Average(Cells1,2,3)
Compounded Annual return		=((1+Average)^(12)-1)

Question:

1) Overall, the first month and the last month won't have any average monthly return % associated with them. Correct?

2) Is the calculation for compounded annual return correct in this context? .....