This semester the securities we will be trading based of the polling are:$\backslash$

Stocks: Amazon $($AMZN$)$ and Nvidia $($NVDA$)\backslash$

Commodity: Gold $($spot$,$ not future$)\backslash$

FX: USD$/$Japanese Yen$\backslash$

Bonds: Vanguard Long$-$Term Government bond ETF $($VGLT$).\backslash$

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$1)$ Use data downloaded from StockTrak to calculate the following for the last $5$ years, Feb $1$st $2019-$Feb $1$st $2024$:$\backslash$

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a$)$ Calculate the daily, monthly, and annual returns for all $5$ securities$.\backslash$

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This means you will end up with $15$ columns of return data; three columns $($daily$,$ monthly, annual$)$ for each of the $5$ above securities$.\backslash$

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b$)$ Calculate the average returns, and standard deviations of returns for all $15$ columns of return data.$\backslash$

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TIPS. It is way too much work to manually do this. You need to use formulas and tricks in Excel. The data will come out of StockTrak as daily; you then need to extract monthly and annual data. Try AI for help and clues on how to do this. For standard deviations, use the sample standard deviation Excel built$-$in function.$\backslash$

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COMMON MISTAKES: going backwards in time for return calculations. Set your data up so that the most recent data is at the top of the spreadsheet, and the oldest data is at the bottom.$\backslash$

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c$)$ Calculate the daily, monthly, and annual correlations between all $5$ securities for the last $5$ years?$\backslash$

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This means you will end up with three correlation tables $($daily$,$ monthly, annual$).$ Each table with be of dimension $5-$by$-5$ for the five securities above.$\backslash$

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TIPS. Excel has a built$-$in way to create correlation tables. If your Excel does not already have it$,$ you will need the Analysis and Solver add$-$ins. We will also need to adjust the correlation table for sample size.$\backslash$

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COMMON MISTAKES: not lining up the dates between securities correctly