TutorialSimulations 1 SpiderFinancialCorp,2014
Simulation Tutorial
Inthistutorial,welldemonstratethestepstoconstructone12monthsalessimulationusingan
ARIMA(5,1,1)[Link],usingthesimulated12month(step)values,wellcomputetheirmedianas
anexampleofatarget(derived)[Link],usingtheRunfunctionality,NumXLwillreevaluatethe
spreadsheet(creatinganewsimulationpatheachtime)andcollectthetargetvaluesinaseparate
[Link],weareleftwithseveralpotentialvaluesforthemedianofthe
following12salesmonthsandmaystartanalyzingthemasweseefit.
(1) Selecttheuppercellofagivenmodeltable.
(2) LocatetheSimulationiconintheNumXLtoolbar(ormenuinExcel2003)andclickit.
(3) TheSimulationWizard(dialogbox)[Link]
theactive(selected)cellinyourworksheet.
TutorialSimulations 2 SpiderFinancialCorp,2014
(4) Now,selectthelatest(orthewholeset)[Link],we
chose35observations.
(5) IntheHorizonfield,wechose12stepsforone12monthsimulationpath.
(6) Leavetheseedto100.
(7) IntheOutputRangefield,selectanemptycellinyourworkbooktostorethesimulation
path.
(8) ClickOK.
Wehavenowmanagedtoconstructone12monthsimulationpathforanARIMA(5,1,1)modelandthe
latestobservationsinourdataset.
Next,letsassumewewishtocalculateavaluethatusesoneormoreobservationsinthesimulation
[Link],[Link]
onesimulationpath,wecomputeonlyonevalue.HittingF9willcauseNumXLtogeneratenewvalues
forthesimulationpath,forcingreevaluation,andthereforegeneratinganewtargetvalue.
Whatifwewanttouse100simulationpathsandcollectthetargetvalueofeachpath?Wecaninstruct
theSimulationWizardtogenerate100paths,[Link]
enough,butwhatabout10,000simulationpaths?
TutorialSimulations 3 SpiderFinancialCorp,2014
Wecanmakethissimplerbygeneratingonesimulationpath,calculatingthetargetvalue,thenusingthe
[Link]
[Link]:
(1) Selectanemptycellinyourworksheetwhereyouwishtheoutputtobedisplayed.
(2) LocatetheRuniconintheNumXLtoolbar(ormenuinExcel2003)andclickit.
(3) [Link],theoutputreferencestheactive(selected)cell
inyourworkbook.
(4) Next,selectthecellforthetargetvalue.
(5) Now,weneedtodecidetheextentoftherecalculationneededtoevaluatethetargetvalue
[Link],wellchooseActiveWorksheet.
Note:Ifyouareunsureorifthecalculationspansmultipleworksheets,selectcurrent
workbook.
TutorialSimulations 4 SpiderFinancialCorp,2014
(6) Finally,setthenumberofsimulationstoavalue(lessthan30,000)forareasonable
performance.Wellchoose100(default)forthistutorial.
(7) ClickOK.
(8) TheRunWizardgeneratesthevaluesforeachsimulationrun.
(9) Thecomputedtargetvaluesofthedifferentsimulationrunsarestatisticallyindependent,soyou
maywishtorunsummarystatistics([Link],standarddeviation,etc.)orplottheirempirical
distribution.
(10) Forthistutorial,wechosetoahistogramplot:
Runnormalitytest.
TutorialSimulations 5 SpiderFinancialCorp,2014
Q1:DoIneedtousetheNumXLsimulationfunctionstousetheRunWizard?
A:No!IfyouhitF9andyourtargetcellvalueisrefreshed,thenyoucanusetheRunWizardforanytype
ofsimulation.