Introduction:-

DURATION function in excel is a financial function. It is used to find duration of a security in Macaulay form using Macaulay duration formula. Duration is expressed as weighted average of cash flows at present. It is a worksheet function and can be entered in the cell in which value is required.

Syntax:-

=DURATION (settlement, maturity, coupon, yld, frequency, [basis]

Arguments:-

• Settlement: It is the date on which security is settled. It comes after issue date when security is rated to the buyer.
• Maturity: It is the date on which security will be matured.
• Coupon: Annual Coupon Rate.
• YLD: Annual yield of the security.
• Frequency: Number of coupon payments in a year.
• Basis: Day count basis to be used.

Keynotes:-

• Microsoft Excel stores dates as serial numbers. By default, January 1, 1900 is serial number 1 and corresponding dates have serial number greater than 1.
• Settlement, maturity, frequency, and basis are converted to integers.
• If settlement or maturity is not a valid excel date, #VALUE! error is displayed.
• If coupon < 0 or if yld < 0, #NUM! error is displayed.
• If frequency is a number different from 1, 2, or 4, #NUM! error is displayed.
• If basis < 0 or if basis > 4, #NUM! error is displayed.

Examples

In this example, various arguments are entered in column A and their values are entered in column B, the resulted value is found using DURATION formula in column D.