standard deviation

[freddie mac]

Hello! I have a small problem. I have two columns, A and B. In these
columns there are returns for different bonds. In column C I calculate
the diffence between A and B (C1=A1-B1). In column D I want to
calculate the standard deviation of the difference dating 30 data
points back. Thus, in D31 i write =STDAV(C1:C30).

This all works fine. However I want to skip having the C column and
make the calculations for the standard deviation of the dífference
dierctly from the values in A and B. However I have not managed to do
so. Please help me out! I know it does not sound worthwhile but having
the extra column really messes up my spreadsheet! Any help appreciated!
Thanks alot!

 

[Dave F]

One way to do this would be to put column C on a separate sheet in the
workbook, call it 'returns difference' and then reference that sheet in your
stdev calculations. Further you could hide the returns difference sheet by
going to Format-->Sheet-->Hide Sheets.

Dave