Microsoft Excel has an extensive array of built-in date functions which can be very handy when working with time series data. In todays Microsoft Excel Quick Tip we will look at some uses for the TODAY( ) function.

To get the current date in a cell simply hit the equals key on the keyboard and type TODAY(). You should now have todays date in the cell.

You can use this feature to dynamically update linked cells to display the last n days trading data. Simply use the formula =TODAY() in cell A2 and in A3 do A2-1 and fill down. Link price in cells B2:B12 to the price lookup and every time excel recalculates the date the price cells will contain the 11 day window. The image below shows the initial state.

The image below shows the current window after Excel has re-calculated the formulas and the date has changed.