Forum Discussion
Trying to create 1 formula to use in dozens of tables
mathetes Thank you!
I like to use tables because when they work properly, I can add rows or columns to them without the rest of the items on a spreadsheet being impacted. I can make just the table bigger by one row. I also like that I can slice a table if I need to go back and figure out what a person's holdings were as of a particular day.
I will have to go and review the link you posted to learn more on lookups. If you still have the spreadsheet i initially uploaded, try and add rows to the tables on it and you'll see what I mean. Some of the tables it works .. some of them it doesn't, and then I have to insert a row vs. inserting a table row.
The holdings are actually public information if somebody wanted to review the proxy or our edgar filings, but I have removed the file because it was a very good point you made!!
Tracking insider holdings has always been a manual process at the various companies I've done it, but I've been on the quest to build a perfect tracker for years. Heck, I'd pay a lot of money to buy a perfect tracker if such a thing existed!!
The holdings are actually public information if somebody wanted to review the proxy or our edgar filings, but I have removed the file because it was a very good point you made!!
On principle, though, it's best not to just leave payroll reports lying around, don't you agree. Yes, the top execs do have a lot out there in edgar filings, but ....
Tracking insider holdings has always been a manual process at the various companies I've done it, but I've been on the quest to build a perfect tracker for years. Heck, I'd pay a lot of money to buy a perfect tracker if such a thing existed!!
Are you a consultant, working with and for several companies?
I'm sure that a really good tracker could be built. Perfect? That might be a tall order.
I'm also pretty sure that such a tracker would have a major transactional database and only a few business tables involved.
- By "business table" I mean something like the little date based table I created...something that has inherent in it some "instructional" considerations for functions to be performed on the raw transactional data. Another business table might take all the awards, their dates of granting, dates of vesting, etc. That business table could drive how each exec acquires their additional shares as time rolls on.
- By "major database," I mean, in fact, a very large table that would--conceptually at least--combine all the information on all those executives and all the individual actions/transactions regarding their awards, dividends, cash in and cash out, into a single table.
One of the mistakes that many people make when first getting in to Excel is to break things apart, as you've done. It's in some ways easier to think of it that way, probably mirrors how we'd do it if we kept these records on paper. But the truth is that Excel can take a well-designed single database that tracks all the data on transactions and break it apart, dealing with individual rows based on such things as SSN and award number, calendar dates...Excel can take a single table and do wonders.
We actually make it harder for Excel to "show its stuff," as you are experiencing, when we break the raw data apart to make it easier for ourselves.
- leanne_michelsJan 25, 2021Copper Contributor
mathetes Hi - no, i just do this for one company now. Thanks for your attention on this! I've just gotten the official reports that show the exact dividend amounts (that I was trying to calculate in advance) and they're not matching ... need to figure out why morgan stanley's numbers aren't the same as mine before I continue. Appreciate your advice and sharing the info on the Xlookup. i need to study that.