Financial Statistics no 496 August 2003

A discussion of statistical analysis using two personal computer software packages, Minitab 12 and Microsoft Excel 97. Minitab was chosen because it is powerful and is one of the more user-friendly statistical software packages. Microsoft Excel 97 was selected because it is one of the most important software packages to learn and most companies use Excel. Excel is not dedicated to statistical analysis like Minitab, but it has many statistical features and a very powerful development environment for writing customized statistical analysis. The book has a textbook format. Each chapter discusses statistical concepts and illustrates the use of Minitab and/or Excel. Often it becomes necessary to write macros (programs) in order to do specific statistical analysis. This book prints the codes of the macros for the reader to use and study.