See the recent thread on R-SIG-finance about R in finance. There is 
certainly a lot of Excel in finance, but I would call it a tool used 
occasionally by quants, not the primary tool of quantitative analysts. I 
would have been less surprised if he had said "C and nothing but C". 
Excel is very limited when it comes to the large data sets frequently 
encountered in finance.

Both a benefit and curse of R is that there are many packages. This 
means that you can find or adapt the exact technique you need. It also 
means that you will need to do some work to get there. Many of the 
advantages should be obvious: cost, flexibility, extensibility, ability 
to adapt, etc.

Perhaps if you are a bit more clear about specifically what type of 
analysis you are trying to accomplish, this list can help you select a 
package that may meet your needs.

Regards,

- Brian

Liviu Andronic wrote:
> Dear R users,
>
> I am looking for R packages that would best approximate Oracle's
> Crystall Ball [1]. For those not familiar:
> "Crystal Ball software is a leading spreadsheet-based software suite
> for predictive modeling, forecasting, Monte Carlo simulation and
> optimization. [..] Crystal Ball is used by customers from a broad
> range of industries, such as aerospace, financial services,
> manufacturing, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and utilities. Crystal Ball
> is used in over 800 universities and schools worldwide for teaching
> risk analysis concepts.
>
> The diverse applications for Crystal Ball include financial risk
> analysis, valuation, engineering, Six Sigma, portfolio allocation,
> cost estimation, and project management. "
>
> [1] http://www.oracle.com/crystalball/index.html
>
> The other day, in the Risk Management class, we did Monte Carlo
> simulations using Crystall Ball&Excel. The professor (a relatively
> young MIT PhD) made a speech that felt a bit distressing, in short:
> "Working in Finance, Excel, Excel and nothing but Excel."  I would
> prefer to avoid this.
>
> R's packages with Monte Carlo support are numerous, and I wouldn't
> know where to start. Recently [2] as alternative to Crystall Ball
> QRMlib [3] was suggested, but it is accompanied with a book, while
> currently I would prefer online documentation. If any of the R GUI
> packages support something similar, please also drop a note.
>
> [2] http://www.nabble.com/Quantitative-risk-analysis-with-R-tp19184940p19184940.html
> [3] http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/QRMlib/index.html
>
> Thank you,
> Liviu
>   


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

