Excel backtesting is the “build-your-own-strategy-lab” approach: you import historical data, define rules, run the math, and see what survives contact with reality. For dividend capture, Excel is awesome for testing rules and tracking results — but it will absolutely punish sloppy data and sloppy formulas.

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Quick Summary

What Is Excel Backtesting?

Excel backtesting means using spreadsheets to simulate how a strategy would have performed in the past. You define your rules (entry, exit, hold days, dividend assumptions, fees), feed it historical data, and calculate results like win rate, average return, drawdowns, and “how often this thing face-plants.”

Excel is not a “strategy platform” — it’s a flexible engine. You can build almost anything… if you’re willing to build it.

What It’s Good At

• Custom rules: dividend capture is all about rules, and Excel is basically a rules playground.
• What-if testing: tweak hold days, entry buffers, stop rules, or fees and see how results change.
• DIY dashboards: build a results sheet that shows what’s working (and what’s secretly bleeding you).
• Repeatable templates: once you build a model, you can reuse it for every ticker/ETF you test.

How Yield Raiders Use It

For dividend capture, Excel shines when you want to answer questions like “Does my system actually work, or do I just remember the winners?” Here are the highest-payoff uses:

• Test hold-day rules: “Sell 1 day after ex-div” vs “Sell 3 days after ex-div” vs “sell on recovery target.”
• Compare entry timing: buy on a down day, buy at support, buy only when trend is up, etc.
• Build a ‘mistake detector’: flag trades where you violated your own rules (those are usually the profit-killers).
• Track your real-world results: your Excel model becomes your “truth table” over time.

“Excel won’t hype you. It will quietly show you that your ‘genius strategy’ works great… when you accidentally ignore losing trades.”

Watch-outs

• Garbage in, garbage out: if your price/dividend data is wrong or incomplete, your results will be fantasy.
• Formula risk: one broken cell reference can poison an entire backtest without you noticing.
• Survivorship bias: if your data set only includes “today’s winners,” your backtest is lying to you.
• Time cost: Excel backtesting is powerful, but it’s not effortless. You’re the engineer.

A Simple Excel Backtesting Workflow

• Step 1: Import clean historical price data (CSV is fine).
• Step 2: Add dividend/ex-div date data if your strategy depends on it.
• Step 3: Encode your rules (entry, exit, stop, hold days) with formulas.
• Step 4: Calculate trade-by-trade results (return, max adverse move, days held).
• Step 5: Summarize (win rate, avg win/loss, drawdown, “pain per trade,” and net return).
• Step 6: Validate with spot checks (pick 10 random trades and manually verify the logic).

Pricing & Access Info

• Pricing: Check Microsoft for up-to-date pricing.
• Login Required? For Microsoft 365 online features: Yes (desktop licenses vary).
• Upsells or Ads? Expect plan tiers depending on how you buy Excel (standalone vs Microsoft 365).

Verdict: If you want maximum flexibility and you’re willing to validate your work, Excel is one of the best backtesting “strategy labs” you can build for dividend capture.

Pros & Cons

Our Verdict

“Excel backtesting is the craftsman route. It’s not the fastest, but it’s brutally transparent — and for Yield Raiders who want to trust their rules, that’s a superpower.”

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