Finance dev guy here.
Excel's dominance in the field is because it is an _application container_ that _non_ dev people can use.
The workflow is this:
- old trader guy says to his junior guy: "hey can you look into xxx."
- junior trader guy says: "sure I'll make a spreadsheet for it"
- old trader guy: "great your model is all I need, let's trade"
- several weeks later, IT guy says: "hey you're running a $100m book out of a spreadsheet, we'll make you a nice system for it, cause your stuff will blow up."
- several months later the IT guy comes back with a web app that does the same thing as the spreadsheet.
- old trader guy says: "hey I can't copy shit around, my shortcuts aren't working, I need to be able to do basic maths on the side, I can't save my work, etc."
- IT guy: "ok I'll make you an export-to-Excel button"
Seriously I've seen this happen over and over again.
The issue is not how to get rid of Excel, it's how do we make a better spreadsheet...
Excel's dominance in the field is because it is an _application container_ that _non_ dev people can use.
The workflow is this:
- old trader guy says to his junior guy: "hey can you look into xxx."
- junior trader guy says: "sure I'll make a spreadsheet for it"
- old trader guy: "great your model is all I need, let's trade"
- several weeks later, IT guy says: "hey you're running a $100m book out of a spreadsheet, we'll make you a nice system for it, cause your stuff will blow up."
- several months later the IT guy comes back with a web app that does the same thing as the spreadsheet.
- old trader guy says: "hey I can't copy shit around, my shortcuts aren't working, I need to be able to do basic maths on the side, I can't save my work, etc."
- IT guy: "ok I'll make you an export-to-Excel button"
Seriously I've seen this happen over and over again.
The issue is not how to get rid of Excel, it's how do we make a better spreadsheet...