How to simplify complex convertible analysis with the Kynex Excel Add-In

Excel remains a central tool for the day-to-day analysis of convertible bonds. Analysts use it to structure new deals, compare terms, run scenarios, and build reports. The trading, booking, and risk management of a convertible book, meanwhile, run through dedicated systems, including Kynex's own Order Management System (OMS) and Portfolio Management System (PMS). That division of labor isn't the problem. 

The challenge lies in bridging the two workflows. Bringing Kynex's valuation and risk models into the spreadsheet has historically meant exporting outputs, copying and pasting, and rekeying assumptions by hand. Every one of those handoffs costs time and introduces the risk of pushing a spreadsheet out of sync with the models it's meant to reflect. Multiply that workflow across users, teams, and regions, and the result is slower analysis and inconsistent numbers.

Introducing the Kynex Excel Add-In

The Kynex Excel Add-In addresses these workflow challenges head on by bringing Kynex convertible bond analytics directly into Excel. Teams can access pricing, risk measures, market data, and scenario analysis within the spreadsheet environment they already use, while remaining connected to Kynex's centralized analytics and methodology.

As Joseph O'Reilly, Kynex Product Manager at Numerix, explained during a recent on-demand webinar, the add-in was developed in response to client feedback and the reality that spreadsheets remain deeply embedded in convertible workflows.

Two workflows, one Excel-based experience

The Kynex Excel Add-In supports two core workflows: Single Name API functionality for secondary-market analysis and the New Issue Pricer for structuring and pricing hypothetical convertible issues. While these use cases typically align with different teams, both are designed to eliminate manual handoffs and bring Kynex analytics into existing spreadsheet workflows.

1. Analyze individual securities with the Single Name API

For traders, portfolio managers, and risk teams, the Single Name API workflow provides programmatic access to Kynex's valuation engine directly from Excel.

Users can enter an instrument identifier such as a CUSIP, FIGI, ISIN or an option symbol, along with inputs such as convertible price and stock price. The add-in can then return theoretical value, Greeks, implied volatility, implied spread, yields, and other analytics. This opens the door to a range of spreadsheet-based analysis types.

Teams can build custom scenario analysis tools, stress testing templates, portfolio monitoring sheets, and reporting workflows without having to recreate the underlying Kynex models in Excel. External inputs, such as volatility or credit spreads, can also be incorporated into a spreadsheet and passed into the Kynex model. Assumptions that are not passed default to the user's Kynex portfolio settings, which is why a working sheet needs only a handful of inputs rather than a full parameter set.

That flexibility is particularly valuable when teams have developed their own Excel tools. Instead of replacing those spreadsheets, the add-in enables users to connect them to Kynex analytics.

For example, users can create scenarios around changes in stock price, volatility or credit spreads and have the resulting fair values and Greeks update dynamically. Historical and forward trade dates can also be passed into the model for analysis and backtesting.

The result is a more flexible way to perform analysis while maintaining a connection to the centralized Kynex valuation engine.

2. Structure and price new convertible issues

The second core workflow is designed for issuance and equity capital markets (ECM) teams working on new convertible structures.

The New Issue Pricer brings the same types of inputs used in the Kynex platform into Excel, enabling users to structure and value hypothetical new issues directly within a spreadsheet.

Users can adjust terms such as coupon, maturity, conversion premium, volatility, and credit spread, and then evaluate outputs including fair value, percent cheap, delta, implied volatility, implied spread, investment value, and yield to maturity. This can support new issue pricing, structure testing, deal term comparisons, and issuer pitch preparation.

Because the functions can be incorporated into custom spreadsheets, teams can also build pricing matrices and other tools around their own workflows. During the webinar, O'Reilly showed how users can create tables that evaluate different combinations of coupons, premiums, and other deal terms. This can make it easier to compare potential structures without repeatedly transferring analysis between Excel and a separate pricing application.

Closing the gap for both desks

Delivering analytics to Excel is a straightforward task. However, delivering analytics into the spreadsheets a desk has already built is the harder problem.

Kynex's Single Name API and New Issue Pricer close that gap for different desks. One serves teams that track secondary positions, while the other serves teams that price new deals. Either way, the result is the same. Teams spend less time reconciling and more time analyzing.

Supporting faster, more flexible convertible analysis

The Kynex Excel Add-In reflects a broader shift toward making sophisticated analytics more accessible within the tools financial professionals already use.

For convertible teams, that means faster answers, fewer version-control headaches, and more time spent on judgment calls instead of data wrangling.

Want to see the Kynex Excel Add-In in action? Watch the on-demand webinar to see how the Single Name API and New Issue Pricer work in Excel, including live demonstrations of custom scenario analysis and new issue structuring. Watch the on-demand webinar.

Sign up for access to a free trial of Kynex here.