How to Calculate a Moving Average in Excel

Smooth out noisy daily numbers with a 3-day and 7-day moving average, then compare them to spot momentum.

You will learn to

• Average a sliding window of recent rows
• Build a 7-day moving average
• Compare a short and long average to read momentum

How it works

A moving (rolling) average smooths out day-to-day noise so you can see the underlying trend. A 3-day moving average on row 4 is simply =AVERAGE(B2:B4); filled down, the window slides one row at a time because both ends of the range are relative.

Longer windows (7 days, 30 days) are smoother but slower to react. Analysts often compare a short average with a long one: when the short-term average rises above the long-term average, demand is accelerating; when it drops below, things are cooling off.

=AVERAGE(B2:B4)