Excel is used extensively in the financial and trading fields because for many situations (predominantly RAD and prototyping) it IS the best tool for the job. W

Excel is used extensively in the financial and trading fields because for many situations (predominantly RAD and prototyping) it IS the best tool for the job. We are talking about companies with serious amounts of cash to throw around at anything that gives them the slightest edge and with some of the smartest people to work for them. They use Excel because for many situations there is nothing better. Of course the particular use case I mentioned was probably pushing Excel right to the edge of the envelope and the company was actively developing a .NET replacement for it because everyone recognized this. I have no idea how that turned out but I can say that the Excel system was very impressive and very functional.