SLOPE did the trick! Thank you very much for your help, David!

"David Biddulph" wrote:

=SLOPE(B2:E2,B1:E1) would work out the trend,
if your SALES numbers are in B2:E2 and your dates are in B1:E1 (and if they
really are dates, rather than text).

You would obviously have to decide how close to zero you would accept as
STABLE, then you could use an IF() formula to separate the values and give
your POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, or STABLE outputs.
--
David Biddulph

"leotoni" wrote in message
...
I am trying to create an IF formula that returs POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, or
STABLE
depending on the trend found in a data series. Does anybody know how can I
evaluate a data series for a positive/negative/stable trend? For instance,
I
have the following data set:

MONTH January,February,March,April
SALES 100,200,300,100

If I use a chart to analyze this data, I can visually identify it is a
positive trend. Can I get that simple answer using a formula, rather than
a
chart?

Thank you!