There appears to be every financial function one could wish for - except the one I need! When one purchases a discount coupon, you pay say $8566 today and it matures in say 8.5 years for a maturity value of $14,000. My objective is to calculate the balance with accrued interest anytime between the purchase date and maturity. To do this one first needs the yield and the function RATE(FV,PV,N)calculates the rate. But now I need a formula that provides the future value of what is basically a financial instrument that does not pay interest until maturity and the accrued interest is reinvested at the IRR. Is this formual available? The mathematical formula for doing this calculation is:
VALUE = $8566x(1+i)^8.5 where the ^ sign means "to the power of". If Adagio has a key that stands for ^ the way that * stands for multiplication, my problem would also be solved. Can you help or is this an item for a future wish list.
Thanks for your help.

There is a Financial Formula available that on the surface seems to do what you want:

ACCRINTM(I, S, R, P [, B])
Description
This function returns the accrued interest for a security that pays interest at maturity.

Parameters
I The issue date, a date/time value.
S The settlement date, a date/time value.
R The annual coupon rate.
P The par value of the security.
B (Optional) the day count basis to be used:
0 or omitted 30/360
1 Actual/actual
2 Actual/360
3 Actual/365

However if you must use:

VALUE = $8566 x(1+i)^8.5 where the ^ sign means "to the power of".

then substituting "**" for "^" will should work.

VALUE = $8566 * ((1+i)**8.5)

Example:
In any cell type

=8566*((1.059497651)**8.5)

and you will get

14000.000609278

So in a nutshell "Use ** when you wish to raise a value to a power"