>>>Yea, VAL() functin had it share of bugs and it stil does. Try ? VAL(-$10)
>>
>>Why is that a bug? I get what I expected, an error on a non-string parameter being passed.
>
>Sorry, it should be

? VAL("-$10")

I think it's a bit of a "procedural" error.

? VAL("$-10")

works just fine.