More granularity for the Price Digits setting

[Djobydjoba]

Hello Mark,

Sorry for the feedback flooding. When I have an idea/request, I prefer to put it in the forum immediately.

This time a feedback about Price Digits (General Preferences). More granularity on this setting would be great.

For some types of investments, 2 digits are fine (indexes, stocks). But for some others, 4 digits are "needed". Penny stocks, or exchange rates for example, with 2 digits it is too rounded.
Suggestion: it would be great if we could set the price digits for each investment type.

Another suggestion is to have more granularity on price digits depending on the location in Fund Manager: Portfolio Editor, Data Register, Reports, Graphs.

For example, personally I would like, for indexes and stocks, 2 price digits in the Portfolio Editor and in the reports but 4 price digits in the data register, because very often 4 price digits are downloaded from the quotes servers. In the data register we (at least I) often want the prices not rounded to check / compare raw prices easily with the server

In graphs, for the Y-Axis values, there is often some price digits not needed. For example, in the graph below, ",00" could be removed for a better reading and more place in the screen (particularly when 4 graphs or 9 graphs are displayed).
https://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/6248 ... 1h1501.png

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Okay, understood, thanks for the idea/feedback. We do currently have the ability to specify price digits globally, and then report specific. The "General Preferences..." sets them globally, but under "Report Preferences..." you can specify them for reports only. I understand you're asking for more granularity, but I thought I'd point this out in case you hadn't seen the report option.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

Related to price digits in Y-Axis, and following the question/feedback I've made here: viewtopic.php?p=17276#p17276 (and the 2 posts under),
at least 4 digits have to be displayed in my setup in order to have a good auto-scaling for all my investments (due in particular to some relative strength investments with very low absolute values).

So unnecessary extra digits appear for most of my investments:
https://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/81056 ... 9h1701.png

Perhaps, a simple and automatic solution regarding price digits in Y-Axis would be that Fund Manager remove the unnecessary extra digits in the Y-Axis for each graph independently? (unnecessary when the minimum resolution of the grid is achieved with lesser digits).

Edit: in fact, perhaps price digits in Y-Axis should be automatically determined for each graph in order to achieve the right resolution of the grid, regardless the setting in General Preferences? What's the point of letting the user set price digits in a graph axis?

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I think you're right, it would be better to automatically determine the required resolution. We can look into adding this into a future update.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

About the idea above (automatically determine the required resolution for the Y scale), here are additional thoughts and ideas. Maybe not all relevant, you will choose...

Currently, my Price Digits setting in General Preferences is at "4", so 4 digits are displayed in the Y scale. This is too much most of the time, I would be happy if all the unnecessary "0" could be removed of the Y scale. But I have to display 4 digits for two reasons:

(1) in order to have a correct auto-scaling for all my investments (due to some relative strength investments with very low absolute values).
(2) for my taste 2 price digits is not sufficient for exchange rates, I want to see more digits for them.

Point (1) has already been discussed, the solution would be a resolution for the Y scale that doesn't rely on the general Price Digits setting. But I will add on this post additional ideas/suggestions.

Point (2): a solution could be an additional option to set the number of digits for each investment type (more digits for exchange rates). But I don't see how these different digits lengths could be handled (displayed) well in the Portfolio Editor and in the reports, so I haven't any clear request to make on this...

So I will only focus on digits displayed in graphs.

Another suggestion/request I will discuss (already made here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4346 ) is an option to display the main Y-axis to the right of the graph. This would be nice because it is the standard for most of the charting programs, and it is more natural (see the original post for some motivations). To be precise, the request is an option to display the main Y-axis to the right, to the left, or to both left and right (the same Y-axis duplicated on both side, yes. This can be visually handy). And of course this option would have to be merged with the "Display % Along Right/Left axis".

And this option would be a step to the right direction for the request made in another post, the two Y-axis for two investments (correlations and divergences study)

In order to display the Y-axis to the left as well as to the right, I think the way the cursor labels (new to FM 2018) appear has to be slightly changed.

So, here are some ideas.


Resolution / Digits for the Y-Scale
----------------------------------------
- the best resolution (digits number) should be automatically determined for each investment. The graph option "number of Y-Axis label for upper graphs" is taken into account for the calculation of the resolution, but the general setting "Price Digits" is not. The goal is to display only the necessary digits, not more.

- All ending "0" digits should be removed from each label. (perhaps a question of taste, could be an option, but I think it is better / more readable)
Example with removing ending 0: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... h04-01.png
Example without removing ending 0: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... h44-01.png

- For numbers with thousands without digits, the number formats available "1,000.00" and "1.000,00" are very ambivalent. At least here in Europe, it is very misleading because "." and "," can be both used as decimal separator, but are not used as a thousands separator. See this page: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19455-01/80 ... index.html
I suggest adding to the General Settings the number format: "1 000,00" because it is largely used too!
Note on this format: the thousand separator is a "Narrow No-Break Space" character, not a standard space.
Example with the "1.000,00" format:
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... h29-01.png
Example with the "1 000,00" format (right format in many countries in Europe):
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... cale-2.png


Cursor Labels
---------------
- Currently the cursor labels are "outside" the X and Y axes. I suggest to draw the cursor labels directly in the axes, above the axis labels. So the cursor labels won't be in the graph area, and won't obstruct the reading of values (so no need anymore to flip them at the opposite side of the graph when the cursor goes near them ).
Example with the cursor labels inside the axes: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... cale-3.png

- It would be handy too to see the last (current) price of the investment as a new label in the Y-axis:
Example with this new label: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... cale-4.png

This label displays the most recent price (current price), not the last price of the displayed date range



Digits in cursor and current price labels
----------------------------------------------
For accurate readings, the cursor and current price labels should in fact display the number of digits specified in the general settings, not the (reduced) number of digits of the Y-axis. This leads to the idea that the labels may need more room on the Y-axis. If a 4 digits display has been specified in the general settings, there should be some space to display the largest numbers with 4 digits, even if the Y-axis displays less digits. So there may be additional room (black stripe) at the left of the y-Axis labels, room suited for the length of the numbers in cursor and current price labels:
Example: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... cale-5.png

This graph is as large as the current implementation, not more large. It's only the Y-Axis labels that have less digits than the current implementation.


Y-axis on the right side
---------------------------
Another graph with the same ideas, with the Y-axis on the right side and the % Axis on the left side (this axis with cursor and current % labels too, and with the same ideas: all unnecessary digits removed from the axis labels, one digit displayed in the cursor and current % labels as specified in the general settings, percentage digits).
The graph: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... cale-6.png

Additional note: in the Investment Overlay graph type, there is a nice little "%"(percentage) symbol added with the Y-axis labels. Would be nice to add this symbol in the % axis too..

Screenshot from a trading software, ideas inspired / grabbed here and there...
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/201 ... h39-02.png

Thanks.
PS : In case of an error with the links ("Error 503 Backend fetch failed"), please retry, should end to load ..

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Wow, thanks for all the thought/effort you put into that feedback. It is obvious you've given it a lot of thought. There are some good ideas in there, and we can try to incorporate as many as we can in future updates. This will be a good reference to look back upon when we get to that point.

[Djobydjoba]

Glad you like the ideas!

[Djobydjoba]

Still hoping some improvements here, but I realize many people are probably happy with the current implementation.

Let's forget all I've written above on this topic, and summarize the request like this: Implementing an "intelligent Y-scale" in graphs. By "intelligent" I mean:

1) dynamically calculate and apply in graphs an optimal decimal resolution for the Y-scale. So:
- automatically add/remove decimals. For example, no decimal at all for scales with a step of 100, 1000, 10000 (for example)... But add decimal dynamically when required (for example relative strength investments need often 4 decimals or more to be displayed properly)
- For the determination of the Y-Scale step, still take into account the parameter "Number of Y Axis Labels for Upper Graphs" in the Graph Display Options dialog, but don't take into account anymore the "Price Digits" values in General Preference.

Motivation: several decimals have to be displayed in the Y-scale for proper graph display of some relative strength investments / currency pairs / penny stocks / cryptocurrencies. But, with other investments with big figures, display decimals are useless and make the display cumbersome.


2) Next level of "intelligence" (less important): integrate abbreviations in the Y scale labels when figures are big:
K for Thousands
MM or M for Millions
B, Bn, Bil for Billions
T or Tn for Trillion

Again in order to make the display less cumbersome with big figures.

Motivation: The ability of Fund Manager to handle many investment types is great. Many indicators can be potentially integrated in FM as (non-investable) investments, for market analysis purposes, correlation studies, etc. GDP, sale numbers, trade balances, consumption numbers, etc. can be potentially integrated in the program for analysis. To display 1 billion figures in the Y-scale, it is better to display 1000M (for example) than "1 000 000 000" as labels in the Y-Scale.
And as I plan to be a billionaire, I anticipate too

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Understood... This definitely would be a good improvement. And, I hope you do achieve your plan to be a billionaire.

[Djobydjoba]

I didn't have much of a chance to thank you for the improvement of the Y scale labels in FM 2022 (automatic resolution + label for large numbers). The result is really great. I enjoy these nice and clean scales every day. Thanks again.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Great, glad you're enjoying the improvements, and thanks to you for making the suggestions.