chartsdata-visualizationvisualizationstockfinancial

How to visualize transactions within assets of a portfolio


I'm visualizing stock data, with the x-axis representing time and y-axis representing money. Now if a stock gains on value (because the share is more worth) the corresponding line moves up:

Like this

But how can I visualize transactions during time? Say I buy more shares throughout time, the graph shows a significant rise not caused by a well performing stock, but rather caused by the number of shares doubling:

Like this

Now I know technically, the graph is correct, but if I want to analyze stock performance the graph becomes useless as significant rises have no correspondence to actual performance.


Solution

  • Well, there are many ways to do that. For example, you can plot two lines on the same chart: gain per share on main y-axis and number of shares on secondary y-axis.

    If your portfolio has several assets (as one could imply from the topic), you probably would want to show their weights/distribution in the portfolio. That you probably could achieve with stacked area chart or stacked bars.