Archive for the 'Financial markets' Category

Google Finance vs Yahoo Finance

Published by Catherine on June 18, 2006 in Bar Chart, Critiques and Commentary, Financial markets and Line Graph. 0 Comments

While Yahoo is still my main source for financial data especially when I need historical numbers, I did like the interactive graph Google developed.

Google Finance Graph

It is little jerky when the graph is updating, but the interaction builds upon Google Map’s click and drag behavior and integrates the news into the graph which is very helpful.

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Graphing historical data: DJIA

Published by Catherine on May 10, 2006 in Dow Jones Industrial Average, Financial markets and Line Graph. 0 Comments

Playing around Yahoo finance with a friend of mine (Hey Fleur!), we started looking at historical stock data. Yahoo has daily values for DJIA going back to 1929 so the obvious thing to do is look at the crash of 1929.

Yahoo plotted the DJIA on a logarithmic scale because of the large change in values over the last 80 years:

Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1929 (Log scale)

We switched to the normal view:

Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1929

You can see why the log scale is needed. Without it the 1929 crash and the Great Depression are invisible. But what about 1987? Wasn’t that the biggest drop in the history of the stock market?

October 28, 1929 – Dow Jones plummets 38.33 to 260.64 (13% drop)
October 19, 1987 “Black Monday” – Dow Jones down 508.32 to 1738.74 (22% drop)

In both of the above graphs we are plotting cumulative wealth (the current value is based on the previous day’s value). What we need is the percent change day-by-day, which is why daily history at Yahoo is important:

Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1929 (Daily Percent Change)

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Changes in Household Income by Quintiles

Published by Catherine on January 27, 2006 in Financial markets, Income - High, Income - Low, Income - Middle, Income - Total, Aggregate, Line Graph, S&P 500 and United States. 0 Comments

Share of Income by Quintile Graph

Returning to the CBO report that looks at incomes across all households, I found a data table showing the change in the total income for each quintile (bottom 20%, 20-40%, 40-60%, 60-80% and the top 20%) over the past 20 years.In 2002, if you lived in a household with a total income of:

    less than $15,900 per year then you were in the bottom 20%
    between $15,900 and $27,300 then you were in the 20-40% group
    between $27,300 and $39,800 then you were in the 40-60% group
    between $39,800 and $59,400 then you were in the 60-80% group
    greater than $59,400 then you were in the top 20%

What caught my attention is the dramatic rise (and partial fall) of the income going to the top 20%. While the other quintiles do not display this pattern.

It looks like the drop in United States’ total income (seen in the previous post) was due to the change in the top 20% alone.

As for the drop in income, what I think is going on is changes in the stock market effecting income. By looking at the S&P 500 index, we see the raise and fall in the stock market coincides with the changes in the top 20%’s income.

S&P500 1979-2002

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