Do any sites show charts with values shown equal in the present?
Posted: December 4th, 2023, 12:15 pm
Mods, I wasn't sure where to post this, so please move if there is a better candidate forum.
There are various sites (eg TrustNet) which have charting tools that allow you to compare prices of shares, or funds, against each other over time, and online brokers can provide this too. But all the ones I've seen set the point for which the lines are equal - "0% growth", or a nominal starting value like £1000, as the left hand, earlier date. They then give you options of when to set that starting date, mainly in comparison to the present day (days, weeks, months or years ago). Some allow you to alter the end date too.
But this means the graph is rather tied to that particular starting date - alter that, and things can look quite different (eg if one of the prices had a particular peak or trough on that date). If the date for which all the lines converged was today - by far the most likely date you'll be interested in - then one graph would give an easier way to compare them all, without having to switch the starting date all the time - it'd all be on there, without having to change the date, and remember the look of the graph from before.
Selecting the earliest possible starting date does sort of give you this, but I think it's still harder to say "here's what these 2 (or more) funds did over the past year, and what they did over 2 years, and what they did since pre-covid ..." with this than with a chart in which the one date most likely to be always used is the date at which everything is level, ie today's value.
Is there any site, or broker, which gives you the option of looking at a chart like this?
There are various sites (eg TrustNet) which have charting tools that allow you to compare prices of shares, or funds, against each other over time, and online brokers can provide this too. But all the ones I've seen set the point for which the lines are equal - "0% growth", or a nominal starting value like £1000, as the left hand, earlier date. They then give you options of when to set that starting date, mainly in comparison to the present day (days, weeks, months or years ago). Some allow you to alter the end date too.
But this means the graph is rather tied to that particular starting date - alter that, and things can look quite different (eg if one of the prices had a particular peak or trough on that date). If the date for which all the lines converged was today - by far the most likely date you'll be interested in - then one graph would give an easier way to compare them all, without having to switch the starting date all the time - it'd all be on there, without having to change the date, and remember the look of the graph from before.
Selecting the earliest possible starting date does sort of give you this, but I think it's still harder to say "here's what these 2 (or more) funds did over the past year, and what they did over 2 years, and what they did since pre-covid ..." with this than with a chart in which the one date most likely to be always used is the date at which everything is level, ie today's value.
Is there any site, or broker, which gives you the option of looking at a chart like this?