plot-methods: Plot 'timeSeries' objects

Description

"timeSeries" methods for plot, lines and points.

Usage

# S4 method for timeSeries
plot(x, y, FinCenter = NULL,
    plot.type = c("multiple", "single"), format = "auto",
    at = pretty(x), widths = 1, heights = 1, xy.labels,
    xy.lines, panel = lines, nc, yax.flip = FALSE,
    mar.multi = c(0, 5.1, 0, if (yax.flip) 5.1 else 2.1),
    oma.multi = c(6, 0, 5, 0), axes = TRUE, ...)
# S4 method for timeSeries
lines(x, FinCenter = NULL, ...)
# S4 method for timeSeries
points(x, FinCenter = NULL, ...)
# S3 method for timeSeries
pretty(x, n=5, min.n=n%/%3, shrink.sml=0.75,
    high.u.bias=1.5, u5.bias=0.5+1.5*high.u.bias, eps.correct=0, ...)

Value

NULL (invisibly), the functions are called for the side effect of producing plots

Arguments

x, y: objects of class timeSeries.
FinCenter: a character with the the location of the financial center named as "continent/city".
plot.type: for multivariate time series, should the series by plotted separately (with a common time axis) or on a single plot?
format: POSIX label format, e.g. "%Y-%m-%d" or "%F" for ISO-8601 standard date format.
at: a timeDate object setting the plot label positions. If at=pretty(x), the postitions are generated automatized calling the function pretty. Default option at="auto" selects 6 equal spaced time label positions. For the new plot themes set at="pretty" or at="chic". In this case additional arguments can be passed through the ... arguments, see details.
widths, heights: widths and heights for individual graphs, see layout.
xy.labels: logical, indicating if text() labels should be used for an x-y plot, _or_ character, supplying a vector of labels to be used. The default is to label for up to 150 points, and not for more.
xy.lines: logical, indicating if lines should be drawn for an x-y plot. Defaults to the value of xy.labels if that is logical, otherwise to TRUE
panel: a function(x, col, bg, pch, type, ...) which gives the action to be carried out in each panel of the display for plot.type="multiple". The default is lines.
nc: the number of columns to use when type="multiple". Defaults to 1 for up to 4 series, otherwise to 2.
yax.flip: logical indicating if the y-axis (ticks and numbering) should flip from side 2 (left) to 4 (right) from series to series when type="multiple".
mar.multi, oma.multi: the (default) par settings for plot.type="multiple".
axes: logical indicating if x- and y- axes should be drawn.
n: an integer giving the desired number of intervals.
min.n: a nonnegative integer giving the minimal number of intervals.
shrink.sml: a positive numeric by a which a default scale is shrunk in the case when range(x) is very small.
high.u.bias: a non-negative numeric, typically > 1. Larger high.u.bias values favor larger units.
u5.bias: a non-negative numeric multiplier favoring factor 5 over 2.
eps.correct: an integer code, one of 0, 1, or 2. If non-0, a correction is made at the boundaries.
...: additional graphical arguments, see plot, plot.default and par.

Details

Our original method plot was build along R's plotting function plot.ts with an additional argument to tailor the position marks at user defined position specified by the argument at. We call this style or theme "ts".

With verson R 3.1 we have inroduced two new additional plotting themes called "pretty" and "chick". They are becoming active when we set at = "pretty" or at = "chic".

Plot style or theme "pretty" is an extension of our original plotting method.

Plot style or theme "chic" is an implementation along the contributed packages xts and PerformanceAnalytics from the Chicago finance group members ("chic" is an abbreviation of Chicago.

For both themes, "pretty" and "chic", additional arguments are passed through the ... arguments. These are:

`Argument`	Default	Description
`type`	"l"	types pf plot
`col`	1	colors for lines and points
`pch`	20	plot symbol
`cex`	1	character and symbol scales
`lty`	1	line types
`lwd`	2	line widths
`cex.axes`	1	scale of axes
`cex.lab`	1	scale of labels
`cex.pch`	1	scale of plot symbols

`grid`	TRUE	should grid lines plotted?
`frame.plot`	TRUE	should b box around the plot?
`axes`	TRUE	should be axes drawn on the plot?
`ann`	TRUE	should default annotations appear?

Concerning the plot elements, the length of these vectors has to be the same as the number of columns in the time series to be plotted. If their length is only one, then they are repeated.

There is an almost 70 pages vignette added to the package, with dozens of examples of tailored plots. Have a look in it.

Examples

Run this code

## load Swiss pension fund benchmark data
LPP <- LPP2005REC[1:12, 1:4]
colnames(LPP) <- abbreviate(colnames(LPP), 2)
finCenter(LPP) <- "GMT"

## Example Plot 1
plot(LPP[, 1], type = "o", col = "steelblue",
  main = "LPP", xlab = "2005", ylab = "Return")
plot(LPP[, 1], at="auto", type = "o", col = "steelblue",
  main = "LPP", xlab = "2005", ylab = "Return")

## Example Plot 2
plot(LPP[, 1:2], type = "o", col = "steelblue",
  main = "LPP", xlab = "2005", ylab = "Return")

## Example Plot 3
plot(LPP[, 1], LPP[, 2], type = "p", col = "steelblue",
  main = "LPP", xlab = "Return 1", ylab = "Return 2")

## Example Plot 4a, the wrong way to do it!
LPP <- as.timeSeries(data(LPP2005REC))
ZRH <- as.timeSeries(LPP[,"SPI"], zone = "Zurich", FinCenter = "Zurich")
NYC <- as.timeSeries(LPP[,"LMI"], zone = "NewYork", FinCenter = "NewYork")
finCenter(ZRH)
finCenter(NYC)
plot(ZRH, at="auto", type = "p", pch = 19, col = "blue")
points(NYC, pch = 19, col = "red")

## Example Plot 4b, convert NYC to Zurich time
finCenter(ZRH) <- "Zurich"
finCenter(NYC) <- "Zurich"
at <- unique(round(time(ZRH)))
plot(ZRH, type = "p", pch = 19, col = "blue", format = "%b %d", at = at,
    xlab = paste(ZRH@FinCenter, "local Time"), main = ZRH@FinCenter)
points(NYC, pch = 19, col = "red")

## Example 4c, force everything to GMT using "FinCenter" argument
finCenter(ZRH) <- "Zurich"
finCenter(NYC) <- "NewYork"
at <- unique(round(time(ZRH)))
plot(ZRH, type = "p", pch = 19, col = "blue", format = "%b %d", at = at,
    FinCenter = "GMT", xlab = "GMT", main = "ZRH - GMT")
points(NYC, FinCenter = "GMT", pch = 19, col = "red")