Displaying secondary x-coordinate information

[Jon Deplumme]

On a line graph showing equity vs. time, I'd like to list the number of
trades associated with each time period shown on the x-coordinate. In
other words, have a second line of information below and aligned with
the x-coordinate values used to generate the graph, listing a secondary
value.

I've tried pasting the graph into another worksheet, then pasting in the
row listing the number of trades, but when I try to align the numbers
under the dates each is associated with, the graph is compressed.

If I could "lock" the graph and make it unaffected by manipulating the
columns widths, I could do what I want to do. But evidently locking the
graph's dimensions isn't an option.

There's gotta be a way to do this. Can anyone share some insight?

 

[Jon Peltier]

Jon -

Two in a row with the same answer. This technique will look ugly if you
have too many categories (rows or dates), but here's how to get multiple
labels into each category axis label. Put all the items in columns to
the left of the Y value data, as shown below, where I have fake volume
data and dates, then the O-H-L-C price data. The cells above the volume
and dates, and left of the O-H-L-C labels are blank. These blanks help
Excel figure out what parts of the range to use for labels.

Open High Low Close
10000 4/10/2004 100.65 101.74 100.45 101.61
12000 4/11/2004 108.82 109.50 104.70 109.31
5000 4/12/2004 103.05 103.70 102.20 103.57
16000 4/13/2004 100.37 100.40 100.21 100.34
20000 4/14/2004 101.70 105.17 100.31 103.90

Select the range, start the chart wizard, and draw an OHLC stock chart.
The resulting category axis has these labels:

4/10/2004 4/11/2004 4/12/2004 4/13/2004 4/14/2004
10000 12000 5000 16000 20000

I've used this technique to put four or five levels of labels under a
chart. The further away from the plotted data the labels are in the
worksheet, the further the labels will be from the data in the chart.
The dates are one column closer to the OHLC data in the sheet, so they
are closer to the chart, and the volume labels are below them.

- Jon