Auto minimum on Y Axis

[mattjenkins]

Hi all - If someone can help me here I would be most grateful. I have a chart which plots values over a time period of say 15 years. The value is entered in one cell and then a macro is run to generate the returns for each of the 15 years which the chart then plots.

The problem is when the fund value is high say 1,000,000 originally and the returns are low, then it doesnt change much, but the Y axis starts at 0 so there is a massive gap and then you can't see much differential in the line graph.

I have tried changing the chart options, but as the returns are variable I can't put it in a minimum.

Any ideas??

Thanks

[James Silverton]

mattjenkins wrote on Wed, 5 Jul 2006 07:29:12 -0500:

m> The problem is when the fund value is high say 1,000,000
m> originally andthe returns are low, then it doesnt change
m> much, but the Y axis startsat 0 so there is a massive gap
m> and then you can't see much differentialin the line graph.

m> I have tried changing the chart options, but as the returns
m> arevariable I can't put it in a minimum.

m> Any ideas??

I suspect you must have considered it but the large range sounds
just what a log axis is meant for. Do you have any negative
values that might cause trouble with logs?


James Silverton.

[mattjenkins]

some of the return %'s are negative values, but the line will never go into a negative value on the Y Axis - is this what you mean? I'm not sure what a log axis is

Thanks very much

[James Silverton]

mattjenkins wrote on Wed, 5 Jul 2006 09:28:53 -0500:

m> some of the return %'s are negative values, but the line
m> will never go into a negative value on the Y Axis - is this
m> what you mean? I'm not sure what a log axis is


m> Thanks very much--
m> mattjenkins-------------------------------------------------
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Basically, it is an alternative to a linear scale on the y-axis.
Click the chart/Right click y scale/Format axis/Scale/select
logarithmic scale. I hope I am not being excessively pedantic
:-) Give it a try; you can always reset to a linear scale.

Again, being pedantic again, the logarithm of a negative number
is imaginary.

James Silverton.

[mattjenkins]

Hi - thanks for your reply, but the logarithmic scale doesn't help as it makes it go haywire. I think the fact that the variables on the x axis can vary so greatly it goes off the screen sometimes