Tableau QT: OHLC Charts

In this Tableau Quick Tip, we are going to create an Open-High-Low-Close (OHLC) chart in Tableau, we will do this within 5 mins or less.

Data

Let us start by loading the following data in Tableau Desktop / Public.

Note: this is SnapChart data as of the 22nd November 2019.

Calculated Fields

Create the following Calculated Fields:

Spread: Close-Open

SUM([Close])-SUM([Open])

Spread: Low-High

SUM([Low])-SUM([High])

I also require us to download and load two shapes into Tableau:

and that is it, let us now build our worksheet.

Worksheet

We will now create our worksheet:

• Change the Mark Type to Gantt.
• Drag the Date onto the Filter Shelf.
  • Filter for the Last 3 Months.
  • Set the Anchor relative to 24/11/2019.
• Drag Date onto the Columns Shelf.
  • Right-click on this object and select Exact Date and then select Discrete.
• Drag Spread: Low-High onto the Size Mark.

You should now have the following:

We will now add our open and close icons:

• Drag Measure Values onto the Rows Shelf.
• Drag Measure Names onto the Filter Shelf and select Open and Close only.
• In the Measure Values Mark Panel.
  • Change the Mark Type to Shape.
  • Drag Measure Names onto the Shape Mark.
  • Assign Close and Open to the appropriate Shape.
• Right-click on Measure Values and select Dual Axis.
  • Right-click on the axis header and select Synchronise Axis.
  • Double-click on the axis header and uncheck Include Zero.
• In the SUM(High) Marks Panel, reduce the size.

You should now have the following:

We will now adjust the cosmetics:

• Drag Spread: Open-Close onto the Colour Mark.
  • Adjust the colour so that below 0 is red, above 0 is green.
• Hide the Axis Headers.
• Set Grid Lines to None.
• Set Row and Column Dividers to None.
• Adjust the Tooltips.

You should have the following:

and boom, we are done. We have created our Quadrant Plots in Tableau. You can find my data visualisation Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/OHLCCharts/OHLCChart

Summary

I hope you all enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Do let me know if you experienced any issues recreating this Visualisation, and as always, please leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @Tableau_Magic.

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