# Candlestick charts in Ruby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 31, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897 "2007-07-31T22:01:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amslonewolf)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897/1 "2007-07-31T22:01:00Z")

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Hi - Do you know if there is an open-source package to do candlestick  
stock/technical charts using Ruby?

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**Author:** ![amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amslonewolf)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897/2 "2007-08-01T04:46:12Z")

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Ams L. wrote:

> Hi - Do you know if there is an open-source package to do candlestick  
> stock/technical charts using Ruby?

You could probably hack something up pretty quickly on Windows if Excel  
is installed by using the OLE interface. If there’s a similar  
candlestick capability in [OpenOffice.org](http://OpenOffice.org)’s spreadsheet or Gnumeric, you  
could do it that way.

Years ago when I was into technical analysis I had some blindingly fast  
Forth code and some moderately usable Perl 4 code that did point and  
figure charts, which is all I used. The Forth code was so fast it could  
have charted tick data in real time on an 8 MHz 80186 if I had tick data  
to chart. 🙂

I could go look for that – it’s probably on a floppy disk somewhere,  
although I could probably reproduce it in Ruby from memory faster than  
I’d be able to find a 15 year old floppy disk. Point and figure is a lot  
more fun than candlesticks anyhow. 🙂

Do you have real time data? Would you be pulling quote data off the web  
and using it? If they’re still around, “[stockcharts.com](http://stockcharts.com)” had a whole  
bunch of unusual chart types, including an extremely nifty point and  
figure Java applet, candlesticks, and some charts I’ve never seen  
anywhere else.

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**Author:** ![amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amslonewolf)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 5:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897/3 "2007-08-01T05:55:19Z")

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M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> Forth code and some moderately usable Perl 4 code that did point and  
> and using it? If they’re still around, “[stockcharts.com](http://stockcharts.com)” had a whole  
> bunch of unusual chart types, including an extremely nifty point and  
> figure Java applet, candlesticks, and some charts I’ve never seen  
> anywhere else.

Now that I think of it, point and figure charts might make an  
interesting Ruby Q… 🙂 Let me go find some test data.

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**Author:** ![amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amslonewolf)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897/4 "2007-08-01T06:09:20Z")

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M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> > Forth code and some moderately usable Perl 4 code that did point and  
> > and using it? If they’re still around, “[stockcharts.com](http://stockcharts.com)” had a whole  
> > bunch of unusual chart types, including an extremely nifty point and  
> > figure Java applet, candlesticks, and some charts I’ve never seen  
> > anywhere else.
> 
> Now that I think of it, point and figure charts might make an  
> interesting Ruby Q… 🙂 Let me go find some test data.

More info … it doesn’t look like “oocalc” does candlesticks. However,  
it looks like you can do them in Gnumeric, and “gnuplot” has them built  
in. So your best bet is probably to use the Ruby “gnuplot” library.

Also … I checked and [stockcharts.com](http://stockcharts.com) still has their nifty point and  
figure charts. They also have candlesticks. So … I think this would  
make a nice Ruby quiz.

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**Author:** ![amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@amslonewolf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amslonewolf)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/candlestick-charts-in-ruby/110897/5 "2007-08-01T14:59:24Z")

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On Jul 31, 2007, at 11:08 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> So … I think this would make a nice Ruby quiz.

You are welcome to write it up and send it in:

removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

James Edward G. II