Finding Data
To find the business surveys used for the IFO Clock, go to:
Country & Region > Germany > Surveys & Leading Indicators > Business Surveys > Ifo > Business Surveys > Trade & Industry > Germany
Locate and select the following series:
- Business Situation, Index, SA
- Business Expectations, Index, SA
Add them to a new document.
Data presentation
Scatter Chart
For this case, you do not need to add any calculations. So, your work in the analysis tree will be limited to adding the presentation.
- Select Series list in the tree
- Click on Add
- Under the heading Presentations, select Scatter chart
Charting
Assigning series to an axis
You should have the Business Situation series on the X-axis, and the Business Expectations series on the Y-axis.
- Go to Graph Layout
- Under Graph (RHS) you’ll see the two series
- First series = X-axis, second series = Y-axis.
- Drag and drop the series, if you need to change the order
How to define the time range
- Click on a data point in the scatter plot to activate the presentation properties
- Look for “Data Range”, on the right side
- Type ‘-10y’ as the start date of the range
Markers
Next you need to add markets and adjust the size of the line, to highlight the data points.
Click on a data point in the scatter plot to activate the presentation properties
Under “Appearance”, locate the graph style setting, and select “Custom”
Set the size of the line and add markers
Using dynamic properties for the axis titles
Dynamic properties automatically generates text based on the series properties you select. If there are any changes to the series you used in a chart, the text will automatically be updated to reflect this.
- Click on one of the axes to activate the presentation properties.
- Look for the title settings and click edit
- Hover over the grey tab that says “dynamic properties” to
- Select “graph text” from the available series properties by clicking on the red square
Repeat these steps for the other axis
Location of the vertical axis
- Click on the vertical axis to activate the presentation properties settings, you can
- find the “Main Scale” setting, and choose “Left”
Observation Labels
In the example chart we used dynamic properties so that the observation label always shows the last value once the data in the chart is updated.
Adding the observation label:
- Right click on the last datapoint and select “Add observation label” from the context menu.
The default text is the date and value for the series, in this case there are two per observation.
To edit the text:
- Double-click on the label.
- Before selecting the dynamic property, type “Last value:“
- To avoid duplicating the information, specify which series you want the information to refer to
- Expand the All series node at the top of the list, under s1, select and add “date”
To get the observation label to shift with new values:
- Single-click on the observation label to activate the settings in presentation properties
- Under “Range” use the drop down to select “start” and “end” as the range parameters
- Set the start to +0, and leave the end blank
Appearance
The final changes that need to be made are:
- Set the title
- Add a subtitle
- Add horizontal & vertical lines to 100
- Remove the legend