Calibration

Numbercrunching (using a single stock quote for Barclays) …

The variables available for a single stock quote are:

stock symbol
last trade
trade time
date
change (+ or -)
open
day's range: high
day's range: low
volume

The variables in bold are the useable numbers.

I started looking at volume to see how I could use it. I had assumed that this was a simple cumulative total volume of trades for the day, but on experimenting with it, I discovered that although most of the time it was acting as expected, occasionally the number actually falls. I have been unable to find out why this might be, or what this number specifically represents, so given the timescale of this project, I have decided not to use this number.

last trade price

Next, I tried comparing the last trade price with the 52 week range (available on the Yahoo website) …

52 week range = 117.2 - 578.5
difference of 461.3

let 117.2 = the bottom of the scale, i.e. 0%
and let 578.5 = the top of the scale, i.e. 100%

so the current price of 167 as a percentage on my scale = … …

((167-117.2)*100)/461.3 = 10.80% (to 2dp)

But looking at the graph, I am concerned that the scale is too wide and that the data will not change enough to make a noticeable difference in the resulting face.

Next, I tried the same thing using a 6 month range …

26 week range = 117.2 - 390.75
difference of 273.55

let 117.2 = the bottom of the scale, i.e. 0%
and let 390.75 = the top of the scale, i.e. 100%

so the current price of 167 as a percentage on my scale = … …

((167-117.2)*100)/273.55 = 18.21% (to 2dp)

then 3 months …

3 month range = 117.2 - 389
difference of 271.8

let 117.2 = the bottom of the scale, i.e. 0%
and let 389 = the top of the scale, i.e. 100%

so the current price of 167 as a percentage on my scale = … …

((167-117.2)*100)/271.8 = 18.32% (to 2dp)

one month …

1 month range = 117.2 - 205.25
difference of 88.05

let 117.2 = the bottom of the scale, i.e. 0%
and let 205.25 = the top of the scale, i.e. 100%

so the current price of 167 as a percentage on my scale = … …

((167-117.2)*100)/88.05 = 56.56% (to 2dp)

five days …

5 day range = 132.5 - 170
difference of 37.5

let 132.5 = the bottom of the scale, i.e. 0%
and let 170 = the top of the scale, i.e. 100%

so the current price of 167 as a percentage on my scale = … …

((167-132.5)*100)/37.5 = 92.00% (to 2dp)

and finally, one day …

1 day range = 162.5 - 170
difference of 7.5

let 162.5 = the bottom of the scale, i.e. 0%
and let 170 = the top of the scale, i.e. 100%

so the current price of 167 as a percentage on my scale = … …

((167-162.5)*100)/7.5 = 60.00% (to 2dp)

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So the problem is that the same number could be represented as anything from 10% to 90% depending on the chosen scale. If I get time I will make buttons for people to choose the scale. For now though I will just choose one: the one day's range, because these numbers are present in the same .csv file.

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here's the face numbers I need to map this stuff onto:

Facial variable	sad	happy	surprised	afraid
eyeOffset	10	30	30	10
eyeWidth	40	90	90	40
eyeTopHeight	-10	40	60	60
eyeBottomHeight	40	-10	60	60
eyebrowSlant	30	0	0	30
mouthWidth	40	100	60	40
mouthTopHeight	40	-10	80	80
mouthBottomHeight	-10	40	80	80

stock symbol
last trade
trade time
date
change (+ or -)
open
day's range: high
day's range: low
volume