What are my best options for creating a financial open-high-low-close (OHLC) chart in a high level language like Ruby or Python? While there seem to be a lot of options for graphing, I haven't seen any gems or eggs with this kind of chart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-high-low-close_chart (but I don't need the moving average or Bollinger bands)
JFreeChart can do this in Java, but I'd like to make my codebase as small and simple as possible.
Thanks!
Have you considered using R and the quantmod package? It likely provides exactly what you need.
You can use Pylab (matplotlib.finance) with Python. Here are some examples: http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/plotfile_demo.html . There is some good material specifically on this problem in Beginning Python Visualization.
Update: I think you can use matplotlib.finance.candlestick for the Japanese candlestick effect.
Are you free to use JRuby instead of Ruby? That'd let you use JFreeChart, plus your code would still be in Ruby
Please look at the Open Flash Chart embedding for WHIFF http://aaron.oirt.rutgers.edu/myapp/docs/W1100_1600.openFlashCharts An example of a candle chart is right at the top. This would be especially good for embedding in web pages.
Open Flash Chart is nice choice if you like the look of examples. I've moved to JavaScript/Canvas library like Flot for HTML embedded charts, as it is more customizable and I get desired effect without much hacking (http://itprolife.worona.eu/2009/08/scatter-chart-library-moving-to-flot.html).