Financial charts in .NET? Best library to display a live streaming 1-min stock chart?

Question

We are using C# .NET.

We're looking for a method to display live streaming 1-min financial stock charts.

Need: - Candlesticks - Zoom/pan - The chart scrolling in real time as it receives streaming data

Woud like: - A method to print metadata on the chart (buy/sell points, etc)

We don't mind paying for it, so any recommendation goes!

Answer 1

If you are doing WPF or Silverlight, VisiFire is an option.

A free WinForms option is ZedGraph, but I believe you would have to do some work to get real time updates out of it.

Answer 2

Dundas has really nice looking graphs. We are happy with them (at the company I work for), although we haven't tried out streaming data to it. You can evaluate the full product for free, but a license cost money (but as you said that doesn't matter much to you).

Answer 3

The ASP.NET Charting Control provides advanced financial charting graphs. Scott Gu provided a really nice overview along with valuable links.

If you are familiar and happy with Dundas (as noted previously) you are going to like the FREE ASP.NET Charting Control as well. Why? Microsoft acquired Dundas Data Visualization Intellectual Property in April 2007 and is integrating this technology in different Microsoft products.

Review Scott Gu's post and Download the Microsoft Chart Controls Samples project to see what ASP.NET Charting Control can do.

I should note that I create financial report for the better part of 5 years and we used Dundas throughout. They has a good, flexible product but since it isn't free and MS now has the same offering, I would go with MS.

Best of luck.

Answer 4

Not sure if you need this for web or desktop app. For web there's a very powerful amCharts Stock chart control. It's flash based and you can feed data to it from .NET by just outputing it in CSV. WPF version of the control is coming in a couple of months.

Update: WPF version of amCharts Stock Chart is now available.

Answer 5

My research eventually led to these packages:

* StockChartX WPF
      o http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Programming/Misc__Programming_Tools/Stock_Chart_X_Financial_Chart_Component.html
      o Rating: B.
      o Pros:
            + Very powerful
            + Nice looking
            + Has a WPF version, see http://www.modulusfe.com/stockchartxwpf/
            + Real-time automatic technical analysis updating
      o Cons:No scroll with the mouse (for non-WPF version, WPF version has mouse scrolling)
      o Cost: US$350 (AciveX) to US$529 (WPF)
      o Notes: StockChartX uses a function named AppendValue (series name, date, value). You actually "push" data into StockChartX, so it does not matter where the data is coming from, be it a database, text file, XML file, or real time tick-by-tick data - it all goes into StockChartX the same way, simple, quick, and easy! 
* Dundas
      o Pros:
      o Video demonstration on charting (4 videos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaDHjUTri7c
* NetAdvantage
      o Pros:
            + incredibly powerful
            + supports financial charts including, Gantt and radar charts
      o Cost: >US$700
      o Video demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW7pBNF51Mo
      o Video overview: http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/video/0,297151,sid92_gci1356440,00.html
      o Video tutorial on samples: http://www.infragistics.com/videos/get-started/intro-to-samples.aspx
      o Video tutorial on charting: http://www.infragistics.com/FullMovie.aspx?id=3476
* AnyChart
      o Supports financial charts
      o US$500
      o For OHLC chart tutorial, see http://anychart.com/products/anychart/docs/users-guide/index.html?Chart-Types.html
* Financial Charting Component (for .NET 2.0) v1.0
      o NumeralTechnology
      o http://www.numeraltechnology.com/shop/
      o Rating: C
      o Cost: US$350
      o Gallery: see http://www.numeraltechnology.com/shop/custom.aspx?recid=14
* TeeChart .NET
      o http://www.steema.com/ordering/order_tchnet_n.shtml
      o Rating: Yet to try.
      o Cost: US$700
      o http://demos.telerik.com/wpf/
* RadControls for WPF
      o Rating: A
      o Pros: very nice, does everything we want
      o Cost: US$999
* Chart Control .NET
      o http://www.chartcontrol.net/Chart_gal.htm
* NextWave Chart for WPF
      o http://www.nextwavesoft.com/products/nextwave-chart-for-wpf
* Barchart WPF
      o http://www.syncfusion.com
      o Cons: doesnt seem to be specialized for financial functions
* DevExpress
      o http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/Charting/screenshot_gallery.xml
      o Pros: design wizard that allows you to customize charts with the greatest of ease with onscreen design, see:
            + http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/Charting/design.xml
      o Cons:
            + None.
      o Cost:
            + $249 for an individual component, or $1999 for the full enterprise version
* Super Graph Library
      o http://www.supergraphlibrary.com/