Sector Maps
Overview
A Sector Map is essentially a three dimensional way to view the rise and fall of all stocks and sectors in a market. The third dimension identifies growth (or contraction) over a second time frame.
The physical size of a stock shows how “big” the company is, or in technical terms, its market capitalisation. The colour of each surface shows how that stock has performed over the last week (by default). Green surfaces indicate that its price has gone up, and a red surface reveals that the price has gone down.
The intensity of the colour grades the change in price. The height of each surface shows how the price of each stock has moved over the last 3 months (by default). In Optuma, you have complete control over the time frames that define the colour and the height of each stock. For instance, you may choose colour to show you the change in price in the last day and the height to show you the change in price in the last hour.
When you spot a stock that looks interesting, just hover your mouse over it to see a hint showing you a thumbnail of the historical data prices. If you want to investigate it further, simply click on the thumbnail to open the chart and add it to your workbook.
</span>## Manoeuvring the Sector Map
By clicking on the map and dragging the mouse it is possible to rotate and change the viewing angle to better compare companies. Simply double-click on a particular sector to zoom in (e.g. Financials), and then double-click again (or Shift and left-click on a stock) to zoom in on the subsector (e.g. Banks).
To zoom out, either press the Escape key or Ctrl and left-click.
</span>## Grid View
Grid View can be used to as an alternative way to show the Sector Map data. By clicking on the Toggle Grid View option in the Actions panel switches from the 3D map view to a list of the sectors and companies and their growth statistics. The top part of the screen shows the sector breakdowns for the selected market, with the companies listed beneath. Click on any column header to sort. Here’s an example for the NYSE:
Clicking on the sector name (e.g. Financials) will drill down to the subsector information (e.g. Banks, Insurance, etc) and then the list of companies in the bottom part of the screen will reflect only that sector. To revert to the higher-level sector, click on the header:
The resulting list of companies can be saved in a number of ways:
Save Results: Saves the list of codes in a new workbook.
Open Results: Opens a chart for all the codes in the current workbook.
Open Watchlist: Opens a new page tab in the current workbook with the companies listed in a Watchlist.
Export to CSV: Creates a comma-separated text file of all the results which can be used in other programs, for example, Microsoft Excel.
</span>### Optuma Tip
To reduce the number of companies in both the Sector Map and Grid View adjust the Properties to apply a filter based on share price, trading volume or market cap (for example, to only include companies with a market cap greater than $500 million with a share price above $5 trading at least 200,000 shares).
</span>## Actions & Properties
Actions
Clone Chart: When selected the existing chart will be duplicated. It will be placed above the existing chart, from here it can either be moved to a new page or tiled alongside your existing chart(s).
Edit Timeframes: Allows custom times frames to be created and added to the default 1 Day, 1 Week, 1 Month, 3 Months.
Print Chart: Opens the page in a PDF document, which can then be printed.
Reload Sector Map: Click here to reload the Sector Map.
Restore Default Settings: Click this action if you have adjusted the default settings of the Sector Map, and wish to return to the standard properties originally installed with Optuma.
Save Settings as Default: If you have adjusted any of the Sector Map’s properties (such as the Colour Timeframe, for example) you can save the adjustments as your new default setting. Each time you open a new Sector Map it will display using the new settings.
Send To: This option allows the current chart to be saved as either an image file, saved to the clipboard or added to a Manual List. If you have Professional Services then the additional options of sending the chart via Chat Message, to Word and Outlook are also available.
</span>## Properties
Grid View: Selecting this option will switch from the 3D graphical view to the Grid View as described above.
Date: By default, the Sector Map will open with the latest data, but use this option to select an alternative date.
Exchange: Depending on your data subscription, you can choose between a number of exchanges (ASX Shares, Amex, NYSE, Nasdaq, or the companies that make up the S&P500 index).
Height Timeframe: The height is determined by performance over a given period. The default is 3 Months but this can be changed to either 1 Day, 1 Week, or 1 Month.
Colour Timeframe: The colour is determined by performance over a given period. The default is 1 Week but this can be changed to either 1 Day, 1 Month or 3 Months.
Min Share Value: Use this option to filter stocks by value e.g. entering 5 will show only stocks trading above $5 on that date.
Min Trade Volume: Use this option to filter stocks by trading volume e.g. entering 100000 will show only stocks trading over 100,000 shares on that date.
Min Market Cap: Use this option to filter stocks by market capitalisation.
Note:** This value is in millions. Therefore, to show only companies with a market cap of at least $1 billion, enter 1000.
**Max Sector Depth: This will determine how many sub-sectors are displayed in the Sector Map.
Show Help: Untick this option to remove the Sector Map Controls from the chart.
Comparison Index: Allows the option of selecting an Index to compare the sectors with.
</span>## More Information
## The Educated Analyst
Market Sector Maps - A New Way of Relative Comparison