How to Graph Stock Price Vs. Time
- 1). Collect historic stock prices of a publicly traded company you want to chart. Historic stock price can be obtained online through the company website or any financial websites. Search the company you want to plot and select historic prices. Choose the time horizon you would like to plot to collect the stock prices you need.
For example, if you want to make a chart of the closing price of XYZ company stock each month for the past 12 months, you will search XYZ from a finance website, click historic prices of the past 12 months and copy the closing stock prices at the end of each month of the previous year. - 2). Draw a horizontal or x-axis and label it "time". Then construct a vertical or y-axis and label it "stock price."
Following the previous example, you would put 12 equally spaced intervals on the x-axis and label them with months or dates. On the y-axis, put equally spaced intervals and mark them with relevant stock prices. If the stock prices of the previous year range from $7 to $30, then you can put 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 on the marks on the y-axis. - 3). Plot points for each month, with the date on the horizontal axis and the stock price on the vertical axis. For example, if the closing stock price of XYZ Company at the end of February 2011 was $12.50, then you would go to February 2011 on the x-axis, go up to $12.50 and plot a point. Plot all the historic stock prices you have collected.
- 4). Connect the points with line segments. From the previous examples, since you have 12 points that correspond to the closing stock price of the past 12 months, connect the 12 points with small line segments.