Mostly Harmless

Hey neat! Fun with a Rocket Car.

I used to think I was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but eventually we drifted apart and I started seeing other cereals. Now, though I fondly recall the days I spent with Cocoa Puffs, I find I can either take ‘em, or leave ‘em.

Invention Week, Day #7 3D VR Stock Market Visualization. If you’re the impatient sort, who doesn’t mind blocky, low-res graphics that don’t tell you much, check out Map Station. If you want the good stuff, read on! (Note that MapStation isn’t Mac compatible)

First, you need to have a 3D VR headset (or Holodeck!), so you can immerse yourself into the scene — to get up close and personal with the stocks, as it were. And actual high-res rendering with light sourcing, so it doesn’t look like crap.

Next, a shape to represent an individual stock that is a bit more descriptive than a big cube. I suggest a rocket… like the kind that Coyotes on roller skates strap to their backs when chasing Roadrunners. Little red Acme rockets.

Am I on drugs? No, but sometimes my allergies don’t let me think clearly. I shall continue, regardless.

The rocket has a nose cone, on top of a cylindrical body with some fins, a"thruster"cone at the bottom, and (when lit) a flame.

So what the hell does this have to do with stocks?

Suppose that the height of the nose cone is defined by the P/E ratio, so a higher P/E ratio gets you a taller,"pointier"nose cone. The diameter of the body is determined by the market cap of the company; big market cap = big fat rocket. The length of the body could be earnings per share. The size of the fins could indicate group strength. The size of the flame could show relative price strength; big flame = stronger stock. The color of the flame could be some measure of momentum, ranging from a dull red glow for the laggards to a bright orange for the real movers. Then, of course, the overall distance above the ground would be price, or percentage change.

So, in your Holodeck, you’re standing in a dark room, on a wire frame grid (like graph paper), looking at a bunch of rockets suspended in air. The ponderous big cap companies hang there like giant ICBMs. Stocks that aren’t doing much of anything useful, will look like stubby little rockets that aren’t doing much of anything useful. The small caps with great P/E ratios and wonderful EPS will be all slender and pointy and look like they’re headed for the Moon.

I think it’d be neat to play with the angle of the rocket, relative to the ground, to indicate price trends. Stocks that are really moving would be aiming up, stocks that are idling along will be going sideways, stocks that are tanking will look like those failed rocket launches, auguring into the ground.

This is all, of course, driven by real-time stock market data, and animated. It would be entertaining to watch"the rocket"of a stock morph into different shapes as you pumped historical data through it:"I’d like to buy your stock, but I’ve noticed that your nose cone is getting smushed, your flame is going out, and the rocket is heading for the ground at a 45 degree angle."

There you have it. Find a good OpenGL programmer, load him up with Jolt, and turn him loose for a couple of weekends. (This is assuming the VR headset option, not the Holodeck version.) Maybe license the Quake III engine; remove stocks from your watch list by blowing them up with the BFG.

The down side is you have to give your stock screens names like: ICBM, ACME, Model Rocket, and Scud!

Gestural remote control.

links for further research. Knock yourselves out.