The currency exchange market has been around since coins were first used. At the end of the 1800s the development of the gold standard fixed currency values to a certain amount of gold, allowing for an internationally stable monetary system (1). Eventually the amount of gold was not enough to keep up with the demand for currency. After World War II the Bretton Woods Accord set the US Dollar as the global fixed currency. This created an adjustable rate exchange, but it was still determined by central banks and state actors (2). The US dollar was pegged to gold at the time, and during the 1970s the same liquidity problem (i.e. amount of gold vs currency in circulation) occurred. In August of 1971 President Richard Nixon unilaterally canceled direct international convertibility of the US dollar to gold, inadvertently beginning a regime of free-floating currencies (3).
The modern foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a direct broker to dealer global marketplace that determines the market value and exchange rate of currencies all over the world. It is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Currencies are always traded in pairs, and the value expressed is of one currency relative to another. For example, at the end of the day on 11/19/21 the Euro to US dollar rate was 1.13, or $1.13 equals €1. All of the twenty most traded currencies are free-floating, their value is determined by political conditions, economic factors and market psychology.
Forex is by far the largest financial market in the world, in 2019 having a daily volume of over $6.6 trillion (4). The Euro to US dollar (EURUSD) is the most traded currency pair, taking about 30% of the multi-billion dollar Forex turnover (5).
This study examines the volatility of the value of the Euro to eight other currencies. It uses the 2019 Triennial Central Bank Survey by the Bank for International Settlements to determine four currencies that represent large portions of the market and four currencies that represent small portions of the market. The highly traded currencies are the US dollar, Japanese yen, UK pound, and Australian dollar. The Israeli shekel, Phillipine peso, Malaysian ringgit, and Romanian leu comprise the group of least traded currencies.
The data set used is based on daily closing values provided by the European Central Bank and compiled by Daria Chemkaeva. It is updated weekly, the version used for this study was downloaded from Kaggle in November 2021.
Text with conclusion.
The first steps are to import the basic libraries, open the file, and take an initial look at the dataset.
# import libraries and set display options
import pandas as pd
import pprint
# set frame width and center output
from IPython.core.display import display, HTML
display(HTML("""
<style>
.container {width:84% !important;
}
</style>
"""))
# display(HTML("""
# <style>
# .output {
# display: flex;
# align-img: center;
# text-align: left;
# }
# .container {width:70% !important;
# }
# </style>
# """))
# pretty print options
pd.options.display.float_format = '{:20,.4f}'.format
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', None)
pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None)
pd.set_option('display.width', 3000)
pd.set_option('display.colheader_justify', 'center')
pd.set_option('display.precision', 3)
# open file
x_rates = pd.read_csv("euro-daily-hist_1999_2020.csv")
# head, tail, and basic info
# display(x_rates.head())
# display(x_rates.tail())
# display(x_rates.info())
The dataset covers the time period from January 1999 to January 2021. It has 5699 rows and 41 columns. Some of these columns have less than half the number of entries as other columns. In the original data set, cells with missing entries have a hyphen (-). This causes problems with a lot of the functions that will be used. For the time being the hyphens will be converted to the value NaN
, which preserves the row of information.
The first steps will be:
datetime
data type# strip brackets and trailing space from country names
# replace remaining space with underscore
# lower case all column names
x_rates.columns = x_rates.columns.str.replace("[","").str.replace("]","")
x_rates.columns = x_rates.columns.str.rstrip()
x_rates.columns = x_rates.columns.str.replace(" ","_")
x_rates.columns = x_rates.columns.str.lower()
# rename columns
x_rates.rename(columns={"period\\unit:":"date",
"chinese_yuan_renminbi":"chinese_yuan",
"uk_pound_sterling":"uk_pound"}, inplace=True)
# convert datetime
x_rates["date"] = pd.to_datetime(x_rates["date"])
# resort and reindex
x_rates.sort_values("date", inplace=True)
x_rates.reset_index(drop=True, inplace=True)
# convert hyphens in currency columns to NaN
import numpy as np
x_rates = x_rates.replace("-", np.nan)
# convert exchange rate values to float
x_rates.iloc[:,1:] = x_rates.iloc[:,1:].astype(float)
display(x_rates.head())
/var/folders/bz/5cj1tzbj5xn319rpqrw6gpmh0000gn/T/ipykernel_65397/1632861684.py:4: FutureWarning: The default value of regex will change from True to False in a future version. In addition, single character regular expressions will *not* be treated as literal strings when regex=True. x_rates.columns = x_rates.columns.str.replace("[","").str.replace("]","")
date | australian_dollar | bulgarian_lev | brazilian_real | canadian_dollar | swiss_franc | chinese_yuan | cypriot_pound | czech_koruna | danish_krone | estonian_kroon | uk_pound | greek_drachma | hong_kong_dollar | croatian_kuna | hungarian_forint | indonesian_rupiah | israeli_shekel | indian_rupee | iceland_krona | japanese_yen | korean_won | lithuanian_litas | latvian_lats | maltese_lira | mexican_peso | malaysian_ringgit | norwegian_krone | new_zealand_dollar | philippine_peso | polish_zloty | romanian_leu | russian_rouble | swedish_krona | singapore_dollar | slovenian_tolar | slovak_koruna | thai_baht | turkish_lira | us_dollar | south_african_rand | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 1999-01-04 | 1.9100 | NaN | NaN | 1.8004 | 1.6168 | NaN | 0.5823 | 35.1070 | 7.4501 | 15.6466 | 0.7111 | 327.1500 | 9.1332 | NaN | 251.4800 | 9,433.6100 | NaN | NaN | 81.4800 | 133.7300 | 1,398.5900 | 4.7170 | 0.6668 | 0.4432 | 11.6446 | 4.4798 | 8.8550 | 2.2229 | 45.5100 | 4.0712 | 1.3111 | 25.2875 | 9.4696 | 1.9554 | 189.0450 | 42.9910 | 42.6799 | 0.3723 | 1.1789 | 6.9358 |
1 | 1999-01-05 | 1.8944 | NaN | NaN | 1.7965 | 1.6123 | NaN | 0.5823 | 34.9170 | 7.4495 | 15.6466 | 0.7122 | 324.7000 | 9.1341 | NaN | 250.8000 | 9,314.5100 | NaN | NaN | 81.5300 | 130.9600 | 1,373.0100 | 4.7174 | 0.6657 | 0.4432 | 11.5960 | 4.4805 | 8.7745 | 2.2011 | 44.7450 | 4.0245 | 1.3168 | 26.5876 | 9.4025 | 1.9655 | 188.7750 | 42.8480 | 42.5048 | 0.3728 | 1.1790 | 6.7975 |
2 | 1999-01-06 | 1.8820 | NaN | NaN | 1.7711 | 1.6116 | NaN | 0.5820 | 34.8500 | 7.4452 | 15.6466 | 0.7076 | 324.7200 | 9.1010 | NaN | 250.6700 | 9,337.6800 | NaN | NaN | 81.5400 | 131.4200 | 1,359.5400 | 4.6994 | 0.6649 | 0.4420 | 11.4705 | 4.4637 | 8.7335 | 2.1890 | 44.8720 | 4.0065 | 1.3168 | 27.4315 | 9.3050 | 1.9699 | 188.7000 | 42.7780 | 42.6949 | 0.3722 | 1.1743 | 6.7307 |
3 | 1999-01-07 | 1.8474 | NaN | NaN | 1.7602 | 1.6165 | NaN | 0.5819 | 34.8860 | 7.4431 | 15.6466 | 0.7058 | 324.4000 | 9.0131 | NaN | 250.0900 | 9,218.7700 | NaN | NaN | 81.0600 | 129.4300 | 1,337.1600 | 4.6548 | 0.6627 | 0.4413 | 11.5511 | 4.4203 | 8.6295 | 2.1531 | 44.4360 | 4.0165 | 1.3092 | 26.9876 | 9.1800 | 1.9436 | 188.8000 | 42.7650 | 42.1678 | 0.3701 | 1.1632 | 6.8283 |
4 | 1999-01-08 | 1.8406 | NaN | NaN | 1.7643 | 1.6138 | NaN | 0.5819 | 34.9380 | 7.4433 | 15.6466 | 0.7094 | 324.0000 | 9.0302 | NaN | 250.1500 | 9,321.6300 | NaN | NaN | 80.9900 | 130.0900 | 1,366.7300 | 4.6643 | 0.6654 | 0.4419 | 11.4414 | 4.4295 | 8.5900 | 2.1557 | 44.2950 | 4.0363 | 1.3143 | 27.2075 | 9.1650 | 1.9537 | 188.8400 | 42.5600 | 42.5590 | 0.3718 | 1.1659 | 6.7855 |
A line graph is a great way to look at change over time. The Euro to US dollar is the first trading pair to be examined. This will also continue building a good foundation for developing the project.
# create a us dollar to euro dataframe and add 30 day rolling mean column
us_dollar = x_rates[["date","us_dollar"]].copy()
us_dollar["rolling_mean_30"] = us_dollar["us_dollar"].rolling(30).mean()
# line graph for dollar to euro exchange rate
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
%matplotlib inline
plt.style.use('ggplot') # set style for graphs
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(20,6))
ax.plot(us_dollar["date"], us_dollar["rolling_mean_30"], color="royalblue", linewidth=3)
ax.set_xticks(["2000-01-04 00:00:00", "2005-01-04 00:00:00", "2010-01-04 00:00:00",
"2015-01-04 00:00:00", "2020-01-04 00:00:00"])
ax.set_xticklabels([2000,2005,2010,2015,2020], weight="bold")
ax.set_yticklabels([0,0.9,1.0,1.1,1.2,1.3,1.4,1.5,1.6], weight="bold")
ax.text(0.08, 0.0, "© B McMinn" + " "*255 + "Source: Daria Chemkaeva",
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=12,
transform=fig.transFigure)
fig.suptitle(" "*35 + "Euro to US Dollar Currency Exchange Rates" + " "*35,
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", fontsize=25, weight="bold")
plt.show()
/var/folders/bz/5cj1tzbj5xn319rpqrw6gpmh0000gn/T/ipykernel_65397/3456796807.py:15: UserWarning: FixedFormatter should only be used together with FixedLocator ax.set_yticklabels([0,0.9,1.0,1.1,1.2,1.3,1.4,1.5,1.6], weight="bold")
# create nan group and get dates
nan_dollar_group = us_dollar[us_dollar["us_dollar"].isnull()]
nan_days = nan_dollar_group["date"]
# create a dollar to euro dataframe with NaN dates removed
US_dollar_nonull = x_rates[x_rates["us_dollar"].notna()].copy()
US_dollar_nonull["rolling_mean_30"] = US_dollar_nonull["us_dollar"].rolling(30).mean()
# line graph showing dollar to euro showing NaN values with and without highlight
fig, (ax1, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(nrows=3, ncols=1, figsize=(20,13.5))
ax1.plot(us_dollar["date"], us_dollar["rolling_mean_30"], color="royalblue", linewidth=5)
ax1.set(title="Dataset with NaN Values Included")
ax2.plot(us_dollar["date"], us_dollar["rolling_mean_30"], color="royalblue", linewidth=5)
ax2.set(title="Dataset with Corresponding Dates in Gold")
for xc in nan_days:
ax2.axvline(x=xc, color="gold")
ax3.plot(US_dollar_nonull["date"], US_dollar_nonull["rolling_mean_30"], color="salmon", linewidth=5)
ax3.set(title="Dataset with NaN Rows Removed")
for ax in ax1, ax2, ax3:
ax.set_xticks([])
ax.set_xticklabels([])
for ax in ax1, ax2, ax3:
ax.set_yticks([])
ax.text(0.08, 0.0, "© B McMinn" + " "*255 + "Source: Daria Chemkaeva",
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=12,
transform=fig.transFigure)
fig.suptitle(" "*35 + "Euro to US Dollar Currency Exchange Rates" + " "*35,
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", fontsize=25, weight="bold")
plt.show()
The second graph shows vertical gold stripes for all dates with missing information. These correspond with the gaps in the original chart. The third graph, with these rows removed, appears to be good match and is easier to look at. This also demonstrates how the rolling mean handles NaN values within a data frame. In either case the shape of the line is identical where the information exists, therefor both are similarly accurate representations of the available data. This would look very different if the program managed days with missing data as 0. All further currency data frames will be handled the same.
The first set of line graphs represent the exchange rates for the Euro to the US dollar, Japanese yen, UK pound, and Australian dollar. These four currencies, in addition to the Euro, are the top five currencies in the Forex market. All five together comprise over 75% of daily trades (4).
The second set of graphs represent the exchange rates for the Euro to the Israeli shekel, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit, and Romanian leu. These four currencies have low trade volumes, they comprise less than 0.4% of daily trades (4).
# import colormap
from matplotlib.pyplot import cm
# create a list of data frame names
# not sure this is neccessary but trying df = df_list.index(currency) in the framer function doesn't seem to work
# create a list of data frames for each currency with log rate of the exchange rate, 30 day rolling mean, and year
col_names = []
df_dict = {}
for currency in x_rates.columns[1:]:
df_name = currency
col_names.append(df_name)
df = x_rates[["date", currency]].copy()
df = df[df[currency].notna()]
df["log_rate"] = np.log(df.iloc[:,1]/df.iloc[:,1].shift()) # getting the log of the exchange rate # double check this is the correct way to get log
df["rolling_mean_30"] = df[currency].rolling(30).mean()
df["year"] = df["date"].dt.year
df_dict[currency] = df
# currencies for comparison
high_freq = [df_dict["us_dollar"], df_dict["japanese_yen"], df_dict["uk_pound"], df_dict["australian_dollar"]]
low_freq = [df_dict["israeli_shekel"], df_dict["philippine_peso"], df_dict["malaysian_ringgit"], df_dict["romanian_leu"]]
# line graph showing Euro to each high frequency trading pairs
fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(24,8))
colors = iter([plt.cm.Set3(i) for i in range(20)])
for ax, currency in zip((ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4), high_freq):
ax.plot(currency["date"], currency["rolling_mean_30"], linewidth=5, c=next(colors))
for ax in ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4:
ax.set_xticks(["2000-01-04 00:00:00", "2005-01-04 00:00:00", "2010-01-04 00:00:00",
"2015-01-04 00:00:00", "2020-01-04 00:00:00"])
ax.set_xticklabels([2000,2005,2010,2015,2020])
ax.set(yticks=[],
xlabel="Year")
# ax.set_ylabel(str(currency)) # why not, i can get it to change to a string "currency", but not a variable
ax1.set(ylabel="US dollar")
ax2.set(ylabel="Japanese yen")
ax2.yaxis.set_label_position("right")
ax3.set(ylabel="UK pound")
ax4.set(ylabel="Australian dollar")
ax4.yaxis.set_label_position("right")
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.01,hspace=0.01)
ax.text(0.08, 0.0, "© B McMinn" + " "*305 + "Source: Daria Chemkaeva",
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=12,
transform=fig.transFigure)
fig.suptitle(" "*60 + "Euro to High Frequency Pairs" + " "*60,
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", fontsize=25, weight="bold")
plt.show()
# line graph showing Euro to each low frequency trading pairs
fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(24,8), sharex=True)
colors = iter([plt.cm.Set3(i) for i in range(4,8)])
for ax, currency in zip((ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4), low_freq):
ax.plot(currency["date"], currency["rolling_mean_30"], linewidth=5, c=next(colors))
for ax in ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4:
ax.set_xticks(["2000-01-04 00:00:00", "2005-01-04 00:00:00", "2010-01-04 00:00:00",
"2015-01-04 00:00:00", "2020-01-04 00:00:00"])
ax.set_xticklabels([2000,2005,2010,2015,2020])
ax.set(yticks=[],
xlabel="Year")
# ax.set_ylabel(str(currency)) # why not, i can get it to change to a string "currency", but not a variable
ax1.set(ylabel="Israeli shekel")
ax2.set(ylabel="Philippine peso")
ax2.yaxis.set_label_position("right")
ax3.set(ylabel="Malaysian ringgit")
ax4.set(ylabel="Romanian leu")
ax4.yaxis.set_label_position("right")
# it would be best if I could match the ylabel color to the line color
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.01,hspace=0.01)
ax.text(0.08, 0.0, "© B McMinn" + " "*305 + "Source: Daria Chemkaeva",
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=12,
transform=fig.transFigure)
fig.suptitle(" "*60 + "Euro to Low Frequency Pairs" + " "*60,
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", fontsize=25, weight="bold")
plt.show()
colors = iter([plt.cm.tab20(i) for i in range(20)])
N = 50
x = np.random.rand(N)
y = np.random.rand(N)
plt.scatter(x, y, c=[next(colors)])
x = np.random.rand(N)
y = np.random.rand(N)
plt.scatter(x, y, c=[next(colors)])
x = np.random.rand(N)
y = np.random.rand(N)
plt.scatter(x, y, c=[next(colors)])
plt.show()
Can I add a widget so that a person could pull the x value interactively?
high_freq = [df_dict["us_dollar"], df_dict["japanese_yen"], df_dict["uk_pound"], df_dict["australian_dollar"]]
# colors = iter([plt.cm.Set2(i) for i in range(4)])
x_values1 = df_dict["us_dollar"]["date"]
y_values1 = df_dict["us_dollar"]["rolling_mean_30"]
x_values2 = df_dict["japanese_yen"]["date"]
y_values2 = df_dict["japanese_yen"]["rolling_mean_30"]
x_values3 = df_dict["uk_pound"]["date"]
y_values3 = df_dict["uk_pound"]["rolling_mean_30"]
x_values4 = df_dict["australian_dollar"]["date"]
y_values4 = df_dict["australian_dollar"]["rolling_mean_30"]
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(12,8))
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "1")
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "2", frame_on = False)
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "3", frame_on = False)
ax4 = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "4", frame_on = False)
ax.plot(x_values1, y_values1, color = "blue")
ax.set_yticks([])
# ax.set_xlabel("x label 1", color = "C0")
# ax.set_ylabel("y label 1", color = "C0")
# ax.tick_params(axis = 'x', colors = "C0")
# ax.tick_params(axis = 'y', colors = "C0")
ax2.plot(x_values2, y_values2, color = "green")
ax2.set_yticks([])
ax3.plot(x_values3, y_values3, color = "yellow")
ax3.set_yticks([])
ax4.plot(x_values4, y_values4, color = "purple")
ax4.set_yticks([])
plt.show()
x_values1 = df_dict["israeli_shekel"]["date"]
y_values1 = df_dict["israeli_shekel"]["rolling_mean_30"]
x_values2 = df_dict["philippine_peso"]["date"]
y_values2 = df_dict["philippine_peso"]["rolling_mean_30"]
x_values3 = df_dict["malaysian_ringgit"]["date"]
y_values3 = df_dict["malaysian_ringgit"]["rolling_mean_30"]
x_values4 = df_dict["romanian_leu"]["date"]
y_values4 = df_dict["romanian_leu"]["rolling_mean_30"]
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(12,8))
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "1")
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "2", frame_on = False)
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "3", frame_on = False)
ax4 = fig.add_subplot(111, label = "4", frame_on = False)
# for ax in ax, ax2, ax3, ax4:
# ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(years) # format the x ticks
# ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(years_fmt)
# fmt_three_years = mdates.MonthLocator(interval = 36) # Major ticks every 3 years
# ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(fmt_three_years)
# ax.set(yticks=[],
# xlabel="Year")
ax.plot(x_values1, y_values1, color = "blue")
ax.set_yticks([])
# ax.set_xlabel("x label 1", color = "C0")
# ax.set_ylabel("y label 1", color = "C0")
# ax.tick_params(axis = 'x', colors = "C0")
# ax.tick_params(axis = 'y', colors = "C0")
ax2.plot(x_values2, y_values2, color = "green")
ax2.set_yticks([])
# ax2.xaxis.tick_top()
# ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
# ax2.set_xlabel('x label 2', color = "C1")
# ax2.set_ylabel('y label 2', color = "C1")
# ax2.xaxis.set_label_position('top')
# ax2.yaxis.set_label_position('right')
# ax2.tick_params(axis = 'x', colors = "C1")
# ax2.tick_params(axis = 'y', colors = "C1")
ax3.plot(x_values3, y_values3, color = "yellow")
ax3.set_yticks([])
ax4.plot(x_values4, y_values4, color = "purple")
ax4.set_yticks([])
plt.show()
# function to create df with year and annual volatility for every row
volatility_df_list = []
def volatizer(currency):
annual_df_list = [currency[currency['year'] == y] for y in currency['year'].unique()] # list of annual dfs
c_name = currency.columns[1]
row_dict = {} # dictionary with year:annual_volatility as key:value
for frame in annual_df_list:
year_name = frame.iat[0,4] # first cell of the "year" column, becomes the "year" key for row_dict
annual_volatility = frame["log_rate"].std()*253**.5 # volatility measured by standard deviation * 253 trading days per year raised to the 0.5 power
row_dict[year_name] = annual_volatility # dictionary with year:annual_volatility as key:value
df = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(row_dict, orient="index", columns=[c_name]) # new df from dictionary indexing on year
volatility_df_list.append(df)
# apply volatizer to each currency df
for key in df_dict:
df_dict[key] = volatizer(df_dict[key])
# create an annual volatility data frame with all 40 currencies
annual_volatility = pd.concat(volatility_df_list, axis=1)
annual_volatility["year"] = annual_volatility.index
# move year to position 0 and set index as int
# bar charts comparing volatility for four low frequency pairs
low_freq = [annual_volatility["israeli_shekel"], annual_volatility["philippine_peso"], annual_volatility["malaysian_ringgit"], annual_volatility["romanian_leu"]]
years = annual_volatility.iloc[:,40]
fig, (ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4) = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=4, figsize=(24,8), sharey=True)
for ax, currency in zip((ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4), low_freq):
ax.barh(years, currency, height=0.65, color="green", alpha=0.7)
ax.set_xlim(0,0.21)
ax.set_xticks([0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2])
ax.tick_params(axis="x", labelrotation=45)
# ax.set_yticks([])
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.01,hspace=0.01)
# ax.axvline(x=0.07, ymin=0.045, c="grey", alpha=0.5) # might use this later
# ax.text(0.0865, 0.9, " "*46 + "Annual Volatility of Four Minor Currencies" + " "*46,
# weight="bold", color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=25,
# transform=fig.transFigure)
ax.text(0.08, 0.0, "© B McMinn" + " "*304 + "Source: Daria Chemkaeva",
color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=12,
transform=fig.transFigure)
fig.suptitle("Annual Volatility of Euro to Four Minor Currencies", color = "#f0f0f0", backgroundcolor = "#4d4d4d", size=25, weight="bold")
plt.show()
# every other bar change alpha
# set unique colors for each
# see if i can add y labels without the black ticks, maybe 4 horizontal lines that start and stop
# labels in UR of each graph
# title
# build and animate the map
Stuff
Stuff
# # need this to correctly get year ticks in DQ server
# years = mdates.YearLocator() # every year
# years_fmt = mdates.DateFormatter('%Y')
# for ax in ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4:
# ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(years) # format the x ticks
# ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(years_fmt)
# fmt_three_years = mdates.MonthLocator(interval = 36) # Major ticks every 3 years
# ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(fmt_three_years)
# ax.set(yticks=[],
# xlabel="Year")