Line graphs are an essential analytical tool that businesses, students, investors, and many others rely on to make sense of the world around them. A line graph provides key information on the passage of time as it relates to the mapped data points. This is the perfect data presentation tool for studying stock price changes, business process development, and many other features of modern and historic life.

Continue reading to discover three crucial examples of how data users employ a line graph to map information for easy consumption.

1. Stock Traders Utilize Line Graphs to Represent Stock Momentum.

One of the most obvious line chart examples comes in the form of stock trading. Every available chart that tracks ongoing price changes in individual stocks, sectors, and the market itself in the form of a Nasdaq, S&P 500, or Dow Jones Industrial Average calculation is graphed with the help of a line chart. These representations of data are essential in analyzing trends and patterns, and as a result, they are the favorite tool of many stock traders.

Investment analysis utilizes a number of essential data products, and with the addition of pie charts and other implementations, investors are able to realize a comprehensive picture of their current holdings and the ongoing trends that will continue to affect their profit margins. Line graphs provide a key resource in the form of time understanding that simply can’t be established in any other way.

2. Businesses Maintain Order Information And Profit Tracking With These Data Products.

In addition to the investment processes that are utilized by individual and institutional traders, businesses rely on these representational options as they continue to evaluate internal processes, sales figures, and more. Building brand continuity and success is all about understanding the things you’re doing well and identifying where you can implement improvements. Line graphs offer a time-sensitive look at the ongoing processes of any segment of your overall business. With better data analysis techniques stemming from preparation and database governance that utilize these types of inclusions, business managers can make smarter decisions and take confidence in the fact that their analysis processes are relying on the best possible tools for the job.

Building data representations of sales over the past few months or quarters, for instance, can help your team make sense of patterns in the sales process that can be improved upon. Perhaps you’re selling winter coats: Sales will spike as the weather begins to turn colder, of course. But matching up sales figures across yearly spikes can give you greater insight into whether your brand is scaling up or slowly sinking downward.

Implementing new marketing tactics, improving or changing product construction or formulas, and more can become a simple process once you’ve established trending information through the use of analytics processes and tools that shed light on your brand’s performance.

3. Economics Students Are Intimately Familiar With Line Charts.

Students are also common users of this type of data representation. Economics students will immediately recognize the shape and axes of a line graph. This is because pricing models and the competing relationship between supply and demand are famously tabulated using this particular modeling approach. Over time, business and the marketplace itself grow and evolve. As a result, a line graph is perhaps the only way to visually represent the continuous stream of incoming data that portrays market sentiment and other features of the economics discipline.

With a firm foundation in the use of line graphs, students are well-prepared to take on the outside world.

Consider these examples of line graph products as you work to make your way through the complex market that surrounds us all.