E-R Modeling and Visualization of Large Mutual Fund Data

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Xiong, F. | Prakash, E.C. | Ho, K.W.

Affiliations: Center for Graphics and Imaging Technology, Division of Software System, School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore-639798. | Center for Financial Engineering, Division of Banking and Finance, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore-639798.

Abstract: Existing visualization techniques used by mutual fund managers focus on the active portfolio management strategies. However, an important aspect of mutual funds is to visualize and understand the fund composition observed at specific points in time. Such a visualization will leverage the fund manager with the power to investigate and to capture forecasting differences and future performance. Our research here is to design a new visualization system that has an Entity-Relationship (E-R) model at the heart of the system and reveals not only the aggregate behavior of the mutual funds, but also the behavior of the mutual fund managers who manage these funds. We find some preliminary evidence that mutual funds in the world market represent a strong geographical pattern, and some potential niche markets are now extracted that stands out in the global scenario such as the returns from funds that belong to a specific country. For the analysis of security distribution, it helps to distinguish the most popular securities from other ordinary ones for an increased realization of profit. Also based on our experience with such huge world fund data to achieve a trade-off between time efficiency and graphics quality, we recommend the approach of splatting visualization, which indicates the influence of a particular security in a fund's portfolio.

Keywords: mutual fund, financial visualization, entity-relationship modeling, 3D interactive graphics

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 197-204, 2002