Mike Bostock has revolutionized visualization with his d3 and his seemingly infinite examples.  In another adaptation of his amazing work, I will adapt one of my favorite examples to supplement the interactive scatterplot with data supplied by R through Shiny.  Often in finance, we will use a scatterplot to explore the relationship between different asset classes or risk exposures.  This exploration becomes much more deep and meaningful when we can interact in real-time with the plot.

I thought using the technique to look at the monthly returns of Vanguard funds representing different exposures would be helpful.  A clear linear relationship immediately shows up between the equity funds (VFINX-Vanguard S&P 500, VDMIX-Vanguard Developed Markets, and VEIEX-Vanguard Emerging Markets).  Also, we can see the very beneficial effect of VBMFX-Vanguard Total US Bond throughout what we know was a tumultuous period.

Live example hosted at Glimmer (IE does not correctly render IFRAME below)

Code at Github