Macrobond 1.21

Selection of new functionality

Series ratios

Using the new calculate button, with one click you can create a ratio that expresses a series in relation to one of the following, predefined indicators:

• PerCapita: divides the series by the population of the corresponding region
• PerGDP: divides the series by the GDP of the corresponding region
• PerGDPPercent: same idea as ‘PerGDP’ but expresses the result as a percentage.

Find out more about Series Ratios or take a look at our tutorial.

The underlying methodology for each ratio can be found here.

Rolling PCA

This allows you to run PCA models on a rolling window of observations, using an expanding or a moving window.

Find out more in our help article on Rolling PCA

Scalar: new setting for value labels

When using Scalar Analysis, you can now decide which attribute(s) should be used when generating value labels. For instance, this allows you to change all value labels to reflect only the corresponding region of the series, instead of setting them manually, one by one.

Find out more in our help article on Scalar

Sorting: Limiting the number of items

In the sorting analysis, you can now limit how many items to include in the output, using the new observation limit setting. This is very helpful when you only want to display, for example, the top 10 categories among an input list of 50 items.

Find out more in our help article on sorting

Rate of change: Period mode for Annual Rate %

In the rate of change analysis, you can now select “Mode=Calendar date” also when using “Method=Annual Rate %”. In this case, we measure the distance between the dates using the ISDA standard Actual/Actual.

Find out more in our help article on rate of change

New Formulas

We’ve added a modification of the JoinScaled formula called ‘JoinScaledAppend(series1, series2)’. It works like JoinScaled (i.e. joining two series together) but that scales the second series instead of the first.

ExtendLastYoYForecast(series) uses the last % YoY change to calculate a forecast for the whole calendar range.

Analysis tree: Drag & drop analyses

In the analysis tree, you can now move analyses up or down in the tree, as long as they are part of the same branch or on the same level. This does not affect calculations but will help you organize your document.

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Excel add-in: Partial periods conversion method

The partial periods setting has been available in the Macrobond application since version 1.20 but now you can also use it via the Excel add-in, and in the APIs for Python, R and MATLAB.

This setting allows you to decide how to handle the missing observations in a calendar when converting a series to a lower frequency. By default, the application only converts a series to a lower frequency if the calendar of observations for the period is complete (example: converting a series from daily to monthly requires a full month of observations).Partial periods solves the issue by letting you decide how to treat these incomplete periods, with various settings.

Graph layout: ‘Range’ as graph type

You can now use the graph type ‘Range’ in time charts and category charts – which allows for columns that extend below and above zero.

Chart ornaments: Filled arrows & diamond head

We’ve added to new endings for line ornaments, which you can see in the chart below.

Find out more in our help article on chart ornaments

Charts: New settings to define the space around chart elements

In this version we have introduced some new settings for space around chart elements:

• For the axes, there is a setting called distance that controls the distance between the axis labels and the axis tick marks (or the graph area, if the tick marks have been turned off)
• The distance setting for the copyright/source text controls the distance from the element above.
• The distance for the axis labels text controls the space to the element above when you use value labels.
• If the legend is at the bottom or to the right, the distance setting controls where the legend is situated relative to the next element in the direction of the above it if the legend is at the bottom; to the element to the right, if the legend is to the left etc.
• The spacing setting for the legend controls the distance between the legend elements.
• The spacing for the x-axis controls the distance between the label rows when there more than one row
• There are settings called Minimum indentation here:

These settings control the minimum distance from the chart border to the graph area (y-axis) and can be used for aligning y-axes when there are several charts on a page in a presentation. The alignment of the main title and legend will take this setting into consideration.

Please note that some of these settings accept negative values. This can be useful at times but can also cause elements to overlap or be clipped.

Find out more in our help article on chart settings

Style sheets: Chart preview

When selecting a style sheet via the “Select chart style sheet” dialog, you can now see a preview of the chart with the selected style sheet applied.

Find out more in our help article on style sheets

Actions Bar: Improvement to navigation

To facilitate simpler navigation of the actions bar, when you click on a group box it’ll expand over the other boxes., and downwards if necessary.

Find out more in our help article on the actions bar

Text Search: Word suggestion

We’ve now updated all search fields to provide suggestions for your search query. This is done to improve the search results and help you find the correct data more easily.

Find out more in our help article on searching in Macrobond

Open document dialog box: Warning for discontinued series

We now show a warning icon in the open document dialog box when a document contains discontinued series that haven’t been acknowledged previously. The flag is set when the document is saved, but this information can be refreshed by pressing the “flash” button in the toolbar of the dialog.

Find out more in our help article on rate of change

File cache for heavy calculations

We have added a file cache that will store the result of the Seasonal Adjustment Census X-13 TO improve speed and performance when providing results, as long as the input data is the same. This is also available for the Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis.

Various minor changes to the UI

You will also notice a few cosmetic changes in the Macrobond Application.

How To Upgrade

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond application by clicking on the yellow ribbon, which appears on the screen, or by selecting Check for update in the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade can be found here.