tock trades determine the songwriting in this audiovisual presentation, translating the ups and downs of 2010 into musical notes. Using a five-note scale spanning three octaves, pitch is determined by the daily closing numbers of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The variance in volume mirrors the trading volume changes throughout the year. The notes are clustered in series of five, representing Mondays through Fridays. The weeks are punctuated, separated, and started by drum hits. Follow along with the graph to experience the market in a (somewhat) musical way.
Here and there you may notice that only four notes are played in sequence, or that there are other rhythmic aberrations. This is because there are holidays when stocks are not traded, resulting in a trading volume (and thus musical volume) of zero. Pay attention around July 4th, for example.
Curious why the infamous Flash Crash doesn't look more dramatic? It's because the deep and sudden drop happened during trading, but largely corrected itself by the time the day was over.
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