How can I change negative value labels to positive on a chart in Numbers while maintaining correct line slope?

Is there a way to keep the correct upward slope of a line plotted on a chart whilst changing the negative value labels to positive values and vice versa?


The problem is I have 4 lines that can be plotted per chart and 10 trading positions/legs per chart = 40 lines that would need to be custom formatted to eg: -0, but.... I also have another 5 charts x 40 lines in this worksheet, making a total of 240 custom formats which is too much to edit.


Can I create separate columns in my tables and multiply by -1 so that those columns can be used just for the labels aspect in Numbers?


Cheers for any insights or help!



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MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Mar 20, 2025 8:15 AM

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Mar 20, 2025 11:02 AM in response to Bardonicloud

Why do you say they should be positive integers? They are plotted at points where Y is negative, same as on the left side. The values appear to be shown correctly.


There is no built-in way I know of to put your own labels/values on points.


You could plot two lines instead of one. One series for the left side with the cells for the right side blank and one for the right side with the left side cells blank. The left side data labels would use the source formatting. The right side would have a custom format for negative numbers that doesn't have the negative sign. Both series need the center point if you want it to be a solid line. That means the center point will get two labels that overlap. You might be able to use a space instead of the negative sign so the two labels overlap well.

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Mar 20, 2025 11:02 AM in response to Bardonicloud

Without seeing the data, it's hard to say, but from your description, yes, it sounds like an extra column is the order of the day, and add that column to the chart rather than the negative values.


You don't want to multiply by -1, though, since that will turn positive values negative. instead, use ABS() which will return the absolute value of a number, regardless of +/-


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Mar 21, 2025 5:30 PM in response to Bardonicloud

Usually additional information is useful but this is too much on the details of the subject matter and I still don't know what you are trying to do. Sorry.


You have mentioned "slope" several times but the values shown on the curve are not slope of the curve, they are the Y coordinates of the points. There is no data value setting to show the slope at each point.


The curve you posted has positive slope on the left side and negative slope on the right side. Positive slope goes up and to the right. Negative goes down and to the right. You have said the slope on the left side of your curve is negative and the slope on the right side is positive but that is backwards.


You can calculate the slope at each point to probably good enough accuracy with some math or using the SLOPE function. For the first point you can calculate it with math or SLOPE using the first and second point. For the center you would use SLOPE with the point before, the point itself. For the last one you would use the second to last and the last points. Or just do the center points and forget the end points. Make a chart of those slope values. The value labels on that chart will be the slope of the curve you posted, except it will be positive on the left and negative on the right.

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Mar 22, 2025 7:13 PM in response to Badunit

No worries, no need to apologise it's my failure to explain what I am doing! Hope this clarifies:


Black Scholes calculates the price of Call and Put options and if you buy a Call (bullish contract on the underlying market eg Dow Jones, profits it the Dow goes up) it costs you money (debit) whereas if you sell the Call (go Short) you are credited, ditto Puts.


To get my charts to plot the slopes in the right direction -- pls see image examples of each option type, i.e Calls (long = bought debit on account / short Call = sold which gives the seller an immediate credit and Puts (ditto).


I included +ve sign in the formula for Long Calls and a -ve sign for Short Calls, ditto Puts because this makes them plot correctly like every image you'd see in a options trading text book:






Combine all 4 options in one trade/strategy = Short Iron Condor but it comes with incorrect value labels for the P/L as they should be +ve values not negative:


Below is the Table used to calculate the price of the options according to the Black Scholes formula and which by using the negative sigh gets the Short Call and SHort Put options to slope in the right direction:



The issue is that I want to have the value labels reflect an accounting P/L for each option type:

Long Calls and Long Puts = debit on the trading account and Short Calls and Short Puts = credit on the account.


This current Table has the option prices/value labels reflecting the fact that I needed to use negative option values when they should have been positive -- for the Short Calls and Short Puts which were made negative to plot the lines correctly -- and I used positive values for the Long Calls and Long Puts (although in reality they are debits) so as to plot them correctly, when they should have really had negative values to reflect the debit cost in buying them and which I want reflected in the value label.


From an accounting P/L point of view the strategy would immediately result in a credit of +$455 to the account by placing this trade with the Dow at 41500 and not the negative values seen in the small fonts next to the Iron Condor chart line as per the current value labels. The only solution so far is that I have corrected the signage in the green cell just below the light blue one in the chart controller, hence it now shows +455 instead of -455!


Thanks again for the help.

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Mar 20, 2025 5:14 PM in response to Bardonicloud

Thanks for the feedback @Badunit and @Camelot, I should have explained it in more detail.


The graph above shows a Short Iron Condor option strategy composed of taking out 4 options (buy 2 of the options for a debit and sell 2 for a credit on your account) where you profit if the underlying asset price remains within a specific mid-range. The issue arises from the way option premiums from my tables are represented on the chart to achieve accurate slope direction.


1. Long Call (Debit / Bullish):

Purchased, hoping the underlying asset eg the Dow Jones, increases in value.

Premiums are left as positive numbers to plot a line that correctly slopes upward to the right as the Dow Jones price rises.


2. Short Call (Credit / Bearish):

Sold, hoping the Dow Jones decreases in value.

Premiums are made negative to correctly slope the line downward to the right as the Dow Jones price rises.


3. Short Put (Credit / Bullish):

Sold, hoping the Dow Jones increases in value.

Premiums are made negative to correctly slope the line downward to the left as the Dow Jones price falls.


4. Long Put (Debit / Bearish):

Purchased, hoping the Dow Jones decreases in value.

Premiums are left as positive numbers to plot a line that correctly slopes upward to the left as the Dow Jones price falls.


The issue is for accounting purposes, Short Calls and Short Puts are credits and should be positive values, while Long Calls and Long Puts (debits) should be negative. However, so I could maintain the correct slope direction in the graph, I had to reverse the signs. The chart is correctly plotted with slopes representing the profit/loss curves. However, the plotted profit at the mid-range of the strategy shows as - $62, instead of + $62, because the values are inverted to achieve the correct visual representation of the strategy's P&L curve.


Is there a way to display the correct P/Lvalues (+ and -) without distorting the graph’s slope direction?


Cheers again!

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Mar 21, 2025 11:09 AM in response to Camelot

Thanks. Adding the extra columns with reversed signs (pls see further explanation) will invert the slopes the wrong way.


*-1 will reverse the signage for positives and negatives which is what I need because -62 is not correct, the Iron Condor would make +62 not lose money if the Dow stays in the central part of the asset range on the x axis.

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How can I change negative value labels to positive on a chart in Numbers while maintaining correct line slope?

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