$1200 a year is way too much for what goes in to design such app. So far I've seen Trade Ideas with one of the best data processing algos.
It's worth the investment in time to get to know! http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/ http://www.r-bloggers.com/
Did you learn R from scratch? If you already have general familiarity with R, you can cut/paste the examples from http://bit.ly/lhTopo and easily modify them to fit your needs. Many analyses that are be tricky or impossible in Excel are straightforward in R. If you need macros, or looping of any kind, or pivot tables, to accomplish your task in Excel, you're better off in R. Having said that -- Graphing in R is complicated by the existence of several more-or-less independent graphics toolsets, including the up-and-coming http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/.
Yes, I started from scratch and quit after creating my first heatmap. i also ordered the book on ggplot. This looks good... will try out soon. BTW I also find most R users annoying about how they code 'great looking' stuff which has no practical use in trading(http://sites.google.com/site/indexplot/home/s-p-500-real). Much similar to noobs on forums who keep harping upon 'great sounding' quotes from some author who probably failed in trading and went on to selling courses.
...and what exactly are you planning to use ggplot for? If you are struggling with the basic use of R, you'll find a hard time using ggplot. And as far as I know, there isn't much advantage to ggplot outside of 3-D interactive and rotational graphics (which is good, IF that's what you want). I think you would be better off getting a basic R book on charting. For example: http://www.amazon.com/R-Graph-Cookb...3066/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316456222&sr=8-1 If you want more finance/trading specific packages, look into quantmod.
Really? I know R/SPLUS is used at the top two name-brand quant firms. Re ggplot2, I agree an R newb should learn base graphics first; I was just pointing out it's become popular very fast -- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/r -- note 'Related Tags' on the right.
Really? I personally know 3 great traders implementing their systems with R, but I do not want to bug them with basic questions. LOL, I was only referring to people in newsgroups type support (like the given link) who don't know sh*t about trading, with which people like me are more likely to get in touch with. (what %of actual traders are there in comparison to wannabe traders using R). Also to clear if this is an issue... I ordered the book in a hurry to get a first-hand view of what R graphics were capable of. I admit the mistake of not ordering a more basic book, LOL.
Have a look at these tools and see if any may be helpful to you. I've not used any of them, so no critque from me. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215504/22_free_tools_for_data_visualization_and_analysis
There were a lot of "actual traders" from brand-name quant, hedge and HFT shops at http://www.rinfinance.com/ this year and last.