How can I label points in this scatterplot?

Question

Can you help me on putting labels on the following graph?

The code i use is:

valbanks<-scan("banks.txt", what=list(0,0,""), sep="", skip=1, comment.char="#")
valbanks

valj2007<-valbanks[[1]]
valj2009<-valbanks[[2]]
namebank<-valbanks[[3]]

percent_losses<-(valj2009-valj2007)/valj2007
percent_losses

abs_losses<-(valj2007-valj2009)
abs_losses

plot(abs_losses, percent_losses,main="Absolute Losses vs. Relative Losses(in%)",xlab="Losses (absolute, in miles of millions)",ylab="Losses relative (in % of January´2007 value",col="blue", pch = 19, cex = 1, lty = "solid", lwd = 2,text(percet_losses, abs_losses,namebank))

text(percet_losses, abs_losses,labels=namebank, cex= 0.7, offset = 10)

and the data is:

Value_Jan_2007  Value_Jan_2009  Bank    #
49  16  Morgan_Stanley
120 4.6 RBS
76  10.3    Deutsche_Bank
67  17  Credit_Agricole
80  26  Societé_Generale
91  7.4 Barclays
108 32.5    BNP-Paribas
93  26  Unicredit
116 35  UBS
75 27   Credit_Suise
100 35  Goldman_Sachs
116 64  Santander
255 19  Citigroup
165 85  JP_Morgan
215 97  HSBC

Thank you very much

What is the option to put the label at the bottom, right, up, left,... ?

Summarizing: I want a graph similar that the one that is in the second message from this post but there is no the code there.

What code i have to put?

---

if i put text(percet_losses, abs_losses,namebank), i obtain nothing: the graph continue without changes.

Could you show me the code i need to put?

Thanks

Answer 1

Your call to text() doesn't output anything because you inverted your x and your y:

plot(abs_losses, percent_losses, 
     main= "Absolute Losses vs. Relative Losses(in%)",
     xlab= "Losses (absolute, in miles of millions)",
     ylab= "Losses relative (in % of January´2007 value)",
     col= "blue", pch = 19, cex = 1, lty = "solid", lwd = 2)

text(abs_losses, percent_losses, labels=namebank, cex= 0.7)

Now if you want to move your labels down, left, up or right you can add argument pos= with values, respectively, 1, 2, 3 or 4. For instance, to place your labels up:

 text(abs_losses, percent_losses, labels=namebank, cex= 0.7, pos=3)

You can of course gives a vector of value to pos if you want some of the labels in other directions (for instance for Goldman_Sachs, UBS and Société_Generale since they are overlapping with other labels):

 pos_vector <- rep(3, length(namebank))
 pos_vector[namebank %in% c("Goldman_Sachs", "Societé_Generale", "UBS")] <- 4
 text(abs_losses, percent_losses, labels=namebank, cex= 0.7, pos=pos_vector)