One Day Only

Financial Storytelling

Financial storytelling is one of the most important skills for finance professionals, yet we rarely get formal training in it. We learn on the job. And too often, that means learning from people caught in the corporate cycle of producing more just to prove they’re adding value.

The result? Endless 30-slide decks. Pages of data. But very little story.

To be successful in finance, data alone isn’t enough. You need to turn numbers into insight, and insight into a story that decision-makers can act on.

That’s why I started this newsletter. Each week, I share one simple visual — drawn from sport, business, or personal finance — designed to give finance professionals ideas on how to present with more clarity and impact.

Here’s this week’s chart. Let’s dive in.

The Story Behind the Visual

On Wednesday 10th September, one man made $89 billion in a single day.

For One Day Only, Oracle’s Larry Ellison became the richest man in the world, before Elon Musk reclaimed the crown. That surge, the largest one-day wealth jump in history, was driven by Oracle’s surprisingly strong earnings.

So far this year, Ellison’s net worth has grown a staggering $170 billion.

Ellison, possibly less well known than other billionaires, was born to a 19-year-old single mother, given up after 9 months, dropped out of college, became obsessed with code and the rest is history. A true rags to riches story.

About the Data

Source: Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

They give a fun fact about each billionaire: Ellison owns 98% of a Hawaiian island

Instagram also ran a story on Ellison, which I fact checked against Wikipedia

The Visual

Visual Type: a 2D bar chart. When in doubt, this is a good chart to use

Why it works: It’s simple. Horizontal comparisons often work better than vertical ones, and a 2D bar chart forces you to strip out the noise. Bloomberg’s dataset is rich with detail, but here the story was about Ellison, so that needed to be the focus without going down rabbit holes.

Visual Tip: Colour here was key. Ellison’s bar is highlighted in blue, while the others are kept neutral. This ensures attention stays exactly where you want it.

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