Better_Excel_Charts

Excel data analysis.
Don’t be good. Be better.
By
Jawwad Ahmed Farid

B E T T E R E X C E L D ATA A N A LY S I S
Book one - Better Excel Charts

Book Two- Using Data Tables
Please do not photocopy or distribute without permission. All rights reserved Jawwad Ahmed Farid & Fawzia Salahuddin
https://financetrainingcourse.com/
Page 2 of 41
Copyright © 2006 – 2018, Jawwad Ahmed Farid, Fawzia Salahuddin
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted for purposes of review or scholarly
comment, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This publication is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be
resold, or circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.
Editors: Jawwad Farid, Agnes Paul and Uzma Salahuddin
Page 3 of 41
WHO AM I?
Before you read any further let me introduce myself.
I am a numbers guy who likes identifying relationships. I have spent the last two decades
collecting and presenting data across multiple forums. As an analyst, as an investor, as a
founder as well as a mentor, teacher and trainer. Excel was a constant companion during these
years and we have both come a long way from those early days.
Occasionally when I team up with young analysts I see common mistakes that impact how a
presentation, a chart or image is perceived. This multi part series is based on an orientation on
Excel charts I run for new analysts in my team.
Here is the road map for the book
Book one focuses on better Excel charts. It was written to help my team produce charts that I
like. The book is in three parts and is built around a real life case study that deals with oil rig
productivity in the US.
1. Part I — Lessons
2. Part II — Understanding the context
3. Part III — Tips continued
Book two focuses on using data tables in Excel. To generate engaging charts I often need oodles
of data. Once you have the basic relationship sorted out, Excel data tables are a good tool for
generating that data. Like the first part, book two is also based on a simplified case study
focused on testing a financial model for a startup.
Both tools, charts and data tables tend to feed each other and as you grow comfortable with
one, you will get better with the other.
I hope you find the material useful. If you like it, I would love to hear your feedback on how we
could possibly make it better. Feel free to drop me a note at jawwad@financetrainincourse.com
whenever you get a chance.
Enjoy
Jawwad Farid
Karachi.
10th June 2018
Page 4 of 41
The material in the two books is based on posts that were originally published on the
financetrainingcourse.com blog that I have been contributing too since 2010. The Better Excel
charts series was run in April 2016 while the Excel data table series was run as a short lecture for
a Code for Pakistan Hackathon held at T2F in spring 2013. You can view the original post and
series at the following links.
https://financetrainingcourse.com/education/2016/04/better-excel-charts-clarity-impact-excel-
tips/
https://financetrainingcourse.com/education/2013/04/data-analysis-data-tables-excel/
Page 5 of 41
Table of Contents
Who am I? ................................................................................................................................... 4
BOOK ONE – B E TTE R E X C E L C H A R TS .................................................................. 7
Better EXCEL Charts — Be one with the plot ............................................................................... 7
Part II – Laying the Ground Work .............................................................................................. 10
a. Understanding the context ............................................................................................ 10
b. My beef with analysis ................................................................................................. 10
c. Forming opinions............................................................................................................ 11
d. The data set for my Excel charts................................................................................. 11
Lesson One — One axis versus two ....................................................................................... 12
Part III — Tips continued ............................................................................................................ 17
Lesson Two — analyzing a relationship? ............................................................................... 24
B O O K T W O – D A TA A NA LY SI S U S IN G D A T A T A B L E S ............................................... 29
Using Excel Data Tables for Sensitivity Testing ......................................................................... 29
Getting started .......................................................................................................................... 33
Migrating to two dimension analysis ........................................................................................ 36
The plan for a data analyst ........................................................................................................ 40
A B OU T TH E A U TH O R ................................................................................... 41
Page 6 of 41
B O O K O N E – B ET T E R EXC E L C HA RTS
How to add impact and clarity to your presentations in EXCEL?
BETTER EXCEL CHARTS — BE ONE WITH THE PLOT

Pick up any book on presentation Zen, pitching, presenting or making a great power point slide
deck. You will find some common themes:
1. Simplify your story,

2. Keep a tight focus,
3. Use a dark background,
4. Use large readable fonts,
5. Avoid too many bullet points,
The same recommendations work with EXCEL charts. Treat each graph, each plot like a slide in
your pitching deck. Craft it like art; sharpen focus, improve weight, increase punch.
Keep it simple (ideally relationships with no more than two variables), keep the story, the
message in front of you (what is the plot supposed to show — don’t make me think) and ensure
that you, yourself can read the trend and the data from a distance.
If you only have time to read a few paragraphs, read Part I first. The next two sections dig
deeper but if you are in a rush the following eight lessons are the key takeaways from this book.
Lesson One: Understand the difference between correlation, causation and attribution before
you attribute a cause to an effect. You need to explain your model fundamentals or at least
have a thesis ready to share. Without a fundamental model causality doesn’t work well in
presentations.
Your model must answer “why does this relationship exist” question. If no one in the audience
asks the question, pose it yourself. Nothing strengthen your bond with the audience when you
answer the question they are just about to ask.
Lesson Two: Ensure that your analysis is credible and complete; that you have considered all
possible opinions and angles; that you haven’t made or used assumptions that can be
challenged and set aside. Most important, always cite your sources so that your reader knows
that your information comes from credible industry sources and not through the school
grapevine of my ten year old daughter. Citing credible sources is something that newbies often
Page 7 of 41
forget. Remember it doesn’t take anything away from your work, it only adds credibility to
your analysis and shows your professionalism.
Lesson Three: Simpler is better. Fancier is not always an improvement. Delivering

comprehension at a glance takes effort. It requires you to identify relationships, simplify their
presentation and focus on key points without getting lost within your thesis.
Lesson Four. Tweak the axis. Use the full real estate available to you by tweaking your axis.
Sharpen your dataset, increase your fonts, high light the connection.
Lesson Five: Don’t dilute the message, don’t confuse the audience. If you need to explain
seven relationships, use seven charts. Don’t bundle all of them in one.
Seven simple charts with seven simple lessons generate significantly better understanding and
retention than one complex one.
Lesson Six: Answer the question first, what is the point? Why are we here? Why should I care?
Why did you bother? The more time you spend on identifying the right questions to ask, the
more powerful your presentation.
Lesson Seven: How do you treat data with respect? Spend time with it and on it, understand
and use the context. How do you treat opinions with respect? Explore both sides of the story
and look at the context. The context is key because you will find the story, the relationship, the
perspective you want to share with that. A graph with a clear story and a clear message is a
very powerful tool. Without the story it become just a simple curves and lines on art paper.
You are entitled to your own biases and presentation but give your readers the chance to
explore all credible point of views.
Lesson Eight: Keep on digging for data till you find it. This series was triggered when I was
searching for an answer to a question that dealt with the future of oil prices. The question took
me to a data series that dealt with US oil rig count and rig productivity.
While I used a lot of assumption in my initial analysis on rig counts, rig productivity and oil
production, I kept digging till I found the rig productivity data set I had been looking for.
Sometimes all we need is just a simple plot without any hacks or tweaks to make our point.
Good data brings the best of credibility.
Page 8 of 41
Chart K — US Rig productivity data for Eagle Ford, Permian and Niobrara regions. Be one with the data.
Page 9 of 41
PART II – LAYING THE GROUND WORK
Simpler is better?
A. UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

The most important step before we begin our analysis is understanding the context. So before
we begin, a quick detour on context around analysis that is often forgotten in our rush to build
visual graphs and charts.
B. MY BEEF WITH ANALYSIS

I hate inaccurate and superficial analysis. Other than a few bright exceptions in the media
who treat data and opinions with respect, I rarely take what I read today at face value. You
have no idea how refreshing it is to see an opinion based on facts and well thought out analysis.
Especially if it challenges accepted wisdom or current mindset.
Imagine you are putting together a chart for a presentation to Jeff Bezos. Imagine he is the
smartest man on the planet and knows everything about the subject. Now craft your graphs.
Present insights and analysis rather than plotting known facts and figures.
To do that well you must have an opinion, a story, an argument that you favor.
Page 10 of 41
C. FORMING OPINIONS
My first step when I start exploring any topic is to read. Before I form my own opinions, I want
to hear all sides of the story and gather as much data as possible. I don’t want to pen and
publish a piece dissing the likelihood of finding life on Mars just as NASA is breaking the news of
having found life on Mars. I also want to ensure that I understand the issues involved and take
my own advice — provide a balanced coverage of all point of views to my readers.
Once I form my opinion I go looking for data and analysis both in favor and against it. I keep an
open mind and I can change my position as long as I see compelling content that can convince
me of being right or wrong. The joys of reading opinions from across the world is that you find
an alternate thesis that you can make and call your own.
Here is a recent thesis I encountered.
On April 17th, both OPEC and non OPEC members meet in Doha and I was curious to see if the
meeting as an event was driving oil prices up. This would imply that the market was pricing in
the possibility of a deal, which seemed at odds with the opinion of a number of oil analysts,
including our own in-house team. However financial media coverage was making a big push for
the Doha meeting impacting oil price. So, who was right; financial media coverage or oil
analysts?
In the Doha’s meeting case, the compelling arguments and data were both missing. There was
apparent causality given the trajectory of the event and prices, but no basis or model for that
causality. A lot of talk and very little action and given the players involved the required action
doesn’t seem probable. There had to be some other driver pushing prices up. Because Doha
was the most visible event on the horizon it was getting all the credit. Attribution is easy,
credible justification is not.
D. THE DATA SET FOR MY EXCEL CHARTS

While working on Doha, I found another relationship worth exploring that supported my case
(remember the story). It dealt with falling US oil rig count and US crude oil production. While US
rig count has fallen by 76% over a fifteen month period, US crude oil production had only
declined by 15% over the same time period. The rig count figure is reported every Friday and
media coverage presents each drop with depressing write-ups about what the drop means for
the future of oil production in the US and a sure sign that crude oil prices are finally going to
rise again from the dead.
My core data set included the rig count updates and rig productivity data issued by EIA, US
crude oil production figures also released by EIA. Iraq and Russian Federation crude oil
production sourced from a range of databases, the EUR-USD foreign exchange rate collected
via Quandl and a number of additional calculations and filters.
Page 11 of 41
LESSON ONE — ONE AXIS VERSUS TWO

When I looked through the rig count data set two views or presentations were possible. Let’s
take a quick look at both views:
Chart A — Better Excel Charts — One axis or two?
Chart A — Using two separate axes for the two metrics
Chart A used a primary axis (on the left) to display the results for change in rig count and a
secondary axis to display the change in crude oil production.
Page 12 of 41
Chart B — Better Excel Chart — What message do you want your chart to convey? Is it conveying it accurately and
to your satisfaction?
Chart B — Using the same axis for the two metrics
Chart B used the same primary axis to display the change for both metrics.
Before you proceed, take a step back and think. Which one of these presentations do you
prefer? Which one of these charts pushes you towards a clear and specific interpretation?
I lean towards Chart B because I like the thought that this hoopla about rig count has very little
impact on actual crude oil production in the US. That is my story.
It also supports my bias that most financial journalists before expressing opinions about the end
of the world for the oil patch based on rig count changes were not doing their homework.
Conversely if I wanted to at least convey the image of a close relationship between change in
rig count and the change in crude oil production, as my friends in financial media are wont to
do, I would have leaned towards Chart A.
There are instances when the usage of a secondary axis adds clarity to your presentation as well
as your thought. This — the relationship between rig count and oil production — is clearly not
one of these instances. You can use the secondary axis to confuse the issue or forward your
point of view.
Page 13 of 41
Chart C presents an instance where a secondary axis is clearly required. It presents a different
data set related to the same topic using two separate axes. A primary axis for the actual rig
count value (left) and a secondary axis for the average volume of crude oil pumped by a rig for
the same period. The relationship being displayed is the rise in rig productivity as rig counts falls
across 2015.
Chart C — Better Excel charts — Using a secondary axis
Without a secondary axis, Chart C would transform into Chart D. The removal of the axis kills
the graph and the relationship that was being portrayed so well in Chart C. This happens
because the two scales don’t relate to each other in a visual setting. One ranges in the
thousands, the other in tens and twentys.
Page 14 of 41
Chart D — Better Excel charts — Flat lining your analysis.
To access the Format data series option, click and select your data series on the graph, then
right click to open the Excel pop up menu. In Excel 2013 and above you will see the Format Data
Series option. Click on the histogram bars icon and pick your choice of primary or secondary axis
for your series.
Page 15 of 41
Adding a secondary axis to your Excel charts.
Page 16 of 41
PART III — TIPS CONTINUED

Meet Chart C.
The relationship between US rig count drop and rig productivity introduced in episode one.
Meet our old friend Chart C from the previous section. Can you improve on Chart C?
Yes, you can. Slightly but certainly an improvement. Take a look at our new and improved Chart
E side by side with our original Chart C. Which one do you prefer? Can you tell the tweak we
have used to transform C into E?
Page 17 of 41
The new and improved chart E is a little different from chart C. Can you tell the difference?
Page 18 of 41
Meet Chart D (on the page above) and Chart C (this page). Which one do you prefer?
The relationship displayed in E is significantly steeper than the relationship in C. This was made
possible by adjusting the starting and ending points for both scales. Excel by default picks
proportionate values for the scale. You can tweak that to share a different perspective.
Here is another example. Meet Chart F and Chart G.
Page 19 of 41
Chart F — Exploring alternate expression with four different variables
What are some of the immediate fixes that come to your mind when you view chart F. There is
room for improvement on the scale front. It would also help if we could place the date labels
someplace else.
Minor differences created by tweaking the axis on the left and right-hand side lead to a slightly
steeper curve and more readable data in Chart G compared to Chart F.
Chart G — Better Excel Chart — A second sample for the simple axis tweak for steeper curves.
Page 20 of 41
I like steeper curves because I want to use all the real estate available to me on a chart to
convey the information or message I need to convey. It also allows me to sharpen the focus on
my story in the graph. Can you tell what story I am trying to tell graph F and G? That Russian
Federation and Iraq control a great deal of excess production and the key to oil price changes
lies in how this excess capacity is managed. Managed to flood the market with extra barrels or
managed to hold capacity when demand bounces back?
Charts F and G, side by side.
Page 21 of 41
In addition to the steepness, there is one other adjustment made to Chart G compared to Chart
F. Can you spot it?
We have moved the date labels all the way down so that they are out of the way of the plot
area.
To change the axis, click and select the axis you want to tweak, right click to get to the Excel
pop-up menu and then chose Format Axis. Change the minimum and maximum bounds to get
the desired effect.
Changing Axis minimum and maximum to get a steeper curve.
Page 22 of 41
To access the label menu, double click on the horizontal axis to open the format axis menu on
the right. Click on labels and scroll all the way down to label position. Pick the most suitable
position that gets the labels out of the way of your plot.
Changing label positions to get them out of the way of the plot area.
Page 23 of 41
LESSON TWO — ANALYZING A RELATIONSHIP?

When faced with two variables that you are trying to link through a relationship, what should
you focus on? Absolute values or rate of change?
Given a choice, I prefer rate of change. I use it to calculate volatility, correlations, moving
averages and trends for returns. I use absolute values to show a trend and how the variables
have changed. There are certain presentations where my analysis needs and is based on
absolute values and there are others where I mix and match. But the most fun I have is with
relative rate of change.
In Charts A and B, I used relative rate of change. In C and D I use absolute values because that is
the unit of my analysis. In Chart F and Chart G I use rate of change (values not percentages).
One of my favorite technique is to calculate rolling or trailing volatility or correlations and plot
them against the relative rate of change. Chart H provides a sample of this technique.
Chart H — Better Excel chart — a great example of information overload. Looking good at the expense of clarity
But you have to be careful using this variation because it often leads to information over load
and is a great example of sacrificing clarity for information. Most audiences in my training
session hate this chart because unlike the versions A through G, H is a lost cause.
There is no clear message or relationship on display. Sure, if you follow crude oil and
understand the link between crude oil prices and the USD exchange rate, you may see the link.
But Chart H commits a cardinal sin.
Page 24 of 41
It makes you think.

You can’t understand the message or the relationship without really applying your mind. Steve
Krug wrote a brilliant book on usability and UX design titled “Don’t Make Me think”. That line
needs to be your calling card as an analyst using Excel charts to communicate information and
insights.
Remember simpler, clearer, cleaner is better than fancier.
Chart I — Simpler is better.
Now, compare Chart H with Chart I. We are back in the zone of clarity. Chart I is also a good
example of mixing relative change with the underlying variable. It applies all the principles we
discussed in Lesson one including the usage of two axis and tweaking the range the axis plot for
the graph on the left and right-hand side. Chart J presents a similar data set on Iraq crude
production without the tweaks. Once again which one do you prefer?
Page 25 of 41
Meet Chart J — Similar relationships as Chart I but without the tweaks.
My final example is Chart K.
Chart K— Using the gradient effect to show the series behind the fill.
Page 26 of 41
Notice the difference setting for the title. But in my zeal to utilize real estate I cropped the
bottom when I tweaked the axis and forgot to do a quality check before I posted and used this
chart.
The original Chart K — without the title shift but with the correct axis range.
There is a common theme across Chart H, I, J and K. Chart H and Chart K use the Excel gradient
functionality to show the parts of the plot hidden behind the main series. Chart I uses a
different technique to achieve the same effect. This is useful when one series is more relevant,
but the other series adds context.
For I, J and K while we are interested in the relative change we also want to share the steepness
of the increase and decline across the timeline under review.
Page 27 of 41
To access the gradient setting, you would again need to get to the Format Data Series menu.
Pick gradient fill under Fill and then chose 90% — 99% transparency to get your desired effects.
Control the gradient and transparency settings to show data behind the fill colors
That is all she wrote folks. I hope you found it useful. Now onwards to data tables in Book two.
Page 28 of 41
B O O K T W O – D ATA A N A LY S I S U S I N G
D ATA TA B L E S
USING EXCEL DATA TABLES FOR SENSITIVITY TESTING

You have built your financial model, now is the time to test it.
The objective of stress testing or sensitivity testing is to evaluate your financial model across a
range of values. Sometimes we do this to test the model, more often the objective is to present
a range of values. Audience are very interested in what ifs and a tabular or graphical
presentation of what ifs is a great presentation tool.
For example, let’s assume that you have built a simple model for a brick and mortar retail store
in a shopping mall in the Middle East. Within your financial model are the following core drivers
of value.
In addition to the above from a profitability and productivity point of view you also pay sales
commission to your floor agents giving them an incentive to sell. Since you run a retail store
your product mix includes different gross margins on different categories.
For your presentation you want to analyze the results of combining different values for each of
the above drivers on the operating income of your shop. You anticipate that your audience will
also focus on similar what if analysis and you want to be prepared before you go in front of
them.
One of the first question your audience asks is the relationship between sales commissions and
cost of goods sold (COGS) and the resultant income figures for about 15 different combinations
of these two drivers.
Page 29 of 41
The next question deals with the sales conversion ratio and the share of your shop in the foot
traffic generated by the Mall. Once again you are looking at 16 different combinations.
The final question looks at the impact of changing ticket sizes on valuation, breakeven &
interest coverage.
There is an easier way of doing all of the above with data tables in Excel.
Page 30 of 41
There are many questions that Excel can help you answer without spending a great deal of
manual time spent in tweaking and hacking models or calculating and storing values one by
one.
Simple questions that allow you to see the impact of changes in prices, margins, customer
profiles on profitability and valuations. Unfortunately, while the tools exist, the only way you
could the above in Excel within your financial model is if your model is constructed correctly. To
construct your model correctly you have to start with a thesis for the business. What are the
core value drivers for our retail shop (introduced in the previous post)?
1. Mall Traffic share

2. Shop Traffic conversion
3. Gross Margin (Cost of Goods Sold)
4. Sales staff commissions
5. Expense Inflation
When you build the model, you have to ensure that the each of the above is a variable input in
the design of your model. While you can simulate each of these “designed variables” for a first
pass its best to work with a static spreadsheet.
But design is not just limited to inputs. It is also driven by what you want to see produced by
your model.
Page 31 of 41
For instance, if the focus of the model (among other things) is to determine the number of
transactions per day in order to breakeven the model needs to project that. As per the above
model for the shop to breakeven it needs to average between 2,000 to 2,500 tickets every
month. Assuming 25 open days a month that translates into 800 to 1,000 sales transactions a
day using the default baseline assumptions.
How would this change if the average ticket size goes up by 20% and the gross margin increases
by another 5%?
Between the two ends (inputs and outputs) you have got the design figured out.
Now assume for a second that you have got a basic financial model out there that uses the
above design parameters and produces the financials for a retail store shop in a mall in the
Middle East. We are not looking for rocket science or a 10,000 cell, 100 tab Excel wizardry. Just
a simple model that projects financial statements for the next 3 years.
How can you use the Excel Data Table functionality to produce the answers we had shared in
our previous post.
Page 32 of 41
GETTING STARTED
Here is the plan. We will start with a single dimension (one variable) and a single measurement
metric. We will follow that up with two dimensions (two variables) and a single measurement
metric. And we will finish with a single dimension (one variable) and multiple measurement
metrics. For convenience we will refer to the two terms as variable and metric.
For our first task we want to plot the impact of ticket sizes (bill, amount purchased) on the
number of transactions we need in a year to breakeven. We start off by building a simple grid of
varying ticket size value that we want to test and the breakeven transaction result.
When we are done, Excel will take the input cells (Ticket sizes), plug them in the designated slot
(that we need to identify) and store the result (the number of transactions required to
breakeven) in the data table. In the image above, 250, 300, 350 and 400 are all static values.
31,018 refer to the cell where the number of breakeven transactions are calculated from the
financial model.
Page 33 of 41
Our next step is to select the area marked by the border. From cell Q94 to cell R98. This will
become our designated data table area.
With the cells selected click on the Data tab in the main tab bar above and pick What if Analysis.
Within the drop-down menu displayed select Data Tables.
Page 34 of 41
You will see small pop up window with an option to put in Row input cell and Column input
cell. In this instance since we have laid out Ticket Sizes in a column we will pick column input
cell.
We now identify the cell in the spreadsheet model where Excel will take the values defined in
the data table column above and plug them to recalculate the results from the financial model.
We are telling Excel to pick all the values between 250 and 400 one by one, recalculate the
results (breakeven transactions needed) and store them in the data table.
All we now need to do is press the ok button and Excel will run the process, do the calculations,
store the results.
Page 35 of 41
MIGRATING TO TWO DIMENSION ANALYSIS

Now that we have successfully tackled the one dimensional table, let’s look at a more complex
scenario.
We want to examine the impact of ticket sizes and sales conversion rates on operating income
of our retail shop.
To do this we start off by building a grid. Within the grid we put ticket size as our master
column and conversion rates as our master row.
The variable that we want to track (operating income) is a calculated value. We put a cell
reference at the underlined location to the point in our spreadsheet where operating income is
calculated.
Page 36 of 41
We select the highlighted range and pick Data => What if Analysis => Data Tables.
The two inputs are the two locations in our spreadsheets where these drivers are defined. The
first is the location where conversion rate is taken as an input; the second is the location where
ticket size is taken in as an input.
Page 37 of 41
As discussed above, sales conversion rate goes in as an input to Row input cell.
While ticket size goes in as an input to Column input cell. We press ok and the Excel output is
ready for review in our data table.
Page 38 of 41
Here are the three original data tables from our previous post that led to this discussion. Go
ahead and see if you can build them by yourself and on your own.
For a typical startup financial model, the core drivers that need to be modeled are:
1. Traffic, leads, prospects

2. Share of traffic & leads
3. Sales conversion of traffic & leads
4. Growth rate (fed by improvement in market share, leads, conversions)
5. Ticket sizes & frequency of purchase
Page 39 of 41
6. Resources
7. Expense inflation
The metrics that need to be tracked are:
1. Revenues
2. Operating Income
3. Revenue Growth
4. Valuation
5. Breakeven
6. Sales teams
7. Number of customers
8. Fixed costs
You can mix and match these to produce your own analysis as well as identify the areas of
focus. Drives and metrics that can mean the difference between success and failure.
THE PLAN FOR A DATA ANALYST

To summarize and reinforce what we have discussed above:
1. Form a thesis then go look for data that you need to support it.
2. Run correlations on absolutes as well as on relative changes. Plot trailing correlations to test
stability or cycles.
3. Calculate trailing volatilities on relative changes within market price data sets to get a sense
of the range of variation you are likely to experience.
4. Histograms summarize data and give you a view on the underlying distributions.
Distributions can help validate models as well as identify solutions to a problem.
5. Use pivot tables (cross tabs) if you have multiple dimensions of analysis (country, source,
age, ticket size, purchase category, etc) to summarize and present tables.
6. Use data tables to store extrapolated results.
7. Build better Excel charts.
Page 40 of 41
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jawwad Ahmed Farid

Jawwad Farid has been building, implementing risk models
and back office systems since 1993. Working with clients on
four continents he helps bankers, board members and
regulators take a market relevant approach to risk
management.
Jawwad is a Fellow Society of Actuaries, (FSA, Schaumburg, IL),

holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a
computer science graduate from FAST NUCES. During the last
twenty five years, he has worked as an advisor and a consultant
in North America, Pakistan, Middle East, Africa, Far East and
the United Kingdom. His previous employers and clients
include Goldman Sachs, Andersen Worldwide, Merrill Lynch,
Asian Development Bank, Pacific Life, State Life, Security and
Exchange Commission Pakistan, Adamjee Insurance, Dubai Islamic Bank, Mashreq Bank, Riyadh
Bank and First Gulf Bank.
Jawwad’s expertise include investment management, product development and risk models.
He has advised multiple due diligence teams on risk assessment and valuation in banking,
treasury and insurance sectors, set up FX and commodity hedging desks, built fair value models
for illiquid securities for FAS 157 disclosures, estimated contingent liability reserves,
implemented treasury and enterprise risk platforms, designed Economic Capital allocation
strategies across business lines and helped a US$ 3 billion life insurance investment fund on
allocation and bid patterns for 10, 20 and 30 year bonds, ALM mismatch and fixed income
portfolio gap reduction in Pakistan as well as Middle East.
Jawwad has been engaged by the Central Bank, the Securities regulators, the local bankers and
treasury association to put together and run national capacity building programs specifically in
the areas of treasury, investment management and credit risk modeling.
Jawwad is the author of four books of which the latest are Option Greeks Primer and Models at
Work, both published by Palgrave Macmillan. His latest project is a text book on Portfolio
Optimization Models that he has been using to teach the subject to Executive MBA students
and bankers in Dubai and Karachi. Jawwad is an adjunct faculty member at the SP Jain Global
School of Management in Dubai and Singapore as well as at IBA, Karachi, where he teaches Risk
Management, Derivative Pricing, Treasury and Portfolio Management.
Page 41 of 41

Better_Excel_Charts

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Better_Excel_Charts

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Better_Excel_Charts

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Excel data analysis.

Don’t be good. Be better.

Jawwad Ahmed Farid

Book one - Better Excel Charts

Copyright © 2006 – 2018, Jawwad Ahmed Farid, Fawzia Salahuddin

Editors: Jawwad Farid, Agnes Paul and Uzma Salahuddin

Here is the road map for the book

10th June 2018

BETTER EXCEL CHARTS — BE ONE WITH THE PLOT

1. Simplify your story,

Lesson Three: Simpler is better. Fancier is not always an improvement. Delivering

PART II – LAYING THE GROUND WORK

A. UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

B. MY BEEF WITH ANALYSIS

Here is a recent thesis I encountered.

D. THE DATA SET FOR MY EXCEL CHARTS

LESSON ONE — ONE AXIS VERSUS TWO

Chart A — Better Excel Charts — One axis or two?

Chart A — Using two separate axes for the two metrics

Chart B — Using the same axis for the two metrics

Chart C — Better Excel charts — Using a secondary axis

Chart D — Better Excel charts — Flat lining your analysis.

Adding a secondary axis to your Excel charts.

PART III — TIPS CONTINUED

Here is another example. Meet Chart F and Chart G.

Chart F — Exploring alternate expression with four different variables

Charts F and G, side by side.

Changing Axis minimum and maximum to get a steeper curve.

LESSON TWO — ANALYZING A RELATIONSHIP?

It makes you think.

Remember simpler, clearer, cleaner is better than fancier.

Chart I — Simpler is better.

Meet Chart J — Similar relationships as Chart I but without the tweaks.

My final example is Chart K.

USING EXCEL DATA TABLES FOR SENSITIVITY TESTING

1. Mall Traffic share

MIGRATING TO TWO DIMENSION ANALYSIS

1. Traffic, leads, prospects

The metrics that need to be tracked are:

THE PLAN FOR A DATA ANALYST

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jawwad Ahmed Farid

Jawwad is a Fellow Society of Actuaries, (FSA, Schaumburg, IL),

You might also like