Animated Financial Display

Create engaging financial number displays with smooth animations, proper formatting, and visual feedback on value changes.

When to Use

• Building trading dashboards with live prices
• Showing portfolio values that update in real-time
• Displaying metrics that need attention on change
• Any financial UI that benefits from motion

Pattern 1: Spring-Animated Number

Using framer-motion's spring physics:

import { useSpring, animated } from '@react-spring/web';
import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

interface AnimatedNumberProps {
  value: number;
  prefix?: string;
  suffix?: string;
  decimals?: number;
  duration?: number;
}

export function AnimatedNumber({
  value,
  prefix = '',
  suffix = '',
  decimals = 2,
  duration = 500,
}: AnimatedNumberProps) {
  const prevValue = useRef(value);

  const { number } = useSpring({
    from: { number: prevValue.current },
    to: { number: value },
    config: { duration },
  });

  useEffect(() => {
    prevValue.current = value;
  }, [value]);

  return (
    <animated.span className="tabular-nums">
      {number.to((n) => `${prefix}${n.toFixed(decimals)}${suffix}`)}
    </animated.span>
  );
}

Usage

<AnimatedNumber value={price} prefix="$" decimals={2} />
<AnimatedNumber value={percentage} suffix="%" decimals={1} />

Pattern 2: Value with Flash Effect

Flash color on value change:

import { useEffect, useState, useRef } from 'react';
import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';

interface FlashingValueProps {
  value: number;
  formatter: (value: number) => string;
}

export function FlashingValue({ value, formatter }: FlashingValueProps) {
  const [flash, setFlash] = useState<'up' | 'down' | null>(null);
  const prevValue = useRef(value);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (value !== prevValue.current) {
      setFlash(value > prevValue.current ? 'up' : 'down');
      prevValue.current = value;
      
      const timer = setTimeout(() => setFlash(null), 600);
      return () => clearTimeout(timer);
    }
  }, [value]);

  return (
    <span
      className={cn(
        'transition-colors duration-600',
        flash === 'up' && 'text-success',
        flash === 'down' && 'text-destructive'
      )}
    >
      {formatter(value)}
    </span>
  );
}

Pattern 3: Financial Number Formatting

// lib/formatters.ts
export function formatCurrency(
  value: number,
  options: {
    currency?: string;
    compact?: boolean;
    decimals?: number;
  } = {}
): string {
  const { currency = 'USD', compact = false, decimals = 2 } = options;

  if (compact && Math.abs(value) >= 1_000_000_000) {
    return `$${(value / 1_000_000_000).toFixed(1)}B`;
  }
  if (compact && Math.abs(value) >= 1_000_000) {
    return `$${(value / 1_000_000).toFixed(1)}M`;
  }
  if (compact && Math.abs(value) >= 1_000) {
    return `$${(value / 1_000).toFixed(1)}K`;
  }

  return new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', {
    style: 'currency',
    currency,
    minimumFractionDigits: decimals,
    maximumFractionDigits: decimals,
  }).format(value);
}

export function formatPercentage(
  value: number,
  options: { showSign?: boolean; decimals?: number } = {}
): string {
  const { showSign = true, decimals = 2 } = options;
  const sign = showSign && value > 0 ? '+' : '';
  return `${sign}${value.toFixed(decimals)}%`;
}

export function formatNumber(
  value: number,
  options: { compact?: boolean; decimals?: number } = {}
): string {
  const { compact = false, decimals = 0 } = options;

  if (compact) {
    return Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', {
      notation: 'compact',
      maximumFractionDigits: 1,
    }).format(value);
  }

  return new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', {
    minimumFractionDigits: decimals,
    maximumFractionDigits: decimals,
  }).format(value);
}

Pattern 4: Price Ticker Component

interface PriceTickerProps {
  symbol: string;
  price: number;
  change24h: number;
  changePercent24h: number;
}

export function PriceTicker({
  symbol,
  price,
  change24h,
  changePercent24h,
}: PriceTickerProps) {
  const isPositive = changePercent24h >= 0;

  return (
    <div className="flex items-center justify-between p-3 rounded-lg bg-muted/50">
      <div className="flex items-center gap-2">
        <span className="font-display font-medium">{symbol}</span>
      </div>
      
      <div className="flex items-center gap-3">
        <AnimatedNumber value={price} prefix="$" decimals={2} />
        
        <span
          className={cn(
            'text-sm font-mono tabular-nums',
            isPositive ? 'text-success' : 'text-destructive'
          )}
        >
          {formatPercentage(changePercent24h)}
        </span>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

Pattern 5: Metric Card with Animation

interface MetricCardProps {
  label: string;
  value: number;
  previousValue?: number;
  format: 'currency' | 'percent' | 'number';
}

export function MetricCard({
  label,
  value,
  previousValue,
  format,
}: MetricCardProps) {
  const formatValue = (v: number) => {
    switch (format) {
      case 'currency': return formatCurrency(v, { compact: true });
      case 'percent': return formatPercentage(v);
      case 'number': return formatNumber(v, { compact: true });
    }
  };

  const change = previousValue ? ((value - previousValue) / previousValue) * 100 : null;

  return (
    <Surface layer="metric" className="p-4">
      <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wider text-muted-foreground mb-1">
        {label}
      </div>
      
      <div className="text-2xl font-bold font-mono tabular-nums">
        <FlashingValue value={value} formatter={formatValue} />
      </div>
      
      {change !== null && (
        <div className={cn(
          'text-xs font-mono mt-1',
          change >= 0 ? 'text-success' : 'text-destructive'
        )}>
          {formatPercentage(change)} from previous
        </div>
      )}
    </Surface>
  );
}

Pattern 6: CSS Value Flash Animation

@keyframes value-flash-up {
  0% { 
    color: hsl(var(--success));
    text-shadow: 0 0 8px hsl(var(--success) / 0.5);
  }
  100% { 
    color: inherit;
    text-shadow: none;
  }
}

@keyframes value-flash-down {
  0% { 
    color: hsl(var(--destructive));
    text-shadow: 0 0 8px hsl(var(--destructive) / 0.5);
  }
  100% { 
    color: inherit;
    text-shadow: none;
  }
}

.animate-flash-up {
  animation: value-flash-up 0.6s ease-out;
}

.animate-flash-down {
  animation: value-flash-down 0.6s ease-out;
}

Related Skills

• Meta-skill: ai/skills/meta/design-system-creation/ — Complete design system workflow
• financial-data-visualization — Chart theming and data visualization
• realtime-react-hooks — Real-time data hooks for live updates

NEVER Do

• Skip tabular-nums — Numbers will jump as they change
• Use linear animations — Spring/ease-out feels more natural
• Animate decimals rapidly — Too much motion is distracting
• Forget compact formatting — Large numbers need abbreviation
• Show raw floats — Always format with appropriate precision
• Flash on every render — Only flash on actual value changes

Typography for Numbers

.metric {
  font-family: var(--font-mono);
  font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;
  font-weight: 600;
  letter-spacing: -0.02em;
}

.price-large {
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-weight: 800;
}

.percentage {
  font-size: 0.875rem;
  font-weight: 500;
}