How to Build a Board-Ready Market Intelligence Report
Last updated 28 Feb 2026·3 min read
How to Build a Board-Ready Market Intelligence Report
Board reporting on market intelligence is one of the most underserved areas in investor relations. Most IR teams either send directors a dense spreadsheet nobody reads, or a two-line summary that tells them nothing. Neither serves the board’s actual need: understanding what the market is saying about the company, and whether it warrants action.
What directors actually want to know
Having spoken to dozens of directors and company secretaries at ASX-listed companies, the questions that matter at board level are remarkably consistent:
- Is anything unusual happening in our trading? — Volume spikes, abnormal returns, or shifts in the shareholder mix
- What is the market saying about us? — Key themes across forums, news, and social media, with sentiment direction
- Are there disclosure risks? — Rumours, speculation, or misinformation that could trigger a price query
- How did our last announcement land? — Market reaction, media pickup, and forum response compared to expectations
The one-page framework
The most effective board reports we’ve seen follow a consistent one-page structure. Directors can scan it in 90 seconds and know whether they need to dig deeper.
Report structure: 1. Trading summary — Share price vs sector, volume vs 30-day average, any flagged anomalies. 2. Narrative summary — Top 3 themes from forums, news, and social media this period. 3. Disclosure risk — Any rumours, speculation, or misinformation that may require response. 4. Announcement impact — How the last announcement performed vs expectations. 5. Action items — Recommended next steps, if any.
Common mistakes to avoid
The biggest mistake IR teams make with board reporting is treating it as a data dump. Directors don’t want raw data — they want interpreted intelligence. Every data point in the report should answer a “so what?” question.
The second mistake is inconsistency. If the board only sees market intelligence when something goes wrong, they can’t build context. Regular reporting — even when the news is “nothing unusual this month” — builds the baseline that makes anomalies visible.
Making it sustainable
The reason most IR teams don’t produce quality board reports is time. Manually aggregating data from multiple sources, writing commentary, and formatting it into something presentable takes hours. The companies that do this well have either dedicated resources or tooling that automates the data collection and visualisation, freeing the IR team to focus on interpretation.
Quarterback’s reporting module generates board-ready market intelligence reports in one click — covering trading patterns, narrative analysis, disclosure risk, and announcement impact. The data is pre-interpreted, the format is consistent, and the audit trail is built in.