How to Read a Decision Brief
A practical guide to Market Intel Hub's Decision Brief — momentum, news sentiment, fundamentals, and prediction-market context in one narrative view.
Every ticker page on Marketdeck includes a Decision Brief — a structured summary that answers one question: what is the market saying about this symbol right now?
This guide walks through each section and how to use it without overfitting to noise.
Open any ticker
Navigate to a symbol from the Screener or search — for example /ticker/AAPL. The page loads four layers of context:
- Live quote & conviction gauge — price, daily change, and a composite score from momentum and news sentiment.
- Narrative Chart — price with event markers for news, social, and prediction-market activity.
- Decision Brief — the text summary below the chart.
- Follow-up tabs — fundamentals, analyst ratings, social feed, and Polymarket lanes.
Reading the conviction gauge
The gauge is not a buy/sell signal. It compresses:
- Momentum — recent price trend (normalized daily change).
- Buzz — social mention volume (when available).
- Sentiment — bullish vs bearish tilt in recent headlines.
A high score with negative news sentiment often means price is running against the headline flow — worth investigating on the Narrative Chart (did the move happen before or after the story?).
News sentiment in the brief
Headlines are classified as bullish, bearish, or neutral. The brief highlights:
- The dominant tone over the last few days.
- Whether multiple outlets are repeating the same catalyst (cluster) or scattering across unrelated topics.
Cross-check with the News Timeline for market-wide context — sometimes a ticker looks quiet while macro headlines are moving the whole tape.
Prediction-market lanes
When related Polymarket events exist (earnings beats, product launches, macro catalysts), the brief references probability lanes — crowd-implied odds over time.
Divergence is the signal: flat stock price + rising odds of a positive catalyst suggests expectations are building before the equity reacts.
Fundamentals snapshot
For equities, you'll see trailing P/E, margins, and sector context where data is available. Use this as a slow-moving anchor — the brief is designed for what changed today, not a DCF model.
Practical workflow
- Scan the gauge and daily change.
- Read the brief's top paragraph (the "so what").
- Scroll the Narrative Chart for timing — did news lead or lag price?
- Check Polymarket lanes if the story is event-driven.
- Add to Watchlist if you want to track it.
Related reading
- How Markets Actually Move — interactive lesson on fundamentals, flows, and expectations.
- Q3 2026 Market Outlook — macro context for the current tape.
Questions or ideas for future guides? We're building Marketdeck in public — file-based blog posts live in content/blog/.