Reading the Signals

A practical guide to interpreting the numbers, badges, and charts in the Markets tab.

Every metric in the Markets tab comes from analyzing SEC filings. The measurements are designed to answer four questions: who's exposed, who's ahead of the curve, what's the sector doing, and should I pay attention? This page explains each number.

Disclosure intensity

The headline number for every company is its disclosure intensity — a value typically between 0 and 0.10. It measures how much a company's current climate language diverges from its own historical baseline.

• 0.00–0.01 — minimal divergence, close to baseline
• 0.01–0.03 — moderate; the company is saying more than usual
• 0.03+ — significant; notable shift in disclosure language

Important: intensity is relative to the company itself. A high intensity for one company might be low for another. The value reflects change from that company's own norm, not an absolute score. To compare across companies, use the disclosure gap.

Disclosure gap

The disclosure gap answers the question: is this company disclosing more or less than its sector peers? It's computed as the difference between a company's intensity and its sector average.

• +0.012 above — the company is disclosing more than its sector average. It may be ahead of the curve on climate risk communication.
• −0.008 below — the company is disclosing less than its sector average. It may have a gap between its climate risk exposure and what it's telling regulators.

The gap is shown alongside a peer percentile — for example, “above 80% of peers” means the company's intensity is higher than 80% of companies in its sector. Companies significantly below sector average are flagged in the sector drilldown view.

Momentum

Momentum measures the direction and speed of change in a company's disclosure intensity, filing over filing. It's shown as a signed number with a color indicator:

• +0.003 — intensity is increasing (intensifying). The company is progressively saying more about climate.
• 0.000 — steady. Disclosure level is roughly stable.
• −0.002 — intensity is decreasing (easing). The company is pulling back on climate language.

In the company detail view, momentum is also ranked against sector peers — for example, “faster than 65% of peers” means the company's disclosure is changing more rapidly than most of its sector.

Attention score

The attention score is a triage indicator (0–5 dots) that highlights companies worth investigating. It answers: “should I look at this?”

The score is a composite of five factors, each contributing one dot:

• Above sector average — intensity is higher than the sector mean
• Intensifying — the trend direction is growing
• Non-baseline pattern — disclosure pattern is Emerging or Established
• High materiality — climate language is concentrated in financially material filing sections (Risk, MD&A)
• Top momentum — momentum is in the top 20% of the sector

A company scoring 4–5 dots is unusually active across multiple dimensions. It doesn't mean the company is “good” or “bad” — it means something interesting is happening in their climate disclosure that warrants closer examination.

Patterns

Each company is classified into one of three disclosure patterns:

Trends

The trend arrow shows which direction the signal is moving:

Sector indicators

At the sector level, three aggregate metrics summarize what the group is doing:

• Emerging % — the share of companies in the sector with non-baseline disclosure patterns (Emerging or Established). A sector with 40% emerging means 40% of companies have moved beyond their disclosure norm.
• Momentum — the net direction of the sector, calculated as (intensifying count − easing count) / total companies. Positive values mean more companies are ramping up disclosure than pulling back.
• Momentum ratio — the ratio of intensifying to easing companies, formatted as “1.7:1”. A ratio above 1:1 means the sector is net-intensifying.

The sector drilldown also flags companies significantly below sector average — those whose disclosure intensity is more than one standard deviation below the sector mean. These are potential exposure gaps.

Signal dimensions

The five dimension bars show different aspects of the climate signal:

• Volume — total amount of climate-related language (keyword matches)
• Change — how much the language changed versus the previous filing
• Spread — how broadly climate language is distributed across filing sections
• Materiality — concentration in financially material sections (Risk, MD&A)
• Novelty — presence of new climate terms or phrases not seen in prior filings

Each dimension is normalized 0–1. The bar colors indicate signal strength:

• Blue (0–0.33) — low signal
• Teal (0.33–0.66) — moderate signal
• Gold (0.66–1.0) — strong signal

Reading the radar chart

The “Where the Signal Lives” radar chart shows which SEC filing sections carry the most climate language. The four axes are:

• Business (Item 1) — strategic and operational description
• Risk (Item 1A) — risk factor disclosures
• MD&A (Item 7) — management's discussion and analysis
• Financials (Item 8) — financial statements and notes

A company that mentions climate only in the Risk section will have a narrow, one-sided profile. A company integrating climate across all sections will have a fuller shape. The shape tells you where the disclosure is concentrated.

What the numbers don't tell you

These signals measure disclosure behavior, not climate performance. A high intensity means a company is talking more about climate — it doesn't tell you whether their climate strategy is good or bad. A company below sector average isn't necessarily failing — it may have less climate exposure. Use these signals as one input alongside your own analysis.

For details on how signals are computed, see Signal Engine.