Underwriting
Analysis Chart Discipline
The KB is pro-chart, but charts in analysis articles should clarify investment judgment rather than decorate prose. Use a visual when it makes the argument more inspectable than narrative alone: ranking markets, showing variance, comparing scenarios, tracing time series, or exposing underwriting sensitivity.
Also known as: Analysis Visuals, Chart Discipline, Graph Discipline
Updated
Use Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis for deal-level tornado charts, exit-cap x rent-growth grids, scenario matrices, scorecards, and other IC sensitivity outputs.
When Charts Belong
Add a chart, graph, grid, or visual table when it answers a sentence-level analytical question:
- Which markets survive a debt-execution screen?
- Which assumptions move IRR most?
- Which submarkets are strong on demand but weak on supply timing?
- Where does a metric series show a regime change rather than a normal fluctuation?
- Which capital buckets are being separated by the same evidence?
For analysis pages, the visual should make pattern recognition easier or make the decision rule more auditable. If the same information is clearer as prose, use prose. If the information must remain portable across Obsidian, Notion, API, and mirror export, use a markdown table first.
Preferred Formats
Use the lightest durable format that preserves the argument:
| Need | Preferred format | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Durable comparison or scoring | Markdown table | Best default for Obsidian, Notion, diffs, and API export. |
| Decision flow or dependency map | Mermaid diagram | Good when the logic is directional and text would be clumsy. |
| Ranking, spread, or sensitivity pattern | Small chart or heat-map-style table | Keep the underlying values nearby. |
| Published visual from a source | Source note summary plus citation | Do not paste opaque screenshots when a structured table or paraphrase works. |
| High-value custom exhibit | Checked-in generated image asset | Use only when the image adds real analysis and cannot be represented cleanly in markdown. |
Audit Rules
- Put the data, assumptions, or source-note trail close enough that the visual can be checked without hunting through the repo.
- Label methodology and as-of dates for current-sensitive market metrics.
- Do not blend incompatible source series inside one chart without calling out the methodology difference.
- Do not let a chart imply precision the source stack does not support.
- Do not create standalone analysis pages just to house a chart; attach the visual to the durable sink page that owns the thesis.
- Avoid charts for one-off deal announcements unless the deal is being absorbed into a reusable synthesis page.
Related Pages
- Analyses Hub
- Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis
- Geography Comparison Template
- Market Capital Allocation Analysis Template