Writing an Equity Research Report focuses on the skills that matter in financial reporting. You can complete the course in under two hours, and you’ll come away with a powerful method for transforming thorough research into writing that’s clear, concise and compelling.

Every day, banks and brokerages send out 6,000 financial reports. And yet perhaps no more than 5% of them are ever read. How can you make your report stand out?

By creating compelling investment ideas, and communicating them clearly.

This course will help you do those two things.

What you’ll learn in this course

This is a project-based course. It's designed to take you through the stages of producing a real research report. All the assignments contribute to that aim. If you want to use the course in this way, you can have a real report, ready to publish, by the time you have finished.

Although we focus here on equity research, the course will be useful for other kinds of analyst as well. And for new graduates entering the dizzy world of finance. Or even experienced – and possibly hardened – researchers looking for a fresh approach.

By the end of this course, you’ll be armed with a veritable arsenal of techniques to craft compelling reports – and to write in language that’s clear, concise and compelling.

You’ll start by learning how to place the skills of report writing within the context of all the other skills analysts need to employ. You’ll learn a method to help you produce reports more efficiently, and techniques to benchmark your work against objective quality criteria. The tools and techniques you’ll learn have been tried, tested and given the whole-hearted thumbs up by our own clients in workshops conducted over 25 years.

You’ll also learn about how to make a real impact with your writing in a global environment: essential knowledge if English isn’t your first language or if you’re working as part of a global team.

Effective research reports aren’t successful just because of the words you use – or what you know. Good writing means figuring out what you’re trying to say and why it matters to your clients.

So, you’ll learn how to formulate your investment ideas quickly and efficiently, and how to support those ideas with logical arguments and coherent explanations.

You’ll also be able to organize your ideas to fit the strategies we all use as readers to seek out what matters to us.

All of these tools and techniques will save you time as a writer - and save your audience time as readers.

You’ll also learn how to construct powerful paragraphs and stunning sentences, so that you can communicate your expertise without baffling your reader. And how to add warmth to your words so you forge a deeper connection with busy clients.

Finally, you’ll learn simple techniques for proofing and polishing your work - so you can weed out embarrassing errors that could undermine your credibility as an analyst.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Identify and develop compelling investment ideas

• Save time when producing your reports

• Apply a method to produce sound financial reports

• Delight your audience by saving them time when reading your report

• Quickly identify what you want to say - and how to say it

• Structure the report for maximum impact

• Present your arguments so that clients can instantly home in on your most important points

• Communicate your expertise clearly and compellingly

• Rid your writing of confusing tech talk and off-putting corpspeak

• Engage your readers by making your writing warmer and more human

• Establish credibility by proofing and polishing your work effectively

What you’ll learn

• Create research reports efficiently and painlessly

• Generate compelling investment ideas, supported by persuasive arguments and coherent explanations

• Explain your research findings coherently

• Use compelling language that holds your reader’s attention from beginning to end

• Create reports that amplify your authority as a researcher

Requirements

• A willingness to roll up your sleeves and get writing!

• You'll need some of your own writing to complete several of the exercises

• You should have a new report in mind that you can use to exercise some of the techniques on the course

Hands-on practice

The only way to improve your writing is to roll up your sleeves and get writing. That’s why we’ve designed Writing an Equity Research Report as a project-based course.

All the assignments on the course contribute to producing a real report. All the exercises are opportunities to develop skills that you can transfer directly and immediately to the research report you are working on.

You’ll also be encouraged to reflect on your own report writing. You’ll find the course particularly useful if you’re working on a report while taking the course, which you could plan, review and improve – while developing your skills.

Course resources

Writing an Equity Research Report gives you a wealth of resources for crafting clearer, punchier, more persuasive reports, including:

• links to free online tools for analysing and improving your writing

• 200+-page downloadable course workbook featuring course exercises and assignments - including model answers - and summaries of the key points of each lecture

• links to useful articles and other online sources to help you produce better research reports

Is this the right course for you?

Writing an Equity Research Report has been designed for time-pressed analysts who want to get maximum results from their reports – in the minimum time.

Who this course is for:

• Busy analysts who want to write more effective and compelling research reports

• New graduates in their first role as financial analysts

• Experienced analysts who want to refresh and renew their skills

If you’re looking for a more wide-ranging course that will take you from business writing beginner to the level of a copywriting pro, you might prefer to enrol in one of Clare's other courses, such as Writing With Confidence.