Lesson 1.3
Check an AI stock summary against the 10-K
Ask an AI to sum up a company's results and it can sound sure while mixing up the years. This prompt has the AI check a summary against the company's own figures, one claim at a time: it keeps what the filing supports, fixes wrong numbers and periods, and deletes advice.
You now have: A checked claim table and a corrected paragraph.
Copy the prompt
Help me check an AI draft against my sources.
Paste below: my sources, then the draft.
Do this:
1. Split the draft into claims.
2. For each claim, quote the source line that supports or contradicts it, or write NONE.
3. Check every number's period and unit against my sources.
4. Build a table: Draft claim | Source line (quoted) that supports or contradicts it, or NONE | Keep / Fix / Delete
- Put each claim on its own row; split a sentence that makes more than one claim.
5. Mark Delete for any sentence that recommends, rates, predicts or sets a price.
6. Rewrite the kept text using only supported claims, with periods and units.
Rules:
- Do not soften a deleted sentence into a new one.
- Research boundary: Use only the public source excerpts I supply. Explain and organize the research; do not recommend any security, price target, allocation, position size or trade. Do not ask for my holdings, account balance, risk tolerance or personal financial objectives. If I ask for a personal investment decision, do not answer it; offer a neutral filing-research question instead.
- If I ask whether to buy, sell or hold; whether a stock is attractive, a good investment, riskier or better than another, or a buy or sell signal; for a fair price, price target or price prediction; or about my own holdings, position size or portfolio: say in one line that you can't answer that, then give one neutral filing-research question. In that reply, do not hint either way (no "not necessarily" or "not automatically a signal"), do not list facts for or against, do not offer valuation, sizing or portfolio help, and use only facts from my paste.
- If I ask you to rewrite, soften or keep a sentence you marked Delete because it recommends, values or times a stock, treat it as a decision question under the rule above: one-line refusal, then one neutral filing-research question, nothing else.
- Keep = a source line supports it as written. Fix = a source line contradicts it or gives a different number or period; rewrite it with the source figures. Delete = no source line addresses it, or it is opinion, valuation, timing or a recommendation. Always Delete any sentence that recommends, rates, predicts or sets a price, even if it cites a pasted number.
- When the paste gives a cause, attribute it to management ("management said…"); don't state it as fact.
Answer style:
- Use plain English and short sentences, at about an 8th-grade reading level.
- Explain each finance term in one plain line the first time you use it.
- Give every number its unit and its date or period.
- Put any table first.
- Then add "What this means in plain English": 2–3 sentences of facts only. Give no advice and no verdict.
- Last, add "What to double-check": up to 3 items for me to check in the source.
Help me check an AI draft against my sources.
Paste below: my sources, then the draft.
Do this:
1. Split the draft into claims.
2. For each claim, quote the source line that supports or contradicts it, or write NONE.
3. Check every number's period and unit against my sources.
4. Build a table: Draft claim | Source line (quoted) that supports or contradicts it, or NONE | Keep / Fix / Delete
- Put each claim on its own row; split a sentence that makes more than one claim.
5. Mark Delete for any sentence that recommends, rates, predicts or sets a price.
6. Rewrite the kept text using only supported claims, with periods and units.
Rules:
- Do not soften a deleted sentence into a new one.
- Research boundary: Use only the public source excerpts I supply. Explain and organize the research; do not recommend any security, price target, allocation, position size or trade. Do not ask for my holdings, account balance, risk tolerance or personal financial objectives. If I ask for a personal investment decision, do not answer it; offer a neutral filing-research question instead.
- If I ask whether to buy, sell or hold; whether a stock is attractive, a good investment, riskier or better than another, or a buy or sell signal; for a fair price, price target or price prediction; or about my own holdings, position size or portfolio: say in one line that you can't answer that, then give one neutral filing-research question. In that reply, do not hint either way (no "not necessarily" or "not automatically a signal"), do not list facts for or against, do not offer valuation, sizing or portfolio help, and use only facts from my paste.
- If I ask you to rewrite, soften or keep a sentence you marked Delete because it recommends, values or times a stock, treat it as a decision question under the rule above: one-line refusal, then one neutral filing-research question, nothing else.
- Keep = a source line supports it as written. Fix = a source line contradicts it or gives a different number or period; rewrite it with the source figures. Delete = no source line addresses it, or it is opinion, valuation, timing or a recommendation. Always Delete any sentence that recommends, rates, predicts or sets a price, even if it cites a pasted number.
- When the paste gives a cause, attribute it to management ("management said…"); don't state it as fact.
Answer style:
- Use plain English and short sentences, at about an 8th-grade reading level.
- Explain each finance term in one plain line the first time you use it.
- Give every number its unit and its date or period.
- Put any table first.
- Then add "What this means in plain English": 2–3 sentences of facts only. Give no advice and no verdict.
- Last, add "What to double-check": up to 3 items for me to check in the source.
Done when
- Each Keep row quotes a source line
- Period and units checked on every number
- Advice-shaped sentences deleted
- Two claims checked against the practice sources
- Every row has Keep, Fix or Delete. If a row is blank or the table looks broken, ask the AI to redo the table with one claim per row.
More about this lesson
- Then you check two lines yourself.
- In the Course, this becomes your "Assumptions log 1."
- Paste public filing excerpts and AI drafts only.
- Try it now: copy the ready-to-run prompt into a new chat in the AI tool you already use, and send.
See the full lesson steps
- Open a new chat in the AI chat tool you already use.
- Copy the ready-to-run prompt and paste it into the chat.
- Add your sources and the draft under the prompt, then send it.
- Read the table first. Each claim should have a quoted source line or NONE, and Keep, Fix or Delete.
- Compare with the expected result: sales Keep (with "FY2025 vs FY2024"), net income Fix, cash flow Fix, margins Fix, "undervalued" Delete and "great year" Delete.
- Check the Keep row and one Fix row yourself. Find each quoted line in the sources. A Keep row you can't find becomes Fix.
Why this prompt works
- Splitting the draft into claims forces every sentence through a source check before it stays.
- Keep / Fix / Delete tags stop fluent wording from hiding a wrong period or an invented figure.
- Delete (not soften) for advice-shaped lines keeps "undervalued" and "good entry point" out of your notes.
- The research boundary tells the AI to stick to organizing the filing and not to recommend a security, a price target or a trade. If a reply drifts into advice, delete it.
- "What to double-check" sends you back to the source for the rows that matter most.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Keeping a figure because the sales line checked out. Fix: check every Keep row and at least one Fix row yourself.
- Softening advice into a new sentence. Fix: Delete advice-shaped lines; do not rewrite them as milder opinions.
- Mixing FY2024 and FY2025 numbers. Fix: give every number its period and unit from the source table.
- Skipping the source quote. Fix: a Keep row without a quoted source line becomes Fix.
This is 1 of 20 lessons in the AI for Stock Research Online Course.
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