A free guide by New Money School
Workflow
A 5-step Claude Project setup that turns any company's IR filings into a grounded research analyst. Locked to your uploaded docs, no speculation, no hallucinations. Copy-paste project instructions included.
First, The Disclaimer
This is not financial advice. This is the workflow I personally use to actually understand a stock before I buy it. It replaces the equivalent of an hour of Googling and squinting at 10-Ks with a focused analyst that only knows what you upload to it.
If you want zero chance of outside info slipping in, use NotebookLM instead. Claude Projects is an easier workflow for me, but the principle is the same either way: ground the model in the company's own filings, not the internet.
Step 01Create a Project Per Stock
One Claude Project per ticker. Name the project the ticker symbol so you can find it later. Project Instructions are where you lock the analyst to your uploaded docs only. Use this exact text:
CopyProject Instructions: Stock Analyst
You are my personal equity analyst for [TICKER]. You only answer from the documents I have uploaded to this project. You do not use outside knowledge, training data, current events, or your own opinion about this company.
If I ask you something and the answer is not directly supported by the uploaded documents, you say "I cannot answer that from the docs in this project" and tell me what document I would need to upload.
You do not speculate. You do not predict prices. You do not make buy/sell recommendations. You quote and cite the source document for every factual claim, including the document name and page or section.
When I ask for a "bull case" or "bear case," you build the argument from quotes inside the filings, never from outside narrative. If the filings do not support a strong case in one direction, say so.
Tone: direct, plain language, no hype. I am a serious investor doing real research. Treat me like one.
Why The Lockdown Matters
Without these instructions, Claude will happily mix the company's own filings with vague training-data memories and current news, which gives you a confident-sounding but unreliable answer. The lock keeps it grounded.
Step 02Industry Overview
Before you dump filings, give the analyst context for the world this company lives in. Run this prompt as your very first chat in the project:
CopyPrompt: Industry Overview
Write me an industry overview for the industry that [COMPANY] operates in. Cover:
1. How this industry actually makes money (the revenue model and unit economics) 2. Where growth is coming from over the next 5 years 3. What structural risks could kill it or shrink it 4. Who the main players are and roughly how they differ
Use my uploaded documents where they apply. When you do not have a source, say so plainly. Keep it under 400 words.
Save the output as a project doc titled Industry Overview so every future chat in this project pulls from it as standing context.
Step 03Dump the Filings
Go to the company's Investor Relations page and grab the last 5 years of:
• Annual reports (10-K)
• Quarterly earnings (10-Q)
• Earnings call transcripts
• Investor day slide decks
• Your own research notes if you have them
If you cannot find the IR page, every US public company files at SEC EDGAR for free. Search by ticker.
Drop everything into the project. Yes, all of it. Claude Projects can hold the full document library, and the more raw source material your analyst has, the sharper the analysis gets.
Naming Convention
Name files with the year and type, like AAPL-2024-10K.pdf or AAPL-2024-Q3-earnings-call.txt. Claude will cite filenames in answers, which makes its citations actually verifiable.
Step 04Bull Memo & Bear Memo
The single most useful pair of outputs you will ever get from this setup. Run both prompts, save both memos.
CopyPrompt: Bull Case
Write me a bull memo for [COMPANY], 500 words max. Use ONLY the documents in this project. Cover the 3 strongest reasons to own this stock based on the filings, the key numbers that support each one, and what would have to be true going forward for each thesis to play out. Cite document and page for every claim.
CopyPrompt: Bear Case
Write me a bear memo for [COMPANY], 500 words max. Use ONLY the documents in this project. Cover the 3 strongest reasons this stock could lose me money, the specific risks mentioned in the filings (risk factors section especially), and what numbers I should watch to confirm the bear case is playing out. Cite document and page for every claim.
Six months from now, you will want to reread these two memos. The bear case especially. Half the time, the answer to "should I still hold this?" is in the bear memo you wrote when you first bought.
Step 05The Quarterly Check-In
Every time a new earnings report drops, add it to the same project and run this prompt:
CopyPrompt: Quarterly Check-In
I just uploaded the latest quarterly report for [COMPANY]. Answer three questions, citing the new document and any older filings you reference:
1. Did management actually deliver on what they promised last quarter? Quote both quarters. 2. What materially changed this quarter vs last? (Revenue mix, margins, segment performance, guidance.) 3. Are the key numbers I should care about (revenue growth, operating margin, FCF, customer counts) getting better or worse over the last 4 quarters? Show the trend.
Keep it under 350 words. No speculation. Just what the filings say.
The Compounding
After 4 quarters, this project has a longitudinal record nobody on a stock-tip account is going to match. You start spotting drift, narrative shifts, and quiet pivots months before the market headlines catch up.
The Real Win
Most retail investors are buying tickers they heard on TikTok. The 1% who outperform do real research. This is how you do real research without paying $200/mo for a terminal.