Researching Stocks

Use this workflow for complex queries requiring multiple tools or analysis steps.

Workflow Checklist

Copy and track progress:

Research Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Parse query (tickers, metrics, time period)
- [ ] Step 2: Plan tool calls (parallelize independent fetches)
- [ ] Step 3: Execute and gather data
- [ ] Step 4: Validate completeness
- [ ] Step 5: Synthesize answer with numbers and sources

Step 1: Parse Query

Extract:

Tickers: Normalize names → symbols (Apple → AAPL)
Metrics: What's being asked (margins, growth, valuation)
Period: Time range or comparison period

Step 2: Plan Tool Calls

Simple query → Single tool, answer directly Data query → Identify tools, call in parallel Complex query → Break into dependent steps

Parallelize independent fetches:

# These can run together:
get_income_statements(ticker: "AAPL", ...)
get_income_statements(ticker: "MSFT", ...)

# This depends on results above:
Compare and analyze margins

Step 3: Execute

Call tools. Related skills:

analyzing-financials - Statements, metrics, estimates
reading-sec-filings - 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K content
fetching-prices - Stock and crypto prices
tracking-signals - Insider trades, news

Step 4: Validate

Before answering, check:

✅ Complete if:

Can answer the core question
Have data for all mentioned entities
For comparisons: have all sides

❌ Incomplete only if:

Missing data for a PRIMARY entity
Comparison but only have one side
Tool calls failed completely

Do NOT fetch more data for "nice-to-have" enrichment.

Step 5: Synthesize

Structure your response:

Key finding first - Answer in the first sentence
Specific numbers - Cite actual data
Brief analysis - What the numbers mean
Sources - List API URLs used

Examples

Input: "Compare profitability of AAPL, MSFT, and GOOGL"

Research Progress:
- [x] Step 1: Tickers: AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL. Metric: profitability (margins). Period: latest.
- [x] Step 2: Three parallel income statement fetches, then compare.
- [x] Step 3: Fetched all three.
- [x] Step 4: Have data for all three. Complete.
- [x] Step 5: Synthesizing...

Output: "Microsoft leads in operating margin (44%), followed by Apple (30%) and Google (27%).

Company	Revenue	Op. Income	Op. Margin
MSFT	$245B	$108B	44.1%
AAPL	$383B	$114B	29.8%
GOOGL	$350B	$94B	26.9%

Microsoft's margin advantage comes from high-margin cloud and software licensing.

Sources:

MSFT: https://api.financialdatasets.ai/...
AAPL: https://api.financialdatasets.ai/...
GOOGL: https://api.financialdatasets.ai/..."

Input: "Quick overview of Amazon"

Research Progress:
- [x] Step 1: Ticker: AMZN. Metric: general overview. Period: current.
- [x] Step 2: Single call to get_all_financial_statements + metrics snapshot.
- [x] Step 3: Fetched.
- [x] Step 4: Have comprehensive data. Complete.
- [x] Step 5: Synthesizing...

researching-stocks