Researching a stock properly takes hours. You have to read annual reports, check valuation ratios, compare peers, scan recent news, and then somehow pull all of it together into a decision.
I built a single master prompt for Claude that does the heavy lifting in one go. You paste it in, replace one placeholder with the stock name, and Claude returns a structured research report with actual numbers, recent developments, and a clear bull case vs bear case.
I use this myself before looking deeper into any company. Here is the full prompt, how to use it, and a few ways to customize it.
How to Use This Prompt
Open Claude at claude.ai and make sure web search is turned on. This matters because stock data changes daily, and without search Claude will rely on older information.
Then copy the prompt below, replace [STOCK NAME / TICKER] with the company you want to analyze, and send it. That’s it.
The Master Prompt
You are an experienced equity research analyst. I want a complete, structured analysis of the following stock: [STOCK NAME / TICKER].
Use web search to find the latest available data before answering. Clearly mention the date of the data you are using.
Structure your analysis exactly as follows:
1. Company Snapshot
- What the company does in simple language
- Sector, industry, market cap, and where it sits among competitors
2. Business Model and Revenue Breakdown
- How the company actually makes money
- Revenue split by segment and geography if available
3. Financial Health (last 3 to 5 years)
- Revenue growth, profit growth, and margin trends
- Debt levels, interest coverage, and cash flow quality
- Return ratios like ROE and ROCE
4. Valuation
- Current P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA, and PEG where relevant
- How these compare to the company's own history and its peers
- Whether the stock looks cheap, fair, or expensive and why
5. Growth Drivers and Moat
- Key catalysts for the next 1 to 3 years
- Competitive advantages, if any, and how durable they are
6. Risks and Red Flags
- Business risks, regulatory risks, and balance sheet concerns
- Any promoter, management, or governance issues
- Anything unusual in recent filings or news
7. Recent Developments
- Latest quarterly results summary
- Important news from the last 6 months
8. Bull Case vs Bear Case
- Strongest 3 arguments for buying
- Strongest 3 arguments against buying
9. Final Summary
- A balanced one paragraph verdict on the overall quality of the business and its current valuation
- Do NOT give a direct buy/sell/hold recommendation. Instead, list the conditions under which this stock would be attractive and the conditions under which it would not be.
Rules:
- Use simple language a retail investor can understand
- Use actual numbers, not vague statements
- If data is unavailable or conflicting, say so clearly instead of guessing
- Flag anything where the data might be outdated
Why the Prompt Is Structured This Way
Each of the nine sections exists for a reason, and together they cover the same ground a professional research note would.
The Company Snapshot and Business Model sections come first because most retail investors buy stocks without knowing how the company actually earns money. If you can’t explain the business in two sentences, the rest of the analysis won’t help you.
Financial Health looks at 3 to 5 years instead of a single year. One good year can hide a weak business, and one bad year can hide a strong one. Trends tell you far more than snapshots.
The Valuation section forces peer and historical comparison. A P/E of 40 means nothing on its own. It only means something next to what the company traded at before and what its competitors trade at now.
Risks and Red Flags is the section people skip when they research manually, which is exactly why it’s built into the prompt. Governance issues and unusual filings sink more retail portfolios than bad products do.
The Bull Case vs Bear Case section is my favorite part. Asking for three arguments on each side stops the analysis from drifting into a one-sided sales pitch.
Why It Never Gives a Buy or Sell Call
You’ll notice the final rule tells Claude NOT to give a buy, sell, or hold recommendation. This is intentional, and I’d suggest keeping it even if you’re tempted to remove it.
A one-word verdict teaches you nothing. Conditions do. “This stock is attractive if margins recover above 15% and debt keeps falling” is something you can actually track and act on. It keeps the decision with you, where it belongs.
Customize It for Indian Stocks
If you’re analyzing NSE or BSE listed companies, add this line right after the stock name:
Focus on NSE/BSE listed data and use INR figures. Include the shareholding pattern and any recent changes in FII, DII, and promoter holdings.
Shareholding pattern changes matter a lot in Indian markets. Rising promoter stake is often a quiet signal of confidence, while heavy promoter pledging is a red flag that rarely shows up in headline numbers.
Extra Modules You Can Bolt On
The base prompt works for most situations, but you can add a section 10 depending on what kind of stock you’re looking at.
For dividend stocks, add: 10. Dividend History and Sustainability. Cover the dividend yield, payout ratio, dividend growth over 5 years, and whether free cash flow comfortably covers the payout.
For banks and NBFCs, add: 10. Asset Quality. Cover gross NPA, net NPA, provisioning coverage, and capital adequacy trends over the last 3 years.
For high-growth or loss-making companies, add: 10. Path to Profitability. Cover cash burn rate, runway, unit economics, and management commentary on when the company expects to turn profitable.
A Few Honest Warnings
Claude pulls data from the web, and web data can be wrong or stale. Always cross-check the key numbers on the official exchange filings or the company’s investor relations page before acting on anything.
Also, this prompt gives you a research starting point, not financial advice. It compresses hours of reading into minutes, but the final judgment is still yours. If you’re investing serious money, talk to a registered financial advisor.
I keep this prompt saved as a note and reuse it every time a stock catches my attention. It has saved me from a couple of hype-driven buys simply because the bear case section surfaced problems I hadn’t looked for.
Try it on a stock you already own. If the analysis surprises you, that alone tells you how much homework was skipped the first time.