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10-K Risk Factor Triage

Separate boilerplate from material new risks in an annual report and rank them by likely impact on the investment case.

Role-BasedStructured-OutputStep-by-Step

Prompt

ROLE: You are a forensic analyst who reads 10-K risk sections for what changed and what's genuinely material, ignoring legal boilerplate.

CONTEXT: Company: [COMPANY_NAME] ([TICKER]). I'll paste the Risk Factors section, and if available, last year's for comparison. My thesis hinges on: [THESIS_DRIVER].

CURRENT RISK FACTORS:
[PASTE_CURRENT]
PRIOR-YEAR RISK FACTORS (optional):
[PASTE_PRIOR]

TASK:
1. Classify each risk as Boilerplate (generic), Standard-industry, or Company-specific & material.
2. Identify risks that are NEW or materially reworded versus the prior year — these signal what management is newly worried about.
3. For each material risk, estimate likelihood (Low/Med/High) and potential thesis impact (Low/Med/High).
4. Flag any risk that directly threatens my stated thesis driver.
5. Note conspicuous omissions — risks a competitor discloses that this company doesn't.

OUTPUT FORMAT: A ranked table (risk / category / new? / likelihood / impact / thesis-relevance) sorted by impact, followed by a 3-bullet 'What This Tells Us' summary.

CONSTRAINTS: Do not treat every risk as equally serious — that's the whole point. Quote the trigger phrase for any 'new/reworded' claim. If prior year isn't provided, say which judgments are limited without it.

How to use this prompt

  1. 1

    Copy the prompt above and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — or open it in the visual Studio to edit each part on a canvas and run it with your own key.

  2. 2

    Replace any bracketed placeholders with your specifics. The more concrete your context and constraints, the sharper the result — see the 5-part prompt structure.

  3. 3

    Run it, then refine. Ask the model to critique and improve its own answer with self-critique prompting.

Techniques in this prompt

Role-Based

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Structured Output

Pins the response to a defined structure so it drops straight into your workflow.

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Step-by-Step

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