How sources work in Ask
Ask is a chat that answers from our data. Every figure in an answer has to come from a lookup made in that conversation, and the lookup is shown to you.
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Ask is a language model with access to the same data as the rest of the product. The model writes the sentences. It does not supply the numbers.
The one rule about numbers
Every figure in an answer, whether a price, a percentage, a ratio, a date or a dollar amount, must appear in the result of a lookup made during that conversation. The model is instructed that it has no market data of its own and that anything it remembers is stale.
- If no lookup returned the figure, the answer says we do not have it.
- The model is told not to do its own arithmetic to produce new figures. A return over a period comes from the price history lookup, not from mental maths.
- Figures are copied as returned. No re-rounding.
- If a lookup fails, the answer says what could not be found instead of answering anyway.
What it can look up
| Lookup | Returns |
|---|---|
| A stock | The same data as the stock report: price, call, fundamentals, earnings. |
| Price history | Returns over a period, from adjusted daily closes. |
| Compare | Several stocks on the same measures. |
| The market today | Indices, sectors and the day's movers. |
| The wire | Recent headlines with publisher and time. |
| The calendar | Earnings dates and estimates. |
| Investors | Fund 13F filings, House disclosures and Form 4 insider trades. |
| Markets | Indices, rates, commodities, currencies and crypto. |
| Screens and themes | Our ready-made screens and idea baskets. |
| Backtest | A fixed-weight backtest, always described as simulated, with the period and the main caveat. |
| Basket | A list of companies that fit a thesis you describe, with a reason per line. |
| Your portfolio | What you hold and watch, and what changed. Signed in only. |
| Web search | Used only when the lookups above cannot answer. |
How a source is shown
- Each lookup appears as a card above the answer, with the data it returned, where it came from and the time it is from.
- While the answer is being written you can see which lookup is running.
- The text names the source in words when it matters, for example: from its latest 13F, filed Nov 14.
- Tables and charts are in the cards. The text does not rebuild them.
Checking an answer
Read the cards first. If a number in the text is not in a card, do not rely on it and tell us. That should not happen, and when it does it is a bug we want to hear about. See Corrections.
Your portfolio in Ask
Signed in, Ask can read what you hold and watch. Those are the positions you typed in, not a broker feed, so it treats them as possibly incomplete. Asking takes an account: sign in free to ask.
Read next
- What Ask will not doIt will not trade, will not tell you what to buy, will not guess a number and will not change your account without a yes. The limits, and why each one is there.
- What is written by a model and what is notA plain list of which parts of the product a language model writes, which parts are arithmetic or copied from a source, and how the two are kept apart.
- Where the data comes from and how fresh it isEvery data set in the product, its source, how to tell how old it is and what it does not cover.
Something here wrong or unclear? Tell us. Informational only, not investment advice.