How to ask

Brief Quantesta the way you’d brief a human analyst: a concrete question, a defined universe, a timeframe — and the method, when you care about it. And when you want a file rather than a reply, name the deliverable: “as a memo,” “as a downloadable sheet.” Each pattern below shows the same ask done weakly and done well.

Name the ticker, period, and metric

Weaker

Is Apple doing well?

Stronger

AAPL: revenue growth, gross margin, and free cash flow over the last 8 quarters — what’s inflecting?

Vague questions get summaries. Specific ones get analysis — the analyst fetches exactly what you scope.

Define the universe before ranking it

Weaker

What are the best dividend stocks?

Stronger

Among S&P 500 consumer staples, which names yield over 3% with a payout ratio under 60% and five years of dividend growth?

A screen without a universe is a headline generator.

Ask for the method, not just the verdict

Weaker

Is the market overvalued?

Stronger

Compare the S&P 500’s current forward P/E to its 10-year distribution — which percentile are we in, and how did returns look from similar percentiles?

When you name the method, the statistical work runs as real code in the sandbox — and you can check every step.

Iterate in the same chat

Follow-ups are cheap and inherit everything fetched so far. “Same for AMD.” “Now on a log scale.” “Put that table in a sheet.” Disagree with a step? Say “rerun that excluding 2008” — and it reruns.

Bring your own documents

Upload a filing, a broker note, or your own spreadsheet and ask against it:

From this 10-K, what changed in the risk factors versus what you know of last year’s?

See Documents & uploads.

Know what not to ask

Quantesta is a research tool, not an advisor. “Should I buy this?” gets you a worse version of the question it’s built for:

What would have to be true for this thesis to work — and what does the data say about each condition?