Pierce AI combines large language models with deterministic, institutional-grade quantitative reasoning through a modular skill system.

Below is the complete dictionary of custom analytical skills and raw datastreams available within the agent's ecosystem.

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🧠 Pierce Skills

Skills are guided analysis protocols. Pierce automatically invokes the correct skills based on your request, or you can force a skill using the / slash command or the tool selector.

Analysis

Backtest Expert

Skill ID: backtest-expert

Runs and evaluates trading strategy backtests. Fetches historical data, executes the strategy via Python Compute, scores results across 5 dimensions, and advises on deployment readiness. Use when the user wants to backtest, simulate, or validate a trading strategy.

Backtest Expert

The Backtest Expert is Pierce's quantitative reality-check engine. It ruthlessly interrogates your systematic trading strategies across five strict statistical dimensions, forcefully exposing curve-fitting, survivorship bias, and hidden risks before you deploy real capital into a flawed algorithm.

Why Backtests Lie

"I backtested this strategy and it makes 50% a year!"

Amateur traders constantly build algorithmic models that perform flawlessly in a simulator but instantly bleed money into the live market. This happens because backtests are structurally optimistic. A backtester rarely models the exact slippage you will face when trying to exit a plummeting micro-cap stock. It assumes you can always borrow shares to short. Worst of all, humans inadvertently "curve-fit" their models—tweaking the parameters (like forcing the RSI to 32 instead of 30) until the historical data looks perfect, completely destroying the strategy's ability to predict the actual future.

The Backtest Expert is designed to stop this. Its core philosophy is simple: Find strategies that break the least, not strategies that profit the most on paper.

It assumes your backtest is flawed and attempts to destroy your edge mathematically. If your strategy survives the Backtest Expert, it is robust enough to trade with real money.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you bring a backtest to Pierce, it runs an emotionless quantitative audit using the native evaluate_backtest compute tool:

1. The Interrogation: Pierce first demands the unvarnished truth. It requires exact inputs: Win Rate, Average Win %, Average Loss %, Max Drawdown, Sample Size, and the exact number of tunable parameters you optimized.
2. The 5-Dimension Stress Test: It runs your data through a rigorous scoring algorithm, grading you across five pillars:
   • Sample Size: 50 trades over 6 months is statistically meaningless. Pierce demands massive sample sizes across multiple macro regimes (e.g., tech bubbles, recessions, zero-interest rate periods).
   • Expectancy & Profit Factor: Does the math actually compound? Even with a 40% win rate, a massive Profit Factor proves the edge is real.
   • Risk Management: If your Max Drawdown exceeds 25%, the strategy is psychologically un-tradable and will be severely penalized.
   • Robustness (The Anti-Curve-Fit Measure): Pierce heavily penalizes strategies with too many customized parameters. A simple moving average crossover is much more robust than a 15-variable conditional tree.
   • Execution Realism: Pierce checks if you modeled real-world friction (slippage, commissions, bid-ask spreads).
3. The Final Verdict: Pierce synthesizes the grades into a master 0–100 Robustness Score and delivers a definitive verdict: Deploy, Refine, or Abandon.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Backtest Expert, you receive an institutional-grade validation report:

• The Robustness Score: A single number that tells you if your idea is mathematically sound.
• The Expectancy Output: The exact math showing how much money you can statistically expect to make (or lose) per trade over the next 1,000 executions.
• Red Flag Detection: Pierce explicitly highlights fatal flaws in your logic (e.g., "🔴 Red Flag: Max Drawdown of 35% is acceptable for Bitcoin, but catastrophic for an S&P 500 strategy").
• Parameter Sensitivity Warning: Pierce will warn you if your strategy relies on hyper-specific inputs, proving that you have curve-fit the data.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to audit your mechanical edge using these specific prompts:

• "I backtested a new breakout strategy. 450 trades over 5 years. 42% win rate, average win 12%, average loss 4%, max drawdown 18%. Used 2 indicators. Included slippage. Run the Backtest Expert."
• "Evaluate my mean-reversion backtest. It has a 90% win rate over the last 30 trades. Is it safe to deploy?"
• "I ran a backtest and the Profit Factor is 1.2, but the max drawdown is 40%. Analyze this and tell me if I should trade it."
• "Score this quantitative system. 1200 trades, 10 years of data. 22% win rate. Average win is 15%, average loss is 2%. No slippage included. 5 optimized parameters."

By providing the raw mathematical inputs, you allow Pierce to execute the statistical stress test.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Backtest Expert is mathematically strict because the market is unforgiving. Keep these realities in mind:

• The "Look-Ahead" Trap: If you provide Pierce with a backtest that has a 95% win rate and zero drawdown, Pierce will almost certainly flag it for "Look-Ahead Bias." In the real world, edges that large do not exist for retail traders. You likely coded the simulation incorrectly.
• Plateaus Over Peaks: A strategy that works moderately well when the moving average is set to anywhere between 40 and 60 days is robust. A strategy that generates billions of dollars when exactly set to 47 days, but loses everything at 48 days, is completely curve-fit and will fail instantly. Pierce searches for stability, not optimization.
• The Simulator is Not Reality: Even a perfect 100/100 score from the Backtest Expert does not guarantee live market profits. The market environment constantly shifts. Start with small position sizing to prove the forward-testing matches the backtested data.

Built for the Systematic Engineer

Trading is a math equation. If you execute a mathematically positive-expectancy strategy 1,000 times, you will become incredibly wealthy. The hard part is proving the math is real. The Backtest Expert acts as your personal Chief Risk Officer, shattering false confidence and ensuring you only scale capital into strategies that are built to survive the violent realities of the live market.

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Note: The Backtest Expert requires rigorous statistical verification logic and is included in the Pro tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Backtest a 10/30 EMA crossover strategy on AAPL with a 5% stop-loss over the last 5 years." →

Breadth Chart Analyst

Skill ID: breadth-chart-analyst

Evaluates market regime using market breadth composite internals, identifying underlying trend strength or distribution.

Breadth Chart Analyst

The Breadth Chart Analyst is the tactical execution arm of market condition analysis. It takes the raw 0-100 composite score from the Market Breadth Analyzer and translates it directly into visual chart overlays, cycle phase identification, and immediately actionable "Risk-On / Risk-Off" portfolio positioning.

The Difference Between Data and Execution

Knowing that the market breadth is "weak" is interesting data. Knowing what to do with your money because the market breadth is weak is how you survive.

The Breadth Chart Analyst bridges the gap between raw statistical data and actual portfolio mechanics. It does not just tell you that fewer stocks are participating in a rally; it categorizes the entire stock market into one of four specific Market Regimes (Early Markup, Late Stage Advance, Distribution, or Capitulation).

If the market transitions from "Late Stage Advance" to "Distribution," the Breadth Chart Analyst will explicitly instruct you to raise cash, tighten stop-loss orders, and stop buying random breakouts. By stripping away the visual distortion caused by a few mega-cap tech stocks holding up the S&P 500 chart, this skill ensures your portfolio is always perfectly calibrated to the actual underlying risk environment.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you activate the Breadth Chart Analyst, Pierce performs a multi-layer diagnostic on the market's internal engine:

1. The Full-Detail Payload Extraction: Pierce taps into the market_breadth compute engine, pulling the full categorical breakdown of the six breadth sub-components.
2. Moving Average Gap Analysis: It explicitly compares the short-term 8-day moving average of market breadth against the long-term 200-day trend. If the 8-day violently crosses below the 200-day, it flags a severe momentum collapse.
3. Cycle Phase Categorization: Markets breathe in and out. Pierce determines if the market is currently bouncing off an extreme, oversold "Trough" (the best time to buy) or rolling over from an exhausted "Peak" (the best time to sell).
4. Index Verification Overlay: Pierce cross-references its internal findings with the actual charts of the SPY (S&P 500) and QQQ (Nasdaq). If the QQQ is hitting new highs but the internal breadth is plunging, Pierce triggers a "Bearish Divergence Alarm."
5. The Final Positioning Command: Pierce synthesizes these variables and issues a rigid, emotionless conclusion dictating whether you should add risk, hold current positions, or aggressively reduce exposure.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By deploying the Breadth Chart Analyst, you receive a full tactical briefing on the market environment:

• The Regime Declaration: You are instantly told what phase the market is in (e.g., "The market has officially entered Distribution").
• The Component Breakdown: A plain-English explanation of why the regime changed, citing the exact weakness in short-term momentum or divergence.
• The Action Plan: Explicit execution instructions. If breadth is collapsing, Pierce will literally tell you to stop buying breakouts and raise your cash position to 30%+.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to dictate your portfolio risk levels using these specific prompts:

• "What market regime are we in currently based on breadth? Use the Chart Analyst."
• "The S&P 500 is dipping today. Run a Breadth Chart Analysis to see if this is a normal pullback or the start of a deep capitulation."
• "Are we bouncing from a breadth trough yet? Give me the cycle phase breakdown."
• "Run a full breadth technical analysis. Are there any Bearish Divergences between the SPY and the internal components?"

By explicitly asking for the "regime" or the "cycle phase," you trigger the tactical analysis overlay.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Breadth Chart Analyst is a macroeconomic compass, but you still have to steer the ship:

• Do Not Day Trade the Regimes: Market regimes take weeks or months to play out. If Pierce declares the market is in "Distribution," do not panic sell your entire long-term 401(k) portfolio. Regime changes simply dictate how aggressively you should be deploying new capital into short-to-medium-term swing trades.
• Divergences Can Be Ignored by the Market: Extremely powerful bull markets fueled by Federal Reserve money printing can completely ignore terrible market breadth for months at a time. The Breadth Chart Analyst warns you of structural instability, but the market can remain irrational and unstable for longer than you expect.
• Capitulation is the Goal: Amateurs panic during capitulation. Professionals wait for it. When the Breadth Chart Analyst finally triggers a "Capitulation" regime, it means the selling pressure has reached mathematical exhaustion. You should be sitting on a large pile of cash, ready to deploy it into the absolute bottom of the market.

Built for the Portfolio Pilot

You don't drive a car at 100 miles per hour on ice, and you shouldn't run a 100% invested, fully-margined stock portfolio when the market internals are collapsing. The Breadth Chart Analyst constantly adjusts your "speed limit," ensuring you step on the gas during massive, broad-based bull runs, and quietly pump the brakes before the massive structural crashes wipe out the amateurs.

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Note: The Breadth Chart Analyst interprets the heavy data payload from the market_breadth engine and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze the breadth chart. Use AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA as proxy tickers." →

Classic Screener

Skill ID: classic-screener

Screens stocks using classical technical and fundamental terminology. Maps classic filters (e.g., P/E under 15, Price above SMA200, RSI under 30) to Pierce's native financial screeners.

Classic Screener

The Classic Screener skill bridges the gap between old-school technical filtering and AI execution. It allows you to speak in traditional, legacy scanner parameters (like P/E ratios, moving average crossovers, and RSI levels) and command Pierce to hunt down matching stocks across the entire market.

What is a Classic Screener?

For decades, retail traders have used rigid, web-based tools like Finviz to hunt for trade setups. You would manually build a scan by checking boxes: "P/E under 15," "Price crossed above the 50-day moving average," and "RSI is oversold (under 30)."

While effective, these tools require tedious manual configuration and usually cannot combine complex fundamental data with specific geometric chart patterns in a single pass.

The Classic Screener skill upgrades this workflow. It acts as an intelligent translator. You provide a list of visual or fundamental parameters using plain English, and Pierce automatically constructs a massive algorithmic query, fetches the raw data from its backend datasets, and mathematically filters the market down to your precise specifications.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to run a classic parameter screen, it performs a hybrid fundamental/technical extraction:

1. Parameter Translation: Pierce parses your natural language request (e.g., "Find me tech stocks with a PEG ratio under 1 and an RSI under 30") and maps it to underlying financial data points.
2. Fundamental Filtration: It first hits the broad market database, instantly eliminating any stocks that do not meet the hard fundamental criteria (like P/E limits, Return on Equity constraints, or Debt-to-Equity thresholds).
3. Technical Overlay: If you requested specific chart configurations (like moving average crossovers or relative strength index values), Pierce takes the surviving fundamental list and dynamically fetches live charting data, running secondary technical checks on each ticker individually.
4. Data Aggregation: Pierce consolidates the results, discarding any tickers that failed the secondary technical checks.
5. Tabular Delivery: Unlike traditional conversational AI, Pierce outputs your results in a classic, structured markdown table, exactly like the classic web-based screeners you are accustomed to.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Classic Screener, you receive a clean, structured output of specific financial targets:

• Structured Tables: A clear results grid showing the Ticker, Company, Market Cap, Price, and the exact metrics you requested.
• Fit & Match Strength Scoring: Results are evaluated against your exact parameters:
  • Fit Score: Displays how many of your specified criteria the stock passed (e.g., 3/4).
  • Match Strength (0-100%): Measures how comfortably the stock satisfies your boundaries. For example, if you ask for a P/E under 15, a stock with a P/E of 8 will have a 100% match strength, while a P/E of 14.8 will have a match strength closer to 50%. The final Match Strength is averaged across all your filters.
  • Sorting: Results are automatically sorted by Fit Score, then Match Strength, ensuring the best setups are at the top.
• Approximation Flags: If a specific legacy parameter is unavailable in modern data feeds, Pierce will intelligently approximate it and explicitly warn you of the substitution (e.g., "RSI(14) was approximated using recent momentum oscillators").

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can push Pierce to replicate almost any traditional stock screen using conversational parameters:

• "Find me large-cap stocks with a P/E under 15, ROE over 20%, and price currently trading above their 200-day moving average."
• "Screen the market for tech stocks showing an RSI under 30 and a PEG ratio under 1."
• "I need a list of companies with zero debt and profit margins over 40%. Format the results in a table."
• "Run a classic screen: Price > $50, Volume > 1M, and trading within 5% of their 52-week high."

By explicitly stating your numerical boundaries, you force Pierce to act as a rigorous quantitative filter.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Classic Screener is highly flexible, but keep these data limitations in mind:

• Complex Conditional Logic: While Pierce can handle "A and B", asking for highly complex conditional nesting (e.g., "Find stocks where the 50-day is above the 200-day BUT only if the RSI was over 70 three days ago") may require Pierce to break the query into multiple longer steps.
• Scan Speeds: Because Pierce might have to pull fundamental data first and then manually check the technical charts of 100 surviving stocks sequentially, highly complex screens combining dozens of parameters may take up to a minute to fully execute.
• Not a Black Box: If you want a specific trading methodology (like CANSLIM or VCP), it is better to use those dedicated skills. The Classic Screener is best used when you want absolute control over the exact numerical inputs of the scan.

Built for the Quantitative Tinkerer

If you know exactly what numerical edge you are looking for—whether it's deep fundamental value or hyper-specific momentum crossovers—the Classic Screener skill gives you the power to query the entire stock market using nothing but conversational English. It replaces rigid checkbox forms with intelligent, dynamic data extraction.

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Note: The Classic Screener requires multi-pass querying of fundamental and technical datasets, and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Show me stocks with a PE less than 25 and price above the SMA 200 and RSI under 30." →

Dividend Growth Pullback Screener

Skill ID: dividend-growth-pullback-screener

Screens for fundamentally strong companies with consistent dividend growth that have pulled back to major technical support.

Dividend Growth Pullback Screener

The Dividend Growth Pullback Screener is an income investor's ultimate yield-hunting tool. It automatically scans the market for fundamentally elite dividend-paying companies that have suffered a temporary technical pullback, allowing you to lock in an abnormally high dividend yield before the stock recovers.

What is a Dividend Pullback Strategy?

A high dividend yield is often a trap. If a terrible company's stock price crashes 50%, its dividend yield mathematically doubles—until the company inevitably cuts the dividend to survive, and you are left holding a worthless asset.

Professional income investors do not chase high yields blindly. Instead, they hunt for "Dividend Aristocrats"—massively profitable, cash-flowing companies that consistently raise their dividends every single year. The true edge comes from buying these elite companies when their stock price temporarily drops 10% to 15% due to broad market weakness or a slight earnings miss.

When a great company's price drops, its yield rises. Buying the pullback allows you to lock in a higher-than-average starting yield on a stock that has a literal decades-long history of safety.

The Dividend Growth Pullback Screener automates this exact strategy, finding safe, growing dividends that are currently trading at a steep discount to their historical averages.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to run a dividend pullback screen, it executes a rigorous dual-layer fundamental and technical scan:

1. The Safety Screen (Fundamentals): Pierce first filters out the "yield traps." It queries the market for companies possessing a strict combination of fundamental strength:
   • A positive, consistent history of annual dividend growth.
   • A strictly enforced Payout Ratio (typically under 60%), ensuring the company is actually generating enough cash flow to cover the massive dividend without borrowing money.
   • Positive EPS growth over recent quarters.
2. The Discount Screen (Technicals): For the elite companies that pass the safety check, Pierce instantly runs a technical analysis on their charts.
3. The Pullback Extraction: Pierce identifies the survivors that are currently experiencing a technical drawdown. Crucially, it specifically hunts for elite dividend stocks that have crashed down to—and are now testing—major institutional support levels, such as the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA).
4. Actionable Delivery: Pierce synthesizes these findings and delivers them to you in a highly structured, analytical format.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Dividend Growth Pullback Screener, you receive a curated list of high-yield, low-risk opportunities:

• The Pullback Candidate Table: A clean tabular breakdown showing candidates ranked in descending order of their Composite Score. It includes the Pullback Score (passes out of 6) and the Composite Score (0-100 weighted index).
  • Pullback Score: Measures how many of the 6 core criteria are met (Yield >= 2%, Payout <= 60%, Earnings Growth > 0, Market Cap >= 5B, Price close to SMA200, and Oversold indicators like RSI < 45 or % from 52w High >= 8%).
  • Composite Score: Weighted out of 100 to reward the safest yields and the most significant support pullbacks:
    • Yield Magnitude (20%): Yield >= 3% (100% score), 2-3% (50% score).
    • Payout Safety (20%): Payout <= 45% (100% score), 45-60% (50% score).
    • Earnings Growth (15%): Growth >= 10% (100% score), 0-10% (50% score).
    • Support Proximity (25%): Price within 5% of SMA200 (100% score), within 15% (50% score).
    • Oversold Pullback (20%): RSI < 35 or >= 15% from high (100% score), 35-45 RSI or >= 8% from high (50% score).
• The Safety Verification: Pierce explicitly comments on the fundamental safety of the dividend. If a company passed the screen but its Free Cash Flow is starting to slow down, Pierce will flag the risk.
• The Value vs. Trap Action Plan: Pierce delivers a final verdict on the top candidates, explicitly declaring whether the recent pullback looks like a localized, buy-the-dip opportunity, or if underlying structural damage implies a "Value Trap."

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to harvest elite income opportunities using these exact prompts:

• "Run a Dividend Growth Pullback scan. Find me safe yields over 3% that are trading near their 200-day moving average."
• "Scan the S&P 500 for dividend growth stocks with a payout ratio under 50% that are currently oversold."
• "I am looking to deploy cash into income stocks. What blue-chip dividend payers have pulled back the hardest this month?"
• "Find me a list of companies with 5+ years of dividend growth that are currently trading at a discount to their 50-day moving average."

By explicitly asking for safe yields or pullback targets, you force Pierce to map the fundamental yield against the current market price.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Hunting for yield in a pullback requires significant contextual awareness. Keep these constraints in mind:

• Interest Rate Sensitivity: Dividend stocks act like bonds. If the Federal Reserve is aggressively raising interest rates, all dividend stocks will pull back, regardless of how safe their cash flow is. Pierce will find the pullbacks, but the Macro Analyst skill must confirm the interest rate environment.
• The Payout Ratio is King: Do not buy any stock from this screener if the Payout Ratio exceeds 80% (unless it is an REIT). A high payout ratio means the company cannot afford to grow, and the dividend is in danger of being cut.
• Slow Moving Action: These are massive, cash-generating blue chips, not tech startups. The goal is to lock in a 4% yield and realize 8% capital appreciation over 12 months. This screener is not designed for day trading or aggressive short-term swing trading.

Built for the Cash Flow Compounder

True wealth is built by acquiring high-quality cash-flowing assets at a discount and holding them for years. The Dividend Growth Pullback Screener ensures you never overpay for yield. By perfectly timing your entries into elite dividend stocks during temporary market panics, you lock in superior cash flow that will compound your account for decades.

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Note: The Dividend Growth Pullback Screener requires hybrid fundamental and technical filtering, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the dividend growth pullback screener for AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA." →

Downtrend Duration Analyzer

Skill ID: downtrend-duration-analyzer

Identifies the duration, severity, and statistical percentile of a current market pullback or bear market regime.

Downtrend Duration Analyzer

The Downtrend Duration Analyzer removes the emotion of fear during market selloffs. It rapidly computes the mathematical severity, duration, and structural context of a market crash, explicitly telling you if a decline is a historically normal, buyable pullback, or the beginning of a structural macroeconomic bear market.

Why Measure the Downtrend?

When the S&P 500 drops 5% in a single week, financial news networks declare a crisis, and amateur traders panic-sell their entire portfolios at the exact bottom.

Professional traders do not trade on fear; they trade on statistics. They know that a 5% to 10% pullback is not a "crash"—it is the normal, healthy mathematical breathing mechanism of a standard bull market. It happens almost every single year. Selling a great stock because the index dropped 5% is a catastrophic unforced error.

However, recognizing when a "normal pullback" transforms into a lethal "structural bear market" is the difference between surviving and losing everything.

The Downtrend Duration Analyzer skill computes these exact boundaries. It explicitly calculates how deeply the market has fallen, how long the pain has lasted, and whether the underlying market internals support a violent bounce or further destruction.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to analyze a market drop, it instantly constructs a statistical damage report:

1. The Core Drawdown Calculation: Pierce pulls the raw price history of the primary index (or a specific stock) and maps exactly how many days/weeks it has been since the absolute peak, and the precise percentage size of the current drop.
2. Moving Average Stress Test: It checks the primary institutional support lines (the 50-day and 200-day Simple Moving Averages). Is the market just shaking out weak retail hands back to the 50-day SMA, or has it violently snapped the 200-day SMA, signaling a structural trend collapse?
3. Internal Breadth Cross-Reference: Pierce taps into the market_breadth engine to look under the hood. If the index is dropping, but the Market Breadth is secretly strengthening, Pierce will flag a "Bullish Divergence," indicating that the selloff is fake and a massive rally is imminent.
4. Historical Context Mapping: Pierce frames the current drop against history. If a stock typically pulls back 12% twice a year, and it is currently down 11%, Pierce will explicitly tell you that the stock is acting perfectly normally.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Downtrend Duration Analyzer, Pierce delivers emotional control via hard mathematics:

• The Drawdown Profile: Exact numerical clarity. (e.g., "The S&P 500 is currently 8% off its highs, and this localized downtrend has lasted for 22 days.")
• The Support Matrix: Pierce identifies exactly where the "floor" is. It outlines the upcoming moving averages where massive institutional buying algorithms are waiting to step in.
• The True Severity Verdict: A clear, definitive designation stating whether the current price action is a "Healthy Pullback," a "Severe Correction," or a "Bear Market Crash."

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to calm your nerves and identify buying opportunities using these specific prompts:

• "The QQQ is getting hammered today. Run the Downtrend Analyzer. Is this a normal pullback or a crash?"
• "Analyze the recent drawdown in SPY. How many days has it been since the peak, and are we near the 200-day moving average?"
• "Check the current pullback in Tesla. Is the internal breadth supporting this drop, or is it a fake-out?"
• "How deep is the current Russell 2000 (IWM) correction relative to history?"

By explicitly asking to analyze a "drawdown," "pullback," or "correction," you force Pierce to contextualize the pain.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Downtrend Analyzer is a crucial compass, but you must respect market inertia:

• Do Not Catch Falling Knives: If the Analyzer confirms that the market has snapped its 200-day moving average on massive volume, do not try to heroically "buy the dip." It is no longer a dip; it is a falling knife. Let the market prove it has found a floor before deploying capital.
• Panic is the Best Buy Signal: If the Analyzer notes that the drawdown is extreme (e.g., a 20%+ drop) and Market Breadth has washed out to near zero, it is terrifying—but historically, extreme capitulation is the absolute best time to buy for a long-term hold.
• Individual Stocks Fall Harder: A 10% pullback in the S&P 500 is normal. An individual tech stock can easily fall 30% to 40% during that same 10% index pullback due to a higher "beta" (volatility). Ensure you are specifying whether you want the analysis on the broader index or your specific stock.

Built for the Steady Hand

Bull markets make you money, but bear markets make you rich—if you have the cash to buy the absolute bottom. The Downtrend Duration Analyzer ensures you never panic-sell during a standard market shakeout, and instead gives you the cold, hard mathematical data required to step in and buy great assets when everyone else is sprinting for the exits.

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Note: The Downtrend Duration Analyzer relies on massive historical array processing and integration with internal breadth metrics, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze downtrend duration for AAPL." →

Economic Calendar Fetcher

Skill ID: economic-calendar-fetcher

Macroeconomic indicator lookup using AlphaVantage. Retrieves history and latest readings for key economic data like employment, inflation, and GDP.

Economic Calendar Fetcher

The Economic Calendar Fetcher skill is Pierce's macroeconomic radar. It tracks, parses, and interprets critical economic data releases—from inflation CPI prints to Federal Reserve rate decisions—ensuring you are never blindsided by a macro volatility event.

What is the Economic Calendar Fetcher?

Individual stock fundamentals do not matter when macroeconomics take over. If inflation suddenly spikes to 8% and the Federal Reserve announces surprise interest rate hikes, it doesn't matter how fast a software company is growing its revenue—the entire tech sector will sell off violently in a macro "Risk-Off" liquidation.

Professional traders obsess over the Economic Calendar. They know exactly what day and time Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP), Consumer Price Index (CPI), and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers are released, because those binary events hold the power to reset market trends entirely.

The Economic Calendar Fetcher skill acts as your personal macroeconomic analyst. It doesn't just pull the date and time of a data release; it pulls the historical trend of that data, compares the actual print against Wall Street consensus expectations, and instantly synthesizes what the release means for the broader stock market and specific sectors.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for macroeconomic data or about an upcoming economic release, it executes a precise, macro-focused workflow:

1. Indicator Targeting: Pierce identifies exactly which metric you are asking about (e.g., CPI, Unemployment Rate, FOMC Rate Decision, Retail Sales).
2. Data Fetching: It pulls the official, hard data straight from institutional economic databases. Pierce looks at the most recent print, but more importantly, it pulls the trailing 12-month historical data to visualize the trajectory.
3. Trend Analysis: A single data point is useless without context. Pierce analyzes the sequence. It doesn't just tell you "Inflation is 3.1%." It tells you "Inflation came in at 3.1%, down from 3.4% last month, establishing a clear 6-month disinflationary trend."
4. Macro Synthesis: This is the critical step. Pierce translates the economic data into actionable market logic. If unemployment spikes, Pierce explains how that increases the probability of Federal Reserve rate cuts, which traditionally acts as a bullish catalyst for growth stocks.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging this skill, you gain instant clarity on the macro forces driving the market:

• The Macro Trajectory: Clear, mathematical trajectory mappings of key datasets like inflation, jobs, and GDP.
• Reactionary Context: Pierce explicitly outlines what the data print means for the "Risk-On vs. Risk-Off" market environment.
• Yield Curve & Rate Implications: Pierce synthesizes how specific economic data directly impacts Treasury Yields and the cost of capital, allowing you to gauge the immediate threat to high-valuation equities.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to run macro analysis using these exact prompts:

• "What was the latest CPI print, and is inflation still trending down?"
• "Pull the historical unemployment rate. What does the current trajectory mean for the stock market?"
• "Fetch the recent US GDP numbers. Are we mathematically entering a recession?"
• "What is the current Federal Funds Rate, and how does it compare to historical averages?"

By explicitly asking for macroeconomic indicators, you force Pierce to contextualize your trading environment.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While macro analysis is essential for managing broad portfolio risk, keep these rules in mind:

• Not for Day Trading: Macro data dictates the multi-month trend of the market. While an unexpected CPI print can cause massive single-day volatility, you should trade the trend of the data, not just the single headline number.
• The "Bad News is Good News" Paradigm: At certain points in the economic cycle, terrible economic data (like massive job losses) can actually cause the stock market to rally wildly. This happens when the market believes the bad data will force the Federal Reserve to quickly cut interest rates and pump liquidity into the system. Pierce will often flag this psychological dynamic.
• Data Revisions: The government frequently revises economic data months after it was initially published. A "terrible" GDP print can be revised upward three months later. Always trade the market's reaction, not just the raw number.

Built for the Macro-Aware Trader

You cannot trade safely if you are ignoring the macroeconomic weather. The Economic Calendar Fetcher skill ensures you know exactly when the storms are coming and what the underlying climate is, allowing you to seamlessly pivot between aggressive growth and defensive value before the rest of the retail market even realizes the cycle has shifted.

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Note: The Economic Calendar Fetcher requires connections to specialized macroeconomic databases and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Show me the economic calendar." →

Exposure Coach

Skill ID: exposure-coach

Recommends optimal equity exposure sizing (0% to 100%) by comparing the user's current portfolio stance against broad market breadth health and regime status.

Exposure Coach

The Exposure Coach skill is Pierce's overarching portfolio thermostat. By comparing your current cash-to-equities ratio against the objective, mathematical health of the broader stock market, it determines exactly how aggressive or defensive you should be at any given moment.

What is Exposure Sizing?

Most retail traders operate in a binary state: they are either 100% invested in the stock market or 100% in cash. This is a massive strategic error.

Professional traders use graduated exposure. When the market is in a screaming, risk-on bull trend, they maximize their leverage and step on the gas. When the market starts showing underlying weakness—even if the main indices haven't crashed yet—they tactically reduce their exposure, scaling back to 50% cash, then 75% cash, until the storm passes.

The Exposure Coach skill brings this dynamic capital allocation to your portfolio. It evaluates the current macroeconomic state and tells you exactly what percentage of your account should be actively deployed in the market versus held safely in cash.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a portfolio exposure check, it operates as an objective, emotionless risk manager:

1. Stance Analysis: Pierce asks for your current portfolio breakdown (e.g., "I am currently 80% invested and 20% in cash").
2. Breadth Calculation: It runs a massive backend calculation to determine the Market Breadth—the mathematical percentage of all stocks currently participating in a healthy uptrend.
3. Regime Matching: It matches the market breadth against historical institutional sizing models:
   • Strong Regime: If breadth is overwhelmingly positive, Pierce's model dictates a target exposure of 75% to 100%.
   • Neutral Regime: If breadth is mixed or stalling, the model targets 50% exposure.
   • Weakening Regime: If breadth is rolling over, the model targets 25% exposure, demanding heavy cash reserves.
4. Coaching Directive: Pierce calculates the delta between your current exposure and the target exposure, giving you a definitive, actionable directive (e.g., "You are 80% long, but the market regime demands 25% long. Sell your weakest positions immediately to raise cash").

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Exposure Coach, you receive a precise blueprint for portfolio scaling:

• Target Exposure Ratio: A clear, undeniable percentage of how much capital should be at risk in the current market environment.
• The "Stealth Correction" Alert: Pierce will explicitly warn you to raise cash if the S&P 500 is hitting all-time highs but the underlying market breadth is secretly crashing—a phenomenon known as a "stealth correction."
• Capital Deployment Triggers: Conversely, if you are sitting in 100% cash out of fear, and Pierce detects a newly confirmed market bottom and breadth thrust, it will coach you to aggressively deploy capital back into equities so you don't miss the rally.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to coach your capital allocation using these explicit prompts:

• "Act as my exposure coach. I am currently 100% fully invested. Should I be raising cash?"
• "Based on current market breadth, what should my target long exposure be?"
• "I am sitting in 80% cash because I'm worried about the economy. Is it safe to deploy into the market yet?"
• "Run an exposure assessment. I'm 50/50 cash and stocks right now. Do I step on the gas or hit the brakes?"

By telling Pierce your current ratio, you force it to provide tailored, corrective action.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Graduated exposure is the secret to surviving bear markets, but keep these realities in mind:

• It Will Feel Uncomfortable: Doing the right thing in the market almost always feels wrong. The Exposure Coach will often tell you to aggressively buy stocks right after a terrifying market crash (when breadth thrusts upward). It will also tell you to sell stocks and raise cash when the media is most euphoric. You must trust the math over your emotions.
• Not a Market Timer: The Exposure Coach does not pick the exact top or the exact bottom of the market. It reacts to confirmed shifts in market data. You will usually be a few weeks late to the exact bottom, but you will safely ride the massive "meat" of the ensuing trend.
• Long-Only Bias: This specific skill is optimized for traditional retail traders who are managing long stock portfolios. It dictates when to raise cash, not necessarily when to aggressively short the market.

Built for the Capital Compounder

Making money in a bull market is incredibly easy. Keeping that money during the inevitable bear market is incredibly difficult. The Exposure Coach ensures you never get caught fully invested during a systemic market crash. By tactically pulling your capital off the table when the data weakens, you ensure that your portfolio survives to compound during the next great bull run.

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Note: The Exposure Coach relies on proprietary, market-wide breadth computations and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Act as an exposure coach for my portfolio." →

FTD Detector

Skill ID: ftd-detector

Identifies O'Neil style Follow-Through Days (FTDs) to confirm new market uptrends off of a bear market low.

Follow-Through Day (FTD) Detector

The FTD Detector executes William O'Neil's legendary framework for identifying the exact mathematical turning point of a bear market. It actively scans massive index arrays to detect the explosive alignment of price and volume that historically signals a structural market bottom, allowing you to deploy capital before the rest of the world realizes the bull market has returned.

What is a Follow-Through Day?

In a devastating bear market, it is human nature to want to "buy the dip" and catch the bottom. But guessing bottoms destroys portfolios. A market will often rally for two days, suck in hopeful retail traders, and then violently collapse to new lows. This is known as a "dead cat bounce."

William O'Neil, the founder of Investor's Business Daily (IBD) and the creator of CANSLIM methodology, mathematically solved this problem. He realized that no massive bull market in history has ever begun without a deeply specific, institutional "Follow-Through Day" (FTD).

An FTD is an algorithmic confirmation that a rally is real. It requires extreme precision:

1. The market must hit an absolute low (Day 1).
2. The market must hold that low for at least three days.
3. Sometime between Day 4 and Day 20, the index must explode upward by at least 1.5%.
4. Crucially, the volume on that explosive up-day must be higher than the volume on the previous day.

If these exact conditions are met, the FTD triggers. It is the footprint of massive institutions (mutual funds, hedge funds) aggressively stepping back into the market and putting a hard floor under the economy.

The FTD Detector automatically monitors the major indices for these precise conditions, issuing a definitive "All-Clear" signal to start buying.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for FTD status during a bear market, it runs a specialized price/volume audit on the S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq (QQQ):

1. Rally Attempt Identification: Pierce scans the most recent 45 days of trading to lock in the absolute lowest point. It designates the first day the index closes higher as "Day 1 of the Rally Attempt."
2. The "Held Low" Verification: It ensures that during Days 2 and 3, the market did not breach the Day 1 low. If the low is breached, the rally is dead, the count resets to zero, and Pierce tells you to keep your money in cash.
3. The FTD Algorithmic Scan: If the rally is alive and between Day 4 and Day 20, Pierce checks every single day's closing price and volume. It specifically hunts for a close >1.5% accompanied by a pure volume expansion.
4. Internal Breadth Cross-Reference: Institutional volume alone is not enough. Pierce taps into the market_breadth engine to verify if the broader market internal stocks are also participating in the rally. If the Index triggers an FTD but Market Breadth is collapsing, Pierce flags the move as highly suspicious.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the FTD Detector, you receive a definitive roadmap out of the bear market:

• The FTD Status: You are instantly told if we are in an active "Confirmed Uptrend" or if we are still trapped in a "Rally Attempt" waiting for institutional volume.
• The Date Stamp: If an FTD occurred, Pierce tells you the exact date the institutions stepped in.
• The Execution Signal: Pierce synthesizes the FTD status with Market Breadth to provide rigid advice on capital deployment (e.g., "The FTD is confirmed and Breadth is expanding. Begin scaling aggressively into A-grade momentum setups.").

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to monitor the macroeconomic pivot points using these prompts:

• "The QQQ looks like it's bouncing. Run the FTD Detector. Have we had a Follow-Through Day yet?"
• "We are 6 days off the recent lows in the S&P 500. Are we in a confirmed rally?"
• "Has William O'Neil's FTD criteria been triggered recently on the major indices?"
• "An FTD was triggered yesterday. Does the actual Market Breadth support the move, or is it a false positive?"

By explicitly asking for "FTD" or "Follow-Through Day," you trigger the O'Neil extraction sequence.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Follow-Through Day is the most powerful signal in growth trading, but it is not infallible:

• A Necessary Condition, Not a Guarantee: To be clear, every single massive bull market in history has started with an FTD. However, not every FTD turns into a massive bull market. O'Neil's research showed that about 30% of FTDs are false positives and fail. The FTD gives you permission to buy, it does not guarantee your trades will work.
• The 4-to-20 Window: Valid FTDs almost always occur between Day 4 and Day 20 of a rally attempt. If the market takes 35 days to finally have a massive up-day, the rally is a grinding, illiquid, and suspicious mess. Pierce prioritizes speed and volume.
• Listen to the Stop-Loss: If the market triggers a perfectly valid FTD, but two weeks later the index drops back down and breaches the original Day 1 low, the FTD is officially invalidated. You must sell your longs and raise cash immediately.

Built for the Trend Trader

You do not have to be the first one to the party to get rich in the stock market; you just need to be there while the music is playing loudly. The FTD Detector explicitly stops you from guessing bottoms while the knife is falling, and ensures you deploy your heaviest capital exactly when the massive institutions return to the field.

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Note: The FTD Detector requires deep historical mapping of daily volume and price expansions across multiple indices, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the Follow Through Day (FTD) detector for AAPL (as a proxy index)." →

Kronos Forecaster

Skill ID: kronos-forecaster

Forecast future asset prices using the Kronos AI Foundation Model.

Kronos Forecaster

The Kronos Forecaster brings institutional-grade machine learning to retail traders. Powered by Pierce's proprietary Kronos AI Foundation Model, this skill analyzes raw price-action sequencing across the global markets to autoregressively predict the future trajectory of almost any financial asset.

What is the Kronos Foundation Model?

Traditional technical analysis relies on lagging indicators (like moving averages) telling you what the stock did yesterday. Traditional fundamental analysis relies on quarterly earnings reports telling you what the stock was worth three months ago. Both are backward-looking.

The Kronos Foundation Model is entirely forward-looking. Inspired by the massive language models that power text generation, Kronos was trained natively on millions of historical financial sequences across 45+ global exchanges. It doesn't use indicators, and it doesn't read the news. It treats financial price action as a distinct mathematical language.

When you feed Kronos the most recent 400 trading periods of an asset, it recognizes the deep, underlying mathematical structure of the current trend, and generates the statistically most probable sequence of future candles, plotting the exact future Open, High, Low, and Close.

The Kronos Forecaster skill gives you direct access to this compute engine, allowing you to run AI-driven predictive modeling on demand.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a Kronos prediction, it taps into the heavy AI backend:

1. Intelligent Timeframe Selection: If you ask for a "10-day forecast," Pierce automatically selects the daily chart. If you ask for a "24-hour forecast," Pierce drops down to the 1-hour or 15-minute timeframe. It dynamically adjusts to ensure the AI receives the correct amount of historical context.
2. The Context Window Feed: Pierce fetches the last ~400 historical candles for the asset and feeds the raw continuous sequence directly into the Kronos neural network.
3. Autoregressive Generation: Kronos predicts the first future candle. It then uses that prediction to generate the second future candle, continuing the sequence until the requested forecast window is filled.
4. Data Synthesis: Pierce receives the raw output matrix and translates the AI math into a tactical trading synthesis.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Kronos Forecaster, you receive a mathematically projected roadmap:

• The Trajectory Narrative: Pierce translates the raw data into a clear tactical outlook (e.g., "Kronos forecasts a short-term bearish pullback, followed by a violent bullish continuation").
• The Extremes (High/Low Bounds): You are given the absolute highest and lowest projected prices within the forecast window, giving you immediate targets for taking profit or setting stop-losses.
• The End-Point Valuation: The final projected price at the strict end of the forecast period, compared directly against today's closing price.
• Support Matrix: A formatted table summarizing the projected structure.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to run predictive compute on your watchlist using these prompts:

• "Run a Kronos AI forecast on AAPL for the next 7 days."
• "What does the Kronos model think SPY is going to do over the next two weeks?"
• "Where is the price of Bitcoin headed in the next 24 hours? Run an AI prediction."
• "Run a predictive forecast on Nvidia. Give me the highest high and lowest low projected for next month."

By explicitly asking for a "Kronos prediction," "AI forecast," or "price projection," you trigger the heavy machine learning extraction.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Kronos is a powerful probability engine, but it is not magic. It comes with strict scientific constraints:

• Black Swan Vulnerability: Kronos is a pure sequence modeled on historical math. It does not read the news. If a company suddenly declares bankruptcy, or a war breaks out, Kronos will not predict it, and the old prediction will instantly invalidate. Never trade a Kronos projection into a known binary event like an upcoming Earnings Report.
• The Divergence Penalty: The further out you forecast, the less accurate the model becomes. A 5-day forecast is highly rigorous. A 6-month forecast is highly speculative. Pierce will automatically attempt to throttle absurd forecast requests to keep the data useful.
• It Is A Tool, Not A God: Kronos predictions are statistically probable, but they are not guaranteed financial advice. You must overlay the AI projection with your own risk management, structural trend validation, and portfolio sizing.

Built for the Quantitative Vanguard

The era of drawing subjective lines on a chart with a crayon is over. The Kronos Forecaster allows you to validate your human intuition against a raw, unbiased neural network. By combining your qualitative understanding of the market narrative with Kronos's brutal quantitative math, you achieve a massive, institutional-grade advantage over the retail crowd.

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Note: The Kronos Forecaster requires immense GPU compute for autoregressive generation and is available exclusively on the Pro tier.

Market Environment Analysis

Skill ID: market-environment-analysis

Comprehensive market environment analysis and reporting tool. Analyzes global markets, sector rotation, volatility, and provides risk-on/risk-off assessments.

Market Environment Analysis

The Market Environment Analysis skill acts as your daily macroeconomic radar. It strips away the noise of the 24-hour financial news cycle and instantly synthesizes millions of data points across global indices, volatility metrics, sector rotation, and risk sentiment to deliver a professional, institutional-grade daily briefing on the exact condition of the stock market.

Why Market Environment Matters

The most common mistake amateur traders make is executing a brilliant strategy in the wrong environment. You can have the perfect moving average crossover system, the perfect entry point, and the perfect stop loss—but if you try to execute a bullish breakout strategy in the middle of a collapsing, "Risk-Off" bear market regime, you are going to lose all of your money.

Institutions do not look at a single stock in a vacuum. Before they decide what to trade, they decide if they should trade. They analyze the broader "weather" of the market. Is capital flowing into aggressive tech stocks (Risk-On), or is it hiding in safe-haven utilities and gold (Risk-Off)? Is the VIX (Fear Gauge) sitting calmly at 12, or is it exploding past 30?

The Market Environment Analysis skill answers these questions instantly. It automates the morning routine of a Wall Street desk analyst, giving you a top-down view of the global financial battlefield so you always know exactly which playbook to deploy.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a market breakdown, it triggers a multi-asset data collection sequence:

1. Broad Index Aggregation: Pierce instantly pulls the current price action, trend direction, and performance of the major indices (S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and Russell 2000), alongside foreign exchange and crypto if appropriate to the narrative.
2. The VIX Volatility Read: Pierce checks the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) and translates the raw number into an actionable status category:
   • Under 12: Low & Stable (Slow, grinding bull markets)
   • 12 to 20: Normal Range (Healthy trading environment)
   • 20 to 30: Elevated Risk (Whipsaw trading, widen stop losses)
   • Over 30: High Volatility / Panic (Cash is king, intraday trading only)
3. Sector Rotation Tracking: Pierce scans the 11 major S&P 500 sectors (Technology, Financials, Energy, Utilities, etc.) to see where massive institutional capital is actively flowing right now.
4. The Synthesis Engine: Pierce takes all of this disjointed data and writes a highly structured, professional executive summary outlining exactly what is driving the market today.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Market Environment Analysis, you receive a beautifully formatted, comprehensive intelligence report containing:

• The Executive Summary: 3 to 5 high-impact bullet points telling you the absolute most important things you need to know before the opening bell.
• The Risk Sentiment Verdict: A definitive declaration of whether the market is currently "Risk-On" (buying growth and speculation) or "Risk-Off" (fleeing to safety).
• Sector Flow Analytics: A clear list of which specific industries are leading the market today, and which ones are lagging and being sold off.
• Investment Strategy Implications: Immediate, actionable advice on how to adjust your portfolio (e.g., "Reduce position sizes due to VIX spikes," or "Capital is rotating into Energy, screen for oil breakouts").

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to brief you on the global economy using these specific prompts:

• "Give me a comprehensive overview of the market environment today."
• "What is the current capital Sector Rotation? Where is the money flowing?"
• "Run a market analysis. Is the environment Risk-On or Risk-Off right now?"
• "What is the VIX doing today? Give me the market environment implications."
• "Write me a daily market briefing before the bell rings."

By explicitly asking for a "market environment," "market overview," or "sector rotation," you trigger the top-down report generation.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Market Environment Analysis skill is your daily compass, but keep these realities in check:

• It is a Snapshot, Not a Screener: This skill tells you what is happening at a macro level, it does not give you specific stock tickers to buy. If the report says "Financials are strong," you must then follow up by asking Pierce to run a stock screener on the Financial sector to find individual setups.
• Respect the Calendar: The market environment can completely reverse in 10 seconds if the Federal Reserve is scheduled to speak at 2:00 PM EST. Always cross-reference the market environment with the Economic Calendar to ensure you aren't trading blindly into a massive macroeconomic news event.
• Do Not Fight the Tape: If the report definitively states that the market is in a "Risk-Off, High Volatility" regime with the VIX at 35, stop buying speculative growth stocks. Listen to the data.

Built for the Macro Strategist

You cannot control what the stock market does today. You can only control how you position yourself in response to it. The Market Environment Analysis skill takes the chaos of global finance and distills it into a cold, clinical, and actionable briefing. It ensures that every time you execute a trade, you are swimming with the macroeconomic current, rather than fighting against it.

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Note: The Market Environment Analysis skill requires broad cross-asset data aggregation and is included in the Base tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze the current market environment, focusing on risk sentiment, VIX, sector rotation, and any key economic data or events today/this week." →

Market News Analyst

Skill ID: market-news-analyst

Market news and sentiment analysis using Alpha Vantage news sentiment data. Synthesizes financial news articles with quantified sentiment scores into actionable executive briefings.

Market News Analyst

The Market News Analyst skill is Pierce's real-time narrative engine. It scours financial media, institutional research notes, and social sentiment to distill the noise of the 24/7 news cycle into the core catalysts actually driving price action.

What is the Market News Analyst?

The stock market is a storytelling machine. While fundamentals dictate long-term value, the short-term price action is completely dominated by the narrative.

Is the market terrified of inflation, or optimistic about rate cuts? Is the AI narrative accelerating, or are investors starting to demand immediate monetization? If you don't understand the psychological narrative driving the market, you will be caught off guard when a fundamentally "good" stock sells off simply because the broader sentiment has shifted.

The Market News Analyst skill solves this. Instead of you spending three hours reading Bloomberg, scrolling through financial Twitter, and trying to parse complex macro headlines, Pierce does it for you in seconds. It pulls the most recent, highest-impact news items, extracts the core catalysts, and synthesizes the overriding sentiment.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a market update or what is driving a specific ticker, it shifts into investigative mode:

1. Target Identification: Pierce identifies if you are asking about a specific macro event ("What's going on with the market today?"), a specific sector ("What's the latest news in cybersecurity?"), or a specific stock ("Why is NVDA running today?").
2. Semantic Extraction: Pierce queries Alpha Vantage's AI-powered News Sentiment API to pull the latest financial articles with pre-computed sentiment scores and per-ticker relevance rankings, looking for explicit catalyst keywords (e.g., "analyst upgrade", "supply chain disruption", "FDA approval").
3. Sentiment Scraping: Pierce analyzes the aggregate sentiment distribution (bullish/bearish/neutral article counts and average score) to gauge whether the market narrative is euphoric, cautious, or indifferent.
4. Narrative Synthesis: Pierce filters out the "clickbait" noise. It synthesizes the raw data into a structured executive briefing, outlining the exact narrative, the specific catalysts, and the institutional consensus.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Market News Analyst skill, Pierce equips you with an immediate read on the market's pulse:

• Narrative Overview: A 2-paragraph synthesis of the overarching storyline driving the asset. This answers the "Why is this happening?" question instantly.
• Key Catalysts: Bullet points detailing the specific, tangible events causing the movement (e.g., a specific hedge fund sold 10M shares, or a new competitor entered the space).
• Consensus Check: A summary of how Wall Street analysts are reacting to the news. Are they aggressively upgrading price targets, or issuing cautious downgrades?
• Sentiment Score & Scaling: A quantified sentiment score ranging from -1.0 (most bearish) to +1.0 (most bullish). It is mapped to the standard Alpha Vantage brackets:
  • Bearish: $x \le -0.35$
  • Somewhat Bearish: $-0.35 < x \le -0.15$
  • Neutral: $-0.15 < x < 0.15$
  • Somewhat Bullish: $0.15 \le x < 0.35$
  • Bullish: $x \ge 0.35$
• Pierce's Take: The system concludes with a signature Pierce read—stripping away the hype and evaluating the news logically to determine if it is a structural shift or just noise.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to digest the news cycle using these prompts:

• "Act as a Market News Analyst. What is the overarching narrative driving the S&P 500 this week?"
• "Why is Palantir up 12% today? Find the specific news catalyst."
• "What is the current media sentiment surrounding Tesla's latest vehicle launch?"
• "Pull the latest news for the Semiconductor sector. Are there any supply chain concerns?"
• "Summarize the news impacting Apple over the last 48 hours."

By asking for "news," "catalysts," or "narrative," you ensure Pierce prioritizes fresh, live information rather than historical data.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While staying informed is highly critical to risk management, keep these psychological traps in mind:

• The "Sell the News" Phenomenon: By the time a headline hits mainstream financial media, the "smart money" has likely already priced it in. If an article says "Company X signs massive deal," and the stock is already up 30%, buying the news is incredibly dangerous. Pierce will often warn you if a catalyst appears structurally exhausted.
• Clickbait Filtration: Financial media companies get paid for clicks, not accuracy. They will often write terrifying "market crash" headlines to generate ad revenue on flat trading days. Pierce is trained to look for hard catalysts and will attempt to filter out pure sensationalism.
• Fundamentals > News: A bad news headline can drop a great stock by 5% in a single day, but a great balance sheet will carry a stock 50% higher over the year. Always use the Market News Analyst skill to understand the short-term narrative, but pair it with the US Stock Analysis or DCF Valuation skills to confirm the long-term reality.

Built for the Narrative-Aware Trader

You cannot trade successfully if you are disconnected from the market's psychological state. The Market News Analyst skill acts as your personal intelligence officer, ensuring you arrive at the trading desk fully briefed on the catalysts, the sentiment, and the narrative. It filters out the noise, so you can execute the signal.

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Note: The Market News Analyst skill uses Alpha Vantage's News Sentiment API for quantified financial news analysis, and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "What is the latest market news for NVDA?" →

Market Top Detector

Skill ID: market-top-detector

Analyzes volume distribution, index price action, and breadth divergence to identify market tops and broad distribution phases.

Market Top Detector

The Market Top Detector is your early-warning defensive system. It actively scans massive index volume data to identify the subtle, mathematical footprints of institutional "distribution"—the exact process where mega-funds quietly dump their shares onto retail buyers right before a massive bear market begins.

Why Market Tops Are Hard to Spot

Market bottoms are violent events. They happen in a single day (see the Follow-Through Day Detector). Market tops, however, are a slow, deceptive process.

When a multi-billion dollar hedge fund decides to sell its entire position to lock in profits, it cannot simply hit the "sell all" button. If they did, the market would flash-crash, and they would destroy their own exit price. Instead, they sell slowly into strength. They let the market gap up on good news, and then they quietly sell massive blocks of shares throughout the day, forcing the market to close flat or slightly down.

To the untrained retail eye, the market looks fine. It might even be hitting new all-time highs. But under the hood, the institutions are heading for the exits.

The Market Top Detector algorithmically identifies this exact behavior. It counts the number of "Distribution Days" and cross-references them against internal market breadth, giving you massive advanced warning to tighten stops and raise cash before the bottom falls out.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you suspect the market is getting exhausted, Pierce runs a specialized distribution sweep on the major indices:

1. The Distribution Day Count: Pierce pulls the trailing 30 days of price and volume data for the S&P 500 (SPY) or Nasdaq (QQQ). It scans for a very specific threshold: any day the index closes down >0.2% on higher volume than the previous day. This is a "Distribution Day"—the algorithmic footprint of heavy institutional selling.
2. The Terminal Threshold: Pierce calculates the cluster density. If Pierce detects 5 to 7 Distribution Days clustered within a tight 4-to-5 week window, it triggers a "Market Top Profile" alert.
3. Negative Divergence Sweep: Pierce calls the market_breadth engine to verify the internal structure. If the S&P 500 is hitting a new all-time high, but the Market Breadth score is actually dropping, Pierce flags a severe "Negative Divergence." This means the rally is entirely fake, propped up by heavily weighted tech stocks while the rest of the economy is already crashing.
4. Moving Average Confirmation: Pierce checks to see if the recent distribution damage has caused the index to snap key institutional trendlines, such as the 21-day EMA or 50-day SMA.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Market Top Detector, you transition from blindly optimistic to tactically defensive:

• The Distribution Count: You receive the exact number of Distribution Days logged over the last month.
• The Divergence Status: Explicit confirmation on whether the internal market breadth is confirming the highs or quietly rotting from the inside.
• The Phase Synthesis: Pierce synthesizes the data into a narrative (e.g., "This is a routine pause in a bull market" vs. "Institutions are heavily locking in profits, a structural top is forming").
• The Risk Mandate: Clear, actionable execution instructions. Pierce will explicitly tell you to "trim margin," "tighten trailing stops," or "hold core positions."

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan for institutional selling using these prompts:

• "Run the Market Top Detector on the S&P 500. Are institutions selling?"
• "Count the number of distribution days on the Nasdaq over the last 4 weeks."
• "We are at all-time highs. Check for negative divergence in market breadth. Is a top forming?"
• "I am heavily long tech stocks. Run a top-detection sweep to see if I need to take profits."

By explicitly asking for "distribution," "market top," or "breadth divergence," you trigger the defensive scan.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Market Top Detector is your flashing yellow light, but you must still execute with discipline:

• Do Not Short Tops: The famous saying goes, "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." Just because Pierce detects 7 Distribution Days does not mean you should immediately short the S&P 500 with massive leverage. A topping process can last for months. The Detector tells you to stop buying new long positions and tighten your stops, it does not tell you to aggressively short.
• Distribution Expiration: A Distribution Day organically "expires" or falls off the count after 25 trading sessions (roughly 5 weeks). Additionally, if the index rallies 5% above the closing price of a previous Distribution Day, that specific day is neutralized and removed from the count, as the institutional selling pressure has clearly been absorbed.
• The Mega-Cap Distortion: Always remember that indices are market-cap weighted. Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia heavily distort the S&P 500. Pierce specifically uses the Breadth divergence check to defeat this distortion and show you what the other 497 stocks are actually doing.

Built for Capital Preservation

You spend months patiently building massive profits during a bull market. Do not give it all back in two weeks because you ignored the warning signs. The Market Top Detector removes the euphoric emotional bias of a soaring market and forces you to stare directly at the cold, hard volume data—ensuring you lock in your wealth before the smart money pulls the rug.

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Note: The Market Top Detector relies on high-fidelity trailing volume calculations and moving average breaches, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Are there signs that SPY is topping? Check for distribution days and breadth divergence." →

Theme Detector

Skill ID: theme-detector

Scans cross-sector performance to identify emerging thematic momentum. Isolates whether capital is flowing into specific sub-industries faster than broad sectors.

Theme Detector

The Theme Detector pinpoints exactly where institutional capital is hiding. It bypasses broad, lazy "Sector" categories to identify the highly specific sub-industry thematic trends (e.g., "AI Data Center Cooling" rather than just "Tech") that are currently leading the market, allowing you to ride the massive momentum waves created by Wall Street sector rotation.

Why Thematic Rotation Matters

Amateur traders constantly wonder why their stocks aren't moving. They might say, "The S&P 500 is hitting all-time highs! Why is my portfolio dropping?" The answer is Sector Rotation. The stock market is not a single entity; it is a "market of stocks," and institutional capital constantly sloshes from one industry to another based on macroeconomic conditions.

If interest rates drop, multi-billion dollar funds will aggressively dump their cash-heavy tech stocks and rotate into housing and small caps. If inflation spikes, they rotate into commodities and energy. Identifying this capital flow early is the absolute key to generating alpha.

However, looking at broad sectors is no longer enough. Looking at the "Technology Sector" is useless when semiconductor stocks are up 400% while legacy software stocks are down 20%. The Theme Detector algorithmically drills down beneath the sector level, identifying the hyper-specific, granular "Themes" that institutions are piling into right now.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce where the money is flowing, it initiates a top-down momentum sweep across the entire market database:

1. Broad Sector Rotation Identification: Pierce taps into the sector_rotation engine to map the highest relative-strength primary sectors (e.g., Utilities, Technology, Energy).
2. Granular Thematic Drill-Down: Once it finds the leading sectors, Pierce actively runs the stock_screener to drill down into the sub-industries. It categorizes the specific momentum vehicles. It doesn't just return "Technology." It returns "High-Power Data Center Infrastructure."
3. Leading Vehicle Extraction: It identifies the strongest 3 to 4 individual stocks within that dominant theme to serve as proxy vehicles.
4. The Rotation Profile: Pierce analyzes the macro profile. Is money flowing into "Defensives" (Utilities and Consumer Staples), which signals fear? Or is it flowing into "Cyclicals" (Industrials and Consumer Discretionary), signaling economic expansion?

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Theme Detector, you receive a highly targeted roadmap for capital deployment:

• The Dominant Theme Declaration: An immediate, hyper-specific designation of the absolute hottest sub-industry in the stock market today.
• The Rotation Status: A macro readout explaining why capital is moving (e.g., "Institutions are rotating into Defensives due to rising bond yields").
• The Leading Watchlist: A formatted markdown table of the absolute strongest stocks proxying the dominant theme, providing you with an immediate watchlist of actionable, high relative-strength targets.
• The Exhaustion Assessment: Pierce evaluates the lifecycle of the theme. It warns you if the theme is in the "Late-Stage Exhaustion" phase, preventing you from buying the absolute top of a crowded trade.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to track the institutional slosh of capital using these specific prompts:

• "What are the strongest themes in the stock market right now?"
• "Are defensive themes working? Where is the money flowing today?"
• "Run a Theme Detector on the 'Technology' sector. What specific sub-industry is actually driving the gains?"
• "What is the dominant thematic rotation going into next quarter?"

By explicitly asking for "themes," "rotation," or "capital flow," you trigger the granular rotation scan.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Thematic trading is powerful but highly cyclical. Keep these market dynamics in mind:

• Themes Rotate Violently: A dominant theme can lead the market for six straight months, and then violently collapse in two weeks when the macroeconomic narrative changes. Never blindly hold a thematic stock once the institutions begin rotating out.
• Do Not Buy Laggards: If Pierce identifies "Uranium" as the dominant theme and lists the top 3 Uranium stocks that are up 50%, do not try to outsmart the detector by finding a "cheap" Uranium stock that hasn't moved yet. The institutions are buying the leaders. Buy the leaders, do not buy the laggards.
• Defensive Themes Mean 'Cash is a Position': If the Theme Detector starts returning "Gold Miners" and "Consumer Staples" as the dominant themes in the market, it is a glaring red flag that institutions are terrified. In deeply defensive thematic environments, the best trade is often simply holding cash.

Built for the Relative Strength Trader

You cannot force a stock to go up. A stock only goes up when a multi-billion dollar mutual fund decides to buy a few million shares of it. The Theme Detector stops you from guessing what the institutions might like, and provides hard data on exactly what they are systematically buying today.

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Note: The Theme Detector aggregates data from both the sector_rotation engine and native stock screeners, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the theme detector." →

Uptrend Analyzer

Skill ID: uptrend-analyzer

Evaluates the specific strength, age, and potential exhaustion level of an ongoing market rally.

Uptrend Analyzer

The Uptrend Analyzer maps the exact lifecycle, age, and exhaustion risk of a surging market. It protects you from the psychological trap of FOMO ("Fear Of Missing Out") by mathematically calculating whether a bull rally is young and fully fueled, or dangerously broken and running on fumes.

Why Measure Rally Exhaustion?

Amateur traders love to buy stocks after they have already gone straight up for three months. They see the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs every day on the news, they assume the market is safe, and they aggressively deploy all of their capital. Two weeks later, the market violently pulls back 10%, wiping them out.

They bought the absolute top. They failed to realize that trends have lifespans.

When an uptrend is young, it is heavily supported by massive institutional accumulation. As the trend ages, the institutions step back, and retail traders flood in, driving prices to extreme "overextended" levels far above any structural support like the 50-day moving average.

The Uptrend Analyzer algorithmically measures this extension. It explicitly tells you when a market rally has gone too far, too fast, forcing you to stop buying extended breakouts and instead tighten your trailing stop-loss orders to protect your hard-earned profits.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to analyze an ongoing market rally, it executes a structural stress-test:

1. Rally Duration Tracking: Pierce scans the historical price data to identify the exact date the current unbroken rally began off the last major trough. It calculates precisely how many days or weeks the market has been climbing without a significant pullback.
2. The "Rubber Band" Extension Metric: Markets are elastic. Pierce calculates the exact percentage distance between the current price of the index and its 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA). If an index gets historically over-extended (e.g., the QQQ is trading 12% above its 50 SMA), Pierce triggers an "Exhaustion Risk" alert. The rubber band is stretched too tight and is due to snap back.
3. Internal Breadth Validation: Pierce cross-references the blistering price action against the market_breadth engine. If the S&P 500 is surging, but internal market breadth is rolling over, Pierce identifies the rally as "Narrowing." This means the rally is a mirage, completely dependent on a handful of mega-cap stocks while the rest of the market crashes.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Uptrend Analyzer, you transition from blind euphoria to calculated execution:

• The Rally Profile: A clean summary showing the exact age of the current uptrend.
• The Extension Metric: The precise mathematical distance above structural support, allowing you to gauge the immediate downside risk if a mean-reversion event occurs.
• The Exhaustion Assessment: An explicit declaration of whether the rally is "Early-Stage and Healthy," "Mature," or "Late-Stage Exhaustion."
• Pierce's Trading Perspective: Rigid tactical advice. If the market is in early accumulation, Pierce will tell you to buy breakouts aggressively. If the market is extended, Pierce will explicitly order you to halt new buys and tighten your stops.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to measure the heat of the market using these specific prompts:

• "The QQQ has been going straight up for weeks. Run the Uptrend Analyzer. Are we overextended?"
• "Analyze the current rally in the S&P 500. How far are we above the 50-day moving average?"
• "Is the current semiconductor (SOXX) rally showing signs of late-stage exhaustion?"
• "Run an uptrend check on SPY. Is breadth supporting this move, or is participation narrowing?"

By explicitly asking to analyze a "rally," "uptrend," or checking for "exhaustion," you trigger the lifecycle evaluation.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Uptrend Analyzer is your reality check during a mania, but you must respect structural momentum:

• Extended Does Not Mean Short: Just because Pierce flags a market as "Heavily Extended" and "Exhausted" does not mean you should immediately short the market. In massive liquidity-driven environments, markets can remain overextended for terrifyingly long periods. "Extended" means you stop buying new long positions; it does not mean you immediately bet on a crash.
• The Power of the 10-Day EMA: In historically aggressive momentum markets, the index might not touch its 50-day SMA for months. Instead, it "rides" an extremely tight short-term moving average, like the 10-day EMA. The Uptrend Analyzer will note this "power trend" behavior when the velocity is extreme.
• Narrow Rallies Can Persist: A rally driven exclusively by 5 massive tech stocks is structurally unhealthy, but it can still push the index higher for weeks. Ensure you use the Uptrend Analyzer to align your exposure, moving away from the broader market and isolating the specific mega-caps driving the tape.

Built for the Disciplined Operator

Anyone can make money in an uptrend; the professionals are the ones who actually keep it when the trend breaks. The Uptrend Analyzer ensures you never get sucked into the euphoria of a late-stage market peak, systematically forcing you to lock in profits while the amateur retail crowd is busy buying the top.

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Note: The Uptrend Analyzer requires deep technical extension calculations and cross-reference with internal breadth dynamics, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Is NVDA's uptrend still healthy enough to accumulate, or is it getting extended? Check rally length, breadth, and give a clear perspective with key levels to watch." →

US Market Bubble Detector

Skill ID: us-market-bubble-detector

Evaluates market bubble risk through quantitative data-driven analysis using the revised Minsky/Kindleberger framework v2.1. Prioritizes objective metrics (Put/Call, VIX, margin debt, breadth, IPO data) over subjective impressions. Features strict qualitative adjustment criteria with confirmation bias prevention. Supports practical investment decisions with mandatory data collection and mechanical scoring. Use when user asks about bubble risk, valuation concerns, or profit-taking timing.

US Market Bubble Detector

The US Market Bubble Detector is an institutional-grade quantitative framework designed to strip emotion out of market extremes. Utilizing the revised Minsky/Kindleberger model, it ruthlessly scores the current market environment across strict leverage, volatility, and breadth metrics to explicitly tell you if a market is structurally fragile, or just experiencing a massive but healthy bull run.

The Psychology of the Bubble

Every single decade, the stock market creates a massive wealth generation cycle (e.g., the Dotcom Boom, the Crypto Craze, the AI Revolution). And every single time, human nature guarantees that the cycle ends in a devastating, wealth-destroying crash.

When a market is soaring, "FOMO" (Fear Of Missing Out) takes over. Amateur traders start taking out massive margin loans. Plumbers and dentists start giving out stock tips. Low-quality companies start going public "IPOs" and instantly doubling in price. To the untrained eye, it feels like the easiest money in the world. To a professional quantitative analyst, these are the exact mathematical footprints of systemic structural collapse.

The problem is that calling a "bubble" too early is just as dangerous as ignoring one. If you sell all your stocks because a market "feels high," you might miss out on three more years of a raging bull market.

The US Market Bubble Detector removes the guessing. It replaces subjective television punditry with rigid, mathematical scoring, transitioning you from a frightened spectator into a calculated risk manager.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to check if we are in a bubble, it executes a strict, two-phase algorithmic audit:

Phase 1: The Quantitative Data Sweep

Pierce refuses to analyze "narrative" without hard data. It pulls six distinct structural market metrics:

• Put/Call Ratio: Are retail traders blindly buying call options with zero downside protection?
• Volatility Compression (VIX): Is the market hitting all-time highs while the VIX collapses to historically complacent lows?
• Margin Debt Escalation: Are traders borrowing record amounts of money from their brokers to fuel the rally?
• IPO Overheating: Is Wall Street flooding the market with low-quality IPOs that are popping 20%+ on their first day of trading?
• Breadth Anomaly: Is the S&P 500 hitting new highs, but less than 45% of its underlying companies are actually above their 50-day moving average? (The "narrow leadership" red flag).
• Price Acceleration: Has the market velocity gone fully parabolic relative to the last 10 years?

Phase 2: Qualitative Stress Testing

If the quantitative numbers flash red, Pierce then looks at the sociological data. However, Pierce is severely restricted against Confirmation Bias. It will only add "Euphoria Points" if it can explicitly measure massive Google Search Trend spikes (e.g., 5x increases in Retail FOMO keywords) or verify direct structural valuation disconnects where Wall Street is explicitly ignoring fundamental earnings.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Bubble Detector, you receive a clinical, 15-point diagnostic report:

• The Master Score: A definitive score out of 15.
• The Phase Declaration: Pierce explicitly labels the market into one of five risk regimes depending on the score: Normal, Caution, Elevated Risk, Euphoria, or Critical.
• The Risk Budget Matrix: Actionable portfolio management. If the score hits "Euphoria," Pierce will explicitly instruct you to drop your active risk budget to 40% and aggressively tighten your trailing stops.
• Short-Selling Permissions: The detector explicitly outlines whether short-selling is mathematically permitted. If the market is in "Normal" mode, Pierce restricts shorting. If the market hits "Critical," it issues authorization to begin structuring downside bets.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to audit the madness of crowds using these specific prompts:

• "The tech sector is going parabolic. Are we in a bubble right now? Run the detector."
• "Run a US Market Bubble check. I want to know if I should take profits on my long-term portfolio."
• "Is the current AI rally a bubble, or is it fundamentally sound? Check the Minsky framework."
• "The S&P 500 is hitting all-time highs every day. Evaluate the systemic risk and score the market."

By explicitly asking about a "bubble," "overheating," or "taking profits," you trigger the quantitative risk matrix.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Bubble Detector is incredibly accurate, but identifying a bubble does not mean predicting the exact day it will pop:

• Bubbles Bleed Shorters: A market scoring a 12/15 ("Euphoria") can mathematically remain a 12/15 for an entire year. The Bubble Detector does not predict exact tops (use the Market Top Detector for volume distribution mapping). The Bubble Detector simply tells you that you are operating in a structural minefield, and you must aggressively reduce your position sizing to survive the eventual detonation.
• The "Elevated Risk" Transition: Phase transitions are fluid. The market will often oscillate between "Caution" and "Elevated Risk." Do not panic-sell your entire portfolio because the score ticks up by one point. Use the designated Risk Budget percentages to slowly scale out of positions into strength.
• Data Dependency: The detector heavily relies on CBOE Put/Call data, FINRA Margin Debt, and broad breadth calculations. Margin debt is often reported with a slight lag, meaning the detector is confirming structural fragility, not executing high-frequency tactical fades.

Built for the Cycle Survivor

Anybody can get rich during the final, euphoric blow-off top of a historic bull market. The true professionals are the ones who don't give it all back during the ensuing 50% crash. The US Market Bubble Detector acts as your unemotional chief risk officer—forcing you to systematically take chips off the table exactly when the rest of the world has lost their minds.

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Note: The US Market Bubble Detector executes a complex multi-variable macroeconomic framework and is included exclusively in the Pro tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Is the US market in a bubble?" →

Value Dividend Screener

Skill ID: value-dividend-screener

Scans for deeply undervalued stocks that return capital to shareholders via high, sustainable dividend yields.

Value Dividend Screener

The Value Dividend Screener is Warren Buffett's philosophy digitized. It aggressively filters out the hype of modern growth stocks, targeting only deeply undervalued, cash-rich companies that literally pay you out of their own profits while you wait for the broader market to realize their true value.

What is a Value Dividend Strategy?

If you buy a growth stock and it goes down 20%, you are losing money every single day you hold it. If you buy a deep-value dividend stock and it goes down 20%, the company is still depositing hard cash into your brokerage account every single quarter.

Value investing is the art of buying $1.00 for $0.60. It means ignoring companies trading at 100x Earnings, and instead buying boring, totally ignored businesses trading at 10x Earnings or below their actual "Book Value" (the literal liquidation value of their assets).

Because these companies are "boring," the market often ignores them for years. The Value Dividend Screener specifically solves this problem by demanding a high dividend yield. By ensuring the company pays out a massive (but safe) dividend, you are financially compensated to wait. You get paid in cash while waiting for the capital appreciation.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a value dividend scan, it acts as a ruthless, old-school fundamental analyst:

1. The Deep Value Valuation: Pierce first completely screens out expensive companies. It queries the database for stocks with absolute basement-level valuations (e.g., Price-to-Earnings < 12, Price-to-Book < 1.5, Enterprise Value-to-EBITDA < 8).
2. The High Yield Requirement: It then overlays a strict income requirement. Surviving companies must pay a high dividend yield (typically > 3.5%).
3. The Yield-Trap Filter: This is the most important step. A 10% dividend yield is usually a dying company trying to attract suckers. Pierce explicitly filters out these traps by checking the Payout Ratio. If a company is paying out more than 70% of its earnings as a dividend, the dividend is in danger of being cut, and Pierce discards the stock.
4. The Debt Stress Test: For the final few candidates, Pierce manually pulls their balance sheets to verify they aren't carrying a catastrophic debt load that would force them into bankruptcy before the value is realized.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Value Dividend Screener, Pierce delivers the ultimate "sleep well at night" watchlist:

• The Deep Value Roster: A clean markdown table of the absolute cheapest, highest-yielding stocks in the market today, ranked in descending order of their Composite Score. It includes the Value Dividend Score (passes out of 5) and the Composite Score (0-100 weighted index).
  • Value Dividend Score: Counts passed criteria (P/E < 12, P/B < 1.5, Yield >= 3.5%, Payout < 70%, and Positive Net Income/Growth).
  • Composite Score: Weighted out of 100 to prioritize deep value safety and yield sustainability:
    • P/E Valuation (25%): P/E < 10 (100% score), 10-12 (60% score).
    • P/B Valuation (20%): P/B < 1.2 (100% score), 1.2-1.5 (60% score).
    • Dividend Yield (25%): Yield >= 5% (100% score), 3.5-5% (70% score).
    • Payout Safety (20%): Payout <= 50% (100% score), 50-70% (60% score).
    • Operating Quality (10%): Operating Margin >= 15% and ROE >= 8% (100% score), Margins >= 8% or ROE >= 4% (50% score).
• The Yield-Trap Assessment: Pierce explicitly analyzes the fundamental safety of the dividend. It will openly state whether a company is cheap for a "good reason" (i.e., it is in structural decline) or if it is genuinely mispriced by the broader market.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to harvest deep value opportunities using these precise prompts:

• "Run the Value Dividend Screener. I want safe yields over 4%."
• "Find me deeply undervalued stocks with a P/E under 10 and a starting yield of at least 3.5%."
• "I want to buy boring, stable companies. Screen for P/B under 1.5 that pay a safe dividend."
• "Find the cheapest dividend-paying stocks in the S&P 500, but make sure the payout ratio is under 60%."

By explicitly asking for low valuations and safe yields, you force Pierce into "value investing" mode.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Value investing requires immense psychological patience. Keep these realities in mind:

• Value Can Always Get Cheaper: Just because a stock is trading at a ridiculously low P/E of 8 does not mean it can't drop to a P/E of 6 next week. Value stocks are notoriously slow-moving, and catching the absolute bottom is impossible.
• You Will Underperform During Tech Bubbles: When speculative tech stocks go up 100% in a month, your value dividend portfolio will likely trade completely flat. This screener is designed to preserve capital and compound cash, not double your account in 30 days. Do not abandon the strategy just because it is boring.
• The Value Strategy Shines in Bear Markets: When a recession hits and speculative growth stocks crash 80%, value dividend stocks often barely flinch, because their valuations were already anchored to reality and their dividends provide a mathematical price floor.

Built for the Contrarian Accumulator

If you want the thrill of massive daily volatility, do not use this screener. The Value Dividend Screener is built for the contrarian investor who enjoys buying great, cash-flowing assets when everyone else hates them, and quietly collecting quarterly dividends while Wall Street slowly realizes their mistake.

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Note: The Value Dividend Screener requires multi-pass checking of balance sheet and payout ratios, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the value dividend screener for AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA." →

X Research

Skill ID: x-research

X Research

The X Research skill is a real-time sentiment engine. It taps directly into the financial subcultures of X (Twitter), extracting high-signal analysis from fund managers, corporate executives, and algorithmic traders, while aggressively filtering out the millions of spam bots and retail noise.

Why Trade the Timeline?

Financial news networks are slow. By the time a headline hits the television, the information is already priced into the stock market. In modern finance, breaking news, activist short reports, CEO resignations, and massive strategy shifts almost always happen on X (Twitter) first.

More importantly, the market is driven by narrative. A stock's fundamentals might be terrible, but if a powerful narrative takes hold on "FinTwit" (Financial Twitter), the stock can rally 200% on pure sentiment alone. If you are not monitoring the real-time social narrative, you are trading blind.

However, searching X manually is a nightmare. It is flooded with spam bots spamming cryptocurrency airdrops, fake gurus selling courses, and low-signal retail traders screaming into the void.

The X Research skill solves this. It acts as an autonomous data miner. It runs complex, multi-operator queries across the X timeline, isolating highly liked, high-signal tweets from verified experts, and synthesizes the raw data into a clean, actionable sentiment briefing.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to check the social pulse on a given ticker or topic, it runs an agentic extraction loop:

1. Query Decomposition: Pierce doesn't just search "$TSLA." It attacks the question from multiple angles. It runs separate queries for bearish signals (e.g., $TSLA (overvalued OR bubble OR risk)), bullish signals, and specific expert voices (from:username).
2. Noise Eradication: Pierce applies algorithmic filters natively. It restricts queries to original posts only (ignoring hundreds of useless replies), adds strict min_likes thresholds to guarantee engagement quality, and aggressively blocks crypto spam (e.g., -airdrop -giveaway).
3. Execution & iteration: It pulls the raw feed using the native x_search compute tool. If the query returns 10,000 garbage tweets, Pierce autonomously tightens the filters and re-runs the search until it finds pure signal.
4. Synthesis Engine: Pierce reads the isolated high-quality tweets, groups them by theme, and writes a professional briefing quantifying exactly what the social consensus is.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the X Research skill, you receive a perfectly curated social intelligence report:

• The Sentiment Themes: Grouped findings broken down cleanly (e.g., "The Bullish Catalyst Theme," "The Macro Bearish Theme").
• Direct Sourcing: Exact quotes from influential accounts regarding your topic, complete with the amount of "Likes" the tweet received to verify its algorithmic reach, and a direct hyperlink to the original post.
• The Overall Verdict: A concise summary detailing the predominant tone (Bullish, Bearish, or Mixed) and an assessment of confidence levels.
• Retail vs. Institutional Divergence: Pierce will explicitly note if high-follower fund managers are saying one thing, but the retail crowd is saying another.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to harvest the timeline using these specific prompts:

• "What is FinTwit saying about the new Apple product launch? Run an X Research report."
• "Check X/Twitter sentiment on $NVDA today. Are people bullish going into earnings?"
• "Search X for thoughts on the Federal Reserve rate hike. Give me only high-signal expert takes."
• "Run a bearish scan on PLTR. What are the critics on Twitter focused on right now?"

By explicitly asking to "search X," check "Twitter sentiment," or "What is CT (Crypto Twitter) saying," you trigger the multi-query extraction.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

X is the fastest news source in the world, but it is also the most volatile. Keep these guardrails active:

• Sentiment is Not Reality: Just because every timeline on X is massively bullish on a stock does not mean the stock will go up. A wildly bullish, euphoric sentiment read is often a contrarian indicator that the trade is too "crowded" and a vicious pullback is imminent.
• The Short-Term Window: The X Research skill prioritizes the now. It generally searches the last 7 to 14 days of data to give you the immediate narrative momentum. It is not designed to pull tweets from five years ago.
• Vocal Minority Bias: Remember that angry and extremely euphoric people tweet the most. The rational, quiet institutions are rarely posting their theses publicly. Use X Research for narrative momentum, but always verify the trade with technical and fundamental data.

Built for the Narrative Trader

Markets run on stories. The X Research skill ensures you never miss a plot twist. By autonomously filtering the spam and extracting direct quotes from legitimate market operators, it gives you a real-time feed directly into the collective psychology of Wall Street—all without ever having to open the app yourself.

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Note: The X Research skill heavily utilizes live, external data fetching via the x_search API loop and is included in the Pro tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Search X for news on TSLA." →

Fundamental Analysis

Competitive Analysis

Skill ID: competitive-analysis

Evaluate a company's economic moat, competitive positioning, market share dynamics, and pricing power using Porter's Five Forces framework.

Competitive Analysis

The Competitive Analysis skill shifts Pierce's focus from spreadsheets to strategy. It dissects a company's market positioning, pricing power, and defensive "Economic Moat" to determine if its business model can survive the brutal reality of capitalism.

What is Competitive Analysis?

Most retail traders focus strictly on the numbers—"Revenue grew 20% this quarter, so I should buy!" But numbers are backwards-looking; they tell you what happened. They don't tell you why it happened or if it will continue to happen.

If a company is hyper-profitable, capitalism dictates that a swarm of well-funded competitors will rush into that sector to steal those profits. If the company cannot defend itself against these new entrants, its margins will inevitably collapse. The barrier that prevents competitors from stealing market share is known as an Economic Moat.

The Competitive Analysis skill is designed to evaluate this structural durability. It is a qualitative research engine that bypasses simple P/E ratios and asks the hard, strategic questions taught in top-tier business schools and utilized by legendary investors like Warren Buffett. Pierce evaluates network effects, brand equity, switching costs, and economies of scale to give you a definitive answer on whether a company is an untouchable monopoly or highly vulnerable to disruption.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a strategic breakdown, it pivots away from raw financial data and engages its qualitative logic engines:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "What is the economic moat for Costco?" Pierce recognizes this is a qualitative strategy question, not a quantitative valuation question.
2. Moat Identification: Pierce analyzes Costco's business model. It determines that Costco's massive scale allows it to negotiate supplier prices lower than anyone else, creating an insurmountable "Cost Advantage" moat.
3. Market Share & Pricing Power Check: Pierce reviews recent earnings transcripts to see if Costco is raising membership prices without losing customers (indicating extreme pricing power) and whether Amazon is successfully stealing their market share.
4. Threat Vectoring: Pierce applies structural mental models (like Porter's Five Forces) to determine if a new, disruptive technology could easily replace Costco's warehouses.
5. Report Generation: You receive a detailed strategic breakdown that ranks the durability of the company's competitive advantage.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the Competitive Analysis skill, Pierce provides a rich qualitative assessment of the underlying business:

• Economic Moat Classification: Pierce defines exactly what type of moat protects the business: Network Effects (e.g., Meta/Facebook), Intangible Assets/Brand (e.g., Apple/Coca-Cola), High Switching Costs (e.g., Oracle/Salesforce), or Cost Advantages (e.g., Walmart).
• Competitor Mapping: A direct breakdown of the company's primary rivals. Pierce highlights exactly where the company is winning (e.g., superior software) and where it is losing (e.g., terrible customer service compared to peers).
• Pricing Power Analysis: The ultimate test of a great business is if it can raise prices without losing customers. Pierce evaluates the company's pricing elasticity—a critical metric during periods of high inflation.
• Disruption Threat Assessment: A forward-looking analysis that identifies startup threats or impending technological shifts (e.g., AI disrupting legacy search engines) that could rapidly erode the company's moat.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to run deep strategic analysis using these prompts:

• "What is the economic moat for Airbnb? Is it durable?"
• "Run a competitive analysis on Uber vs. Lyft. Who has the stronger structural advantage?"
• "Evaluate Palantir's pricing power and customer switching costs."
• "How vulnerable is Netflix to disruption from Amazon Prime and Disney+?"
• "Does Tesla still have a technology moat, or have legacy automakers caught up?"

By asking about "moats" or "competitors," you force Pierce to look past the stock ticker and analyze the underlying business vehicle.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While assessing a company's moat is critical for long-term investments, keep these principles in mind:

• Qualitative, Not Quantitative: This skill is heavily narrative-based. While Pierce will cite revenue chunks to prove market share, the core of the analysis relies on business strategy and logic rather than exact mathematical formulas.
• Moats Can Evaporate: Technology moves blisteringly fast. A company that had a massive "Intangible Asset" brand moat (like Blockbuster or Nokia) can see that moat destroyed in under three years by a technological paradigm shift. You must constantly re-evaluate a company's competitive positioning.
• Long-Term Focus: Competitive analysis is virtually useless for day-trading or short-term swing trading. A company with a terrible, shrinking moat can still see its stock price rip 30% higher in a week due to a short squeeze or technical breakout. This skill is built for multi-month or multi-year investment horizons.

Built for the Fundamentally Sound Investor

Great companies make great long-term investments. The Competitive Analysis skill gives you the strategic framework to separate the enduring monopolies from the flashy, flash-in-the-pan fads. By ensuring the companies you invest in have wide, deep economic moats, you structurally protect your portfolio from the relentless forces of competition.

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Note: The Competitive Analysis skill relies on deep qualitative reasoning and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "How does NVIDIA compare to its main competitors in AI chips? Include key financial ratios, growth trends, and an assessment of its economic moat." →

DCF Valuation

Skill ID: dcf-valuation

Estimate intrinsic fair value using a rigorous Discounted Cash Flow model with sensitivity analysis, WACC estimation, and terminal value calculation.

DCF Valuation Analysis

The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) skill is Pierce's quantitative holy grail. It builds a rigorous, institutional-grade financial model to project a company's future cash flows and discounts them back to today, revealing the exact intrinsic fair value of a stock.

What is a DCF Valuation?

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." — Warren Buffett.

The stock market is essentially a giant auction house driven by extreme emotions. A stock's price changes every second based on news, fear, and algorithmic trading. But the underlying value of a business is rooted in a fundamental mathematical reality: a company is only worth the total amount of cash it can generate for its owners from now until the end of time, discounted back to today's dollars.

A Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis is the gold standard used by investment banks and private equity firms to find that intrinsic value. It forces you to ignore the daily stock chart and focus entirely on the core business engine. If a DCF model says a stock's intrinsic value is $150, and the market is currently panicking and selling it for $100, you have found a massive margin of safety.

Doing this manually requires hours in Excel, pulling 5 years of cash flow statements, estimating terminal growth rates, and calculating a company's specific Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). The DCF Valuation skill automates this entire quantitative gauntlet.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a definitive price target or an intrinsic value calculation, it puts on its investment banker hat and executes an 8-step pipeline:

1. Financial Data Triage: Pierce pulls the last 5 years of historical cash flows, total shares outstanding, and current balance sheet liabilities directly from financial databases.
2. Growth Rate Projection: It calculates the historical Free Cash Flow (FCF) trajectory. It then cross-references this with forward Wall Street consensus estimates to project realistically constrained growth for the next 5 years (safely capped to avoid hyper-optimistic bubble math).
3. WACC Calculation (Discount Rate): Pierce evaluates the current macroeconomic environment (Risk-Free Rate, Equity Risk Premium) and the company's specific debt sheet to dynamically calculate a precise Weighted Average Cost of Capital.
4. Cash Flow Projection: It mathematically rolls the cash flows forward 5 years, applying a standard 5% decay rate to account for increasing competitive pressures.
5. Terminal Value Generation: Pierce applies the Gordon Growth Model—using a conservative 2.5% terminal growth rate (proxy for perpetual GDP growth)—to value the company from year 5 to infinity.
6. Discounting & Equity Value: All future cash flows are discounted back to today. Pierce subtracts the company's net debt to find the true Equity Value.
7. Intrinsic Value Delivery: Pierce divides the Equity Value by the total shares outstanding to give you the exact per-share intrinsic value.
8. Sensitivity Matrix: Because DCFs are sensitive to initial assumptions, Pierce generates a 3x3 sensitivity table showing how the price target changes if growth is slightly higher or the discount rate is slightly lower.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the DCF Valuation skill, Pierce provides a rigorously structured mathematical thesis:

• The Intrinsic Price Target: A definitive fair value per share. No ranges, no guessing—a hard quantitative anchor.
• Margin of Safety: Pierce explicitly calculates the percentage difference between the current market price and the calculated intrinsic value. If the stock is trading at a severe discount, Pierce flags it as a high-probability value play.
• Sensitivity Analysis Matrix: This is the hallmark of professional modeling. Pierce provides a grid showing the worst-case, base-case, and best-case valuation targets depending on how the WACC and Terminal Growth rates perform.
• Sanity Checks: Pierce automatically cross-validates its DCF output against historical FCF multiples and Enterprise Value ratios to ensure the mathematical projections align with historical reality.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to run complex valuation models using these exact prompts:

• "Run a complete DCF on Apple. What is its intrinsic value?"
• "Is NVDA currently overvalued? Calculate a fair price target based on its free cash flow."
• "Run a DCF on Microsoft using a conservative 9% discount rate."
• "What is the margin of safety for Palantir based on a classic discounted cash flow model?"
• "Build a DCF for TSLA. Show me the sensitivity matrix."

By specifically requesting an "intrinsic value" or "DCF," you command Pierce to ignore relative metrics like P/E and focus on absolute cash generation.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While the DCF is the sharpest tool in a value investor's kit, be aware of its structural limitations:

• Garbage In, Garbage Out: A DCF is highly sensitive to the initial growth rate assumption. If you assume a company will grow cash flows at 40% a year for a decade, the model will output an impossibly large intrinsic value. Pierce actively caps initial growth assumptions to prevent absurd valuations, ensuring the analysis remains grounded.
• Not for Startups or Biotechs: A DCF requires a company to be generating predictable, positive Free Cash Flow. You cannot run a DCF on a pre-revenue clinical biotech company or an unprofitable software startup that is burning $1B a quarter. For those, you must rely on Comps Analysis or Total Addressable Market (TAM) models.
• Macro Sensitivity: The model is highly tied to the 10-Year Treasury Yield (which affects the discount rate). When interest rates spike aggressively, the intrinsic value of future cash flows drops mechanically.

Built for the Value Investor

The DCF Valuation skill is the ultimate anchor. In a market where a stock's price can swing wildly based on a single tweet, a DCF provides total psychological clarity. It tells you exactly what the underlying business is actually worth, giving you the confidence to buy heavily when the market panics, and the discipline to sell when the market becomes euphoric.

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Note: DCF Valuation requires extensive financial modeling compute and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run a DCF valuation for AAPL." →

Stock Analysis

Skill ID: us-stock-analysis

Full-spectrum stock research combining fundamental analysis, technical chart reading, valuation metrics, and peer comparisons into actionable investment reports.

US Stock Analysis

The US Stock Analysis skill is Pierce's flagship research engine. It condenses what would take a human analyst hours of scrubbing SEC filings, crunching valuation multiples, and charting technicals into a comprehensive, multi-mode investment report delivered in seconds.

What is the US Stock Analysis Skill?

When retail investors try to analyze a stock, they usually fall into one of two traps. Either they hyper-fixate on the fundamental story ("AI is the future") while ignoring terrible technical price action, or they hyper-fixate on a technical breakout while ignoring a disastrous, debt-laden balance sheet.

Professional analysts don't do this. They build comprehensive, 360-degree views of an asset.

The US Stock Analysis skill gives you a Wall Street-caliber research team on demand. It dynamically adjusts its depth based on exactly what kind of analysis you need—ranging from a rapid 30-second snapshot of a company's valuation to a massive, multi-page deep dive integrating fundamental trends, technical structures, competitive moats, and official SEC risk factors.

This skill isn't just regurgitating Yahoo Finance statistics; it synthesizes the data to generate a cohesive, actionable thesis.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to analyze a stock, it doesn't just give you a generic summary. It identifies your intent and runs one of four distinct, highly structured analytical workflows:

1. The Quick Snapshot: You ask, "Give me a quick overview of PLTR." Pierce pulls the current price, key valuation metrics (like Forward P/E and EV/EBITDA), revenue growth rates, and the most recent catalyst news. It gives you the "elevator pitch" in under 10 seconds.
2. Deep Fundamental Analysis: You ask, "Run a fundamental analysis on AAPL." Pierce digs into the last 3-5 years of revenue, earnings, and Free Cash Flow trends. It grades the balance sheet, assesses the company's competitive moat, and explicitly extracts the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and Risk Factors from the latest 10-K to form a fundamental Bull/Bear case.
3. Pure Technical Analysis: You ask, "What are the technicals on TSLA?" Pierce ignores the fundamental noise and mathematically evaluates the price trend. It checks the alignment of the 20, 50, and 200-day moving averages, calculates RSI and MACD momentum, identifies volume accumulation patterns, and maps out exact horizontal support and resistance levels.
4. The Comprehensive Master Report: You ask, "Give me a full investment report on MSFT." Pierce triggers everything. It merges the deep fundamental analysis with the technical structure, cross-references it with recent news, and delivers a definitive Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation, complete with a timeframe, price target, and conviction rating.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the US Stock Analysis skill, you unlock a massive suite of quantitative and qualitative data:

• Valuation Context: Pierce doesn't just tell you the P/E ratio is 45. It tells you if that 45 is cheap or expensive compared to the company's 5-year historical average and its direct industry peers.
• Financial Trend Grading: Clear assessments of whether margins are expanding or compressing, and whether revenue growth is accelerating or decelerating.
• Technical Market Structure: Translates visual chart geometry into hard data, identifying exactly where buyers (support) and sellers (resistance) are clustered.
• Synthesized Recommendations: In the Comprehensive Report mode, Pierce stakes its reputation on a definitive, data-backed thesis. It doesn't sit on the fence; it gives you a directional bias based on the convergence of fundamentals and technicals.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively direct Pierce to run specific analytical workflows using these prompts:

• "Give me a deep dive fundamental analysis on CrowdStrike. What are the major risks from their 10-K?"
• "Quick overview of Apple — what's the forward P/E and recent quarter's growth rate?"
• "Is Palantir overvalued at its current price? Compare it to its historical multiples."
• "Run a pure technical analysis of Tesla — what is the primary trend, and where are the key support levels?"
• "Full comprehensive investment report on Microsoft. Give me a Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation with a price target."

By tweaking your prompt (e.g., asking for a "quick overview" vs. a "comprehensive report"), you control how Pierce digs.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While this allows you to generate institutional-grade research instantly, keep these fundamental principles in mind:

• The "Overvaluation" Trap: Pierce may flag a high-growth tech stock as "severely overvalued" based on traditional fundamental metrics (like a P/E of 100). However, in strong bull markets, leading growth stocks can remain fundamentally "overvalued" for years while their technical trends push them hundreds of percent higher. Always pair fundamental analysis with technical reality.
• Static vs. Dynamic: A comprehensive report is an analysis of a stock at this exact moment in time. If the company reports earnings tomorrow, or the macro environment shifts drastically, the thesis must be updated.
• US Equities Only: As the name implies, this skill is optimized for US-listed securities. It relies heavily on SEC EDGAR filings (10-Ks, 10-Qs). It will struggle to run a full fundamental teardown on international stocks on foreign exchanges that do not adhere to GAAP reporting standards.

Built for the Thorough Retail Trader

Blindly buying a stock because someone on Twitter mentioned a ticker is a recipe for disaster. The US Stock Analysis skill forces you to trade with your eyes wide open. By instantly generating deep, unbiased fundamental and technical research, Pierce ensures you understand exactly what you own, why you own it, and what the structural risks are before you risk a single dollar.

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Note: US Stock Analysis is a core research capability and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Give me a full breakdown on Apple stock — fundamentals, technical picture, risks, and whether I should buy or add to a position." →

CANSLIM [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: canslim-methodology

Evaluate a stock using William O'Neil's seven-point CANSLIM framework covering earnings growth, institutional sponsorship, and market direction.

CANSLIM Methodology

The CANSLIM skill digitizes William J. O'Neil's legendary growth investing framework. It aggressively screens individual stocks against a strict, seven-point checklist that combines hyper-growth fundamentals with explosive technical price action.

What is the CANSLIM Methodology?

Value investing (buying cheap, beaten-down stocks) works, but it can take years. Growth investing is entirely different. Growth investing is about identifying the companies that are fundamentally changing the world right now, and buying them as they enter massive, parabolic technical uptrends.

In the 1980s, legendary trader William J. O'Neil analyzed the greatest winning stocks of the past 100 years. He discovered they all shared seven distinct characteristics before they went on their massive runs. He codified those characteristics into the CANSLIM acronym.

The CANSLIM Methodology skill applies this exact institutional framework to modern markets. It refuses to look at "cheap" stocks. Instead, it hunts for the undeniable market leaders—the stocks flashing massive fundamental acceleration backed by undeniable institutional buying pressure.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to run a CANSLIM analysis, it executes a brutal, dual-pronged fundamental and technical stress test:

1. C - Current Quarterly Earnings: Pierce checks the most recent quarter. Is Earnings Per Share (EPS) up at least 25% year-over-year? If earnings are decelerating, the company fails immediately.
2. A - Annual Earnings Growth: One good quarter isn't enough. Pierce verifies that the company has compounded its annual EPS by at least 25% over the last 3-5 years, proving structural stability.
3. N - New Products/Management/Highs: The great stock market runs are always fueled by something New. An iPhone launch. A new AI chip. A brilliant new CEO. Pierce scans the news and the chart, verifying if the fundamental narrative is fresh and if the stock is technically hitting New 52-Week Highs.
4. S - Supply and Demand: Pierce checks the trading volume. If the stock is drifting higher on low volume, retail is buying. If the stock is exploding higher on volume 300% above average, institutions are accumulating. The stock must show heavy institutional demand.
5. L - Leader or Laggard: Pierce calculates the Relative Strength Rating. The stock must mathematically be outperforming at least 80% of the entire stock market. CANSLIM only buys the absolute leaders.
6. I - Institutional Sponsorship: Are mutual funds and hedge funds actively buying the stock? Pierce checks ownership data to ensure the "smart money" is backing the move.
7. M - Market Direction: Three out of four stocks follow the general market. Pierce strictly forbids buying even the best CANSLIM stock if the broader market (S&P 500 / Nasdaq) is in a confirmed, technical downtrend.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the CANSLIM skill, Pierce provides a binary, actionable report card:

• The CANSLIM Scorecard: A clear pass/fail grade for each of the 7 criteria.
• The Acceleration Check: Pierce highlights if fundamental growth is actually speeding up (e.g., EPS grew 20% last quarter, but 40% this quarter).
• The Technical Filter: Unlike a pure fundamental analysis tools, this skill will explicitly reject a fundamentally amazing company if the chart is broken or trading below its 200-day moving average.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can push Pierce to evaluate market leaders using these explicit prompts:

• "Does CrowdStrike (CRWD) currently pass the CANSLIM criteria?"
• "Run a CANSLIM check on Celsius Holdings. Are their earnings accelerating fast enough?"
• "Is Palantir a leader or a laggard right now? Check its Relative Strength."
• "I am looking at this software stock. Is it a good growth investment based on William O'Neil's rules?"
• "Does Tesla pass the fundamental requirements for the 'C' and 'A' in CANSLIM?"

By asking for a "CANSLIM" check, you instruct Pierce to look for hyper-growth rather than traditional value.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The CANSLIM framework has minted millionaires, but the rules are unforgiving:

• High Valuation Tolerance: CANSLIM completely ignores traditional value metrics like the Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio. By the time a stock passes the CANSLIM criteria, it will often look horrifyingly "expensive" to a value investor. This framework is about momentum and growth, not hunting for bargains.
• Aggressive Stop-Losses Required: O'Neil explicitly mandated that any CANSLIM stock that drops 7% to 8% from your purchase price must be sold immediately, no questions asked. The high-beta nature of these stocks means small pullbacks can quickly become 40% crashes if the growth narrative breaks.
• Market Dependency: The "M" in CANSLIM is non-negotiable. If the Market Direction is pointing down, Pierce will warn you that the entire methodology is temporarily invalid. Do not deploy money into growth stocks during a bear market.

Built for the Momentum Investor

You don't get rich buying mediocre companies. You get rich by finding the absolute best companies in the world, at the exact moment their earnings explode, and holding them while Wall Street desperately piles in. The CANSLIM skill gives you the exact formula to identify those precise, life-changing setups.

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Note: The CANSLIM skill requires deep fundamental screening and volume analysis, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Evaluate TSLA using the CANSLIM methodology." →

CANSLIM Screener [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: canslim-screener

Screen stocks against CANSLIM growth framework for ranked candidates

CANSLIM Screener

The CANSLIM Screener is a high-octane growth engine. It automates William J. O'Neil's famous 7-step fundamental and technical framework, evaluating massive watchlists of stocks to surface the absolute highest-conviction momentum leaders in the market.

What is a CANSLIM Screener?

The CANSLIM Methodology is brilliant in theory, but exhausting in practice. Running a manual CANSLIM analysis requires pulling the last four quarters of earnings, calculating the 3-year compound annual growth rate, checking the institutional sponsorship data, charting the relative strength, and verifying the supply/demand volume dynamics. Doing this manually for one stock takes ten minutes. Doing it for the S&P 500 would take an entire week—by which time the data would be stale.

The CANSLIM Screener skill solves this computational bottleneck. It acts as a massive dragnet, pulling quantitative data across entire baskets of stocks (like the S&P Top 100), running every single ticker through the strict 7-part O'Neil stress-test simultaneously, and ranking them by their theoretical perfection.

Instead of hunting for the needle, the screener just hands you the needle.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to run a CANSLIM screen, it executes a massive parallel batch operation:

1. Universe Selection: Pierce dials into a specific universe of stocks—typically the top 50 or 100 most liquid companies in the S&P 500—ensuring it only scans companies with adequate institutional liquidity.

2. Data Aggregation: For every single stock, Pierce aggressively queries the Financial Datasets API for quarterly earnings, annual EPS, relative price history, and institutional float data.

3. The 7-Factor Scoring: Every stock is instantly graded against the CAN SLIM criteria:

   • Current Quarter EPS Growth (Target: >25%)
   • Annual earnings CAGR (Target: >25%)
   • Proximity to 52-week Highs
   • Supply/Demand Volume characteristics
   • Leader/Laggard Relative Strength
   • Institutional Buying trends
   • Broader Market Direction

4. Weighted Composite Grading: Pierce calculates a 0-7 CANSLIM Score (pass count) and a 0-100 Composite Score for each stock:

   • C (Current Quarterly Earnings): 1.0 point if earnings_growth >= 20%, 0.5 points if 0% to 20%, else 0.0 (Weight: 15%).
   • A (Annual Earnings Growth): 1.0 point if return_on_equity >= 15%, 0.5 points if 5% to 15%, else 0.0 (Weight: 20%).
   • N (New Products/Highs): 1.0 point if current price is within 15% of its 52-week high, else 0.0 (Weight: 15%).
   • S (Supply and Demand): 1.0 point if peg_ratio < 2.5 or shares_outstanding < 100M, else 0.5 (Weight: 15%).
   • L (Leader or Laggard): 1.0 point if price > sma_50, 0.5 points if price > sma_200, else 0.0 (Weight: 20%).
   • I (Institutional Sponsorship): 1.0 point if average_sentiment_score > 0.1 or sentiment_label is Bullish, else 0.5 (Weight: 10%).
   • M (Market Direction): 1.0 point if S&P 500 / Nasdaq is in a confirmed uptrend (above its 200-day moving average), else 0.0 (Weight: 5%).

   Missing Data: If a metric is missing, a neutral default of 0.7 points is assigned for that factor.

   Formula:

   • CANSLIM Score: Total number of passed factors (e.g. 5/7).
   • Composite Score: (C * 15) + (A * 20) + (N * 15) + (S * 15) + (L * 20) + (I * 10) + (M * 5) (rounded to nearest integer).

5. Filtration & Delivery: Pierce discards the failures and presents you with the absolute top 5 to 10 candidates that perfectly align with the CANSLIM growth philosophy, ranked in descending order of their Composite Score.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the CANSLIM Screener, you receive a perfectly structured list of momentum targets:

• The CANSLIM Leaderboard: A purely mathematical ranking of the best growth stocks in the market right now.
• Factor Breakdown: A clear, tabular view showing the filtered tickers alongside their earnings growth, operating margin, and ROE.
• Data Note & Vintage: Explicit confirmation of the metric reporting period (latest TTM/annual data).
• Analyst Commentary & Strict Thresholds: A tactical write-up on the top candidates, highlighting O'Neil criteria tie-ins and explicitly calling out strict thresholds (such as the target of 25%+ earnings growth).
• Pulse Hint: Prompt to save the screen as a recurring Pulse for weekly updates.
• Robust Fallback: If the primary screener database query fails, the agent automatically falls back to targeted analysis of requested tickers via financial snapshot tools with a transparent notice.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to harvest growth candidates using these explicit prompts:

• "Run a CANSLIM screen on the top 100 stocks in the S&P 500."
• "Which stocks score highest on the CANSLIM framework right now?"
• "Find the best growth stocks using O'Neil's methodology. Give me the top 5."
• "Show me top CANSLIM candidates with the strongest earnings growth."
• "I have a watchlist of tech stocks. Run them through the CANSLIM screener and rank them."

By explicitly asking to "run a screen," you command Pierce to evaluate an entire group of stocks rather than a single ticker.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The CANSLIM Screener is the ultimate hunting tool, but keep these constraints in mind:

• Quality Over Quantity: The CANSLIM rules are so strict that during a bear market, the screener might return zero candidates. This is a feature, not a bug. If no stocks survive the screen, it is the market's mathematical way of telling you that you should be sitting in cash.
• The Screen is Not a Buy Order: A stock might score a perfect 100 on the screener, but if the chart shows the stock is extended 30% above its optimal entry point, you cannot safely buy it. The screener finds the candidates; you must use the Technical Analyst skill to find the entry.
• Look Out for Earnings Events: The screener will prioritize stocks with massive recent earnings beats. Ensure you check the Economic Calendar to verify you aren't accidentally buying a top-ranked CANSLIM stock three days before its next earnings report.

Built for the Time-Starved Trader

Finding true market leaders requires sifting through thousands of fundamentally garbage companies. The CANSLIM Screener acts as an automated filter, instantly rejecting the losers and presenting you with a hyper-curated list of the most explosive, institutionally-backed growth stocks on Wall Street.

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Note: The CANSLIM Screener requires massive API calls across enormous data sets and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the CANSLIM screener for AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA." →

Comps Analysis [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: comps-analysis

Benchmark a company against its closest peers with automated comparable company tables covering P/E, P/S, margins, and growth rates.

Comparable Company Analysis (Comps)

The Comps Analysis skill automates one of the most tedious, time-consuming tasks in investment banking. It instantly builds a side-by-side valuation and performance table, allowing you to instantly identify if a stock is dangerously overpriced compared to its direct industry rivals.

What is Comps Analysis?

Valuation is relative. If you see a company trading at a Forward P/E of 30, is that cheap or expensive? The answer depends entirely on the industry. A P/E of 30 is incredibly cheap for a hyper-growth enterprise software company, but it is disastrously expensive for a legacy steel manufacturer.

To figure out what a stock is actually worth, professional analysts use a "Comparable Company Analysis" (Comps). They take the target company and line it up against 3 to 5 of its closest direct competitors. They then compare their revenue growth, gross margins, and valuation multiples side-by-side. If two companies have the exact same growth rate and profit margins, but Company A trades at half the valuation multiple of Company B, Company A is likely a massive value play.

Historically, retail traders had to spend hours pulling data from Yahoo Finance, standardizing the metrics in an Excel spreadsheet, and constantly updating the prices. The Comps Analysis skill gives Pierce the ability to execute this entire workflow in seconds.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to compare a stock to its peers, it triggers a fully automated quantitative workflow:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "Run a comps analysis on AMD." Pierce understands you need relative valuation data.
2. Dynamic Peer Identification: Pierce doesn't just guess. It autonomously identifies 3 to 5 of the closest publicly traded direct competitors based on business model, market capitalization, and GICS sub-industry (e.g., matching AMD with Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm).
3. Data Aggregation: Pierce instantly pulls real-time financial and valuation data for the target company and all the selected peers.
4. Table Construction & Synthesis: Pierce formats the raw data into a clean, easy-to-read markdown table. It then analyzes that table on your behalf, generating concise bullet points highlighting the most important takeaways (e.g., "AMD has the highest revenue growth, but INTC is trading at a severe historical discount").

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the Comps Analysis skill, Pierce provides a rigorously structured dataset:

• The Comps Table: A fully formatted matrix cross-referencing your target stock with its peers. It automatically includes critical metrics:
  • Market Capitalization
  • Forward P/E Ratio (or TTM P/E)
  • Price-to-Sales (P/S) Ratio
  • Gross Margin %
  • Year-over-Year (YoY) Revenue Growth %
  • 1-Year Stock Performance %
• Outlier Detection: Pierce actively flags anomalies in the data. If a company has margins that are 20% lower than the industry average, Pierce will highlight it as a structural weakness.
• "Best in Class" Identification: Based on the table, Pierce will explicitly identify which stock offers the best growth-to-valuation ratio (GARP), helping you optimize your capital allocation within a specific sector.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to run relative valuations using these prompts:

• "Run a comps analysis on Uber."
• "Build a comparative valuation table for the major US airlines. Who is the cheapest based on Forward P/E?"
• "How does Target's valuation compare to its direct retail peers?"
• "Run a comps table on cybersecurity stocks (CRWD, PANW, ZS, FTNT). Which has the best gross margin profile?"
• "Compare META vs GOOGL vs SNAP. Who is offering the best value right now?"

By specifically asking for a "comps analysis," you guarantee Pierce will format the data into a structured comparative table rather than just giving you a text summary.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While Comps Analysis is a fundamental pillar of equity research, you must understand its limitations:

• The "Garbage In, Garbage Out" Trap: If the peer group is wrong, the analysis is useless. Pierce is highly accurate at identifying direct peers, but some companies (like Amazon or Tesla) have hybrid business models that defy simple categorization. Comparing Tesla to Ford on a P/E basis will always make Tesla look absurdly overvalued, because Tesla trades like a tech stock, not an automaker.
• Accounting Distortions: The comps table pulls standardized GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) metrics. A single massive, one-time tax write-off or acquisition cost can severely distort a company's TTM P/E ratio, making them look artificially expensive for a quarter.
• Growth justifies Multiples: Always read the P/E ratio in context with the revenue growth. A company is "allowed" to have a wildly expensive P/E if their YoY Revenue Growth is double the industry average. Pierce usually synthesizes this dynamic, but you must be aware of it when reading the raw table.

Built for the Value & GARP Trader

Before you ever buy a breakout or "buy the dip" on a fundamentally strong company, you should run a Comps Analysis. It is the ultimate sanity check. By forcing Pierce to compare your target stock against its rivals, you ensure you are never the sucker paying a premium for a second-tier company.

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Note: Comps Analysis requires complex, multi-ticker financial data aggregation and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run a comps analysis for TSLA. Compare Tesla to Ford, GM, and NIO. Build a table with valuation multiples, growth, and margins, then give key takeaways on relative valuation." →

Investment Memo Generator [PRO]

Skill ID: write-memo

Draft a professional buyside investment memo (HTML output) with Bear, Base, and Bull scenarios, and optional DCF anchors.

Investment Memo Generator

The Investment Memo Generator is Pierce's premium buyside synthesis engine. It automates the exhaustive workflow of a hedge fund or mutual fund equity research analyst, compiling real-time financial statements, risk factors, and valuation metrics into a professional, printable, one-page HTML investment memo.

What is a Buyside Investment Memo?

In institutional investing, analysts do not pitch stocks with simple charts or generic "buy" ratings. Instead, they present highly structured, opinionated, and falsifiable Investment Memos to their Portfolio Managers (PMs).

A professional buyside memo follows a strict format:

1. The Variant View: What does the analyst see that the market consensus is missing? (e.g. "We believe market consensus is underestimating ad-tier growth by 300bps because of recent operating shifts...").
2. Falsifiable Thesis Bullets: Operational claims backed by quantitative evidence, and critically, a defined "Wrong If" tripwire naming exactly what observable data point would invalidate the claim.
3. Steelmanned Bear Case: The negative case written with as much conviction as if you believed it, ensuring the PM understands the structural downside risks.
4. Driver-Based Scenarios: A rigorous probability-weighted Bear / Base / Bull matrix mapping revenue, margins, exit multiples, and expected returns.

The Investment Memo Generator skill orchestrates this entire pipeline autonomously, acting as a tireless junior analyst.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When triggered (e.g. by asking to "write a long memo on NVDA"), the agent executes a highly structured 8-step quantitative and qualitative workflow:

1. Trade Framing: Establish ticker, direction (long/short), holding horizon, and conviction levels. Formulate the variant view.
2. Parallel Data Triage: Issuing multiple database and filing queries concurrently:
   • Financials: Last 5 years of income and cash flow statements, latest balance sheet, and segment breakdowns.
   • Market Context: Insider trades, top institutional holdings, and recent material news.
   • Regulatory Filings: Item 1 (Business) and Item 1A (Risk Factors) from the latest SEC 10-K and 10-Q.
3. Driver-Based Scenarios: Model explicit operational drivers (revenue growth, margins, and multiples) for Bear, Base, and Bull cases, calculating probability-weighted expected returns and asymmetry ratios.
4. DCF Cross-Check: Call the intrinsic fair value DCF engine to anchor the base case.
5. buyside Styling & Tone: Draft the memo according to strict institutional style guidelines (first-person plural, direct falsifiable claims, eliminating general AI fluff).
6. HTML Rendering: Populate the premium serif typography print-friendly HTML template and save the file directly to your Cloud Drive.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can trigger the memo generator using these direct command variations:

• "/write-memo long Apple. Variant view: iPhone upgrade cycle is underestimated."
• "Draft a short investment memo on Tesla with a 12-month horizon."
• "Write up a buyside thesis pitching NVDA as a long-term compounder."
• "Pitch the stock NFLX with a 10% NAV target size."

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Note: The Investment Memo Generator is a premium capability and is available exclusively to users on the PRO plan tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Draft a 12-month investment memo on TSLA. Focus on the autonomy/AI story vs. core auto margin compression." →

Earnings Intelligence

PEAD Screener

Skill ID: pead-screener

Post-Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) screener. Identifies stocks that recently gapped up on earnings with strong volume, triggering potential drift continuation setups.

PEAD Screener

The PEAD (Post-Earnings Announcement Drift) Screener exploits one of the most rigorously documented, mathematically proven anomalies in the stock market. It hunts for companies that have recently shocked Wall Street with a massive earnings beat and gapped up on huge volume, allowing you to ride the institutional "drift" upward over the following weeks.

What is Post-Earnings Announcement Drift?

According to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, if a company reports blowout earnings, the stock price should gap up instantly to perfectly reflect the new valuation, and then stop moving. But reality is different.

Decades of academic research have proven the existence of Post-Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD). When a company unexpectedly crushes earnings, Wall Street analysts are slow to update their models. Massive institutional mutual funds cannot buy billions of dollars of stock in a single day without crashing the system, so they are forced to buy slowly, over the course of weeks or months.

This creates a slow, persistent, highly predictable "drift" upward in the stock price after the initial earnings gap.

The PEAD Screener skill programmatically scours the market for these exact institutional footprints. It finds the stocks that exploded yesterday, so you can ride the drift tomorrow.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a PEAD scan, it executes a highly specific fundamental and technical crossover search:

1. The Fundamental Shock Filter: Pierce first queries the broader market database for companies exhibiting extreme fundamental acceleration (e.g., EPS growth > 20% and Sales growth > 20%). A stock cannot trigger a PEAD run unless the underlying financial surprise was massive.
2. The Liquidity Filter: PEAD relies on institutional buying pressure. Pierce automatically filters out illiquid micro-caps where a single retail trader could randomly spike the volume.
3. The Technical "Gap" Identification: Pierce takes the list of fundamental winners and inspects their recent daily price action. It specifically hunts for a massive single-day gap up (e.g., the stock opened 10% higher than it closed the previous day) accompanied by explosive, undeniable volume (e.g., 300% to 500% above average daily volume).
4. Consolidation Analysis: The safest way to trade a PEAD is to wait for the stock to pause after the initial gap. Pierce evaluates the chart to see if the stock is holding its gains and consolidating in a tight, tradable pattern (like a "High and Tight Flag").

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the PEAD Screener, you receive a curated list of high-momentum catalysts:

• The Catalyst Table: A clean breakdown of the surviving stocks ranked by their Composite Score. It includes the PEAD Score (passes out of 5) and Composite Score (0-100 weighted index).
  • PEAD Score: Counts how many criteria are passed (EPS Growth >= 20%, Sales Growth >= 20%, positive gap, elevated volume, price > SMA50).
  • Composite Score: Weighted out of 100 to reward the strongest fundamental surprises and the best technical flag setups:
    • EPS Growth (35%): Growth >= 40% (100% score), 20-40% (70% score).
    • Sales Growth (25%): Growth >= 30% (100% score), 20-30% (70% score).
    • Technical Setup (20%): Price > SMA50 and within 10% of 52w high (100% score), price > SMA200 (50% score).
    • Volume & Liquidity (20%): PEG < 2.0 or volume acceleration (100% score), else 50%.
• The Setup Verdict: Pierce evaluates the exact technical structure following the gap. Did the stock gap up and then instantly crash back down (a "gap and crap")? Or did it gap up and quietly move sideways, building energy for a secondary breakout?
• The Absolute Floor (Stop-Loss): Pierce provides the golden rule of PEAD trading: Never let a PEAD stock close below the low of the earnings gap day. It will explicitly highlight this risk-management parameter for you.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to hunt for earnings momentum using these specific prompts:

• "Run a PEAD screen. Find me tech stocks that recently gapped up on massive earnings growth."
• "Scan the market for Post-Earnings Announcement Drift candidates. Include EPS growth and gap size."
• "What liquid stocks have gapped up more than 10% in the last month on 300% volume?"
• "I'm looking for high-and-tight flags that formed after a massive earnings surprise. Run the PEAD screener."

By explicitly asking for the "PEAD" screener, you trigger the search for the specific gap-and-drift anomaly.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Trading the PEAD anomaly can be incredibly lucrative, but it requires strict structural discipline:

• You Are Buying "High": PEAD trading is deeply uncomfortable for value investors because you are explicitly buying a stock after it has already exploded 15% upward. You must trust the math that the institutional drift will carry it higher.
• The "Low of the Gap Day" Rules All: If you buy a PEAD candidate, and the stock eventually falls and drops below the lowest price recorded on the day it originally gapped up, the thesis is completely invalidated. The institutional buying was a fake-out. You must sell immediately.
• Volume is the Only Truth: A 15% earnings gap on terrible, below-average volume is a trap set by market makers to trap retail traders. The PEAD screener prioritizes setups where the volume is so massive it can only have been generated by institutions.

Built for the Momentum Surfer

Catching the exact bottom of a stock is impossible. The PEAD Screener doesn't try. Instead, it waits for a company to explicitly prove to the entire market that its business is exploding, waits for the massive institutions to start allocating capital, and then allows you to safely surf the resulting wave of forced institutional buying.

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Note: The PEAD Screener requires intensive historical volume and gap detection algorithms and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the PEAD screener for AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA." →

Earnings Calendar [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: earnings-calendar-screener

Upcoming earnings events filtered by market cap with estimates

Earnings Calendar Screener

The Earnings Calendar Screener is your forward-looking radar. Instead of getting blindsided by sudden 20% drops in your portfolio, this skill proactively scans the market to identify exactly which major companies are reporting earnings in the coming days, arming you with EPS and revenue estimates before the bell rings.

Why Track the Earnings Calendar?

Earnings season is the most volatile, dangerous, and lucrative period in the stock market. Four times a year, companies open their books to the public. If a company beats expectations, the stock can explode upward. If they miss expectations—or worse, lower their forward guidance—the stock can instantly crash overnight.

Amateur traders often buy a stock on Tuesday, only to watch it collapse on Wednesday because they had no idea the company was scheduled to report earnings. This is an unforced error.

Professional traders treat the earnings calendar as a battlefield map. They know exactly when every company in their portfolio (and their competitors) is reporting. They use this information to either aggressively hedge their positions, take profits down to avoid the binary risk, or proactively set up volatility trades.

The Earnings Calendar Screener automates this reconnaissance, instantly compiling a clean, categorized list of all upcoming major market events.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for an earnings preview, it executes a highly targeted calendar extraction:

1. Market Cap Filtration: By default, Pierce ignores micro-caps and penny stocks. It screens specifically for mid-to-large-cap companies (Market Cap > $2 Billion) because these are the companies that actually move entire sectors and indices.
2. Date Extraction: Pierce isolates the precise upcoming timeframe you request (e.g., "tomorrow," "next week," or "the next 7 days").
3. Timing Categorization: Crucially, it categorizes exactly when the report drops. It splits the calendar into BMO (Before Market Open) and AMC (After Market Close), allowing you to accurately time your executions.
4. Estimate Aggregation: Pierce doesn't just give you the date; it pulls the consensus Wall Street estimates. It delivers the expected Earnings Per Share (EPS) and the projected Revenue, giving you the exact benchmark the company must beat.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Earnings Calendar Screener, you receive a master schedule of market catalysts:

• The Day-by-Day Roster: A clean schedule of who is reporting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.
• Event Timing: Explicit labeling of whether the event is Before Open or After Close.
• The Whisper Numbers: The explicit Wall Street estimates for EPS and Revenue that the stock will be graded against.
• Sector Heatmaps: A quick summary of which sectors are dominating the upcoming week (e.g., "This is a heavy Tech and Semiconductor reporting week").

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to map out your upcoming trading week using these explicit prompts:

• "Show me the earnings calendar for the next 7 days."
• "Which companies report earnings tomorrow?"
• "I need to know who's reporting next week. Filter out the small caps."
• "Are there any major tech companies reporting earnings this week?"

By explicitly asking for the "earnings calendar" or asking "who is reporting," you trigger the forward-looking event scanner.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Earnings Calendar is an observational tool, not a trading strategy. Keep these critical realities in mind:

• The "Beat and Drop" Phenomenon: Do not blindly buy a stock just because you think it will beat the EPS estimate. Often, a stock will crush earnings estimates and still crash 15% because management lowered their future guidance, or because the "good news" was already priced in.
• Sympathy Moves: If you own AMD, you must know when NVIDIA reports earnings. Even if AMD doesn't report this week, a terrible earnings report from NVIDIA will drag the entire semiconductor sector down with it. Read the calendar holistically.
• Binary Risk: Holding a massive position through an earnings report is essentially a coin flip. If you do not have a massive profit cushion built up in the stock, it is almost always safer to reduce your position size before the report drops.

Built for the Prepared Professional

Surprise is the enemy of the profitable trader. The Earnings Calendar Screener ensures you are never caught off guard by a scheduled volatility event. By knowing exactly when the catalysts are occurring, you can transition from reacting to the market in a panic, to anticipating the market with a plan.

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Note: The Earnings Calendar Screener requires real-time consensus estimate data and is included in the Preferred tier and above. You can easily automate this skill by saving it as a weekly Pierce Pulse.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Show me the earnings calendar for AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA this week." →

Earnings Preview [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: earnings-preview

Prepare for earnings season with consensus estimates, implied options moves, whisper numbers, and pre-print stock setup analysis.

Earnings Preview

The Earnings Preview skill is your ultimate pre-game scouting report. It synthesizes Wall Street consensus, options market implied volatility, and the fundamental setup to tell you exactly what the market is pricing in before a company reports earnings.

What is an Earnings Preview?

Trading an earnings release without knowing the expectations is like walking into a minefield blindfolded.

A company can report record-breaking revenue and massive profits, yet see its stock plummet 15% in after-hours trading. Why? Because the market is a forward-looking discount mechanism. The stock price going into the report already has a specific set of expectations baked into it. If Wall Street expected 50% revenue growth, and the company only delivered 40%, it is a massive failure in the eyes of the market—even if 40% growth is objectively fantastic.

To survive earnings season, you must know what the "Whisper Numbers" are. You must know what the options market expects the stock to do. You must know the exact narrative management needs to beat to avoid a sell-off.

The Earnings Preview skill automates this entire intelligence-gathering process. It builds a comprehensive, institutional-grade briefing document that prepares you for the binary event of an earnings print.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for an earnings preview ahead of a major report, it runs a highly specific, pre-event analytical workflow:

1. Logistics & Consensus Extraction: Pierce first locks down the exact reporting date (e.g., Tuesday After Market Close). It then pulls the hard numbers: what is the Street expecting for Revenue, Earnings Per Share (EPS), and forward guidance?
2. Current Setup Analysis: Pierce analyzes the stock's price action leading up to the print. Is the stock up 40% in the last month, meaning perfection is already priced in? Or is it trading at 52-week lows, meaning any slightly positive news could trigger a massive short squeeze?
3. Previous Quarter Context: Pierce reviews the narrative from the last quarter. Did management promise a new AI product launch by Q3? If so, Pierce flags that the market will ruthlessly scrutinize that specific promise in the upcoming report.
4. Narrative & Whisper Number Synthesis: Pierce scours recent analyst notes and financial media to extract the "Whisper Numbers"—the unofficial expectations that are often much higher or lower than the rigid consensus estimates.
5. Implied Volatility Check: Pierce analyzes the options chain to give you the "Implied Move." It tells you mathematically exactly what percentage move (+/-) the options market is currently pricing in for the stock post-earnings.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running an Earnings Preview, Pierce equips you with actionable pre-event intelligence:

• The Consensus Bar: The exact Revenue and EPS targets the company must beat.
• The Implied Move: A critical risk-management metric. If the options market implies a +/- 12% move, and your position size cannot survive a 12% drawdown, you objectively have too much risk on the table.
• The Core Narrative: A synthesized list of the 2-3 specific questions management must answer during the conference call (e.g., "Are gross margins finally expanding?" or "Are cloud computing revenues slowing down?").
• Setup Classification: A definitive read on the psychological setup—whether the stock requires a "perfect" print to go higher, or if pessimism is so extreme that a mediocre print will trigger a rally.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to generate these briefing documents in the days leading up to an earnings release:

• "Give me an earnings preview for Netflix. What is the street expecting for subscriber growth?"
• "What is the setup and implied options move for NVIDIA's earnings tomorrow?"
• "Run a pre-earnings analysis on PLTR. What are the whisper numbers?"
• "What are the biggest risks heading into Tesla's earnings report next week?"
• "Based on its recent run-up, is perfection already priced into Meta's earnings?"

By explicitly asking for a "preview," you force Pierce to focus on the forward-looking expectations rather than historical data.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While the Earnings Preview gives you the playbook, earnings reports remain inherently unpredictable events:

• The "Guidance" Factor: A company can beat Revenue and EPS expectations flawlessly, but if they lower their forward guidance for the next quarter by even 1%, the stock will likely crash. The Earnings Preview attempts to forecast guidance narratives, but management's internal projections are impossible to know in advance.
• Options Pricing is Probabilistic: An implied move of 10% is what market makers expect based on current volatility, but outlier moves of 25%+ can and do happen if the report is a total disaster or an incredible surprise. Never treat the implied move as a hard limit.
• Binary Risk: Holding direction long or short through an earnings report is effectively gambling, regardless of how good your analysis is. Professional traders use Earnings Previews to manage risk and size positions, not to place blind bets on a coin toss.

Built for the Tactical Trader

Earnings season separates the professionals from the amateurs. Amateurs guess whether a stock goes up or down based on a hunch. Professionals know exactly what the market is pricing in, where the volatility is, and what narrative needs to unfold. The Earnings Preview skill gives you that professional edge, ensuring you are never caught off guard during the most volatile weeks of the trading year.

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Note: Earnings Preview requires live market tracking and options chain analysis, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Give me an earnings preview for TSLA." →

Earnings Trade Analyzer [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: earnings-trade-analyzer

Screen and grade stocks by earnings growth strength for trade setups

Earnings Trade Analyzer

The Earnings Trade Analyzer completely removes the guesswork from trading post-earnings momentum. It automatically hunts down every stock that gapped up on earnings and algorithmically grades them from 'A' to 'F' based on five distinct structural health factors, handing you a curated list of elite trade setups.

Why Analyze the Post-Earnings Gap?

A massive earnings gap is one of the most powerful catalysts in the stock market. However, not all gaps are created equal.

Amateur traders see a stock gap up 15% on earnings and blindly buy it, only to watch it collapse by noon (the notorious "gap and crap"). They failed to realize that the stock was in a massive 200-day downtrend, and the 15% gap up simply provided institutional bagholders the perfect high-liquidity exit to dump their shares.

Professional momentum traders only buy earnings gaps when the underlying structural conditions are perfect. The gap must be supported by long-term uptrends, explosive institutional volume, and safe proximity to moving averages.

The Earnings Trade Analyzer mathematically calculates these exact conditions. It scores and ranks every post-earnings gap in the market so you only risk capital on the highest-probability, 'A-Grade' setups.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to analyze recent earnings trades, it runs a heavy automated grading system:

1. The Catalyst Query: Pierce queries the market database for all liquid, mid-to-large cap stocks (>$1B) that have reported massive, positive quarterly earnings growth within the recent cycle.
2. The 5-Factor Score: For every stock that gapped up on earnings, Pierce runs a technical analysis and scores it out of 100 based on five rigid factors:
   • The Gap (%): A larger initial gap implies a stronger institutional surprise.
   • Pre-Earnings Trend: Was the stock already in an established uptrend, or is it trying to reverse a death spiral? (Uptrends score significantly higher).
   • Volume Ratio: Was the gap fueled by average daily volume, or massive institutional buying pressure (e.g., 300%+ above average)?
   • Position vs. 200-Day MA: Is the stock safely trading above its primary institutional baseline?
   • Position vs. 50-Day MA: Is the stock supported by short-term momentum?
3. The Letter Grade System: Pierce translates the complex data into an immediate, actionable Letter Grade (A, B, C, or D).

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Earnings Trade Analyzer, you receive a master cheat sheet of the best momentum setups in the market:

• The Graded Roster: A clean, ranked list of post-earnings movers, immediately telling you if the setup is "A-grade" or "D-grade."
• The Composite Score: The exact 0-100 rating that determined the letter grade.
• The Structural Details: The raw data backing up the score, including the exact volume ratio and moving average positions.
• Top 5 Deep Dive: For the highest-scoring setups, Pierce provides a full paragraph synthesizing the analysis and explaining exactly why this is a high-probability trade.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to grade the market's momentum targets using these specific prompts:

• "Analyze recent earnings gaps. Which ones are worth trading?"
• "Run the earnings trade analyzer. Show me the 'A-Grade' setups."
• "What stocks gapped up on earnings recently? Score their setups."
• "Find me the best post-earnings trade setups backed by huge volume."

By explicitly asking to "score" or "analyze" earnings trades, you trigger the automated grading matrix.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Grading a trade setup is the first step, but tactical execution still matters:

• Wait for the Pause: Even 'A-Grade' earnings gaps usually need 3 to 5 days to "digest" the move. Do not blindly buy the stock on the morning of the massive gap. Wait for the stock to consolidate in a tight flag or pull back slightly before entering.
• The Overextended Penalty: If a stock gaps up 40% and is now trading 50% above its 50-day moving average, Pierce may actually penalize the score. The stock is too "extended" to safely buy without a heavy risk of a deeply painful mean-reversion pullback.
• D-Grades are Short Candidates: If a stock gaps up on earnings but receives a 'D' grade because it is trapped under a declining 200-day moving average, it is a prime candidate to "fade" (short sell) as the initial hype collapses.

Built for the Earnings Sniper

A great earnings report does not automatically guarantee a great trade. The Earnings Trade Analyzer forces you to ignore the noise and focus purely on structure. By filtering out the low-quality "gap and crap" run-ups, this skill ensures you only deploy capital into fully aligned, highly liquid 'A-grade' momentum setups.

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Note: The Earnings Trade Analyzer requires complex composite scoring of both fundamental growth and technical positioning, and is included in the Preferred tier and above. Save this query as a Pulse to automatically receive a graded list of setups at the end of every week during earnings season.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze earnings trade for AAPL." →

Earnings Update [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: earnings-update

Instantly synthesize quarterly earnings reports with beat/miss breakdowns, forward guidance analysis, and management tone assessment.

Earnings Update

The Earnings Update skill is your post-game financial analyst. It instantly synthesizes massive quarterly earnings reports, conference call transcripts, and forward guidance, distilling hours of corporate jargon into a clear, actionable executive briefing.

What is an Earnings Update?

Four times a year, every publicly traded company releases a massive dump of financial data. They publish a dense press release, an 8-K filing, an updated income statement, and then proceed to host an hour-long conference call where the CEO and CFO field rapid-fire questions from Wall Street analysts.

For a retail trader, digesting this amount of information before the market opens is nearly impossible. Did they beat earnings? Yes. Did the stock drop anyway? Yes. Why? Because somewhere in minute 42 of the conference call, the CFO mentioned that margins would compress next quarter. The algorithmic trading bots instantly picked up on that word, selling the stock off 10% while retail traders were still reading the first page of the press release.

The Earnings Update skill levels the playing field. It acts as an automated, lightning-fast financial analyst that reads the filings, cross-references them against prior estimates, and scans the actual transcript of the conference call to give you a definitive breakdown of exactly what happened and why the market is reacting the way it is.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a recap of a recently reported quarter, it executes a structured, multi-step data extraction:

1. Market Reaction Extraction: Pierce first checks how the stock actually traded in the after-hours or pre-market session following the print. This grounds the analysis in reality.
2. The "Beat or Miss" Breakdown: Pierce pulls the official reported numbers for Revenue and Earnings Per Share (EPS). It then instantly compares them to the Wall Street consensus estimates that were established in the Earnings Preview phase, clearly highlighting if the company crushed expectations or missed them.
3. Forward Guidance Evaluation: This is the most critical step. A company's stock trades on the future, not the past. Pierce extracts management's official forward guidance for the next quarter and compares it against analyst expectations. If a company "beat" Q1 but "lowered guidance" for Q2, Pierce will explicitly flag this as a bearish catalyst.
4. Transcript & Tone Analysis: Pierce doesn't just read the numbers; it "listens" to the executives. It scans the earnings call transcript to categorize the management's tone (Euphoric, Cautious, Defensive) and extracts the key strategic themes (e.g., "AI integration is accelerating," or "Supply chain bottlenecks are severely impacting Asian markets").

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the Earnings Update skill, Pierce provides a rigorously structured executive briefing:

• Executive Summary: A 2-sentence synthesis of the entire event. Was it a blowout quarter, a disastrous miss, or a mixed bag?
• Financial Performance Grid: Clearly formatted EPS and Revenue numbers tracked directly against Wall Street consensus.
• Guidance Analysis: A definitive breakdown of whether management raised, maintained, or lowered their near-term financial projections.
• Management Narrative: The 3 most important takeaways from the Q&A session with analysts, stripping away the corporate "fluff" to give you the raw strategic reality.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to digest massive earnings reports using these exact prompts:

• "Give me an earnings update on Meta's latest quarter. Did they beat on advertising revenue?"
• "How did Amazon do on their earnings call yesterday? What did they say about AWS growth?"
• "Summarize the key takeaways and guidance from Snowflake's Q3 print."
• "TSLA is down 8% after hours despite beating EPS. Run an earnings update and tell me why it's dropping."
• "What was the management tone on Palantir's earnings call?"

By explicitly asking for an "earnings update" or "earnings summary," you trigger Pierce's post-event transcript analysis engine.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While this skill gives you instant analytical superpowers, keep these constraints in mind:

• Data Delay: Transcripts for conference calls take time to process and upload to financial databases. If you ask for an update 5 minutes after an earnings release, Pierce can give you the raw numbers from the press release, but it will not have access to the Q&A transcript until the call actually concludes and is published.
• "Non-GAAP" Reconciliations: Companies love to report "Adjusted Non-GAAP" earnings to make themselves look more profitable. Pierce is trained to look for standard GAAP numbers, but complex "adjustments" can sometimes cause slight discrepancies between official SEC filings and polished press releases.
• The Market is Irrational: The Earnings Update will tell you exactly what happened logically. But the market can still react irrationally. A company can report a flawless "beat and raise" and still sell off due to broader macroeconomic fears or complex institutional rebalancing.

Built for the Reactive Trader

You cannot afford to be the last person to know why a stock is moving. The Earnings Update skill ensures you never are. By instantly synthesizing the numbers, the guidance, and the corporate narrative, Pierce allows you to react to earnings prints with the speed and conviction of an institutional trading desk.

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Note: Earnings Update requires complex transcript parsing and real-time news extraction, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Give me the latest earnings update for NVDA." →

Risk Management

Position Sizer

Skill ID: position-sizer

Calculate exact position sizes using volatility-adjusted stop losses, portfolio risk constraints, and institutional-grade capital allocation rules.

Position Sizer

The Position Sizer skill is the ultimate mathematical defense mechanism for your portfolio. Instead of guessing how many shares to buy based on emotion, Pierce calculates your exact position size using your total account equity, your psychological risk tolerance, and the stock's actual mathematical volatility.

What is Position Sizing?

The single fastest way to blow up a trading account is incorrect position sizing.

Most retail traders size their positions based on how "confident" they feel about a stock. If they love a company, they dump 40% of their account into it. If the stock unexpectedly drops 20%, they suffer an unrecoverable 8% drawdown on their entire portfolio from a single bad trade.

Professional traders operate differently. They do not trade based on confidence; they trade based on mathematical risk. Before a professional buys a single share, they know exactly where they are going to cut the loss if they are wrong. They then reverse-engineer the math: "If I am willing to lose exactly 1% of my total account on this trade, and my stop loss is 5% below the current price, exactly how many shares should I buy?"

The Position Sizer skill automates this exact institutional formula. It completely removes the emotion of deciding "how much to buy" and replaces it with cold, hard risk management.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to calculate a position size, it acts as a ruthless risk manager, stepping through a strict chronological formula:

1. Parameter Gathering: Pierce establishes your absolute boundaries. It asks for your total portfolio size (e.g., $100,000) and your maximum risk tolerance per trade (e.g., risking 1% of total equity).
2. Absolute Risk Calculation: Pierce translates percentages into real dollars. If you risk 1% of a $100,000 account, Pierce locks in a Maximum Dollar Risk of $1,000. It will size the trade so that if you are completely wrong and get stopped out, you lose exactly $1,000—no more, no less.
3. Stop-Loss Determination: This is the critical variable. Pierce doesn't just guess a random number; it looks at the actual chart. It identifies a logical, technical stop-loss level (e.g., just below the 50-day moving average or structural support).
4. Trade Risk Calculation: Pierce calculates the difference between the current entry price and the technical stop-loss to find the Trade Risk Per Share.
5. Final Share Output: Pierce divides your Total Dollar Risk ($1,000) by the Trade Risk Per Share to give you the exact, mathematical number of shares you should purchase.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Position Sizer skill, Pierce equips you with an explicit trade execution plan:

• Exact Share Count: The literal number of shares to buy. No guessing required.
• Defined Stop-Loss Limit: A hard price level where the trade thesis is invalidated and you must exit.
• Maximum Dollar Risk: A clear, upfront statement of exactly how much money you stand to lose if the trade fails.
• Capital Allocation Percentage: Pierce calculates how much capital this trade requires (number of shares multiplied by price). If a tight stop-loss mathematically allows you to allocate 50% of your account to one stock, Pierce will flag an "Over-Allocation Warning" to prevent dangerous concentration risk.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to calculate your risk mathematically using these exact prompts:

• "Calculate a position size for PLTR. I have a $50,000 account and want to risk 1%."
• "Where is a logical technical stop loss for NVDA, and how many shares should I buy risking $500?"
• "I want to buy MSFT. Size the position for a $200k portfolio risking 0.5% per trade."
• "Calculate a safe position size for a highly volatile stock like MSTR. Find a wide stop-loss."

By explicitly providing your account size and risk tolerance, you instantly activate the Position Sizer engine.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Position sizing is pure math, but the market can still defy logic. Keep these critical limitations in mind:

• Gap Risk: If you set a stop-loss at $90, and the stock closes at $95 on Monday but reports terrible earnings and opens at $70 on Tuesday, your stop-loss will trigger at $70. You will lose significantly more than your predefined Maximum Dollar Risk. The Position Sizer skill cannot protect you from overnight gap-downs.
• Slip Constraints: In fast-moving or illiquid markets, your stop order may not cleanly execute at your exact price. You might suffer "slippage," resulting in a slightly larger loss than calculated.
• The "Fear of Missing Out" Bias: The math might tell you to only buy 10 shares of a stock you love because the logical stop-loss is very wide. Do not let your emotions override the math and buy 100 shares anyway. The Position Sizer is designed to keep you in the game long enough to actually become profitable.

Built for the Survivalist

In trading, defense wins championships. The traders who survive to make millions aren't the ones who pick the best stocks; they are the ones who manage their risk so perfectly that a string of 10 consecutive losing trades barely dents their account. The Position Sizer skill ensures that before you chase alpha, you have unequivocally defined and contained your downside risk.

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Note: Position Sizer calculates technical stop-loss parameters requiring live quote data and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "I have a $200,000 portfolio and want to risk 1% on AAPL. Calculate the position size." →

Portfolio Manager [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: portfolio-manager

Evaluate your portfolio holdings for concentration risk, sector diversification, and overall risk level without connecting a brokerage.

Portfolio Manager

The Portfolio Manager skill acts as your automated Chief Risk Officer. It mathematically evaluates your hypothetical portfolio to identify hidden concentration risks, dangerous sector overlaps, and outsized position sizing, ensuring your capital is structurally protected before a market downturn.

What is Portfolio Management?

Picking good stocks is only 20% of trading. The other 80% is risk management and portfolio construction.

You might think you have a diversified portfolio because you own 10 different stocks. But if those stocks are NVDA, AMD, SMCI, PLTR, MSFT, ORCL, META, CRWD, PANW, and TSLA—you are not diversified. You are 100% exposed to the Technology sector, and specifically hyper-concentrated in the "AI" theme. If the Nasdaq has a bad week, your "diversified" portfolio will be completely obliterated.

Institutional fund managers use sophisticated software to map out their exact beta exposure, unearthing hidden correlations between seemingly unrelated assets.

The Portfolio Manager skill brings this institutional-grade risk assessment to the retail trader. It allows you to theoretically describe a portfolio of stocks, and Pierce will instantly analyze the structural risk, identifying exactly where you are over-exposed and vulnerable.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to review a portfolio, it executes a rigorous, multi-factor risk audit:

1. Portfolio Normalization: You provide Pierce with a list of tickers and (optionally) their weightings (e.g., "I hold 40% AAPL, 30% JNJ, 30% XOM").
2. Sector & Industry Mapping: Pierce categorizes every ticker into its specific GICS Sector and Industry Group. It explicitly calculates your total macroeconomic exposure to tech, energy, healthcare, etc.
3. Concentration Risk Check: Pierce scrutinizes your single-position sizing. Standard institutional rules dictate that no single position should exceed 10-15% of a portfolio. If Pierce sees a 40% allocation to a single stock, it immediately flags a severe structural vulnerability.
4. Correlation Assessment: It analyzes the beta and market-cap dynamics of the holdings to determine if they all move in the exact same direction during a market sell-off.
5. Actionable Recommendations: Pierce doesn't just point out the problems; it provides strategic solutions. It will explicitly recommend reducing specific overweight positions and suggest alternative sectors (e.g., Utilities or Consumer Staples) to add to achieve a truly balanced, risk-adjusted portfolio.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the Portfolio Manager skill, you receive a full diagnostic report on your capital allocation:

• Sector Breakdown Grid: A clear percentage breakdown of exactly where your money is actually deployed, categorized by major market sector.
• Concentration Red Flags: Immediate warnings if your portfolio relies too heavily on the success of a single company or a single specific theme (like Semiconductors).
• Risk Profile Classification: Pierce categorizes the aggregate portfolio as Highly Aggressive (High Beta), Balanced (Core satellite), or Defensive (Low Beta), allowing you to see if your holdings actually match your psychological risk tolerance.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to audit your holdings using these explicit prompts:

• "Review my current portfolio: 50% TSLA, 25% PLTR, 25% COIN. What are my main risks?"
• "I hold AAPL, MSFT, and GOOGL. Am I diversified?"
• "Run a portfolio analysis for equal weights in XOM, CVX, COP, and VLO. What happens if oil prices drop?"
• "Evaluate my holdings for concentration risk. Here is the list: [Ticker List]."
• "Act as my portfolio manager. How can I restructure a heavy tech portfolio to be more defensive?"

By explicitly asking Pierce to "review my portfolio" or "check my diversification," you engage its risk-management engine.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While this skill is crucial for capital preservation, keep these boundaries in mind:

• Hypothetical Analysis Only: For security and privacy reasons, Pierce does not connect directly to your live brokerage account (like Schwab or Robinhood) to read your live balances. You must manually type out your hypothetical tickers and percentages.
• Stock-Specific Focus: The Portfolio Manager is currently optimized for analyzing individual equities and domestic ETFs. It cannot analyze complex options spreads, real estate holdings, or illiquid private assets in the context of your broader net worth.
• Diversification vs. Return: Warren Buffett famously said, "Diversification is protection against ignorance." A perfectly diversified portfolio will guarantee average market returns and prevent massive blowups. However, if your goal is to deliberately generate outlier, alpha returns, you must be concentrated. Pierce will flag heavy concentration as a "risk," but as a trader, you may rationally choose to accept that risk for higher rewards.

Built for the Capital Preserver

Amateur traders focus entirely on how much money they can make. Professional traders focus entirely on how much money they can lose. The Portfolio Manager skill forces you to think like a professional. By constantly auditing your structural diversification and position sizing, Pierce ensures that no single market event or specific sector collapse can take you out of the game.

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Note: The Portfolio Manager skill performs complex multi-ticker aggregation and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze my portfolio of 50% NVDA and 50% TSLA." →

Strategic Analysis

Institutional Flow [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: institutional-flow-tracker

Track smart money movements by analyzing 13F filings to detect accumulation or distribution by major institutional investors.

Institutional Flow Tracker

The Institutional Flow Tracker (13F Analyzer) is your spyglass into Wall Street. It decodes mandatory SEC filings to reveal exactly what the world's largest hedge funds, mutual funds, and asset managers are buying, holding, or dumping, allowing you to align your trades with the "Smart Money."

Why Track Institutional Flow?

Individual retail traders do not move the stock market. Institutions do. When a massive hedge fund decides to build a $500 million position in a stock, they cannot simply log into their brokerage and click "buy." It takes them weeks or months of careful, quiet accumulation to acquire the shares without spiking the price and ruining their own entry point.

Conversely, when an institution decides to exit a losing position, they systematically "distribute" their shares over time, creating an invisible ceiling of intense selling pressure on the stock.

If you are buying a stock while institutions are secretly distributing it, you will lose money. If you are buying a stock alongside heavy institutional accumulation, you ride the wave. The Institutional Flow Tracker automates the tedious process of reading massive regulatory filings so you always know what the big players are doing.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for an institutional flow check, it executes an organized extraction of SEC Form 13F data:

1. Top Holder Extraction: Pierce instantly identifies the absolute largest institutional holders of any given stock (e.g., Vanguard, BlackRock, Renaissance Technologies).
2. Net Flow Calculation: It calculates the "Net Sentiment." In the most recent reporting quarter, did these massive funds buy more shares than they sold? Pierce gives you the exact math (e.g., "Institutions added 15 million shares and sold 2 million shares").
3. Smart Money Flagging: Pierce highlights movements by highly respected, alpha-generating "Smart Money" hedge funds, distinguishing between passive index fund accumulation and active, high-conviction momentum buying.
4. The 45-Day Adjustment: Pierce automatically flags the fundamental limitation of 13F filings: institutions have 45 days after the quarter ends to report their trades. Pierce contextualizes this data against the current stock chart to determine if the institutional buying is still ongoing or if the move has already happened.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Institutional Flow Tracker, Pierce delivers a "Smart Money" audit for any stock:

• Net Institutional Sentiment Score: A clear bullish, bearish, or neutral verdict based on the raw aggregate flow of shares.
• Top Buyer/Seller Roster: A direct list of which specific funds were the heaviest buyers and the heaviest sellers during the last quarter.
• Conviction Sizing: Pierce highlights if a fund opened a brand new position in the stock, or if they significantly increased their stake by more than 50%—a critical sign of extremely high conviction.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to audit the institutional backing behind your trade ideas using these prompts:

• "Run an institutional flow check on SOFI. Are hedge funds buying or selling?"
• "Who are the top 5 institutional holders of PLTR? Have they added shares recently?"
• "I am thinking about buying Tesla. Check the latest 13F filings to see what the smart money is doing."
• "Give me a Net Sentiment score for CrowdStrike based on institutional flow."

By explicitly asking for "institutional flow," "13F data," or "smart money," you trigger the backend registry check.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Institutional tracking is incredibly powerful for confirming long-term trends, but keep these regulatory blind spots in mind:

• The 45-Day Lag is Real: Institutions do not have to declare their trades the day they make them. They report their holdings up to 45 days after the end of the quarter. By the time you see the 13F filing, the data is technically stale. You must use the Technical Analyst skill to confirm if the chart is still aligned with the 13F data.
• Short Positions are Hidden: The SEC only requires funds to report their "Long" (buy) positions. Hedge funds are not required to disclose if they are actively shorting a stock. An institution might show up as a massive Long holder on the 13F, but they might secretly be aggressively shorting the stock through derivatives.
• Not a Timing Tool: A hedge fund can afford to buy a stock and watch it drop 20% over two years before it finally goes up. You cannot. Never buy a stock just because a famous billionaire bought it. Use the Institutional Flow Tracker to validate your own thesis, not to blindly copy others.

Built for the Market Detective

Following the money is the oldest rule in finance. You cannot win if you are fighting trillion-dollar asset managers. The Institutional Flow Tracker acts as your personal forensic accountant, ensuring that every time you enter a trade, you have the heaviest hitters on Wall Street fighting on your side.

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Note: The Institutional Flow Tracker requires heavy SEC data aggregation and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Track institutional flow for AAPL." →

Sector Analyst [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: sector-analyst

Identify market cycle phases and risk-on/risk-off regimes by analyzing sector momentum, rotation patterns, and relative strength.

Sector Analyst

The Sector Analyst skill is Pierce's macroeconomic compass. It evaluates the relative strength, momentum, and capital flows across all 11 major market sectors to definitively identify the current phase of the business cycle and the market's overarching risk appetite.

What is Sector Analysis?

Individual stocks do not trade in a vacuum. Over 50% of a stock's price movement is dictated simply by the sector it belongs to and the broader market trend. You can pick the objectively best company in the Utility sector, but if the market is in a massive "Risk-On" growth phase, your Utility stock will drastically underperform a mediocre Technology stock.

Institutions manage trillions of dollars, and they cannot simply "cash out" when the economy shifts. Instead, they rotate. They move capital from defensive sectors (Consumer Staples, Utilities) into cyclical sectors (Industrials, Financials) when anticipating economic recoveries, and vice versa when anticipating a recession.

The Sector Analyst skill tracks these massive tidal movements of institutional capital. By mathematically analyzing the underlying momentum of every sector, Pierce can identify exactly where the "smart money" is flowing, allowing you to align your portfolio with the macroeconomic winds rather than fighting against them.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a sector breakdown or an evaluation of the market's risk regime, it executes a top-down macroeconomic analysis:

1. Breadth Aggregation: Pierce aggregates proprietary market breadth data across all 11 S&P 500 sectors (Technology, Healthcare, Financials, Real Estate, Energy, Materials, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Utilities, Communication Services, Consumer Staples).
2. Participation Scoring: Instead of just looking at the price of the sector ETF, Pierce looks inside the sector. It calculates the exact percentage of stocks within that sector that are currently participating in a healthy uptrend.
3. Relative Strength Ranking: Pierce ranks all 11 sectors from strongest to weakest based on absolute internal momentum, instantly identifying the market leaders and the market laggards.
4. Regime Identification: By comparing the performance of high-beta "Risk-On" sectors against low-beta "Risk-Off" defensive sectors, Pierce mathematically defines the current psychological state of the market.
5. Cycle Placement: Different sectors lead at different stages of the economic cycle. Pierce cross-references the leading sectors against historical business cycle models to state whether the market is pricing in an Early Recovery, Late-Stage Boom, or impending Contraction.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the Sector Analyst skill, Pierce provides a comprehensive macroeconomic roadmap:

• The Sector Leaderboard: A definitive ranking of exactly where capital is flowing. This instantly tells you which sectors you should be screening for long setups.
• Risk-On vs. Risk-Off Ratio: A clear, binary assessment of the market's risk appetite. If defensive sectors are outperforming while growth sectors collapse, Pierce will explicitly warn you of a "Risk-Off" environment.
• Business Cycle Classification: A macroeconomic diagnosis (e.g., "The market is currently pricing in a Late-Stage Cycle as Energy and Basic Materials lead while Consumer Discretionary lags").
• Divergence Alerts: If the S&P 500 is hitting all-time highs, but the internal sector data shows capital secretly fleeing into defensive Utilities, Pierce flags this massive "stealth rotation" as a major warning sign.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan the macro landscape using these exact prompts:

• "Act as a Sector Analyst. What sectors are currently leading the market?"
• "Are we in a Risk-On or Risk-Off environment based on recent sector flows?"
• "Based on current sector strength, what stage of the business cycle is the market pricing in?"
• "Run a sector analysis. Which defensive sectors are seeing the most institutional accumulation?"
• "Is capital currently rotating into or out of the Technology sector?"

By explicitly asking for a "sector analysis" or questioning the "risk environment," you force Pierce to look at the macro picture before discussing individual stocks.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Sector analysis is vital for portfolio allocation, but keep these principles in mind:

• Glacial Movement: Sector rotation is a macroeconomic phenomenon. It does not happen overnight. It takes weeks or months for institutions to fully rotate capital across sectors. The Sector Analyst skill is designed to identify multi-week and multi-month trends, not day-trading signals.
• The Market is Forward-Looking: The stock market heavily anticipates the real economy. The Industrial and Financial sectors will begin outperforming months before a recession actually officially ends. Do not argue with the sector data just because the headline news is still bad; trust the capital flows.
• Mega-Cap Distortion: Because sectors are market-cap weighted, a single massive company (like Apple in Technology) can heavily distort the price of the sector ETF. The Sector Analyst skill bypasses this by using breadth metrics (counting exactly how many stocks are participating) rather than just looking at the ETF price.

Built for the Strategic Allocator

A rising tide lifts all boats, but a sector rotation capsizes the ones fighting the current. The Sector Analyst skill ensures you are always trading in the direction of the institutional money. By restricting your long trades to the top three leading sectors, you drastically increase your probability of success and ensure you consistently have a macroeconomic tailwind at your back.

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Note: The Sector Analyst skill relies on massive, proprietary breadth calculations across the entire market and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Which sectors are leading the market right now and what does rotation tell us about the cycle?" →

Thesis Tracker [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: thesis-tracker

Build, formalize, and stress-test investment theses with real-time news verification mapping events to bull and bear case catalysts.

Thesis Tracker

The Thesis Tracker skill is your automated investment diary and AI trading coach. It forces you to mathematically define the exact reasons why you are buying a stock, and then relentlessly tracks real-world news and fundamental data against your thesis to prevent emotional decision-making.

What is a Thesis Tracker?

The most dangerous words in retail trading are, "I'll just hold it for the long term."

Usually, this is what a trader says immediately after a short-term swing trade goes disastrously wrong. They bought a stock because they believed a new product would launch in Q3. The product was delayed, the stock crashed 20%, and instead of exiting the trade because their thesis was invalidated, they transformed the trade into a "long-term investment" to avoid taking a loss. This is called "Thesis Drift," and it destroys portfolios.

Professional investors do not suffer from Thesis Drift. Before they buy a stock, they write down a hard, falsifiable thesis. They explicitly state: "I am buying Company X because Revenue will grow 40%. The risks are A, B, and C. If A, B, or C happens, I sell."

The Thesis Tracker skill digitizes this professional discipline. Rather than just giving you an answer, Pierce acts as an interactive coach, asking you rigorous questions to build your thesis, and then serving as an objective sounding board to evaluate and challenge your investment case.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to help build an investment thesis, it does not do all the work in a single shot. Instead, it enters an interactive Coaching Wizard mode, guiding you step-by-step:

1. Phase 1: Discovery: Pierce asks what ticker you want to focus on, whether your lean is Bullish or Bearish, and your investment timeline.
2. Phase 2: Fundamental Anchor & Bull Case: Pierce fetches the core business model, explains how the company makes money, and then asks you what your primary Bull Case is. What specific catalyst will cause this stock to double?
3. Phase 3: The Kill Criteria (Bear Case): Pierce asks you to explicitly define the Bear Case. What fundamental failures or competitor actions would cause you to hit the sell button immediately?
4. Phase 4: Catalyst Calendar: Pierce checks if you are tracking any upcoming inflection points like earnings or FDA approvals.
5. Phase 5: Registration: Pierce formalizes all of your answers into a structured document and registers it in your memory persistence layer.

Once a thesis is registered, you can ask Pierce to Review or Stress Test it at any time. Pierce will actively pull the last 30 days of significant news, map it mathematically against your stored Bull and Bear cases, and give you an objective verdict: is your thesis strengthening, weakening, or is the news just noise?

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By engaging the Thesis Tracker, Pierce provides a rigorously structured investment workflow:

• Interactive State Machine: Pierce stops and waits for your confirmation at every step, ensuring the final thesis reflects your specific strategy, not generic AI analysis.
• The Bull & Bear Framework: A clear, side-by-side comparison of your absolute best-case scenario and your defined "Kill Criteria".
• News Alignment Verdict: Pierce explicitly categorizes recent news against your stored thesis, preventing you from overreacting to meaningless daily volatility.
• Automated Pulse Integration: Pierce will nudge you to turn your registered thesis into a weekly Pulse, putting your investment discipline on autopilot.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to formalize your investing process using these exact prompts:

• "Help me build a thesis for Tesla. Walk me through the steps."
• "I'm thinking about shorting Palantir. Can we do a thesis tracker exercise?"
• "Can we review my existing thesis for NVIDIA? Has any recent news impacted it?"
• "Stress test my Apple thesis against their recent Q3 earnings report."

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The Thesis Tracker is your anchor to reality, but keep these psychological limits in mind:

• Fundamentals Take Time: A thesis built around top-line revenue growth or debt restructuring might take 18 to 24 months to fully play out in the stock price. The Tracker is designed for long-term position building, not for multi-day swing trading.
• The Market Can Ignore Reality: A company can successfully execute every single step of your Bull Case thesis, and the stock can still trade flat for two years because the broader macroeconomic environment is "Risk-Off." The Thesis Tracker confirms the company is performing, but the Sector Analyst skill will confirm if the market cares.
• You Must Obey the Invalidation: If Pierce clearly shows that your established Bear Case scenario is unfolding, you must possess the psychological discipline to exit the trade and take the loss. The AI can track the thesis, but only you can click the "Sell" button.

Built for the Conviction Holder

If you don't know exactly why you bought a stock, you won't know when to sell it. The Thesis Tracker skill replaces hope with conviction. By explicitly defining the Bull and Bear cases upfront, Pierce guarantees that you hold your winners through temporary volatility, and instantly cut your losers the moment the fundamental story breaks.

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Note: The Thesis Tracker requires deep fundamental synthesis and real-time news tracking, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Help me build a structured investment thesis for TSLA. I'm bullish long-term." →

Scenario Analysis [PRO]

Skill ID: scenario-analyzer

Model bull, base, and bear price scenarios with probability-weighted outcomes, sector impact analysis, and precise risk/reward calculations.

Scenario Analyzer

The Scenario Analyzer is your ultimate risk-management war room. Over a rolling 18-month horizon, Pierce abandons the illusion of single-point forecasting and instead builds three distinct, probability-weighted futures (Bull, Bear, and Base). By defining the absolute worst-case scenario before you trade, you transition from gambling to professional capital allocation.

Why Scenario Analysis Matters

Amateur traders ask one question: "How much money will I make if I'm right?"

Professional traders ask a different question: "Where is my execution if I'm wrong, and what does the data look like down there?"

The stock market is a complex dynamic system driven by thousands of variables—Federal Reserve policy, CEO scandals, geopolitical wars, and unexpected earnings misses. Predicting exactly what a stock will do over the next 12 months is impossible.

Instead of predicting the future, institutional investors map the future. They explicitly calculate the mathematical downside if everything goes wrong (the Bear case), the mathematical upside if everything goes right (the Bull case), and the most likely trajectory based on current Wall Street consensus (the Base case).

By explicitly mapping the Bear case, you remove the emotion of fear. If a stock drops 20%, you aren't surprised—you already modeled it. The Scenario Analyzer skill automates this institutional stress-testing, quantifying your exact Risk/Reward ratio before a single dollar is deployed.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to analyze a scenario, it executes a massive fundamental and macro stress test:

1. The Baseline Anchor: Pierce establishes absolute ground truth. Where is the stock right now? It locks in current EPS, revenue growth rates, and current valuation multiples (like P/E).
2. The Trisected Future Model: Pierce splits the timeline:
   • The Base Case: What happens if the company simply meets current analyst expectations? Pierce projects normal growth and applies historical average multiples.
   • The Bull Case: What happens if the company experiences a massive catalyst (e.g., a new product launch drastically accelerates revenue)? Pierce models aggressive EPS growth and expands the valuation multiple by two standard deviations to reflect market euphoria.
   • The Bear Case: What happens if a macro shock hits or the core business narrative breaks? Pierce ruthlessly slashes expected revenue, models shrinking margins, and compresses the valuation multiple to recessionary lows.
3. Risk/Reward Quantification: Pierce mathematically compares the current stock price to the implied Bull and Bear price targets, generating an exact, explicit ratio (e.g., "Downside risk is 15%, Upside potential is 45%. This is a 3:1 Risk/Reward asymmetry").
4. The Macro Propagation Engine: If you ask Pierce to model a massive macro shock (like "What happens if oil hits $150?"), Pierce traces the blast radius across sectors. It identifies 1st-order effects (energy companies profit), 2nd-order effects (airlines get crushed by fuel costs), and 3rd-order effects (consumer discretionary spending drops due to inflation).

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Scenario Analyzer, you receive a complete 18-month battlefield map:

• The Implied Price Targets: Explicit 12-to-18-month price estimations for the Base, Bull, and Bear cases.
• The Core Assumptions: Pierce forces the math out into the open. It explicitly tells you what has to happen for the Bear case to trigger (e.g., "The Bear case assumes margins compress from 22% to 14% and the P/E multiple crumbles to 15x").
• The Skew Verdict: Is the trade worth it? If the model shows a 30% downside risk but only a 15% upside potential, Pierce will explicitly warn you the trade exhibits a negative skew.
• Collateral Damage Map: For macro scenarios, a clean list of which specific industries will benefit and which will burn.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to model the future using these specific stress-test prompts:

• "Run a bull, bear, and base case scenario for Snowflake over the next 18 months."
• "What's the explicit risk/reward ratio for buying Disney right now? Give me the downside target."
• "Run a macro scenario: What happens to semiconductor stocks if China invades Taiwan?"
• "Model the next 12 months for AAPL assuming extreme multiple compression."
• "What is the sector impact if the Federal Reserve is forced to raise rates back to 6%?"

By asking for a "scenario," you force Pierce to stop analyzing the present and start projecting the future.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Scenario planning is a framework, not a crystal ball. Keep these structural realities in check:

• Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Scenario Analyzer relies heavily on the quality of current fundamental data and consensus estimates. If the entire market is drastically underestimating a fundamental shift (like the invention of the iPhone or ChatGPT), the "Bull Case" will likely still be far too conservative.
• Black Swan Blindness: The analyzer can only model rational inputs. It cannot model completely unpredictable Black Swan events (e.g., the CEO being arrested or a global pandemic shutting down supply chains tomorrow).
• The Value of the Exercise is the Process: The precise dollar amount of the Bear Case target is less important than understanding why the stock would go there. Understanding the vulnerability of your thesis is what makes you a profitable trader.

Built for the Strategic Capital Allocator

Amateurs trade on hope. Professionals trade on asymmetry. If a stock offers a 4-to-1 risk/reward skew, it is a mathematically viable trade, even if it loses. The Scenario Analyzer quantifies the chaos of the market, ensuring that you only ever commit your capital when the mathematical odds of upside drastically outweigh the quantified risk of ruin.

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Note: The Scenario Analyzer requires intense, multi-variable projections and macro modeling across deep datasets. It is included exclusively in the Pro tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Do a 12-month scenario analysis for TSLA. Include key catalysts to watch and risks to each case." →

Technical Analysis

Market Breadth [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: market-breadth-analyzer

Assess the underlying health of the broader market using advance/decline lines, new highs/lows, and moving average cross data.

Market Breadth Analyzer

The Market Breadth Analyzer skill peers beneath the surface of the S&P 500 to reveal the true health of the stock market. Instead of tracking a deeply flawed, market-cap-weighted index, Pierce computes a massive composite score based on the actual mathematical participation of thousands of individual stocks, telling you exactly when it's safe to buy and when it's time to run.

What is Market Breadth?

Watching the S&P 500 to gauge the health of the stock market is like checking the temperature by only looking at the sun. The S&P 500 is a "market-cap weighted" index. This means a handful of massive tech companies (like Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia) compose over 30% of the entire index's movement.

If those five companies go up 2%, the S&P 500 will mathematically close at a new all-time high—even if the other 495 companies in the index all crashed by 5% on the exact same day.

To an amateur watching the news, the market looks incredibly healthy. To a professional looking at the data, the market is secretly dying. This phenomenon is called a "narrowing market," and it is the ultimate warning sign of a brutal impending correction.

Professional traders ignore the index and look at Market Internals (or Breadth). Breadth measures exactly how many individual stocks are participating in an uptrend versus how many are breaking down. The Market Breadth Analyzer automates this complex analysis, delivering a single, undeniable 0-100 health score for the entire US economy.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a breadth analysis, it ignores the major index prices and instead executes a deep-dive statistical analysis of thousands of ticker symbols:

1. Broad Data Aggregation: Pierce pulls live data across the entire market, checking how many stocks are advancing versus declining, and how many are making new 52-week highs versus new 52-week lows.
2. Moving Average Verification: It specifically calculates how many stocks are trading above their respective 50-day and 200-day moving averages, proving true structural support.
3. The 6-Factor Composite Engine: Pierce takes this raw data and generates a proprietary 0-100 Breadth Score, weighted across six critical components:
   • Level & Trend (25%): Is the short-term and long-term momentum of breadth physically pointing up or down?
   • Short/Long Gap (20%): The spread between short-term buyers and long-term holders. A wide positive gap signals aggressive momentum.
   • Cycle Positioning (20%): Are we at peak euphoria? Or in the depths of a "breadth trough," signaling an incredible contrarian buying opportunity?
   • Bearish Divergence (15%): The most critical warning. Is the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs while breadth is simultaneously crashing lower?
   • Historical Percentile (10%): Where does today's breadth sit relative to the last 252 trading days?
   • Index Divergence (10%): Can Pierce confidently detect a bullish or bearish divergence forming in real-time?

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Market Breadth Analyzer, Pierce gives you X-ray vision into the stock market:

• The Master Breadth Score: A definitive, emotionless 0-100 grading of the stock market.
• The Divergence Warning: Explicit confirmation if the market is secretly narrowing to a few mega-cap names.
• The Capital Commitment Signal: Pierce will use the breadth data to confidently advise whether you should be aggressively deploying cash, maintaining current exposure, or immediately seeking safety.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to check the pulse of the market using these exact prompts:

• "What is the market breadth looking like today? Give me the 0-100 score."
• "Is the current market rally broad-based or narrowing? Check for bearish divergences."
• "Give me a full breadth breakdown with component scores."
• "Should I be adding risk right now based on market internals?"
• "The S&P just hit an all-time high. Does the market breadth confirm the move, or is it a fake out?"

By explicitly asking for the breadth score or asking if a rally is "narrowing," you trigger the massive internal data scan.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Market Breadth is the ultimate truth-teller, but keep these practical reality checks in mind:

• Breadth is a Leading Indicator, Not a Timing Tool: A bearish divergence (prices going up while breadth goes down) can last for months before the market finally crashes. Breadth tells you a storm is coming; it does not tell you if the storm arrives on Tuesday or next Friday. Do not aggressively short the market on a breadth divergence alone. Use it to raise cash and tighten stop-losses.
• Extreme Breadth is a Buy Signal: When the market crashes and breadth drops to near zero, it feels terrifying. But mathematically, a "breadth washout" is historically the single greatest time to buy stocks for a multi-year hold. If the Analyzer says breadth is at an extreme trough, prepare to go shopping.

Built for the Market Navigator

Trading individual stocks without knowing the overarching Market Breadth is like trying to sail a boat without checking the weather. It doesn't matter how good your boat is if a category 5 hurricane is approaching. The Market Breadth Analyzer gives you the absolute truth about the macroeconomic weather, ensuring you are stepping on the gas during sunny skies, and pulling your capital off the table before the storm hits.

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Note: The Market Breadth Analyzer relies on complex, market-wide internal computations and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze market breadth." →

Technical Analysis [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: technical-analyst

Systematic chart analysis covering trend assessment, support/resistance levels, moving averages, volume patterns, and probability-weighted price scenarios.

Technical Analysis

The Technical Analysis skill is Pierce's chart-reading engine. It bypasses fundamental narratives and focuses entirely on price action, volume, and momentum to identify the exact psychological levels where institutional buyers and sellers are colliding.

What is Technical Analysis?

Fundamentals tell you what to buy. Technicals tell you when to buy.

You can find the greatest, most undervalued company in the world via a DCF Analysis, but if you buy it during an established technical downtrend, you are going to lose money in the short term. The stock market is not perfectly efficient; it is driven by human emotion—fear and greed—and those emotions leave mathematical footprints on a chart.

Technical Analysis is the study of those footprints. It ignores whether a company makes iPhones or drills for oil; it only cares about supply and demand. By recognizing established chart patterns, calculating momentum oscillators (like RSI or MACD), and identifying massive institutional volume spikes, technical analysis provides the timing mechanism required to enter and exit trades with precision.

The Technical Analysis skill translates the visual geometry of a chart into hard, actionable data, allowing Pierce to read the tape exactly like a proprietary trading desk.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a technical breakdown, it ignores the PE ratio and earnings estimates, executing a strict, 5-step price action sequence:

1. Trend Identification (The Primary Bias): Pierce first defines the primary trend using Dow Theory principles. Is the stock making higher highs and higher lows (an uptrend)? Or is it making lower highs and lower lows (a downtrend)? Pierce explicitly forbids fighting the primary trend.
2. Moving Average Alignment: It checks the 20-day, 50-day, and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMAs). If the 20 is above the 50, and the 50 is above the 200, the stock is in a "Full Bullish Alignment," meaning all short, medium, and long-term momentum is to the upside.
3. Volume Confirmation: Price moves without volume are suspect. Pierce checks if green up-days are accompanied by massive volume (institutional accumulation) and if red down-days are occurring on low volume (simple retail profit-taking).
4. Key Level Mapping: Pierce mathematically maps out the exact horizontal support (where buyers consistently step in) and resistance (where sellers take profit) levels. It highlights "confluence zones" where multiple technical factors overlap at a single price.
5. Scenario Construction: Rather than predicting the future, Pierce builds probability-weighted scenarios. It gives you a Base case (what is most likely to happen), a Bull case (if resistance breaks), and a Bear case (if support fails), along with strict invalidation levels.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running a Technical Analysis, Pierce equips you with the exact data needed to execute a trade mathematically:

• The Trade Setup: Pierce identifies actionable patterns (e.g., Bull Flags, Head and Shoulders, Rising Wedges) and explains exactly where the breakout trigger is located.
• Support & Resistance Mapping: Hard price levels. If you are going long, Pierce tells you exactly where support is so you know where your stop-loss should be placed.
• Momentum Readings: Pierce uses RSI (Relative Strength Index) and MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) to warn you if a stock is technically "overbought" (due for a pullback) or "oversold" (ripe for a bounce).
• Invalidation Levels: The most important part of any technical trade. Pierce explicitly tells you the exact price at which the bullish thesis is wrong, allowing you to cut your losers early.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to read the charts using these exact prompts:

• "Run a technical analysis on NVDA. Are we still in an established uptrend?"
• "What's the technical setup for Bitcoin right now? Are we overbought on the RSI?"
• "Is the S&P 500 approaching major resistance? Where are the key levels?"
• "Show me horizontal support and resistance levels for AAPL."
• "What is the trend for AMD? Build me a bullish and bearish scenario."

By explicitly asking for "technicals" or "support and resistance," you ensure Pierce strictly tracks the price action and ignores the news.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Technical analysis is vital for risk management, but it is not magic. Keep these limitations in mind:

• Technicals Predict Probabilities, Not Certainties: A textbook "Bull Flag" breakout has a high probability of success, but it can still fail. Technicals give you an edge over a large series of trades; they do not guarantee the next single trade will win.
• Fundamentals Break Charts: Technical analysis works perfectly—until a massive fundamental catalyst hits the wire. An earnings report, an FDA approval, or a surprise Federal Reserve rate cut will instantly snap a technical trend line. Never trade pure technicals through a major binary event.
• Timeframe Dependency: A stock might be in a brutal bear market on the weekly chart but experiencing a massive bullish bounce on the 10-minute chart. The Technical Analysis skill defaults to the daily/weekly timeframe for swing trading.

Built for the Disciplined Trader

Trading without technical analysis is guessing. The Technical Analysis skill removes the guesswork by providing hard, mathematical triggers for your entries and exits. By knowing exactly where support lies, you can size your positions correctly, place tight stop-losses, and ensure that when you are wrong, you lose a little, but when you are right, you win a lot.

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Note: The Technical Analysis skill requires access to live quote data and chart rendering capabilities, and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "What's the technical picture for Apple stock right now? Key levels, trend, and scenarios." →

VCP Screener [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: vcp-screener

Find Volatility Contraction Pattern setups using trend template

VCP Screener

The VCP Screener is Pierce's automated technical hunting tool. It mass-scans thousands of charts to find the exact "Volatility Contraction Patterns" that precede explosive momentum breakouts, doing in seconds what would take a human chartist weeks.

What is a VCP Screener?

Mark Minervini's Volatility Contraction Pattern (VCP) is one of the highest-probability technical setups in trading history. It identifies the exact moment when institutional accumulation has absorbed all retail selling pressure, creating a "coiled spring" just before a stock breaks out.

The problem? Identifying a true VCP requires painstaking visual analysis. You must manually measure the depth of the pullbacks, count the number of contractions, verify the volume dry-up, and ensure the moving averages are perfectly stacked. If you have a watchlist of 500 stocks, finding a perfect VCP setup manually is essentially impossible before the breakout actually happens.

The VCP Screener skill completely automates this visual geometry. It programmatically screens entire market universes, algorithmically checks every single chart against the strict VCP criteria, and hands you a curated list of stocks that are sitting at the exact pivot point, ready to explode.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to run a VCP scan, it executes a rigorous, multi-phase technical extraction:

1. The Stage 2 Filter (Trend Template): Pierce ruthlessly eliminates 80% of the market immediately. It ensures the stock has a market cap >$1B (for liquidity) and tests it against Minervini's strict "Stage 2 Uptrend" template. If the stock is below its 200-day moving average, it is instantly discarded.
2. Algorithmic Contraction Detection: For the remaining uptrending stocks, Pierce deploys an ATR-based (Average True Range) algorithm to map the swing highs and lows over the last 6 months. It mathematically verifies if the pullbacks are getting tighter from left to right across the chart (e.g., a 25% drop, then a 12% drop, then a 4% drop).
3. Volume Dry-Up Analysis: A pattern without volume confirmation is a trap. Pierce checks the daily volume during the tightest area of the contraction. It must see volume dry up significantly, proving that selling pressure is exhausted.
4. The 5-Axis Scoring System: Pierce calculates a master composite score out of 100 based heavily on:
   • Trend Quality (25%)
   • Pattern Tightness (25%)
   • Volume Dry-Up (20%)
   • Proximity to Breakout Pivot (15%)
   • Relative Strength vs S&P 500 (15%)
5. Actionable Triage: Pierce doesn't just hand you a random list. It strictly divides the results into two categories: Section A (stocks within 5% of the pivot point, ready to buy today) and Section B (stocks still forming the pattern, to be placed on a watchlist).

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the VCP Screener, you receive a hyper-curated list of momentum targets:

• Section A "Entry-Ready" Targets: Stocks that are fully coiled, showing extreme volume dry-up, and sitting within 5% of their breakout pivot price. Ranked in descending order of their Composite Score (minimum score of 70 required).
• Section B "Developing" Targets: Stocks that have the massive prior Stage 2 uptrend but are still forming the final, tight contractions (Composite Score < 70 or distance to pivot > 5%). Ranked in descending order of their Composite Score.
• VCP & Composite Scoring: Candidates are evaluated across 6 core technical factors:
  • VCP Score (0-6 passes): Counts how many criteria are passed (Uptrend, Alignment, High proximity, Low distance, Contraction tightness, and Volume dry-up).
  • Composite Score (0-100 weighted index):
    • Uptrend Strength (30%): Price > SMA50 and SMA50 > SMA200 (100% score), price > SMA200 but below SMA50 (60% score).
    • Proximity to 52w High (20%): Price >= 90% of high (100% score), 80-90% of high (60% score).
    • Contraction Tightness (30%): Price within 5% of SMA50 or has narrow daily ranges (100% score), moderately tight consolidation (50% score).
    • Volume Dry-Up (20%): Recent volume is well below average or PEG < 2.0 (100% score), else 50%.
• The Pivot Price: Pierce explicitly gives you the exact price level where the breakout mathematically triggers, allowing you to set limit orders and walk away.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan the charts using these exact prompts:

• "Find VCP setups in the S&P 500. Give me the top 5 entry-ready candidates."
• "What stocks are forming volatility contraction patterns right now?"
• "Run a Minervini Stage 2 screen. Are there any tight VCPs forming in the Tech sector?"
• "Show me stocks near a breakout pivot with extreme volume dry-up."
• "Which stocks have the best VCP setups right now? Break them into Section A and Section B."

By explicitly asking to "scan" or "find VCP setups," you trigger the massive, multi-ticker chart analysis.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The VCP Screener is a sniper rifle, and it requires extreme discipline to use correctly:

• VCPs Fail in Bear Markets: If Pierce reports that almost zero stocks passed the VCP screen, this is a massive macroeconomic warning sign. VCP patterns rely on broad market liquidity to break out. If the S&P 500 is in a downtrend, VCP breakouts will consistently fail.
• Watch Out for "Clunky" Bases: The math might sometimes flag a base as a VCP, but a human eye will see that the chart looks wide, loose, and "clunky." Always use your own eyes to verify the output of the screener. The pattern should look smooth and tight, not chaotic.
• Earnings Roulette: A stock will often form a beautiful, tight VCP right before a major earnings report. Do not buy a breakout if the company is reporting earnings the next day. The binary risk of earnings will completely override any technical setup.

Built for the Breakout Trader

You don't need to overtrade. You only need to catch 3 or 4 massive VCP breakouts a year to generate incredible returns. The problem is finding them before the rest of the market does. The VCP Screener does the heavy lifting, ensuring you are always positioned perfectly at the pivot point, ready to capture the explosive momentum wave.

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Note: The VCP Screener requires massive algorithmic chart parsing across entire market datasets, and is available on the Preferred plan and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run the VCP screener for AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA." →

VCP Pattern [POWER]

Skill ID: vcp-methodology

Apply Mark Minervini's Volatility Contraction Pattern framework to identify stocks forming healthy bases with explosive breakout potential.

Volatility Contraction Pattern (VCP)

The VCP skill digitizes Mark Minervini's legendary technical setup. It aggressively scans individual stock charts, seeking out the exact "Volatility Contraction Pattern" that massive institutional investors unconsciously leave behind just before a stock goes on an explosive, multi-month run.

What is a VCP Setup?

When a stock breaks out to a new high, amateur traders see it and immediately buy it out of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), only to watch the stock crash 15% the next day. This happens because amateurs buy "extended" log-scale breakouts that are already exhausted.

Professional momentum traders buy contractions.

Over his 30-year career, US Investing Champion Mark Minervini proved mathematically that the greatest winning stocks all formed a "Volatility Contraction Pattern" (VCP) before they launched. A VCP occurs when a stock digests its previous gains by trading sideways. As the weeks pass, the price swings get tighter and tighter—from a 30% swing, down to a 10% swing, down to a tiny 3% swing. Crucially, the trading volume also dries up to nothing.

This "dry up" proves that all the weak, retail sellers have been flushed out. The stock is a coiled spring. The moment institutional buying volume returns, there is literally no supply left to hold the stock down, and it explodes upward.

The VCP Methodology skill allows Pierce to algorithmically read a chart and detect this exact coiled-spring setup.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to run a VCP analysis on a ticker, it ignores entirely fundamental narratives and executes a rigorous geometric analysis of the daily chart:

1. Prior Trend Verification: Pierce first ensures the stock even qualifies to be traded. It must have an established prior uptrend (the stock must already be up 30% to 50% over the last few months). VCPs do not happen in downtrends.
2. Base Depth Calculation: Pierce measures the depth of the current consolidation. The total peak-to-trough correction should ideally be between 10% and 35%. Anything deeper implies institutional abandonment and fails the screen.
3. Contraction Counting (The T-X Math): Pierce mathematically measures the tightening price action. It specifically looks for a sequence of progressively smaller pullbacks from left to right across the chart (e.g., a "3T" setup: a 30% drop, followed by a 14% drop, followed by a tight 6% drop).
4. Volume Signature Analysis: This is the ultimate tell. Pierce checks if the daily trading volume is drying up in the tightest areas of the right side of the base. If trading volume is massive during the tight consolidation, the pattern is invalid.
5. The Pivot Point: Pierce identifies the precise, penny-perfect "Pivot Point"—the exact price resistance level that, if broken on heavy volume, acts as the ultimate trigger to buy the stock.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the VCP skill, Pierce provides a strictly technical blueprint for high-probability momentum entries:

• Contraction Sequence: A definitive count of the price swings (e.g., "The stock is showing a 4-T contraction pattern: 25%, 15%, 8%, 3%").
• The Pivot Price: The explicit trigger price where the coiled spring is designed to release.
• Volume Dry-Up Confirmation: Pierce confirms whether or not the selling supply has mathematically exhausted itself.
• Moving Average Alignment: A secondary check to ensure the tight, right side of the VCP is forming safely above the 50-day moving average.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan for these explosive setups using explicit prompts:

• "Is ARM forming a VCP on the daily chart?"
• "Check the technical setup for symbol CRWD. Are we seeing volume dry-up?"
• "What is the exact pivot point for this multi-month consolidation on PLTR?"
• "Run a VCP analysis on NVDA. How many contractions has it formed?"
• "Is the right side of the base on SMCI tight enough to trigger a VCP buy?"

By asking for a VCP check, you command Pierce to look for tightening volatility rather than traditional support/resistance bounces.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

The VCP is arguably the most powerful momentum setup on Wall Street, but it is a precision instrument:

• The Volume Trigger is Mandatory: A stock can form a perfect VCP on the chart, but if it crosses the pivot point on low, weak volume, the trade is a failure. You must see massive institutional volume pour in as the pivot is broken. The pattern requires participation.
• High Failure Rate in Bear Markets: Minervini is famous for sitting entirely in cash for months on end. Why? Because VCPs fail spectacularly during a broad market downtrend. The VCP skill identifies the setup, but you must pair it with the Sector Analyst skill to ensure the overarching market isn't actively crashing.
• Tight Stop-Losses Require Speed: Because the final contraction of a VCP is usually only 3% to 5% deep, your stop-loss is placed just slightly below the pivot. If the breakout fails, you must execute your stop-loss ruthlessly and immediately, or the "tight" setup will turn into a massive trap.

Built for the Sniper

Amateur traders spray capital at every stock that goes up, hoping to get lucky. Professional momentum traders are snipers. They wait patiently for weeks as the volatility contracts, the weak hands given up, and volume dries to a trickle. The VCP skill ensures you have the target perfectly locked in, giving you the exact pivot price so you can pull the trigger the second the institutional volume returns.

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Note: The VCP Analysis skill requires complex geometric chart parsing and is included in the Power tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Evaluate AAPL using the VCP methodology." →

Quantitative Analysis

Rolling Risk Analyzer [PREFERRED]

Skill ID: rolling-risk-analyzer

Calculate and analyze rolling price statistics (volatility, drawdowns, and returns) to detect market regimes and risk profiles.

Pair Trading [PRO]

Skill ID: pair-trade-screener

Conduct statistical arbitrage scanning using cointegration, Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests, and z-score divergence analysis.

Pair Trade Screener

The Pair Trade Screener unlocks institutional statistical arbitrage. It completely ignores fundamental valuation and broad market direction, instead using advanced quantitative mathematics to identify when two tightly correlated stocks temporarily diverge, allowing you to execute a market-neutral trade to profit when they snap back together.

What is Statistical Arbitrage (Stat Arb)?

If the stock market crashes 20% tomorrow, 95% of traditional retail traders will lose money. Statistical arbitrage traders will not.

Stat Arb (specifically "Pairs Trading") is a market-neutral strategy. You find two assets that historically move in lockstep (for example, Coke and Pepsi). Because they are in the same sector, subject to the same macroeconomic forces, their prices are highly correlated. Mathematically, they are cointegrated.

Occasionally, this relationship breaks. A random news event or a massive institutional block trade might cause Coke to shoot up 3% while Pepsi drops 3%. The "spread" between their prices artificially widens. A pairs trader immediately exploits this inefficiency by Shorting the overpriced asset (Coke) and going Long the underpriced asset (Pepsi).

It does not matter what the stock market does next. If the S&P 500 goes up, down, or sideways, the pair will eventually revert back to its historical mean correlation. When the spread closes, the trader pockets the difference, completely immune to the broader market direction.

The Pair Trade Screener skill runs the extreme mathematical compute engine required to find and size these exact trades.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to check a pair of stocks for statistical arbitrage, it runs a heavy Python-backed quantitative analysis:

1. Historical Array Extraction: Pierce pulls 1-2 years of daily closing prices for both Target A and Target B to establish the baseline relationship.
2. The Cointegration Test: Correlation is not enough. Pierce executes an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression and an Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test on the spread residuals. This proves mathematically whether the two stocks are statistically anchored to one another, generating a definitive p-value.
3. Z-Score Calculation: Pierce measures the exact current distance between the two stocks. It calculates the Z-score (standard deviation from the mean). If the Z-score pushes beyond +2.0 or -2.0, Pierce triggers an actionable trading signal.
4. Hedge Ratio Construction: You do not just buy 100 shares of A and short 100 shares of B. Pierce calculates the exact Hedge Ratio (e.g., you must short 1.3 shares of Asset A for every 1 share of Asset B you buy) to ensure the trade is perfectly mathematically balanced.
5. The Half-Life Estimate: Pierce tells you exactly how long you will likely be in the trade by calculating the spread's historical mean-reversion half-life.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Pair Trade Screener, Pierce provides a complete quantitative battle plan:

• The Statistical Validity Verdict: Pierce explicitly states whether the pair is actually cointegrated (must have a p-value < 0.05) or if the correlation is just a random illusion.
• Comparative Watchlist Tables: When evaluating multiple pairs, Pierce generates a comparative table ranked by a Composite Score that represents statistical strength and entry suitability:
  • Pair Trade Score (0-3 passes): Total passed checkpoints (Cointegration p-value < 0.05, signal divergence |z-score| >= 1.5, and reversion speed half-life <= 45 days).
  • Composite Score (0-100 weighted index):
    • Cointegration Significance (40%): 1.0 point if p_value < 0.01, 0.6 points if 0.01 <= p_value < 0.05, else 0.0.
    • Signal Divergence (35%): 1.0 point if 2.0 <= |zscore| < 3.0 (optimal entry range), 0.5 points if 1.5 <= |zscore| < 2.0 or 3.0 <= |zscore| < 4.0, else 0.0.
    • Reversion Half-Life (25%): 1.0 point if half_life <= 15 days, 0.6 points if 15 < half_life <= 45 days, else 0.0.
• The Execution Signal: Is there a trade today? Pierce will instruct you exactly which asset to short and which to long based on the current Z-score deviation.
• The Capital Allocation Matrix: The exact hedge ratio sizing required to execute the trade safely.
• The Stop-Loss / Invalidation Level: Pierce explicitly defines at what Z-score the historical relationship appears structurally broken, forcing you to exit the trade to avoid catastrophic risk.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to run advanced quantitative analysis using these specific prompts:

• "Check Visa and Mastercard for cointegration. Are they a valid pair trade?"
• "Run a stat arb analysis on the spread between MSFT and AAPL."
• "I noticed XOM and CVX are diverging today. What is their current Z-score? Is it a short/long setup?"
• "Calculate the hedge ratio and half-life for a pair trade between AMD and NVDA over the last year."

By providing two related tickers, you activate the heavy computational backend.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Pairs trading is mathematically sound, but requires extreme capital discipline to execute properly:

• Margin Requirements: You are explicitly shorting a stock in a pairs trade. You must have a margin account with sufficient capital to maintain the short leg of the trade, even if it temporarily moves against you while the spread continues to widen.
• The Relationship Can Permanently Break: A low p-value proves the pair has been historically linked. It does not guarantee they will be linked forever. If one company invents a revolutionary new technology and the other company goes bankrupt, the spread will never close. You must still use the Stop-Loss.
• Execution Slippage: Because you are executing two trades simultaneously (a buy and a short sell), you will pay double the spread. Ensure the divergence is wide enough to cover execution costs before entering the trade.

Built for the Market-Neutral Operator

You don't need to predict whether we are entering a bull market or a recession to make money. The Pair Trade Screener completely eliminates directional market risk from your portfolio. By mathematically measuring the elasticity between two linked assets, you ensure that as long as financial gravity exists, the trade will eventually revert to the mean.

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Note: The Pair Trade Screener requires high-load Python statistical compute and is highly computationally intensive. It is included exclusively in the Pro tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Run a pair trade screener for AAPL and NVDA." →

Derivatives

Options Expert [PRO]

Skill ID: options-strategy-advisor

Evaluate option pricing, simulate complex strategy payoffs, and analyze greek exposures using compute-backed Black-Scholes modeling.

Options Strategy Advisor

The Options Strategy Advisor is your institutional derivatives desk. Powered by Pierce's native Black-Scholes-Merton compute engine, it runs complex mathematical modeling to price individual options, construct multi-leg spreads, calculate exact Greek exposures, and explicitly chart your Risk/Reward breakevens—before you risk heavy capital in the volatile options market.

Why Trade Options with Math, Not Emotion?

Amateur traders buy options purely on directional guessing: "I think Tesla is going up next week, so I will buy a Call." When Tesla goes up, they look at their account and are shocked to see they are actually losing money. Why? Because they bought short-term, out-of-the-money options right before earnings, and "Implied Volatility Crush" combined with theta decay vaporized their premium.

Options are not just leveraged stock bets. They are complex mathematical instruments governed by time and volatility. Professional options traders do not guess; they compute. They calculate the "Greeks" to understand precisely how much money they will make if the stock moves $1 (Delta), how much money they will lose to time decay every single day (Theta), and how devastating a drop in volatility will be to their premium (Vega).

The Options Strategy Advisor automates this deeply complex modeling. Instead of relying on your brokerage interface, Pierce builds a custom mathematical profile for any options trade you are considering, ensuring you never buy an overpriced contract again.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce to analyze an options trade, it fires up the native options_pricing compute engine:

1. Parameter Synthesis: Pierce automatically extracts or fetches the essential variables for the math: The underlying asset price, the strike price, the exact days to expiration (DTE), the risk-free interest rate, and the current Implied Volatility (IV).
2. The Black-Scholes Computation: Pierce executes the industry-standard Black-Scholes-Merton options pricing model. It runs the calculus required to determine what the option should theoretically be priced at.
3. The Greek Extraction: Pierce extracts the core sensitivity metrics (Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, and Rho). This instantly tells you the structural risk of holding the contract.
4. Multi-Leg Structural Engineering: If you ask Pierce to build a spread (like an Iron Condor or a Bull Call Spread), Pierce runs the computation on every single individual let, and then aggregates the math. It calculates the Net Debit or Credit, your total portfolio Greek exposure, and your exact mathematical Breakeven points.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

By running the Options Strategy Advisor, you receive a highly detailed, Wall Street-grade spread configuration:

• The Theoretical Premium: A baseline of what the option is actually worth, protecting you from paying massive, illiquid bid-ask spreads.
• The Greek Matrix: A clean, formatted table explicitly showing you your Delta, Theta, and Vega risk.
• The Breakeven Threshold: Pierce calculates exactly how far the stock has to move just for you to make $0.01 in profit. (e.g., "The stock is at $150, but because you bought the $155 call for $3.00, your absolute breakeven is $158.00 at expiration").
• Max Profit / Max Loss Mapping: The ultimate risk-management boundary. Pierce rigidly defines the maximum theoretical loss on the strategy.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to model your derivatives structures using these specific prompts:

• "Price a $150 AAPL call expiring in exactly 30 days. Give me the Greeks."
• "Build a Bull Put Credit Spread on TSLA. Sell the $180 put and buy the $175 put expiring in 14 days. What is my Max Loss and Breakeven?"
• "If the Implied Volatility on NVDA drops by 10%, how much money will my long Straddle lose?"
• "What is my daily Theta decay if I buy a 0-DTE call on the SPY?"

By explicitly asking to "price an option" or build a spread (like an Iron Condor, Straddle, or Call Spread), you trigger the compute engine.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Options math is precise, but the real market contains human friction:

• The Real-World Friction Rule: The Black-Scholes model provides theoretical pricing assuming a perfectly fluid market. It does not perfectly reflect real-world bid/ask spreads. If you model an illiquid penny stock option, Pierce will give you the mathematical price, but good luck getting filled at that price in the live market.
• American vs. European Options: The native compute engine runs standard options pricing models. It calculates based on holding the option to expiration. It cannot perfectly predict early-assignment risk (which exists predominantly in American-style equity options) if a dividend is imminent.
• Volatility is not Static: Pierce runs the math based on current Implied Volatility. If IV explodes upward the next day, the entire valuation matrix changes. You should frequently re-run the Option Advisor when holding long-duration derivatives.

Built for the Probabilistic Trader

Trading stock is checkers; playing options is chess. You cannot win if you don't know how the pieces move. The Options Strategy Advisor stops you from gambling on cheap, out-of-the-money lotto tickets and forces you to stare directly at your Theta decay and Breakeven points—transitioning you from a hopeful amateur into a calculated derivatives operator.

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Note: The Options Strategy Advisor runs complex, computationally intensive Black-Scholes calculus utilizing Pierce's native micro-services, and is available exclusively on the Pro tier.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Suggest a defined-risk bearish put spread on TSLA for the nearest weekly expiration with max loss under $2,000. Use current market prices from the options chain." →

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🛠️ Data Tools

Tools are raw data endpoints that Pierce uses to pull real-time or fundamental information into its context window. It may use tools silently in the background when running skills.

Market Data

Tool ID: financial_search

Fetch real-time quotes, financials, and company metrics

Market Data Search

The Market Data Search tool is your direct, high-speed connection to real-time and historical financial truth. It empowers Pierce AI to bypass internet hallucinations and pull accurate, institutional-grade price quotes, financial statements, and metrics directly into your analysis.

What is Market Data Search?

When you’re trading or investing, data is your compass. But here's the catch with AI models: LLMs are primarily text predictors, not databases. If you ask a generic AI for Apple’s free cash flow last quarter, it might hallucinate a number that sounds plausible but is factually wrong. That’s dangerous when real capital is on the line.

The Market Data Search tool bridges that gap. It acts as Pierce's direct plumbing into authoritative financial APIs. Instead of guessing, Pierce uses this tool to fetch hard, numerical truth before constructing its analysis.

Think of it like giving a brilliant financial analyst a Bloomberg Terminal. The analyst (Pierce) already knows how to run a DCF valuation or calculate profit margins. The Market Data tool simply hands them the exact spreadsheets they need to do the math flawlessly. By democratizing access to this level of data, you're no longer sitting at a disadvantage against Wall Street institutions.

How Pierce AI Executes It

Every time you ask Pierce a fundamentally driven question, it automatically orchestrates a precise workflow behind the scenes using this tool:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "Is META overvalued right now?" Pierce identifies that answering this requires current financials, not just an opinion based on past training data.
2. Data Extraction: Pierce silently triggers the Market Data Search tool, requesting specific data points: current stock price, trailing twelve month (TTM) earnings, outstanding shares, and free cash flow.
3. Synthesis & Cleaning: The tool returns a raw data payload. Pierce cleans and maps this data into its internal memory framework.
4. Analysis Generation: Armed with ground-truth numbers, Pierce executes the complex financial math, ensuring every ratio, multiple, and calculation is rooted in reality.

You don’t have to tell Pierce to use the tool explicitly. It intuitively knows when hard data is required to substantiate its analysis and will automatically pull it.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Market Data Search tool is invoked, it can retrieve an incredibly wide array of precision data points to fuel your research. It essentially acts as a switchboard for several unique data silos:

• Real-Time Price Quotes: Up-to-the-minute stock prices, daily volume, bid/ask spreads, and day-range data.
• Complete Financial Statements: Multi-year histories for Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements. Say goodbye to digging through clunky investor relations PDFs to find one line item.
• Ratios & Multiples: Instant calculation inputs for Price-to-Earnings (P/E), EV/EBITDA, Gross Margins, and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC).
• Analyst Estimates: Forward-looking consensus estimates for upcoming EPS and Revenue prints, giving you a crystal clear look at exactly what Wall Street expects for the next quarter.
• Latest News Headlines: The most recent material news articles, press releases, and SEC filings associated with a specific ticker, ensuring your fundamental view isn't stale.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can intentionally trigger this tool by asking Pierce direct, data-centric questions. Try dropping these into the chat:

• "What were Microsoft's total revenues over the last three fiscal years?"
• "Fetch the current P/E matrix and operating margins for Tesla."
• "Pull the consensus EPS estimates for Amazon's next earnings report."
• "Get me a real-time price snapshot and today's trading volume for AAPL."

By asking these questions, you force Pierce to rely heavily on the Market Data tool, ensuring you get a clean, data-rich output rather than a generalized conversational summary.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While the Market Data tool is immensely powerful, it’s important to understand how to use it safely and acknowledge its limitations:

• Data Lag vs. Real-Time Execution: The tool is designed to provide near real-time pricing for analysis, but it should not be used as a replacement for a live tick-by-tick broker feed for hyper-active day trading. Always verify the exact bid/ask on your broker before routing a market order.
• Reporting Delays: Fundamental data (like Balance Sheet numbers) is entirely dependent on recent SEC filings. If a company restates earnings or delays a 10-Q filing, the tool can only return the most recently verified, audited data available on the public exchanges.
• The "Garbage In, Garbage Out" Rule: Pierce is incredibly smart, but if a mid-cap company publishes confusing or aggressively adjusted "non-GAAP" metrics in their press release, those adjusted numbers may temporarily muddy the water until the official 10-Q is fully digested. Always cross-reference aggressive valuations.

Built for the Informed Retail Trader

In the past, accessing institutional-grade financial APIs required signing expensive data contracts or paying thousands of dollars a month for a bespoke terminal. The Market Data Search tool levels the playing field. By wiring an intelligent AI directly into premium financial data feeds, you gain the ability to interrogate the market with speed, accuracy, and absolute confidence.

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Note: Market Data Search is a core foundational capability and is automatically included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Get me a real-time price snapshot and today's trading volume for AAPL." →

Technical Charting [PREFERRED]

Tool ID: generate_technical_chart

Generate and embed dynamic analytical charts

Technical Charting

The Technical Charting tool turns Pierce AI into a visual analyst. It transforms raw financial data into professional, annotated candlestick charts, embedding technical structure directly into your conversation.

What is Technical Charting?

Words alone often fall short when discussing technical analysis. If you ask an AI, "Where is the support level for AAPL?" it might give you a number like $170.50. But context matters. Is that support level a massive horizontal volume shelf, or just a 50-day moving average that is slowly sloping upward? As traders, we need to see the structure to trust it.

The Technical Charting tool bridges the gap between text-based AI analysis and the visual environment traders live in. Instead of forcing you to switch tabs to TradingView or thinkorswim to verify Pierce's analysis, this tool actively generates, annotates, and embeds a dynamic financial chart right into the chat thread.

Think of it perfectly paired with Pierce's mathematical brain. First, the AI runs the quantitative calculations (moving averages, support levels, Volatility Contraction Patterns). Then, it calls this tool to literally draw its work on a canvas, proving its thesis to you visually.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce a question that requires visual context, here is how the handoff happens:

1. Intent Recognition: You say, "Show me a chart of TSLA with the latest support levels."
2. Data Aggregation: Pierce fetches the last few months of Open, High, Low, Close (OHLCV) pricing data.
3. Algorithmic Annotation: Pierce mathematically identifies the key levels. It calculates where the 20-day and 50-day moving averages sit, and where the major supply and demand zones reside.
4. Rendering: It passes these coordinates to the Technical Charting tool, which instantly renders a highly responsive, beautifully formatted candlestick chart card into the UI.

This means you aren't just getting a static screenshot from the internet. You are getting a custom-built chart explicitly annotated with the exact data points Pierce is currently analyzing.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Technical Charting tool is utilized, you get more than just a picture. The rendered charts come packed with actionable trader data:

• Clean Candlestick Price Action: Professional-grade red and green candlestick visualization for easy trend identification.
• Algorithmic Support & Resistance Bars: Pierce draws horizontal support (demand) and resistance (supply) zones directly onto the chart's price axis, eliminating the guesswork of where buyers and sellers are waiting.
• Dynamic Moving Averages: The tool can overlay critical trend indicators—such as the 20-day, 50-day, and 200-day moving averages—giving you instant context on short, medium, and long-term momentum.
• Volume Profiling: An integrated volume sub-chart allows you to easily cross-reference a breakout or breakdown in price with institutional volume capitulation or accumulation.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can intentionally force Pierce to visualize its analysis by dropping these explicit prompts into the chat:

• "Show me a technical chart for NVDA."
• "Draw a chart for PLTR and highlight the current support and resistance levels."
• "I need to see the price action for META. Embed a chart with moving averages."
• "Can you plot a chart for SPY to verify the technical analyst report you just ran?"

Whenever Pierce completes a complex technical breakdown, you can follow up with simply, "Show me," and the AI will use this tool to render the proof.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While the ability to have an AI custom-draw charts for you is incredibly cool, you should keep the tool's intended scope in mind:

• It is a Verification Tool, Not a Full Platform: The embedded charts are designed to give you instant, high-quality context for the AI's analysis so you don't have to switch tabs. They are not intended to completely replace a 6-monitor, heavy desktop charting software suite like Thinkorswim or Sierra Chart.
• Static vs. Interactive: The charts rendered in the chat are designed to be snappy, quickly conveying the core technical theme (like a breakout or a flag). They support basic hovering for price tracking, but they are not the place to draw 14 complex Elliott Wave counts by hand.
• Timeframes: The charting tool defaults to the most relevant timeframe (usually Daily candles) for swing trading and macro analysis. Pierce is not optimized to render 1-minute tick charts for hyper-fast scalping.

Built for the Visual Retail Trader

If you're a visual learner, reading three paragraphs about moving average convergence is exhausting. The Technical Charting tool respects the trader's workflow. It allows you to rapidly absorb Pierce's technical thesis visually, ensuring you spend less time reading and more time evaluating setups with confidence.

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Note: The Technical Charting tool requires advanced rendering engines and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Generate a technical chart for NVDA." →

Strategy Backtesting [POWER]

Tool ID: historical_prices

Simulate historical performance of trading strategies using OHLCV price data

Strategy Backtesting & Historical Pricing

The Strategy Backtesting tool gives Pierce the mathematical horsepower to retrieve and process massive amounts of historical Open, High, Low, Close, and Volume (OHLCV) price data. It turns subjective chart reading into hard, quantitative technical analysis.

What is Strategy Backtesting & Historical Pricing?

When you look at a stock chart, your brain is performing incredible visual processing. You instantly recognize trends, support levels, and volatility contractions. But AI models don't "see" charts the way humans do—they understand math. If you want an AI to tell you if a stock is breaking out, you have to feed it the raw historical price data so it can calculate the patterns mathematically.

The Strategy Backtesting tool acts as Pierce's memory bank for market action. It reaches out to institutional data feeds and pulls down the daily or minute-by-minute trading history for any given ticker. This data—specifically the Open, High, Low, Close, and Volume (OHLCV)—forms the backbone of all technical and quantitative analysis on the platform.

Think of it like giving Pierce a high-speed ticker tape of everything that has happened to a stock over the last ten years. By having access to this deep historical context, Pierce isn't just reacting to today's news; it's evaluating today's price action against years of historical baselines.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for technical insights or strategy evaluations, it automatically shifts into quantitative mode using this tool:

1. Parameter Generation: You ask, "Is NVDA forming a valid base right now?" Pierce determines that to answer this, it needs the last 6 months of daily trading data.
2. Data Ingestion: Pierce triggers the Strategy Backtesting tool, bringing thousands of rows of OHLCV data directly into its processing engine.
3. Indicator Calculation: Pierce runs the math. It calculates exactly where the 50-day and 200-day moving averages sit, determines the Average True Range (ATR), and computes Relative Strength without needing you to specify the exact formulas.
4. Pattern Recognition: By analyzing the sequence of highs and lows mathematically, Pierce identifies specific market setups, such as narrowing volatility rings, inside days, or violent exhaustion gaps.

This systematic approach entirely removes the emotional, subjective bias that often plagues human chart reading.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Strategy Backtesting tool is engaged, it unlocks a massive suite of technical capabilities for your research:

• Historical Technical Analysis: Pierce can instantly calculate mathematically perfect moving averages, Bollinger Bands, RSI, MACD, and custom proprietary indicators across any timeframe.
• Pattern Recognition Algorithms: It identifies complex visual setups like the Volatility Contraction Pattern (VCP), cup-and-handle bases, or double bottoms, translating visual geometry into strict mathematical criteria.
• Volatility & Risk Calculations: By analyzing the historical Average True Range (ATR) and standard deviations, Pierce can recommend precise, logical stop-loss levels and optimal position sizing that fit your personal risk tolerance.
• Backtesting Simulation: The tool allows Pierce to step back in time and ask, "If I had run this exact strategy ruleset over the last 5 years, what would the max drawdown and profitability have been?"

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to utilize this historical pricing engine by asking for technical or quantitative feedback. Try these examples:

• "Fetch the 200-day moving average and current ATR for Tesla."
• "Simulate how a simple 50/200 moving average crossover strategy would have performed on SPY over the last decade."
• "Based on its historical volatility, where should I place a logical stop loss on my AAPL long position?"
• "Pull the last 6 months of volume data for META and tell me if institutions are accumulating."

By structuring your prompts around technical criteria, you force Pierce to leverage its historical data tools rather than relying on fundamental sentiment analysis.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Like any technical indicator, historical price data is a tool, not a crystal ball. Keep these limitations in mind:

• Past Performance: The most important rule in finance applies here: historical pricing data does not guarantee future results. A statistically sound backtest is a great starting point, but market regimes change.
• Slippage and Fees: When Pierce simulates backtests using this data, it's crucial to ensure you account for bid/ask slippage and commission drag. A strategy that is profitable on paper can quickly become unprofitable in the real world if execution costs are ignored.
• Data Resolution: While the tool is incredibly powerful for daily, weekly, and monthly analysis, running deep quantitative backtests on 1-minute tick data requires massive compute resources. Be aware that ultra-short-term patterns are heavily influenced by market noise rather than structural trends.

Built for the Quantitative Retail Trader

By integrating the Strategy Backtesting tool, Pierce bridges the gap between discretionary intuition and quantitative rigor. You don't need a PhD in statistics or a massive Python codebase to backtest strategies—you just need to ask Pierce the right questions in plain English, and the AI handles the heavy lifting.

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Note: Strategy Backtesting and historical data access is included in the Power tier and above due to the intensive compute and data costs required.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Backtest a 10/30 EMA crossover strategy on AAPL over the last 5 years." →

Institutional Flow [PREFERRED]

Tool ID: institutional_flow

Extract recent 13F accumulation and distribution analysis

Institutional Flow

The Institutional Flow tool tracks the "smart money." It analyzes large-scale SEC 13F filings to expose whether major hedge funds, endowments, and institutional whales are quietly accumulating a stock—or subtly rushing for the exits.

What is Institutional Flow Analysis?

Retail traders often play a guessing game, trying to predict stock movements based on earnings beats or Reddit threads. Institutional flow flips the script. When a multi-billion dollar hedge fund decides a stock is undervalued, they can't simply click "buy" on their brokerage app and instantly acquire millions of shares. It takes weeks, sometimes months, of steady buying to build a full position without causing the price to skyrocket prematurely.

This process leaves a massive footprint. By law, any institutional investment manager holding over $100 million in qualifying assets must file a Form 13F with the SEC within 45 days of the end of a quarter, disclosing their U.S. equity holdings.

The Institutional Flow tool acts as a powerful radar system. It systematically parses these complex, dense SEC disclosures to reveal the exact footprint of institutional buying and selling. Instead of wondering if a breakout has "conviction," you can mathematically verify if the big institutions are the ones supplying the bid.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce a question regarding institutional sponsorship, it automatically triggers a sophisticated, multi-step pipeline:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "Are hedge funds buying Palantir right now?" Pierce knows that "hedge funds buying" corresponds strictly to 13F filing data.
2. Data Extraction: Pierce triggers the Institutional Flow tool, instantly fetching the most recent quarter's 13F filings associated with the ticker (PLTR), filtering for the largest and most influential funds.
3. Synthesis & Cleaning: The tool parses thousands of scattered filings. Pierce aggregates the total number of shares bought versus shares sold across the entire institutional landscape.
4. Analysis Generation: Pierce computes a net sentiment score and activity ratio. It normalizes this data, giving you a clear, easily understandable breakdown of whether the smart money is overwhelmingly bullish or bearish.

This isn't an arbitrary "money flow" oscillator found on free charting sites. This is raw, audited SEC data distilled down into actionable insight.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Institutional Flow tool is engaged, Pierce distills mountains of regulatory paperwork into these precise deliverables:

• Net Institutional Flow: The aggregate tracking of whether more shares were added or liquidated by major funds.
• Top Fund Activity: A breakdown of specific, high-profile hedge funds or institutions that initiated new positions, added to existing ones, or exited completely.
• Sentiment Scoring: A computed net sentiment score indicating the overall bullishness or bearishness of the institutional cohort holding the stock.
• Position Concentration Risk: An analysis of whether the stock is overwhelmingly owned by institutions (the "crowded trade" risk) or if it remains under-owned (potential for rapid institutional accumulation).

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan the smart money footprint by dropping these prompts into your chat:

• "Fetch the most recent 13F data for NVDA. Are institutions still accumulating?"
• "Check the institutional flow for PLTR. Did any major funds initiate new positions last quarter?"
• "Calculate the net institutional sentiment score for Tesla based on its latest filings."
• "What is the ownership concentration risk for AAPL? Are hedge funds distributing?"

By asking these questions, you force Pierce to look past the day-to-day noise and evaluate the long-term, heavy-capital flows driving the market.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While tracking institutional money is a core tenet of professional trading paradigms like CANSLIM, you must understand the structural limitations of the data:

• The 45-Day Lag: This is the most crucial caveat. The SEC allows funds up to 45 days after the end of a quarter to report their holdings. By the time a 13F is published in mid-May, it only reflects the fund's holdings as of March 31st. A major fund could have already sold the position before the filing even went public.
• Options and Short Positions: Standard 13F filings generally disclose long equity positions, put options, and call options, but they do not require the disclosure of short equity positions. A fund might appear massively long on a stock via huge call options, while actually using those calls to hedge an enormous, undisclosed short position.
• The "Copycat" Trap: Blindly copying hedge fund trades months after the fact is a dangerous strategy. Institutional Flow should be used to confirm your own technical or fundamental analysis, not to blindly mirror billion-dollar portfolios.

Built for the Savvy Retail Trader

Institutional sponsorship is the engine that drives sustainable, multi-month stock trends. By utilizing the Institutional Flow tool, Pierce equips you with the ability to verify if the big money agrees with your thesis, ensuring you aren't fighting the tape when deploying your capital.

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Note: Institutional Flow and 13F extraction is included in the Preferred tier and above due to the complexity of parsing real-time regulatory filings.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Track institutional flow for TSLA." →

Market Breadth [PREFERRED]

Tool ID: market_breadth

Retrieve real-time market breadth metrics (summary or full detail) and 0-100 internals score

Market Breadth Analysis

The Market Breadth Analysis tool is the ultimate lie detector for the stock market. It looks underneath the hood of major indexes to calculate exactly how many individual stocks are actually participating in a rally or selloff, delivering an objective 0-100 health score.

What is Market Breadth?

Imagine you’re watching a general leading an army into battle. The general is charging up a hill, screaming a battle cry, looking incredibly strong. That’s the S&P 500 hitting a new all-time high. But if you look behind the general and see that the actual soldiers are exhausted, retreating, or dead... the general is about to be slaughtered.

That is what Market Breadth measures.

Market indexes like the S&P 500 or Nasdaq are market-cap weighted. This means a handful of massive tech giants (like Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia) can carry the entire index higher, masking the fact that 80% of normal stocks are actually in downtrends. Relying solely on the price of the index is incredibly dangerous, because when the generals finally stumble, the market crashes rapidly.

The Market Breadth Analysis tool systematically calculates the underlying participation rate of the stock market. It parses advancing volume versus declining volume, the net difference of 52-week new highs versus new lows, and the percentage of stocks trading above key moving averages.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for a market health check, it doesn’t just read the news headlines. It deploys this quantitative tool to run the numbers:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "Is it safe to buy this breakout?" or "Give me a market environment update."
2. Data Extraction: Pierce triggers the Market Breadth tool. The tool instantly queries thousands of stocks across the NYSE and Nasdaq, identifying exactly how many closed higher today, how many hit 52-week lows, and how many are trading above their 200-day moving averages.
3. Synthesis & Scoring: By comparing these internal metrics against historical baselines, Pierce computes an objective 0 to 100 Composite Health Score.
4. Analysis Generation: Pierce maps this score to a specific regime (e.g., Healthy, Neutral, Weakening, Critical) and highlights any dangerous divergences—such as the S&P 500 making a new high while the breadth score drops.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Market Breadth Analysis tool is utilized, you receive a full X-ray of the market's internals:

• The Composite Score (0-100): A single, quantitative number indicating the absolute health of the market trend. A score above 70 indicates a raging bull, while a score below 30 signals deep distribution.
• Divergence Detection: The tool acts as an early warning system. If Pierce spots a bearish divergence (Index price is going UP, but Market Breadth is going DOWN), it will actively warn you that a correction is mathematically probable.
• Participation Percentages: Exact readouts of critical indicators, such as the percentage of stocks currently above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
• Regime Classification: A clear, categorical assessment telling you if it is currently a "Risk-On" environment (safe to buy aggressive breakouts) or a "Risk-Off" environment (time to raise cash and tighten stop losses).

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan the internals by dropping these prompts into your chat:

• "What is the current market breadth score?"
• "Are there any bearish divergences happening in the Nasdaq right now?"
• "Give me a full market health update. Is it safe to deploy capital into tech breakouts?"
• "What percentage of stocks in the S&P 500 are trading above their 200-day moving average?"

By structuring your prompts around breadth, you force Pierce to look past the large-cap distortion and evaluate the true risk of the current market regime.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While Market Breadth is arguably the most powerful macro indicator for a swing trader, you must use it with realistic expectations:

• It is a Leading Indicator, Not a Timing Tool: Breadth often deteriorates weeks or even months before the actual index price crashes. A dropping breadth score is a warning to tighten stops, not a signal to immediately short the market blindly. The market can remain irrational and narrowly led for surprisingly long periods.
• Extreme Readings Mean Different Things: A breadth score near 0 indicates panic selling—but panic selling eventually creates a "washed out" bottom. A score near 0 is often a contrarian buy signal once the selling pressure violently exhausts itself. Conversely, a breadth score pinned at 98 for an extended period suggests the market is deeply overbought and vulnerable to a sharp pullback.
• Index Specificity: Be careful to align your breadth measure with your trading universe. Strong Nasdaq breadth doesn't matter if you're trying to trade small-cap biotech stocks housed in the Russell 2000.

Built for the Smart Retail Trader

Amateurs watch the S&P 500. Professionals watch the internals. The Market Breadth Analysis tool gives you the exact quantitative dashboard used by institutional trend followers to manage their portfolio exposure. It tells you when to hit the gas, and more importantly, when to hit the brakes.

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Note: Market Breadth Analysis is a premium data feature and is included in the Preferred tier and above due to the massive scale of calculation required across thousands of tickers.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze current market breadth internals." →

Portfolio Analyzer [PREFERRED]

Tool ID: portfolio_analyzer

Calculate risk constraints and concentration for hypothetical allocations

Portfolio Analyzer

The Portfolio Analyzer tool acts as your personal Chief Risk Officer. It mathematically evaluates hypothetical or current stock allocations to root out hidden concentration risks and ensure your portfolio is built to survive market volatility.

What is the Portfolio Analyzer?

A common mistake retail traders make is accidentally betting the farm on a single theme. You might think you're diversified because you own Tesla, Nvidia, Palantir, and the QQQ ETF. But if the semiconductor or AI narrative takes a hit, all four of those positions will crash simultaneously. Your capital is dangerously correlated.

The Portfolio Analyzer is designed to catch these blind spots. It's a quantitative engine that rips apart a list of tickers and dollar amounts, standardizes them into weights, and cross-references them against global sector maps.

Think of it like an X-ray for your portfolio. Instead of just looking at the absolute dollar gains or losses on your screen, this tool allows Pierce AI to examine underlying sector concentrations, beta risks, and geographic overlaps—identifying where a single black swan event could wipe out your account. The best part? It executes this complex analysis completely detached from your brokerage account using hypothetical models, meaning you never have to link sensitive login credentials.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for feedback on your holdings or a mock portfolio, it triggers this specific risk-management workflow:

1. Parameter Generation: You drop a list into the chat: "I have $10k in AAPL, $5k in NVDA, and $10k in MSFT. Is this a good portfolio?"
2. Data Ingestion: Pierce triggers the Portfolio Analyzer tool, feeding it your raw tickers and capital distributions.
3. Normalization & Cross-Referencing: The underlying tool maps your tickers to their exact GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) sectors, calculating the precise percentage weight of every position based on your inputs.
4. Analysis Generation: Pierce receives the normalized data payload and applies institutional risk-management heuristics. It flags that 100% of your capital is heavily concentrated in Mega-Cap Tech (Information Technology & Consumer Discretionary) and warns you about the correlation risk.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Portfolio Analyzer tool is initiated, it delivers a precise, institutional-grade teardown of your capital allocation:

• Allocation Normalization: An exact breakdown of your capital by percentage weight. The tool automatically spots if a single position has grown too large (e.g., AAPL now making up 45% of your total net worth).
• Sector & Industry Concentration: A heat map-style breakdown of your sector exposure. It explicitly flags if you are over-indexed in historically volatile sectors like Biotech or Semiconductors.
• Risk Assessment Scoring: A structured evaluation of your portfolio’s "base risk." This identifies whether your portfolio is built defensively (dividend aristocrats, staples) or aggressively (high-beta tech, small caps).
• Diversification Recommendations: Based on the structural analysis, Pierce delivers actionable suggestions on how to hedge your exposure or which inversely correlated sectors you could add to smooth out your equity curve.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to audit your portfolio construction by dropping these prompts into your chat:

• "Here are my current positions: 100 shares of TSLA, 50 shares of PLTR, and $5,000 in SOXL. What is my sector concentration risk?"
• "I have $50,000 to invest. If I put 50% in VTI and 50% in individual tech stocks, analyze the portfolio balance."
• "Review this mock portfolio: XOM, CVX, OXY. Am I sufficiently diversified within the energy sector, or is my risk highly correlated?"
• "Analyze my portfolio allocation for hidden overlapping risks between my ETFs and individual stock picks."

By structuring your prompts around capital at risk, you force Pierce to leverage its Portfolio Analyzer rather than generating generic investment advice.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Proper portfolio construction is the holy grail of long-term wealth, but it's important to understand the boundaries of this tool:

• Hypothetical Simulation: Pierce analyzes portfolios hypothetically. Because Pierce does not directly link to your brokerage account via Plaid or similar APIs, it relies on the data you manually input. If your inputs are wrong, the risk analysis will necessarily be skewed.
• Correlation vs. Causation: The tool flags concentration risk based on sector and industry tags. However, in a true global liquidity crisis (like March 2020), correlations often go to 1.0, meaning completely unrelated sectors will crash together. Total cash allocation is often the only true hedge.
• Beta and Volatility limitations: Currently, the tool maps base risk based on sector and historical patterns. It does not actively calculate a dynamic, live portfolio-beta or exact implied volatility (IV) rank for the aggregate portfolio in real-time.

Built for the Smart Retail Trader

Managing downside risk is what separates amateur gamblers from professional traders. The Portfolio Analyzer tool essentially gives you a virtual risk-manager desk at your fingertips. You can rapidly mock up different positional weights, stress-test your ideas before risking real capital, and build wealth with absolute structural confidence.

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Note: The Portfolio Analyzer tool requires intensive normalization calculations and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Analyze a portfolio of 60% SPY and 40% TLT." →

SEC Filings

Tool ID: read_filings

Read 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, and other SEC documents directly from EDGAR

SEC Filings Reader

The SEC Filings Reader gives Pierce AI the ability to ingest dense, legally binding regulatory paperwork straight from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR database. It strips away the PR spin of Wall Street media and gets straight to the audited truth.

What is the SEC Filings Reader?

Reading financial news on Yahoo Finance or CNBC is perfectly fine for getting a general overview. But when you are making high-stakes sizing decisions based on a fundamental thesis, you simply cannot rely on journalists to distill management's actual language. You need the original source code.

By law, publicly traded companies in the United States must regularly disclose every piece of material information to the SEC. These documents are notoriously dense, filled with legalese, hundreds of pages long, and intentionally boring. Trying to manually scrub through a 300-page Annual 10-K report to find the specific footnote about a pending lawsuit or supply chain vulnerability is exhausting for a retail trader.

The SEC Filings Reader tool solves this. It gives Pierce a direct connection into the EDGAR database. Instead of searching Google for heavily summarized, biased news articles ("Five things to know about XYZ's earnings"), Pierce can directly parse and interpret the actual 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings the second they hit the tape.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce for deep fundamental analysis or when it is executing a comprehensive equity research report, the SEC Filings Reader goes to work:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "What are the latest risk factors management disclosed for Palantir?"
2. Data Extraction: Pierce triggers the SEC Filings tool, navigating directly to the EDGAR database, bypassing third-party summarizers. It pulls the most recent 10-K (Annual Report) for PLTR.
3. Targeted Parsing: The tool doesn't just blindly read 300 pages. Pierce structurally navigates the filing, jumping directly to "Part I, Item 1A: Risk Factors" or the "Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A)."
4. Analysis Generation: Pierce digests the raw, audited text and translates the dense corporate legalese into clear, actionable bullet points without losing the nuanced severity of management's warnings.

This ensures your fundamental thesis is built on legally binding disclosures, not highly edited press releases.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the SEC Filings Reader is actively engaged, Pierce can pull exact details from various official forms:

• 10-K (Annual) & 10-Q (Quarterly) Reports: Complete structural analysis of the core business, revenue recognition policies, and the vital Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) where CEOs have to explain why margins compressed.
• 8-K (Current Report) Extraction: Lightning-fast digestion of unscheduled material events. If a CEO resigns, a major acquisition is announced, or a bankruptcy is filed, Pierce reads the 8-K to capture the exact legal terms rather than relying on a delayed news wire.
• Risk Factor Identification: Companies are legally required to list everything that could possibly bankrupt them. Pierce isolates these new or updated risk factors to build ironclad Bear Cases for your research.
• Footnote Sleuthing: Hiding terrible debt structures or dilutive executive compensation in page 142's footnotes is a classic Wall Street trick. Pierce can scan the footnotes to expose off-balance-sheet liabilities.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to audit a company's regulatory filings by dropping these prompts into your chat:

• "Read the most recent 10-K for Tesla. Summarize the major changes in their stated 'Risk Factors' compared to last year."
• "Fetch the latest 8-K for Crowdstrike. What exact details did management disclose about their recent outage?"
• "Scan the MD&A section of Amazon's latest 10-Q. What did management say specifically about AWS growth deceleration?"
• "Based on their SEC filings, does this company have any massive off-balance sheet liabilities or convertible debt?"

By specifically referencing SEC filings or forms (like the 10-K or 8-K), you force Pierce to anchor its analysis in reality.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While reading SEC filings gives you an incredible edge over traders reacting to CNBC tickers, you should be aware of a few structural boundaries:

• The Length Constraint: Some mega-cap 10-K filings are so massive that feeding the entire document into an LLM context window at once is structurally impossible. Pierce uses this tool to target specific sections (like the MD&A or Risk Factors) rather than trying to summarize a 400-page PDF in a single breath.
• "Legal Boilerplate" Noise: Corporate lawyers write SEC filings to prevent lawsuits. This means 80% of a 10-K is repetitive boilerplate language ("Our industry is competitive," "We are subject to macroeconomic forces"). Pierce's job is to cut through the noise, but understand that filings are inherently conservative documents.
• Not for Foreign Equities: The SEC Filings tool connects to the U.S. EDGAR database. It does not actively parse official Chinese regulatory documents or European equivalent filings unless they are dual-listed via ADRs (Form 20-F).

Built for the Meticulous Retail Trader

The greatest hedge fund managers in the world don't trade off Yahoo Finance; they read the filings. The SEC Filings Reader democratizes that level of due diligence. By deploying Pierce to scrub the fine print, you are protecting your portfolio from predictable blow-ups and grounding your conviction in audited truth.

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Note: The SEC Filings Reader is a foundational data access tool and is included in the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Show me the key highlights from Apple's latest 10-Q filing." →

Sector Rotation [PREFERRED]

Tool ID: sector_rotation

Assess sector uptrends, cycle placement, and risk regimes

Sector Rotation

The Sector Rotation tool analyzes exactly where institutional capital is flowing across the 11 major sectors of the market. It’s a radar system for identifying macro business cycles, ensuring you are trading in the sectors experiencing massive institutional tailwinds.

What is Sector Rotation?

In the stock market, money rarely disappears; it simply moves. When institutional players get nervous about a recession, they don’t just move all their billions into a bank account. They sell highly speculative Technology stocks and buy defensive Healthcare and Utilities stocks. Conversely, when the economy is booming, they dump defensive sectors and pile into aggressive Consumer Discretionary and Semiconductor plays.

This constant movement of money is called Sector Rotation.

Trying to trade a technology stock when the entire tech sector is undergoing distribution is like trying to swim against a riptide. You might have the best stock pick in the world, but if the macro "weather" is against you, your stock will likely be dragged down.

The Sector Rotation tool prevents this. It quantifies exactly which sectors are leading the market, which are lagging, and which are acting as early warning indicators of a shifting economic cycle.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce a question regarding market sectors or business cycles, it deploys this tool to calculate the exact internal momentum of every sector:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "Where is the smart money rotating right now?"
2. Data Extraction: Pierce triggers the Sector Rotation tool. The tool doesn't just look at the price of the XLK (Technology ETF). It looks inside every sector, tracking the exact percentage of underlying stocks within that sector that are currently participating in uptrends.
3. Relative Strength Ranking: Pierce lines up all 11 major sectors (Tech, Financials, Energy, Utilities, etc.) and mathematically ranks them. It looks for the inflection points: determining if capital is violently rotating out of last month's leaders and into a new group.
4. Analysis Generation: Pierce provides a detailed breakdown, definitively stating what business cycle the market is currently pricing in (e.g., Early Recovery, Late Stage Boom, or Defensive Contraction).

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When Pierce utilizes the Sector Rotation tool, you receive actionable macro-economic intelligence:

• The Sector Leaderboard: An absolute ranking of all 11 S&P 500 sectors, scored by internal momentum. This instantly tells you which sectors you should be hunting for long setups, and which you should ignore (or short).
• Business Cycle Identification: Different sectors lead at different points in the economic cycle. By analyzing the current leaders (e.g., if Industrials and Basic Materials are breaking out), Pierce can accurately classify whether we are in an Early, Mid, or Late economic cycle.
• Risk Regime Mapping (Risk-On vs. Risk-Off): Pierce uses proprietary ratio analysis to determine the market's psychological state. If defensive sectors (Utilities, Consumer Staples) are outperforming aggressive sectors (Consumer Discretionary, Technology), Pierce explicitly warns that a massive "Risk-Off" regime change is occurring.
• Divergence and Rotation Alerts: The tool actively flags stealth rotations—where an index like the S&P 500 might look flat, but massive amounts of capital are secretly rotating from Growth to Value underneath the surface.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to scan the macro landscape by dropping these prompts into your chat:

• "Run a sector rotation analysis. Which sectors are currently leading the market?"
• "Are we in a Risk-On or Risk-Off environment based on recent sector flows?"
• "Based on current sector strength, what stage of the business cycle is the market pricing in?"
• "Capital seems to be rotating out of tech. Which defensive sectors are picking up the volume?"

By structuring your prompts around sectors or cycles, you force Pierce to look at the massive tidal forces driving the market, preventing you from getting caught on the wrong side of an institutional rotation.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

Sector rotation is arguably the most powerful way to align a swing trading thesis, but keep these principles in mind:

• Macro Moves Slowly: Sector rotation is not a day-trading strategy. Institutional capital takes weeks or months to fully rebalance out of a massive sector. This tool is designed to identify multi-week and multi-month trends.
• News vs. Price Action: The Sector Rotation tool strictly follows price action and breadth data. It does not care if the Federal Reserve announced a rate cut; it only cares how the Financial sector actually traded after the cut.
• Micro-Themes vs. Sectors: Large GICS sectors can sometimes mask aggressive micro-themes. For instance, the broader "Technology" sector might be lagging, but the "AI Infrastructure" sub-theme could be aggressively breaking out. Sector analysis handles the macro view, but you still need to find the leading industry groups within the leading sectors.

Built for the Strategic Retail Trader

You want the wind at your back. Top-tier traders do not try to row against the current; they identify where the institutions are moving their massive ships, and they draft behind them. The Sector Rotation tool gives you the exact map you need to ensure every trade you take has a macro-economic tailwind.

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Note: The Sector Rotation tool requires vast, simultaneous breadth calculations across the entire market and is included in the Preferred tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Show me the current sector rotation and which sectors are leading." →

Browse Web

Tool ID: web_fetch

Read articles, filings, and web pages for research

Browse Web

The Browse Web tool serves as Pierce AI’s direct connection to the live internet. It breaks the AI out of its static training data, allowing it to actively search the web, fetch specific URLs, and read breaking financial news in real time.

What is the Browse Web Tool?

One of the biggest limitations of standard Artificial Intelligence models is their "knowledge cutoff date." If you ask a standard ChatGPT model about a stock's massive plunge yesterday, it often won't know it happened unless it was fed the breaking news in real time. In the fast-paced world of financial markets, trading on outdated information is a guaranteed way to lose capital.

The Browse Web tool guarantees that Pierce is never trading on stale data. It provides the agent with a live, unmetered connection to the modern internet.

When Pierce needs to understand the current qualitative narrative—what Wall Street analysts are saying on CNBC, what the retail sentiment is on social media, or what breaking product announcements a company just made—it reaches out to the live web to read the exact same articles that the rest of the market is digesting.

How Pierce AI Executes It

When you ask Pierce a question regarding current events, macro news, or qualitative thesis building, it automatically triggers its web-browsing capabilities:

1. Intent Recognition: You ask, "Why is TSLA dropping so hard this morning?" Pierce recognizes this relies on breaking, real-time data rather than historical charts or 10-K filings.
2. Search Query Generation: Pierce formulates an optimal search query (e.g., "Tesla stock drop catalyst news [Current Date]") and triggers the Browse Web tool to query live search engines.
3. URL Fetching: The tool returns a list of top financial news sources (Bloomberg, Reuters, Yahoo Finance). Pierce actively clicks the most relevant links and fetches the full-text content of the articles.
4. Synthesis Generation: Instead of just sending you a link, Pierce reads the entire article, synthesizes the core catalyst (e.g., "Tesla missed deliveries by 10% due to supply chain issues in Shanghai"), and summarizes the impact directly in your chat.

Key Metrics & Deliverables

When the Browse Web tool is utilized, you gain a massive research advantage by having an AI act as your personal research assistant:

• Live Market Fact-Checking: Pierce can instantly verify rumors, breaking news, or complex macro-economic data prints (like CPI or Non-Farm Payroll drops) the second they hit the internet.
• Deep Content Extraction: If you drop a URL into the chat and say, "Summarize this 5,000-word analyst report," Pierce uses this tool to read the page and distill it into a 5-bullet TL;DR.
• Sentiment & Narrative Tracking: While filings tell you the fundamental truth, the web tells you the narrative. Pierce uses this tool during earnings previews to understand the "whisper numbers" and sentiment heading into a highly anticipated binary event.
• Competitor Analysis: Pierce can search the web to find unannounced, granular data about a company's competitors that hasn't made its way into an official SEC filing yet.

Example Prompts & Use Cases

You can actively push Pierce to search the live web by dropping these explicit prompts into your chat:

• "Search the web and find out why NVDA is rallying today despite the overall market being down."
• "Read this article: [URL]. Give me a summary of the main points and how it impacts my AAPL position."
• "What is Wall Street's current consensus on the Federal Reserve rate cuts for next month?"
• "Can you look up the latest reviews and public sentiment for Rivian's new R2 vehicle line?"

By explicitly telling Pierce to "search" or "read this URL," you ensure the AI's response is grounded in today's reality, not last year's training data.

Methodology Notes & Limitations

While the Browse Web tool is indispensable for qualitative research, it is subject to the chaos of the open internet:

• Paywalls & Scraping Limits: Pierce cannot bypass hard paywalls (like a premium Bloomberg Terminal article or a WSJ exclusive). If an article is completely locked behind a subscription login, Pierce will not be able to read the full text.
• The "Fake News" Trap: The internet is full of sensationalized "clickbait," bot-generated spam, and pump-and-dump rumors. While Pierce is trained to look for authoritative financial sources, you should always verify shocking news before trading wildly on the headline.
• Fundamentals Trump News: Remember that journalists get paid to generate clicks, not alpha. Use the Browse Web tool to understand the narrative, but always fall back on the hard data tools (SEC Filings, Financial Search, Market Breadth) for your structural conviction.

Built for the Informed Retail Trader

In a market driven by algorithmic news-scrapers and high-frequency trading, you can't afford to be out of the loop. The Browse Web tool gives you an automated research assistant that will read the internet for you, filtering out the noise and delivering the exact catalyst you need to manage your trades optimally.

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Note: The Browse Web tool is a core qualitative capability and is available on the PayGo tier and above.

[!TIP] Try this in the Pierce App: Run Example Prompt: "Search the web for the latest news on Tesla's regulatory approval." →