Playbook: Alex for Finance Professionals

Your reference for using Alex in financial analysis, advising, and communication. Ready-to-run prompts for analysis, modeling, client communication, and reporting.

What This Guide Is Not

This is not a habit formation guide (see Self-Study Guide for that). This is a finance toolkit — the specific ways Alex can accelerate your analytical and communication work.

Where to Practice These Prompts

Every prompt in this guide works with any AI assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, or whatever tool you prefer. The prompts are the skill; the tool is just where you type them. Pick the one you’re comfortable with and start today.

For an integrated experience, the Alex VS Code extension (free) was purpose-built for this workshop. It understands finance context, lets you save effective prompts with /saveinsight, and brings your playbook and practice exercises into one workspace. VS Code is a free editor that takes minutes to set up, even if you’ve never used it before.

You don’t need a specific tool to benefit. You need the habit of reaching for AI when the work is genuinely hard — not just when it’s repetitive.

Core Principle for Finance Professionals

Finance is about converting uncertainty into decisions. Alex can help you structure analysis, communicate findings, and work through frameworks — but every financial judgment, recommendation, and compliance decision is yours. Alex is not a registered financial advisor and cannot replace your professional responsibility.

Critical: Always verify financial data, regulatory requirements, and compliance standards independently. Do not input material non-public information, client personal data, or confidential deal information into AI tools.

The Seven Use Cases

1. Financial Analysis and Modeling

When to use: Building the narrative around analysis, stress-testing assumptions, structuring models.

Prompt pattern:

Help me structure this financial analysis:

Analysis type: [valuation / budget variance / scenario / forecasting]
Business context: [what's being analyzed and why]
Key assumptions: [the main drivers]
What I have: [data available]
Decision: [what this analysis informs]

Help me:
1. Identify the key value drivers to model
2. Structure the scenario analysis
3. Select the appropriate methodology
4. Stress-test the assumptions
5. Present the sensitivity ranges

Follow-up prompts:

What assumptions am I most at risk of getting wrong?

Build the framework for a [DCF / comparable / budget] analysis.

How do I communicate uncertainty to a non-technical audience?

Try this now: You are building a DCF model for a SaaS company. Revenue is growing 40% YoY but gross margins have declined from 75% to 68% over three quarters. The CEO says margins will improve with scale; you are not sure. Use the financial analysis prompt to pressure-test your assumptions — particularly the margin trajectory. The output will surface the discount rate sensitivity and terminal value implications you need to present to the investment committee.

2. Client Communication and Presentations

When to use: Investment presentations, financial planning discussions, portfolio reviews.

Prompt pattern:

Help me communicate financial information:

Audience: [retail client / institutional / executive / board]
Topic: [what you're communicating]
Key message: [what they need to understand]
Complexity: [technical level appropriate for this audience]
Action needed: [if any]

Create communication that:
1. Leads with what matters to this client
2. Explains without condescending
3. Is clear about risks and uncertainties
4. Avoids jargon where simpler language works
5. Drives toward a clear next step

Follow-up prompts:

A client is panicking about market volatility. Help me draft a response.

Explain [complex product/concept] to a sophisticated but non-technical client.

Write the investment thesis for this recommendation.

3. Investment Research and Due Diligence

When to use: Structuring research, developing investment theses, due diligence frameworks.

Prompt pattern:

Help me structure investment research:

Asset type: [equity / credit / private / real estate]
Company/sector: [what you're analyzing]
Investment thesis: [your initial view]
Key risks: [what could make you wrong]
What I know: [public information and analysis so far]

Help me:
1. Build the research framework
2. Identify the key questions to answer
3. Structure the bear, base, and bull case
4. Develop metrics to track the thesis
5. Find the assumptions that define the debate

Follow-up prompts:

Steelman the bear case against my thesis.

What should I ask management in due diligence?

Write the investment memo structure.

4. Financial Reporting and Narratives

When to use: MD&A, CFO commentary, board reporting, earnings communications.

Prompt pattern:

Help me write financial narrative:

Document: [MD&A / board report / CFO letter / earnings script]
Period: [time period and performance]
Results: [key financials — public or aggregated, never granular client data]
Story: [what drove the results]
Audience: [investors / board / analysts / employees]

Create narrative that:
1. Explains what happened and why
2. Connects drivers to strategy
3. Is transparent about challenges
4. Provides forward-looking context where appropriate
5. Uses plain language alongside financial terms

Follow-up prompts:

The results missed expectations. How do I communicate that honestly?

Write the variance explanation for [revenue / cost / margin].

Translate this financial performance for a non-financial board member.

5. Risk Assessment and Scenario Planning

When to use: Evaluating risks, stress-testing portfolios, preparing for downside scenarios.

Prompt pattern:

Help me assess risk:

Risk type: [market / credit / operational / regulatory / liquidity]
Situation: [what you're stress-testing]
Current exposure: [describe without specific client data]
Constraints: [regulatory, liquidity, mandate limits]

Help me:
1. Identify the key risk factors
2. Build the stress scenarios (mild / severe / extreme)
3. Assess second-order effects
4. Develop the mitigation framework
5. Define early warning indicators

Follow-up prompts:

What risks am I not considering?

How do I communicate tail risk to a client who doesn't want to hear it?

Build the scenario framework for [macro event].

6. Financial Planning and Advice Frameworks

When to use: Structuring financial plans, developing advice frameworks, client goal-setting.

Prompt pattern:

Help me structure a financial plan:

Client type: [individual / family / business — no personal data]
Life stage: [early career / mid-career / pre-retirement / etc.]
Goals: [general categories]
Constraints: [time horizon, risk tolerance, obligations]

Create a planning framework that:
1. Prioritizes goals by urgency and importance
2. Sequences key financial decisions
3. Identifies trade-offs to discuss
4. Builds in scenario analysis
5. Defines review milestones

Follow-up prompts:

What questions should I ask a new client to understand their actual risk tolerance?

Build a checklist for [life event] planning.

What are the most common planning mistakes people make at [life stage]?

7. Regulatory and Compliance Communication

When to use: Disclosures, compliance documentation, regulatory filings.

Prompt pattern:

Help me draft compliant communication:

Document type: [disclosure / reg filing / ADV / client agreement]
Content needed: [what must be covered]
Regulatory context: [jurisdiction and relevant regulations]
Tone: [formal / plain language / technical]

Create a draft that:
1. Covers required disclosures
2. Is written in plain language where permitted
3. Is complete without being unnecessarily complex
4. Flags areas requiring legal/compliance review

Follow-up prompts:

Make this required disclosure more readable without removing anything required.

What am I required to disclose for [product type]?

Review this for completeness — what might I be missing?

Important: All regulatory documents must be reviewed by qualified compliance and legal professionals.

Your AI toolkit: These prompts work in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini — and in the Alex VS Code extension, which was designed around them. Start with whatever you have. The skill transfers across all of them.

What Great Looks Like

After consistent use, you should notice:

• Faster analysis structuring
• Clearer client communications
• More rigorous scenario planning
• Better financial narratives

The goal isn’t for Alex to make financial judgments — it’s for Alex to help you do financial work with more clarity and speed.

Practice Plan

Month 2–3

Shift from guided exercises to independent workflows — build templates, integrate AI into your real projects, and create reusable prompt libraries for repeating tasks.

Track Your Growth

/saveinsight Financial Analysis Frameworks: [brief description]

/saveinsight Client Communication Templates: [brief description]

Continue your practice: Self-Study Guide has weekly challenges to keep building your skills after the workshop ends.

Compliance Reminders

• Never input material non-public information
• Never include client PII or account data
• All investment recommendations remain your professional responsibility
• Regulatory documents require qualified professional review
• Follow your firm’s AI use policies

Your fiduciary duty is yours to keep.