PromptSharp › Daily briefs › Finance › October 7, 2026

Finance prompt of the day

October 7, 2026 · for Investment banking, sales & trading, equity research, FP&A. One sharp, copy-paste prompt — free, every weekday.

You are an analyst building a SUM-OF-THE-PARTS valuation for [COMPANY] from the segment data I paste. Produce:
1. A SEGMENT MAP: for each segment, the most appropriate valuation method (comps multiple, DCF, asset value) and WHY that method fits the segment's economics.
2. A SOTP TABLE: per-segment value driver, chosen multiple/rate, and value — using only figures I provide; write "not provided" for anything missing.
3. The BRIDGE from enterprise SOTP to equity value: net debt, minorities, pension, corporate/unallocated costs, and any conglomerate discount — each labeled and justified.
4. A SENSITIVITY on the 2 segments that swing the answer most, and the 2 assumptions to verify.

Rules: Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in what I give you, write "not provided" and flag it. Mark every claim I should verify externally before relying on it. Never use, infer, or request material non-public information (MNPI) or client-confidential data.

What changed for Finance

How to run “Sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) valuation build”, step by step

The situation this prompt is built for: A multi-segment company is mispriced as a whole and you want a defensible SOTP with the right method per segment. Below is exactly what to feed it and what comes back — no model-specific tricks, it runs the same in any chat AI.

What each placeholder does

Demo profile for the example fills: an equity research associate on a mid-cap sector coverage team, working in Excel, a chat AI model, and your firm's data terminal. Swap in your own context — or save it once at /profile and copied prompts arrive pre-filled.

• [COMPANY] — this is the input the whole output quality hangs on. Demo fill: what you sell in one plain sentence, plus who buys it. Leave it vague and the model pads with boilerplate; make it concrete and every section downstream sharpens.

What the model hands back

The prompt forces a fixed deliverable shape, so you get a document, not a ramble:

1. A SEGMENT MAP: for each segment, the most appropriate valuation method (comps multiple, DCF, asset value) and WHY that method fits the segment's economics.
2. A SOTP TABLE: per-segment value driver, chosen multiple/rate, and value — using only figures I provide; write "not provided" for anything missing.
3. The BRIDGE from enterprise SOTP to equity value: net debt, minorities, pension, corporate/unallocated costs, and any conglomerate discount — each labeled and justified.
4. A SENSITIVITY on the 2 segments that swing the answer most, and the 2 assumptions to verify.

Why this structure works

SOTP fails when the same multiple is sprayed across dissimilar segments and the equity bridge is fudged; forcing method-per-segment logic and an explicit, itemized bridge makes the number auditable rather than a stack of unexamined guesses.

On Pro, the per-segment method defaults and conglomerate-discount convention arrive tuned to your coverage from the profile you set once.

When to use it — and when not to

Reach for it when

• A multi-segment company is mispriced as a whole and you want a defensible SOTP with the right method per segment.
• You can actually supply the inputs it asks for ([COMPANY]) — this prompt is an amplifier for real context, not a substitute for it.
• You need the output in a shape you can forward as-is — the fixed structure above is the point.

Skip it when

• You don’t yet have the source material — the prompt is built to refuse to fake it. Its own guardrail: “Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in what I give you, write "not provided" and flag it.” With nothing to work from, you’ll get a list of “not provided” flags, which is honest but not useful. Collect the inputs first.
• The task is genuinely one sentence long — a structured prompt earns its overhead when the output has parts. For quick one-off questions, just ask.

Adapting today’s prompt for adjacent roles

“Sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) valuation build” sits in the Financial Analysis & Modeling lane of the finance pool. If your seat is one desk over, these are the same craft-move rebuilt for the neighbouring workflow — pulled from the same curated pool, each free in full at its permalink:

You are an IB associate building a football-field valuation summary for [TARGET]. I will paste the ranges from each method (DCF, trading comps, precedent transactions,…

You are a sales-trader drafting a client email. Context: [what you want to communicate — an axe, a flow observation, a level, a piece of color]. Produce: 1. A subject…

You are an analyst scoring the management team of [COMPANY]. I will give the history/facts (M&A, buybacks, dividends, capex, debt, comp structure, insider ownership,…

Common failure modes (and the fixes)

• Failure: letting the model drift past the prompt’s own guardrail — “Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in what I give you, write "not provided" and flag it.” Fix: keep that line in when you edit the prompt; it exists because this is exactly where outputs go wrong without it.
• Failure: letting the model drift past the prompt’s own guardrail — “Mark every claim I should verify externally before relying on it.” Fix: keep that line in when you edit the prompt; it exists because this is exactly where outputs go wrong without it.
• Failure: letting the model drift past the prompt’s own guardrail — “Never use, infer, or request material non-public information (MNPI) or client-confidential data.” Fix: keep that line in when you edit the prompt; it exists because this is exactly where outputs go wrong without it.
• Failure: filling [COMPANY] with a vague summary. The output can only be as specific as this input — generic context in, generic deliverable out. Fix: paste raw specifics (real names, real numbers, real constraints), then trim the model’s output, not your input.
• Failure: accepting the first pass. Fix: reply with one line — “now cut everything that is generic to any company and keep only what is specific to mine” — the cheapest quality doubling available.

Where AI is landing for investment banking right now

Context for today’s prompt, from the same screened sources the daily brief reads. Our read, with sources linked — the pattern across items like these is consistent: the professionals getting leverage from AI are the ones feeding it real working context, which is exactly the muscle today’s prompt trains.

• [a16z Podcast] How Valon Rebuilt a $13 Trillion Industry From Scratch (podcast) — a16z General Partner Angela Strange sits down with Valon’s Andrew Wang and Linda Du to unpack what it takes to rebuild the infrastructure underneath a $13 trillion mortgage…
• The Agentic ETF: How Agentic Trading Becomes an Asset Class (arxiv) — Three structural trends are converging in public markets: the exchange-traded fund (ETF) has become the dominant fund wrapper, actively managed ETFs are the fastest-growing…

Quick answers

Is “Sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) valuation build” free to use?

Yes — every weekday issue of the PromptSharp Finance publishes one full pool prompt free on the web, and it stays free in the archive. Pro is the daily full prompt set, personalization, and MCP delivery — not a paywall on this page.

Which AI model does this prompt work with?

Any of them. Every PromptSharp prompt is model-agnostic plain text — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or a local model. No plugins, no custom GPTs; paste and run.

How is the finance prompt of the day chosen?

Deterministic rotation over the curated finance pool — currently 80 prompts across 5 sections — the same single source the paid brief reads. Same date, same prompt: the archive never silently changes under you.

What goes in the [BRACKETED] placeholders?

Your context — the walkthrough above covers each one. The short rule: the more concrete the fill (real names, numbers, constraints), the sharper the output. Save your details once at /profile and web copies arrive pre-filled.

How do I get this in my inbox instead?

The capture form above. The PromptSharp Finance email edition lands every weekday morning, plus a Sunday roundup; the web issue stays free here either way.

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