Prompting Guide
TwoFiftyTwo produces better output when prompts are specific, well-scoped, and structured around a clear deliverable. This guide covers the principles and patterns that consistently lead to higher-quality results.
Be specific about what you want
Vague questions produce vague answers. Include the asset, geography, time period, and output format you need.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Tell me about the oil market | Summarise the key supply and demand drivers for Brent crude in H1 2024, with a focus on OPEC+ production decisions |
| What’s happening with rates? | What has the Fed signalled about the pace of rate cuts in 2025 based on the most recent FOMC minutes and press conferences? |
| Analyse this company | Provide a credit risk assessment of Daimler Truck AG based on its most recent annual report and any rating agency commentary from the past 12 months |
State the deliverable
Tell TwoFiftyTwo what format you want before it starts writing. This shapes the research plan it generates.
- “Produce a two-page executive summary with a recommendation and key risks.”
- “Give me a table comparing X, Y, and Z across these five dimensions.”
- “Write a structured memo I can share with the portfolio committee.”
- “List the five most important points, each in one sentence.”
Use Date Range for time-sensitive questions
Set the Date Range control when your question is tied to a specific period. This prevents TwoFiftyTwo from mixing in older material that could distort time-sensitive analysis.
Good uses for Date Range:
- Earnings analysis for a specific quarter
- Central bank meeting minutes from a particular period
- Market moves during a geopolitical event
Break complex questions into threads
A single thread works best for a single, coherent line of research. If you have five unrelated questions, open five threads — each will have a cleaner plan and a more focused output.
For questions that are related but layered, you can ask follow-ups within the same thread. TwoFiftyTwo retains the context of the full conversation, so follow-ups can reference earlier findings.
Specify your data sources
If you want TwoFiftyTwo to focus on a particular source, say so explicitly:
- “Use only our internal credit research emails for this.”
- “Base this on S&P Global data only.”
- “Check the FRED database for the historical series.”
Without this, TwoFiftyTwo searches all connected sources and synthesises across them.
Use @ for repeatable workflows
Save prompt templates as Presets and access them with @. This is especially useful for recurring analysis where the structure of the question is always the same but parameters change — for example, a weekly macro briefing template.
Controlling output length
TwoFiftyTwo defaults to thorough output. To get something shorter:
- “Keep this to three paragraphs.”
- “Give me bullet points only, no prose.”
- “One sentence per finding.”
To get more depth:
- “Go deep on the technical structure of this trade.”
- “Include all data points from the source material.”
- “Provide the full citation index at the end.”
Working with numbers and tables
For quantitative analysis, ask TwoFiftyTwo to structure output in a table and specify exactly which columns you need. When pulling data from multiple sources, name the sources explicitly so TwoFiftyTwo can compare them coherently.
Example:
Create a table showing quarterly revenue, EBITDA, and net debt for Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta from Q1 2023 to Q4 2024. Source from S&P Global. Flag any quarters where the figure was restated.
Requesting a PDF report
Add “Format this so it can be exported as a PDF report” at the end of any prompt. TwoFiftyTwo will structure headers, tables, and citations for clean document rendering. Then click Create PDF Report in the toolbar.