Quarterly Commentary Drafts in a Claude Project

The project works from your firm's own approved text, so gather it first.

1. Make a folder called "Commentary Project" on your computer.
2. Save your approved letter template in it. If it has bracketed sections, keep them.
3. Save two or three past commentaries that the CCO approved. Name each with its quarter, such as "approved-commentary-q2-2026".
4. Write a one-page house style note in plain text. Cover voice, sentence length, how you refer to the strategy, and any words your firm avoids.
5. Remove investor names and anything else that does not belong in a style reference.

What you should see: A folder with four or five files, all text, DOCX or PDF. Troubleshooting: If a past commentary contains an investor name or a non-public holding, make a clean copy without it, and use only the clean copy.

1. Sign in to Claude on the web.
2. In the sidebar, look for Projects.
3. Choose the option to create a new project.
4. Name it "Strategy S Quarterly Commentary" while you practice. Rename it to your real strategy name once your CCO confirms the tool is approved.

What you should see: An empty project page with a place for instructions and a place for knowledge or files. Troubleshooting: Claude's help page notes that a newer version of projects is rolling out in stages, so your screen may differ slightly. The same two ideas apply to both versions: project knowledge (files) and project instructions. Look for those two labels.

Project knowledge is the set of files Claude can draw on in every chat inside the project.

1. Open the project's knowledge or files area.
2. Add your letter template, the approved commentaries and the house style note.
3. Wait until each file shows as added.

What you should see: Each file listed by name. Troubleshooting: Claude extracts text from these files. If a template is built from images or has charts, retype the text sections into a plain document first.

Project instructions apply to every chat in the project, so the rules live here and you never retype them.

1. Open the project instructions box.
2. Paste the block below.
3. Save.

You help the portfolio manager draft quarterly commentary.

Sources: write only from (1) the figures table and (2) the positioning notes that the PM pastes into the chat. Use the project files only for layout, structure and house style.

Rules:
1. Use every figure exactly as pasted. Do not round, convert, recalculate or add a figure.
2. Do not add a comparison, a reason, a forecast, an opinion or a recommendation that the notes do not contain. Do not describe the strategy as ahead of or behind its benchmark. List the two figures and let the PM and the CCO decide the wording.
3. Describe positioning moves only in the words of the PM's notes.
4. Where the table or notes are silent, write a bracketed placeholder such as [figure from the performance system] or [reason: PM to supply].
5. Do not name a security as a recommendation. Name holdings only where the table or notes do.
6. Follow the template's headings and the house style note.
7. Start every output with the label: Draft for PM and CCO review.
8. End every output with a list of every figure you used, each with the table row it came from.

What you should see: The instructions saved, shown in the project's sidebar or settings area. Troubleshooting: If a later draft breaks a rule, add one line to the instructions that names the exact mistake, then run the draft again.

Practice with this invented Q3 2026 data before any real quarter. Start a new chat inside the project and paste:

Figures table (INVENTED, for practice only), Strategy S, third quarter 2026.
Contribution is in percentage points.

Strategy S net return: 1.8
Strategy S gross return: 2.1
Benchmark B return: 1.5
Net minus Benchmark B: 0.3
Top contributors: Company C 0.6, Company F 0.4
Top detractors: Company A -0.5, Company H -0.2

Positioning notes (INVENTED):
Added to Company D. Trimmed Company C after its run. Sold Company J after the thesis broke (management change).

Task: draft the commentary section for the third quarter 2026 using the template.

What you should see: A draft labelled "Draft for PM and CCO review" that states 1.8 net and 1.5 for Benchmark B, names the four contributors and detractors with their table values, and describes the three moves in the notes' own words. Troubleshooting: If the draft adds a reason for a move, such as why Company J's management changed, tell Claude to remove it. The notes give a management change and nothing more.

This step is the one that protects you.

1. Read the "figures used" list at the end of the draft.
2. For each figure, find the same row in your performance system, not only in the pasted table.
3. Confirm that no figure appears in the draft that is not in the list.
4. Confirm that the gross and net presentation, the periods and the benchmark wording match what your CCO decided. The CCO decides how returns are presented. Claude does not.

What you should see: Every number in the draft traces to one row of the table. Troubleshooting: If a number does not trace, delete it, write the placeholder back in, and fix it from the system.

1. Fill each bracketed placeholder yourself, from your own systems and judgment.
2. Edit the draft into your own voice.
3. Send it to your CCO through your firm's marketing review process.
4. Do not share it with any investor, consultant or the public until the CCO approves.