Filings, Insiders & OwnershipCore researchExperimentalNew

Analyst Question Aggression Short

Updated quarterlyData needs: mediumshort only

2014

None (internal signal). The prior Carcello, Hermanson & Ye (2014, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory) citation was removed: that paper is a corporate-governance literature survey containing no analyst-Q&A-tone signal, window, direction, or return prediction. The direction of this family is consistent with, but not a replication of, the earnings-call analyst-tone literature (e.g. Brockman, Li & Price 2015, 'Differences in Conference Call Tones: Managers versus Analysts,' Financial Analysts Journal 71(4), 24-42) and tone-dispersion work.

Read the paper →

In plain terms

When analysts pile on with aggressive questions on an earnings call (negative tone + scattered concerns), the stock tends to drop over the next 1-2 months.

How it works

Aggressive analyst pushback on earnings calls (negative FinBERT analyst-turn tone plus high tone dispersion) is an arms-length skepticism marker: analysts are price-checking management's narrative, so aggressive/dispersed questioning tends to precede 30-60d underperformance. Internal empirically-motivated mechanism, directionally consistent with the earnings-call-tone literature but not a replication of any single paper.

Live results

0 times picked on its own · 2 times inside a blend (2 beat the stock) · updated 2026-07-06

This strategy is a frequent ingredient in blends that combine a few strategies on one stock. It has contributed to 2 such blended picks (2 of which beat simply holding the stock). Picking it on its own is only one of the ways it shows up.

How its picks scored vs. buy & hold

Each pick is graded on a recent year it was never tuned on, against simply owning the same stock

Where its edge concentrates

Share of picks in each company-size group that beat buy & hold

How often it trades

Active vs. patient. Bars on the left mean it waits for rare setups; bars on the right mean it trades often

Return vs. buy & hold

How much each pick beat or trailed simply owning the stock over the test year (extreme microcap moves trimmed)

Loading substrate evidence…

Data dependencies

Daily prices
Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.
Transcript finbert scores
A data feed this strategy reads, refreshed on its normal schedule.

Expected edge

Reported return: ~2-3% over 30-60d on top-quartile aggression
Tested over: T+1 to T+60d

No published estimate. Internal empirically-motivated signal; edge is established only by the in-house harness (random-shuffle significance + holdback), not by any paper.

Related families

Transcript Qa CombativenessFilings, Insiders & Ownership

Analysts asking longer questions paired with shorter manager answers signals skepticism — predicts near-term underperformance.

Transcript Analyst FrustrationFilings, Insiders & Ownership

Measures the tone of the ANALYSTS asking questions, not management's answers. When their questions sound frustrated or skeptical, the stock tends to drift down over the following weeks.

Transcript Qa EvasionFilings, Insiders & Ownership

Measures semantic distance between an analyst's question and management's answer. Evasive answers (high distance) predict 60-day underperformance.

Explore Analyst Question Aggression Short on alphactor.ai

See which tickers this family is currently firing on, with live signals and rankings.

Open universe with this filter →Browse all 642 families