Trader News

---
name: trader-news
description: >-
  The News Monitor. Watches breaking market news and SEC filings for the
  stocks you hold (or are about to copy): Yahoo Finance headlines per ticker
  and each company's 8-K filings on SEC EDGAR (earnings, CEO changes, deals,
  restatements, bankruptcy). Shows only what is new since the last check,
  newest first, flags what touches your positions and why it matters, and
  never repeats an item. Use when the user says "any news on my stocks",
  "what's happening with Apple", "monitor the news", "watch my portfolio",
  "did anything break", "check the 8-Ks", or "morning briefing".
argument-hint: "[tickers]"
---

# trader-news

A position you hold can change in a minute: an earnings miss, a CEO leaving,
a lawsuit, a restatement. This skill reads the two feeds that carry those
first for each of your stocks and tells you only what is new.

Tool in this folder (standard library Python, no keys):

```bash
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/news.py" --help
```

## What it reads and writes

- Your tickers: `--tickers`, else `trader/portfolio.json` positions, else
  `trader/targets.json` weights (so it works right after `/trader-copycat`).
- Headlines: Yahoo Finance's public headline RSS, one feed per ticker
  (`https://feeds.finance.yahoo.com/rss/2.0/headline?s=AAPL&region=US&lang=en-US`).
- Filings: SEC EDGAR's company Atom feed, 8-K by default (`--forms 8-K,10-Q`
  for more). Needs the SEC User-Agent from `trader/config.json`
  (`sec_user_agent`) or `SEC_USER_AGENT`. Without it, filings are skipped with
  a note and headlines still run.
- Writes `trader/state/news.json`: what has been shown (kept 30 days) and the
  CIK for each ticker, so every item appears once.

## The rules

- **Headlines are leads, not facts.** Before telling the user something
  happened, open the story or the filing and read it. Quote the source and
  link it. Never summarise a paywalled story you could not read: say it is
  paywalled.
- **Filings beat headlines.** If an 8-K and a headline disagree, the 8-K is
  what the company told the SEC.
- **Say what it touches.** Every item lists the tickers it touches (the feed
  it came from plus any of your tickers or company names it mentions) and
  tags (earnings, analyst, legal, deal, capital, people, risk). Filings marked
  `!` carry an important 8-K item: earnings results (2.02), an officer change
  (5.02), an impairment (2.06), a delisting notice (3.01), past financials no
  longer reliable (4.02), bankruptcy (1.03) or a cyber incident (1.05).
- **No predictions.** Report what was published. Never say what the stock
  will do next.

## Steps

1. Run the check:

   ```bash
   python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/news.py"
   python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/news.py" --tickers AAPL AXP GOOGL KO BAC --hours 24
   ```

   Exit code 1 means nothing new. `--all` shows items already seen,
   `--json` gives everything machine-readable, `--dry-run` leaves the state
   alone.
2. Read the items that matter: every `!` filing, every item tagged earnings,
   legal or risk, and anything touching the biggest positions first.
3. Write a short brief: per ticker, what happened, the source and link, and
   one line on why it matters to this portfolio (its weight, from
   `trader/targets.json` or `trader/portfolio.json`).
4. If a story might change the plan (an 8-K 4.02 restatement, a delisting
   notice), say so and suggest `/trader-analyst` for the numbers or
   `/trader-risk` to recheck pending orders. Never act on a headline alone.

To run it on a schedule, use `/loop 30m /trader-news` during market hours or
a scheduled task each morning.

## Example: the reel's portfolio

The user copied Berkshire's top 5 (AAPL, AXP, GOOGL, KO, BAC). On Tuesday
2026-10-13 the check shows Apple headlines first ("Apple Introduces HomeView
Smart Home Hub, Other Gadgets", "Judge orders OpenAI to turn over hiring
records in Apple trade secrets case", tagged legal), Coca-Cola dividend
pieces, and from SEC: Apple's 8-K of 2026-07-30 (item 2.02, earnings results)
and Coca-Cola's of 2026-07-28 (2.02). Brief: "Apple (your biggest position,
30.7%) launched a $299 smart home hub; a court ruling in its trade secrets
case against OpenAI. No new filings from your five companies this week." When
a ticker has no news, say so rather than padding the brief.

## What it never does

- Never invents or embellishes a story, a quote or a number.
- Never trades on news, and never tells the user to buy or sell because of a
  headline.
- Never hammers a server: one request per feed per ticker, a pause between
  SEC calls, and SEC's 10 requests a second limit stays far away.

## Safety

Education and tooling, not financial advice. This skill only reads and
reports. Nothing places an order except `/trader-broker`, after
`/trader-risk` passes and the user types an explicit yes for that order.