Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Kim, Alex, Muhn, Maximilian, Nikolaev, Valeri
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Kim, Alex
Muhn, Maximilian
Nikolaev, Valeri
author_facet Kim, Alex
Muhn, Maximilian
Nikolaev, Valeri
contents We investigate whether large language models (LLMs) can successfully perform financial statement analysis in a way similar to a professional human analyst. We provide standardized and anonymous financial statements to GPT4 and instruct the model to analyze them to determine the direction of firms' future earnings. Even without narrative or industry-specific information, the LLM outperforms financial analysts in its ability to predict earnings changes directionally. The LLM exhibits a relative advantage over human analysts in situations when the analysts tend to struggle. Furthermore, we find that the prediction accuracy of the LLM is on par with a narrowly trained state-of-the-art ML model. LLM prediction does not stem from its training memory. Instead, we find that the LLM generates useful narrative insights about a company's future performance. Lastly, our trading strategies based on GPT's predictions yield a higher Sharpe ratio and alphas than strategies based on other models. Our results suggest that LLMs may take a central role in analysis and decision-making.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_17866
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models
Kim, Alex
Muhn, Maximilian
Nikolaev, Valeri
Statistical Finance
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
General Finance
Portfolio Management
We investigate whether large language models (LLMs) can successfully perform financial statement analysis in a way similar to a professional human analyst. We provide standardized and anonymous financial statements to GPT4 and instruct the model to analyze them to determine the direction of firms' future earnings. Even without narrative or industry-specific information, the LLM outperforms financial analysts in its ability to predict earnings changes directionally. The LLM exhibits a relative advantage over human analysts in situations when the analysts tend to struggle. Furthermore, we find that the prediction accuracy of the LLM is on par with a narrowly trained state-of-the-art ML model. LLM prediction does not stem from its training memory. Instead, we find that the LLM generates useful narrative insights about a company's future performance. Lastly, our trading strategies based on GPT's predictions yield a higher Sharpe ratio and alphas than strategies based on other models. Our results suggest that LLMs may take a central role in analysis and decision-making.
title Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models
topic Statistical Finance
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
General Finance
Portfolio Management
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.17866