Metric definitions

NL Analytics metrics are integer sentence-count measures calculated at the earnings-call level.

Core metrics

Metric	Output variable	Definition	Calculation
Exposure	exposure	Number of sentences in an earnings call that contain at least one keyword from the user's query.	Count each sentence once if it contains at least one query keyword.
Risk	risk	Number of topic-matched sentences that also contain at least one risk or uncertainty synonym.	Count each sentence once if it contains at least one query keyword and at least one synonym for risk, risky, uncertain, or uncertainty.
Positive Sentiment	positive	Number of topic-matched sentences that also contain at least one positive sentiment word.	Count each sentence once if it contains at least one query keyword and at least one positive sentiment word.
Negative Sentiment	negative	Number of topic-matched sentences that also contain at least one negative sentiment word.	Count each sentence once if it contains at least one query keyword and at least one negative sentiment word.
Sentiment	sentiment	Net tone conditional on topic discussion.	positive - negative.

Positive and negative sentiment words come from the Loughran-McDonald financial sentiment dictionary, with question and questions excluded from the negative word list. The risk synonym list is the deduplicated union of Oxford Thesaurus synonyms for risk, risky, uncertain, and uncertainty, excluding question, questions, and venture.

Calculation rules

The unit of analysis is a sentence inside an earnings-call transcript.

A sentence contributes to Exposure if it contains at least one query keyword. A sentence can contribute to Risk, Positive Sentiment, or Negative Sentiment only after it first matches the topic query.

In the main Risk Tool counts, Positive Sentiment and Negative Sentiment are counted independently. A sentence that contains both positive and negative sentiment words contributes positive = 1, negative = 1, and net sentiment = 0.

How options change the counts

The definitions above describe the default search, where the query and the dictionary words are evaluated on the same single sentence.

Search options change what is counted:

• The section, speaker-affiliation, and speaker-title options restrict which sentences are eligible to match the query. The counts then cover only the eligible part of each call, while nr_of_sentences still measures the full transcript — see the normalization caveat.
• The adjacent-sentences option does not change query matching, which always operates on single sentences. It widens where risk and sentiment words are detected to a three-sentence window around each matched sentence (one sentence before and after, by the same speaker, where available). Risk and sentiment counts are usually higher with this option on.

Record which options a search used. Two searches with the same query but different options produce different measures.

Overall risk and sentiment

A separate output reports unconditional counts that are not restricted to the user's query, for each call:

Metric	Output variable	Calculation
Overall Risk	unconditional_risk	Sentences with at least one risk or uncertainty synonym.
Overall Positive Sentiment	unconditional_positive	Sentences with at least one positive sentiment word.
Overall Negative Sentiment	unconditional_negative	Sentences with at least one negative sentiment word.
Overall Sentiment	unconditional_sentiment	unconditional_positive - unconditional_negative.

These counts support analyses that compare topic-linked risk or sentiment with all risk or sentiment language in the same call. They do not replace the topic-conditioned metrics. See Export a research panel for the file that contains them.

What the metrics do not mean

Metrics are raw counts. Do not interpret them as percentages, probabilities, classifier labels, causal estimates, forecasts, investment recommendations, or complete measures of real-world risk.

Exposure measures how much a call discusses the query topic. It does not prove the topic is important outside the selected corpus and query design.

Risk measures topic-linked risk discussion. It is not a compliance determination or a full risk assessment.

Sentiment is conditional on topic-matched sentences. It is not a standalone positive or negative classification of the whole call.

Filter caveat

The main Risk Tool counts and the Snippet Tool's sentiment measure filters do not use identical sentiment logic.

In the main Risk Tool counts, a mixed positive-and-negative sentence counts toward both positive and negative.

The Snippet Tool's sentiment measure filters are stricter: the positive filter shows positive-only sentences, the negative filter shows negative-only sentences, and the sentiment filter shows sentences that are one-sided in either direction. Mixed positive-and-negative sentences are excluded by those filters, so the sentences visible under a sentiment filter can be fewer than the corresponding counts suggest.