138 articles · Free, always
Learn to read a company the way we do.
Every technique we use in a report is explained here first. Start with the statements, move to the metrics built on them, then to the frameworks that turn those metrics into a judgement about value.
If you are starting from zero
Four articles, in this order. About ninety minutes end to end.
01
What a company three statements actually tell you
The income statement is an opinion, the balance sheet is a snapshot, and the cash flow statement is the closest thing to a fact. Why the three disagree, and which one to trust when they do.
Accounting · 14 min
02
What is free cash flow - and what it quietly excludes
Operating cash flow minus capital expenditure is the definition everyone uses. We look at stock-based compensation, leases and working-capital swings, and where that definition stops describing reality.
Financial concepts · 11 min
03
ROIC explained, with three worked examples
The single most useful number in fundamental analysis and the one most often calculated inconsistently. Three companies, one definition, and what the answer means.
Financial concepts · 16 min
04
How to value a company without pretending to know the future
A discounted cash flow is a machine for making assumptions explicit, not a machine for producing a number. How to build one, and how to read the one someone else built.
Valuation · 22 min
Browse by topic
Each topic is a sequence, not a pile. Articles are ordered from foundational to advanced.
34 articles
The metrics that describe how a business performs – and what each one hides.
26 articles
Frameworks for thinking about what a business might be worth, and the assumptions inside each.
29 articles
How to read the three statements, and where reported numbers diverge from economics.
31 articles
Principles, process and the risk management that separates research from speculation.
18 articles
The macro conditions that shape industries, margins and the cost of money.
42 articles
Key ideas and lessons from the investing and business canon – including where each book is wrong.
Learn by watching us work.
Every Thursday we take one company apart in public — the same method, applied to a business you may already own.