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Blog: stock research and investing, explained

Plain-English guides with worked examples: how to read financial statements, value a business, use technical indicators and manage risk. See the complete Financial knowledge series →

All 143Market basics 15Trading and market structure 15Reading financial statements 15Ratios and business quality 15Valuation 15Advanced valuation and methods 15Technical analysis 15Portfolio, risk and behaviour 15Economy, sectors and the calendar 22Hedge funds 1
Technical analysis · 4 min read MACD explained: signal line, histogram and crossovers See how MACD is built from two exponential averages, what the signal line and histogram show, and why crossovers lag and... Technical analysis · 4 min read RSI explained: momentum, overbought and oversold Learn how the Relative Strength Index is calculated, what the 70 and 30 levels mean, and why overbought does not mean se... Technical analysis · 5 min read Golden cross and death cross Understand how the golden cross and death cross are defined, why they lag, when they produce false signals, and how to p... Technical analysis · 4 min read Moving averages: SMA vs EMA Learn how the simple and exponential moving averages are calculated, how they differ, and how chart readers use them to... Technical analysis · 5 min read Technical analysis basics: what charts can and cannot tell you Learn what technical analysis is, the ideas behind it, the main families of indicators, and why chart signals are clues... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read 10-Q, 8-K and proxy statements: the other SEC filings Beyond the annual 10-K, the 10-Q, 8-K and proxy statement keep investors current on results, events and governance. Lear... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read How to read a 10-K annual report The 10-K is the most complete public document a US-listed company files each year. Learn its structure, which sections t... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read The Rule of 40 and software metrics: ARR, churn, net retention Software companies are judged on recurring revenue, retention and the Rule of 40. Learn how ARR, churn and net revenue r...
Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read Dividend growth investing: strategy, strengths and traps Dividend growth investing targets companies that raise payouts year after year. Learn how the strategy works, the math o... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read Quality investing: buying high-return businesses Quality investing favors companies with high returns on capital, stable profits and strong balance sheets. Learn what qu... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read Growth vs value investing Growth investors pay up for fast expansion, value investors look for low prices relative to fundamentals. Compare the tw... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read Cyclical stocks and normalized earnings Cyclical companies look cheapest at peak profits and priciest at the bottom. Learn why the P/E misleads and how normaliz... Advanced valuation and methods · 4 min read Beneish M-Score and spotting earnings manipulation The Beneish M-Score combines eight accounting ratios to estimate how likely a company is to have manipulated its earning... Advanced valuation and methods · 4 min read The five lenses: valuation, growth, profitability, financial health, dividends A stock can be cheap, growing, profitable, safe or generous with dividends, and rarely all at once. Learn what each of t... Advanced valuation and methods · 4 min read How the StocksXray X-Ray Score works The X-Ray Score condenses valuation, growth, profitability, financial health and dividends into one 0-100 number. See th... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read Why fair value is a range, not a point Any fair value estimate carries large error. Learn why valuation models disagree, how a margin of safety handles it, and... Advanced valuation and methods · 4 min read Regression-based multiples: what growth, ROIC and margin justify A regression-based multiple estimates the valuation ratio that a company's growth, returns on capital and margins justif... Valuation · 5 min read Intrinsic value vs market price Price is what the market pays today; intrinsic value is what a business is worth based on the cash it can produce. Learn... Advanced valuation and methods · 4 min read Relative valuation with peer multiples Relative valuation compares a stock's multiples with those of similar companies. Learn how to pick peers and multiples,... Valuation · 5 min read Margin of safety: Graham's rule for imperfect estimates Margin of safety means buying only at a meaningful discount to a conservative estimate of value. Learn the formula, the... Advanced valuation and methods · 4 min read Earnings power value: what a business is worth with no growth Earnings power value capitalizes normalized after-tax operating profit at the cost of capital, giving a no-growth value... Valuation · 4 min read The equity risk premium: the reward for owning stocks The equity risk premium is the extra return investors expect for holding stocks over risk-free bonds. Learn the three wa... Advanced valuation and methods · 5 min read Reverse DCF: what growth is the price already assuming? A reverse DCF starts from today's stock price and solves for the growth it implies, so you can judge whether the market'... Valuation · 4 min read Beta explained: measuring a stock's sensitivity to the market Beta measures how strongly a stock's returns have moved with the overall market. Learn how it is estimated, how to read...

Educational only, not financial advice.