5 min read
Company analysis
Earnings quality: follow the cash
A practical framework for separating revenue growth, operating earnings, cash generation, and investment spending.
Read the guideIntelligence · The research desk
A clearer view starts with better questions.
Start with why you invest. Understand the economy, the Fed, and market prices before moving into sectors, valuation, and strategies. Then challenge your thesis with a practical research plan.
Find my starting point ↓Foundations → research → strategiesPrimary-source referencesFree to explore
Start before the stock pick
Build the foundations. Then choose a strategy.
Begin with your purpose, understand the environment, and only then decide what to own and how to express the idea.
Start with the money’s purpose
What are you investing for—and when will you need the money?
Read the economy without forcing a cycle label
Is activity improving, weakening, or sending mixed signals?
Why the Fed matters to an investor
How can a policy decision reach the company you own?
How markets move—and what a quote means
Why can a good business fall after good news?
Value the business behind the sector label
What earns the cash—and what assumptions are already in the price?
Find your starting point
What are you investigating?
Choose a question. Leave with a reading plan and a practical next step.
Selected research path: Understand company results
Your research question
Is the business improving, or is the headline improving?
Read earnings and cash flow together. A single profit number cannot explain the durability or funding needs of a business.
A useful reading plan
- Record exact dates, units, and accounting basis.
- Identify material non-operating gains and recurring adjustments.
- Reconcile cash generation with capital spending.
- Write the strongest reason the cash pattern could improve—and the evidence that would disprove it.
The guide library
Go deeper, one question at a time.
Clear explanations, hypothetical examples, and a checklist you can use.
4 min read
Portfolio thinking
Different tickers, shared risk
Look beyond ticker count to identify shared customers, financing conditions, and business exposures in a portfolio.
Read the guide4 min read
Research process
Build scenarios you can actually check
Turn a market thesis into observable conditions, explicit uncertainty, and a practical next-review plan.
Read the guidePut the reading to work
Move from a question to the evidence.
Know the scope
A research framework, with the limits in view.
These guides explain methods using hypothetical examples and disclose AI assistance. They do not provide live market signals or stock recommendations. Company-specific articles are published separately after evidence and editorial review are complete.
How we handle evidence and review →