Academy
A free investor-education section spanning beginner to advanced. New to investing? Start with Getting Started; to understand every conclusion this platform reaches, read Understanding the Engine (IRR, Return Spread, terminal value, the locked card, and more); to invest in US equities, begin with US Market in Practice; to go further still, dive into Investment Psychology and the Valuation Methodologies of the Masters—which also form the intellectual foundation of this platform's valuation engine.
Investing Basics
New to investing? Start here. In the plainest possible terms, we explain what stocks, valuation, and financial statements really are.
What Is a Stock? What You're Really Buying
Buying a stock isn't buying a flickering string of numbers, it's buying a small slice of ownership in a real company.
What Is Valuation? Why Price Is Not the Same as Value
Price is what you pay, value is what you get, and valuation is figuring out what the latter is truly worth.
Reading the Three Financial Statements (Beginner's Version)
The balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement each answer one question: how strong is the foundation, is the company profitable, and is there real cash?
Investing vs. Speculating: Which One Are You Doing?
Both involve buying stocks, but investing rests on business value while speculation bets on price swings—so be clear about which game you are playing.
Essential Basic Terms (Understand Them All in One Read)
Market cap, P/E, EPS, dividend yield, ROE… the most common terms, each explained in a single sentence.
Diversification and Risk: Do Not Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
One of the most common beginner mistakes is staking your entire net worth on one or two stocks.
The Seven Traps Beginners Fall Into Most Often
Chasing rallies and panic-selling, trading on tips, going all-in on one name, using leverage... avoid these traps and you already beat most investors.
How to Read a Valuation Report (Read This Before Using the Site)
First time here? This piece walks you through every term in the report, item by item: the action label, IRR, Required Return, Provisional, and more.
ETFs and Funds 101: The Wisdom of a Basket
Don't want to pick stocks yourself? Buy a basket — funds and ETFs let you hold dozens or hundreds of companies in one click.
Active vs. Passive: Should You Pick Stocks Yourself?
Pick stocks yourself (active) or buy the index and sit back (passive)? Start by honestly assessing whether you have an edge.
Dollar-Cost Averaging: Using Discipline to Beat Market Timing
Can't guess the bottom? Then don't — fix the amount, buy on a schedule, and let discipline decide for you.
Understanding the Engine
How does this site actually decide whether a stock is "cheap or expensive"? This track lays out the institutional methodology principles the engine follows, so you can understand and trust every conclusion. (The specific internal calibrations are proprietary and remain confidential.)
Required Return: Your Pass/Fail Bar
When the engine judges whether a stock is expensive, its first question is: does its expected return clear the pass/fail bar you set?
Return Spread: From IRR to "Expensive or Cheap"
The engine does not conclude from a "feeling of cheapness"; it computes a difference: expected return minus your pass/fail bar.
IRR Explained: Getting the "Annualized Return" Right
IRR compresses three things—today's purchase price, the future exit price, and how many years you hold—into a single annualized return.
Terminal Value and Terminal Multiple: Year-5 Earnings Set Today's Price
A large share of an investment's value rests on "earnings in some future year x the reasonable multiple at that time"—the most sensitive assumption of all.
Scenario Probability: Setting the Odds for Bull / Base / Bear / Stress
How likely is each of the four futures? The engine will not let you slap on a fixed 20/50/25/5; you must set them from evidence.
The Basis of Forward P/E: NTM Non-GAAP and EPS Conflicts
The same stock may show a different "P/E" on different sites—because the denominator (EPS) is defined differently.
Effective Horizon H_eff and the Fiscal Calendar: Aligning Time
A 5-year return and a 2.6-year return are entirely different. The engine computes exactly "how many years actually elapse," rather than vaguely assuming 5.
Valuation State vs. Action Label: Why "Expensive" Does Not Mean "Sell"
"This stock is expensive" and "you should sell" are two different things. The engine separates "what it is worth" from "what you should do."
Reliability Governance: Why Missing Data Lowers Confidence
When data is incomplete, the engine will not force out a confident conclusion; it marks it "Provisional" and lowers the reliability—honesty first.
Model Selection and Cross-Validation: What P/E, DCF, and SOTP Each Handle
Not every company should be measured with the same ruler. Banks, REITs, semiconductors, and software each have their own valuation model.
Locked Assumption Cards: v1, vN, Refresh, and "You Own It"
The valuation result is saved as a "Locked Assumption Card"—it is your content asset, stored in your own account/GitHub.
Data Refresh vs. Valuation Revision: Boundary and Triggers
When price/EPS change, most of the time you only need a "data refresh"; only when evidence changes a long-term assumption does it escalate to a "valuation revision."
Why You Need a "Locked Card"
A valuation is a single moment; investing is an entire journey. The Locked Card is the discipline tool that helps you see that journey through.
The Decision Journal: How Investors Truly Improve
You cannot improve a process you never record. The decision journal is the only way to separate luck from skill.
US Market in Practice
Essentials for investing in US equities: trading rules, earnings season, SEC filings, and practical knowledge such as ADRs for foreign companies.
How US Equities Trade: Sessions, Pre-Market/After-Hours, and Settlement
US markets run on their own rulebook: no daily price limits, pre-market and after-hours sessions, short selling, and even fractional shares.
Earnings Season: How to Read the Numbers, Guidance, and the Call
Every quarter, US markets enter earnings season. Prices often swing violently on a single report, yet the wrong details tend to grab all the attention.
Reading SEC Filings: 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K
The most authoritative, first-hand information on US stocks is not in the news; it is in the official filings companies submit to the SEC.
GAAP vs. Non-GAAP: Two Definitions of Profit
Why does the same company report two different profit numbers? And which one should you trust?
ADRs and Foreign Companies: What Are You Actually Buying?
When you buy foreign companies like TSMC, ASML, Toyota, or Alibaba on US markets, what you own is often not the underlying share itself but an ADR.
Investing Psychology
The market doesn't reward intelligence, only discipline. Master yourself first — the valuation comes second.
Mr. Market: Treat His Quotes as a Servant, Not a Master
Graham's most famous parable, explaining why the market's daily quote is not truth but emotion.
Six Cognitive Biases That Erode Your Returns
Anchoring, confirmation bias, loss aversion, the disposition effect, overconfidence, and herding—recognizing them is the first step to beating them.
Circle of Competence: Bet Only Where You Truly Understand
How large your circle of competence is does not matter; what matters is that you know exactly where its edges lie.
Second-Level Thinking: Thinking One Layer Deeper Than the Crowd
First-level thinking says "good company, buy"; second-level thinking asks "is that quality already priced in? Have expectations become too high?"
Compounding and Patience: The Underrated Eighth Wonder
Long-term wealth is usually determined not by a single brilliant trade but by whether you can quietly let time roll the snowball larger.
How Big to Bet: Position Sizing and the Kelly Criterion
Picking the right name is only half of it; how much to bet is the other half—many lose not because they were wrong but because their bet size got out of control.
Taleb: Black Swans, Fat Tails, and Antifragility
You cannot predict a black swan, but you can build a portfolio that won't be knocked out even if one hits.
Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgment
Munger uses a checklist of human misjudgments to explain why intelligent people make foolish decisions.
Keynes: The Beauty Contest and Market Sentiment
In the short run the market is not judging "the best company" but guessing "who everyone thinks everyone else will think is best."
Templeton: Buy at the Point of Maximum Pessimism
The "point of maximum pessimism" is the best point to buy—the courage of contrarian investing often earns its best rewards on a global scale.
Master Valuation Methodology
From Graham to Damodaran, we make the intrinsic-value frameworks of the investing masters clear and genuinely usable.
Graham: Margin of Safety and Intrinsic Value
The founding father of value investing distilled an entire school of thought into two words: margin of safety.
Buffett: Moats, Owner Earnings, and the Long Term
Evolving from Graham's "buy it cheap" to "buy a wonderful business at a fair price."
Damodaran: DCF Valuation as Story Plus Numbers
Known as the "Dean of Valuation," he insists that behind every valuation there should be a story that holds together.
Munger: Multidisciplinary Mental Models and Quality First
To a man with only a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Munger's antidote is to build a "latticework of mental models."
Peter Lynch: PEG and Investing in What You Know
Turn everyday observations into investment leads, and use PEG as a simple yardstick for growth stocks.
Greenblatt: The Magic Formula (Good Companies + Cheap Prices)
Using two metrics, it turns "buy good businesses, and buy them cheap" into one executable discipline.
Klarman: Absolute Return and Risk First
After his book Margin of Safety went out of print, copies fetched thousands of dollars—its core is a single line: think about not losing first, and about gains second.
Fisher: Qualitative Research on Growth Stocks and the "Scuttlebutt" Method
The financials only tell you the past; truly exceptional growth stocks are found by going out and "asking around."
Greenwald: Where Competitive Advantage Comes From, and Earnings Power Value (EPV)
The moat is a metaphor; Greenwald breaks it into analyzable sources, then uses EPV to anchor a value that does not rely on growth.
Terry Smith: Buy Good Companies, Don't Overpay, Then Do Nothing
He distilled investing into three short rules and still beat the market over the long run—simple is not the same as easy.
Howard Marks: Understanding and Exploiting Market Cycles
You cannot predict the turning points of a cycle, but you can know where in the cycle you currently stand—and adjust your stance accordingly.
ROIC in Practice: Identifying a Truly Good Business
The sharpest question for whether a company is a good business is: how much can it earn back on every dollar of capital it deploys?
Free Cash Flow 101: Profit Is Not the Same as Real Cash
Net income is an accounting opinion; cash flow is a fact—valuation ultimately comes down to the cash a business can actually put in its pocket.
Capital Allocation: How Management Spends Money Decides Shareholders' Fate
How a company spends the money it earns matters more, over the long run, to shareholder returns than how much it earns.
Bogle: Index Funds, Costs, and "Common Sense Investing"
Most active investors fail to beat the index over the long run—and the first thing you can control is cost.
This section is educational content presenting publicly available investment ideas and methods. It does not constitute investment advice, nor an offer or solicitation for any security. Historical methods do not guarantee future returns; investing carries risk, and all decisions are your own responsibility.