How to Invest in Stocks

Why Invest in Stocks?

Before we answer how to invest in stocks,we have to answer an even more basic question, “Why should you even try to beat the market?

You should try to beat the market because achieving even a slight amount of outperformance will morph into breathtaking amount of money.

A Tale of Twin Brothers

Basic Principles

The principles to successful stock investing are simple and straightforward. Master these few basic principles and you will master the stock market.

Basic Principles

Buy Quality Companies

In the preceding report, we give the three most basic principles to successful stock investing. But if we had to reduce stock investing down to one simple rule it would be this: just buy good companies.

Some might say this approach is too simple. The market prices all this “good” information in already and it is not sufficient just to seek out and favor good companies. Investors have to be one step ahead of the market and factor in how the market perceives these good companies.

The people who believe this nonsense are wrong. They are making stock investing more complicated than it needs to be.

You will be amazed at how you can find outstanding stock investments by simply finding outstanding companies. We will convince you of this by doing exactly what we claim is possible.

Use the Fundamentals

Furthermore, there is no mystery about how to spot good companies. There is a litany of simple, straightforward, and proven, financial statistics that brilliantly and reliably reveal these good companies. These are the “Fundamentals.”

Below are three powerful reports that explain the three main types of fundamental analysis.

Trend Analysis

Deviation Analysis

Ratio Analysis

Fundamental Cheat Sheet

There are many fundamentals. We cannot do a full report on each of these insightful numbers. But we can provide a handy cheat sheet that lists the most important fundamental statistics and how to calculate them.  Read the following report cover-to-cover or just refer back to it as a reference whenever you need it.

 

Cheat Sheet

Each of these numbers reflects a very important aspect of each company to which it is applied. But you cannot underestimate how incredibly beneficial it is to pull all these numbers together and create a single statistic reflecting the overall fundamental strength of each company.

When you combine these numbers into a single number or index, you cancel out the noise in each number and you amplify the more meaningful information. The power of that final overall number is greater than a mere sum of the individual parts.

Just as you can almost magically achieve a higher return with less risk by combining several investments into one portfolio, so too can you achieve greater insight with less error by combining several fundamental statistics into one fundamental statistic.

Use the Stock Fundamentalist

This process works!  Fundamental analysis is fun, simple and rewarding. We can prove it to you and give you a head start in the process.

We crunch all the most insightful fundamental statistics and combine these numbers into one powerful, unambiguous fundamental rating for each stock. And our ratings perform brilliantly.

Fundamentals Rating Recommendations Performance Since Inception 7/2/2021
Outstanding A Buy +25.1
Average B Hold 8.0
Poor C Sell -18.9

If you have a list of stock investments that you are thinking of buying, and would like some insight about their true strength that is based on nothing but the cold, hard numbers (i.e. not opinion, speculation, or hearsay), then our work is for you.

You will be amazed at how those cold, hard numbers usually govern where those stocks ultimately go. You will be dazzled at the power of straightforward fundamental analysis.

Glossary of Key Terms

There are many terms and concepts that are particularly useful to understand in stock analysis. Below we list some of the key terms in finance and economics. You can study them all now, or reference them when you need them.

Accounting Equation

Accrual Basis of Accounting

Alpha

Altmans Z Scores

Arbitrage Pricing Theory

Arbitrage

Autocorrelation

Backwardation

Basic Principles

Beta

Black Scholes Option Pricing Model

Bottom Up Analysis

Break Even Analysis

Business Cycle

Buy and Hold Strategy

Capital Allocation

Capital Asset Pricing Model CAPM

Capital Intensive

Capitalization Rate

Central Limit Effect

Cheat Sheet

Cobb Douglas Production Function

Coefficient of Determination

Common Size Financial Statements

Common Stock Valuation

Constant Growth Model

Consumer Price Index

Contango

Contribution Margin Percentage

Correlation Coefficient

Cost Estimation

Cost Function

Cost of Capital

Cost Plus Pricing

Cost Volume Profit

Covariance

Defensive Stocks

Deferred Tax Liability

Deflation

Demand Function

Demand Side Economics

Demographic Analysis

Derivatives

Deviation Analysis

Direct Costs

Discount Rate

Disinflation

Dividend Discount Model

Dollar Cost Averaging

Doubl -Entry Bookkeeping

DuPont Analysis

Durbin Watson Statistic

Economic Profit

Economic Value Added

Economies of Scale

Economies of Scope

Efficient Market Hypothesis EMH

Efficient Portfolio

Elasticity of Demand

Equity Risk Premium

Exponential Smoothing

Fed Model

Federal Funds Rate

Federal Reserve System

FIFO

Financial Accounting

Financial Accounting Standards Board

Financial Analysis

Financial Leverage

Financial Ratio Analysis

Financial Ratios

Financial Statement Analysis

Fiscal Policy

Fixed Costs

Free Cash Flow

Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental Beta

GDP Price Deflator

Geometric Return

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Gross Domestic Product

Growth at a Reasonable Price

Growth Investing

Horizontal Analysis

Index Investing

Industries

Inflation

Internal Rate of Return

Intrinsic Value

Investment Philosophy

Investment Strategy

Jensen Index

Labor Intensive

Laffer Curve

Law of Large Numbers

Law of Diminishing Marginal Return

Leading Economic Indicators

Lease

LIFO

Linear Programming

Macroeconomics

Managerial Accounting

Marginal Analysis

Marginal Costs

Marginal Product

Marginal Rate of Technical Substitution

Marginal Revenue

Market Risk Premium

Maturity Risk Premium

Microeconomics

Monetary Policy

Multiple Discriminant Analysis

National Bureau of Economic Research

National Income Accounting

Net Interest Margin

Net Interest Spread

Net Present Value

Normal Distribution

Off Balance Sheet Entity

Off Balance Sheet Financing

Open Market Operations

Operating Lease

Operating Leverage

Opportunity Costs

PEG Ratio

Percentage of Sales Method of Financial Forecasting

Pooling of Interests Method

Preferred Stock

Pro Forma Financial Statements

Product Financing Arrangements

Production Function

Purchase Method

Quadratic Programming

Quality of Earnings

Quantity Theory of Money

Ratio Analysis

Regression Analysis

Reporting Tricks

Research and Development Financing Arrangements

Returns to Scale

Sale of Receivables with Recourse

Sectors

Security Market Line

Sharpe Index

Standard Deviation

Stock Fundamentals

Supply Side Economics

Systematic Risk

T Statistic

Technical Analysis

Term Structure of Interest Rates

Top Down Analysis

Trend Analysis

Treynor Index

Value Investing

Variable Costs

Variance Analysis

Vertical Analysis

Working Capital

Yield Spread

Z Score

Accounting Equation

Accrual Basis of Accounting

Alpha

Altmans Z Scores

Arbitrage Pricing Theory

Arbitrage

Autocorrelation

Backwardation

Basic Principles

Beta

Black Scholes Option Pricing Model

Bottom Up Analysis

Break Even Analysis

Business Cycle

Buy and Hold Strategy

Capital Allocation

Capital Asset Pricing Model CAPM

Capital Intensive

Capitalization Rate

Central Limit Effect

Cheat Sheet

Cobb Douglas Production Function

Coefficient of Determination

Common Size Financial Statements

Common Stock Valuation

Constant Growth Model

Consumer Price Index

Contango

Contribution Margin Percentage

Correlation Coefficient

Cost Estimation

Cost Function

Cost of Capital

Cost Plus Pricing

Cost Volume Profit

Covariance

Defensive Stocks

Deferred Tax Liability

Deflation

Demand Function

Demand Side Economics

Demographic Analysis

Derivatives

Deviation Analysis

Direct Costs

Discount Rate

Disinflation

Dividend Discount Model

Dollar Cost Averaging

Doubl -Entry Bookkeeping

DuPont Analysis

Durbin Watson Statistic

Economic Profit

Economic Value Added

Economies of Scale

Economies of Scope

Efficient Market Hypothesis EMH

Efficient Portfolio

Elasticity of Demand

Equity Risk Premium

Exponential Smoothing

Fed Model

Federal Funds Rate

Federal Reserve System

FIFO

Financial Accounting

Financial Accounting Standards Board

Financial Analysis

Financial Leverage

Financial Ratio Analysis

Financial Ratios

Financial Statement Analysis

Fiscal Policy

Fixed Costs

Free Cash Flow

Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental Beta

GDP Price Deflator

Geometric Return

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Gross Domestic Product

Growth at a Reasonable Price

Growth Investing

Horizontal Analysis

Index Investing

Industries

Inflation

Internal Rate of Return

Intrinsic Value

Investment Philosophy

Investment Strategy

Jensen Index

Labor Intensive

Laffer Curve

Law of Large Numbers

Law of Diminishing Marginal Return

Leading Economic Indicators

Lease

LIFO

Linear Programming

Macroeconomics

Managerial Accounting

Marginal Analysis

Marginal Costs

Marginal Product

Marginal Rate of Technical Substitution

Marginal Revenue

Market Risk Premium

Master Limited Partnership

Maturity Risk Premium

Microeconomics

Monetary Policy

Multiple Discriminant Analysis

National Bureau of Economic Research

National Income Accounting

Net Interest Margin

Net Interest Spread

Net Present Value

Normal Distribution

Off Balance Sheet Entity

Off Balance Sheet Financing

Open Market Operations

Operating Lease

Operating Leverage

Opportunity Costs

PEG Ratio

Percentage of Sales Method of Financial Forecasting

Pooling of Interests Method

Preferred Stock

Pro Forma Financial Statements

Product Financing Arrangements

Production Function

Purchase Method

Quadratic Programming

Quality of Earnings

Quantity Theory of Money

Ratio Analysis

Regression Analysis

Reporting Tricks

Research and Development Financing Arrangements

Returns to Scale

Sale of Receivables with Recourse

Sectors

Security Market Line

Sharpe Index

Standard Deviation

Stock Fundamentals

Supply Side Economics

Systematic Risk

T Statistic

Technical Analysis

Term Structure of Interest Rates

Top Down Analysis

Trend Analysis

Treynor Index

Value Investing

Variable Costs

Variance Analysis

Vertical Analysis

Working Capital

Yield Spread

Z Score