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Truthfully, I come to FR to get financial news.

Why? Because I get a good cross section of left, right, and utterly daft forecasting. My favorites are the doomsters who push gold and calamity while accepting fiat currency as payment.

It also helps when you realize there are people peddling ignorance as wisdom, and are actually pimping their own stuff. Here’s one of my favs, pimping for NewsBusters (and…upon investigation, his own articles): https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4137820/posts?page=24#24

FR is the demolition derby of news. That’s why it’s so good.

All that said, 10-Ks, 10-Qs, 8-Ks, and other filings are a goldmine. THAT is good stuff but, sometimes, a good company and a good investment can be two different things. It also depends upon your own risk appetite. But that’s beyond this post.

The other “problem” with financial is 1) you have to know how to read them, and 2) you have to cut out the mindless chatter about firms being all woke zombies shilling for the WEF.

Debt to EBITDA is not a trade route. But if you can understand that receivables turnover is not a type of Pop Tart, you’re on your way.

Heh, yup — read the filings is always the foundation for an individual investor. Though, one always needs to be mindful that the pros are doing the same and “buy on the rumor, sell on the news”. I.e., a friend of mine got angry with about a year and half ago — he had asked what my best individual stock pick was and I had answered NVDA (which has rewarded me handsomely). Despite bonkers 10-Qs, he managed to *lose* money and got salty with me.

I’m very much in the Peter Lynch/Warren Buffett/Charlie Munger mold: Buy-and-hold guy. Ignore the churn. Buy things you know, buy things showing good revenue and EBITDA growth. Never invest a dollar you want in the next 5 years. Never buy something for 5 minutes you don’t think you’ll hold for 5 years.

You know, the standard stuff that has been true since the dawn of the free market and such.

The more things change, the more the tired, boring CW remains true.

I hate to sound like Lou Mannheim in Wall Street - but he’s always right in the end.

To a big extent, it drives me nuts: The financial industry has evolved to the point that you can now just buy simple index ETFs and only bleed off ridiculously tiny .04-.08 fund fees. My lord, used to be - you had to buy a managed/mutual fund and they’d take 1% off the top.

But - sigh. Everybody wants to gamble. Everybody wants 6-12 month returns at ridiculous levels.

In addition to being lucrative, I enjoy investing. But as I said initially: There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with a strategy that just does a few broad ETFs, set it, forget it, and don’t worry. Never panic. Don’t expect to “make a killing”. Think years, not days/weeks/months. And guess what.... in a decade? You’ll be amazed.