Learn value investing

Money left in a bank quietly loses ground to inflation every year. Compounding is the force that fixes that, and owning good businesses has long been the surest way to put it to work. This chapter is the case for investing at all, and the trap that drains most people who try.

A share of stock is a small piece of a real company, not just a number on a screen. The goal is to buy that piece for less than it is worth, then hold it while the company grows. This chapter covers that core idea, why prices swing around so much, and why you always want a gap between the price you pay and the value you get.

Before you look at price, you need to know whether a company is worth owning at all. That comes down to whether it has a lasting edge over its rivals, often called a moat. This chapter explains what that edge is and the marks it leaves in a company's financial reports.

Every company publishes three financial statements: one for profit, one for what it owns and owes, and one for cash. They lock together into a single picture of the business. This chapter shows how the three connect and how to read any of them, then breaks each one down on its own page.

Good investors ask the same five questions about a company: is it strong, is it cheap, can it survive a bad year, does management spend money well, and what is it worth. This chapter is the checklist. It walks through the first four questions and the exact numbers we look at for each.

The fifth question, what a company is worth, is big enough to get its own chapter. A company is worth the cash it will hand its owners over the years, counted in today's money. This chapter shows how to estimate that figure and compare it to the price.

You are never the only person studying a company. This chapter shows how to read the public trail that other owners leave: when insiders buy their own stock, which respected investors hold a position, who controls a large stake, and what big events a company has just reported.

Numbers only take you so far. This chapter is about the judgement around them: staying with businesses you understand, knowing the different kinds of stocks, the quiet mistakes that cost people money, and the points where the tools on this site stop being reliable.

The hardest part of investing is not the analysis, it is sitting still while the price and the crowd try to talk you out of your own judgement. This chapter covers the behaviour that decides whether the rest of the framework pays off: fear and greed, patience, what risk really is, and changing your mind for the right reasons.

Everything so far has been about buying. The two decisions that quietly make or break a portfolio are the other ones: how much to put into any single company, and when to let it go.

Knowing all of this and doing nothing is the most common outcome. This chapter turns the framework into first actions: how to begin, how to keep going, and the few habits that compound alongside your money.

The books and papers behind every chapter.