Olafb. Can't advise you, especially as I don't know your goals.
I can tell you what's helped me and what I believe has not:
I read investment books. Of course everybody must read the Graham and Buffett books. Collecting out-of-print investment books and what I found in them has been especially helpful to me.
If I had to take a business valuation course (e.g. Damodaran, Greenblatt) I'd get a better framework, but I don't believe it would change the way I pick/hold stocks. All the academic effort to come up with a stock evaluation and risk assessment would discourage me and dissuade me from buying anything. I also don't trust the CFA thing - the people seem all to be trained in the same stuff in the same way. Perhaps it's essential, minimum requirement though if you want an analyst job at a fund.
Basic accounting courses are helpful. Basic finance courses are imo, likely to be too superficial, irrelevant. Organization Development courses - SWOT, Large-Scale-Change, et. al. are helpful.
I read quarterly reports to find detail in why a stock rose or fell upon the reports issuance. Also for outlook.
I almost never read annual reports anymore. I'm considering looking at proxy statements to better understand how execs are paid -- revenue growth, roe, earnings growth, what?
I never read industry studies. "Industry book/reports" - not even sure what that means. My assumption being if it's published (Uranium market forecasted grow x% annually next several years;; housing starts will continue to be in a tough spot in 2025, etc.), it's already been priced into the stocks. I much prefer to read somebody's study of a particular company within an industry.
There is this though about industries: Analysts have certain ways or metrics that they employ for the industries they cover. It helps to know what those are so you can ascertain why an analyst might have a buy rating on a company or the industry itself. Examples would be the metrics EKS has mentioned for reits: Roa, capital efficiency for banks; ppp and pv-10 for oil companies, etc.
I try to read and keep up with business news.
Shopping as a studying thing. I want to see what people are buying and services they are using. I want to be aware from what companies my family is buying products or services. Then if the companies are publicly traded, I want to look at those stocks for possible buys.
Any, just my opinions. |
