Investment Analyst
Locked6 lessons remaining to earn this badge.
This level builds the toolkit of a careful analyst: a repeatable way to read a business, a feel for how efficiently it turns capital into growth, and an honest reading of ownership and risk signals. None of it removes uncertainty — it only makes your judgment better informed.
What you'll learn
- Apply a repeatable process for analysing any company before looking at price
- Explain how efficiently a business turns reinvested capital into growth
- Read a company's own reported trends as information, not prediction
- Interpret institutional ownership filings and insider transactions in context
- Separate risk that lives inside a business from risk that lives in markets
- 6.1
Fundamental Analysis
A consistent checklist beats an inconsistent hunch.
9 min - 6.2
Capital Efficiency
Capital efficiency measures how well a business turns the money it keeps and reinvests into further growth.
7 min - 6.3
Financial Momentum
Financial momentum tracks whether a company's own reported results are improving or deteriorating over successive periods — not its stock price.
6 min - 6.4
Institutional Ownership
Institutional ownership filings disclose what large investors held as of a past date — useful context, not a signal to copy.
6 min - 6.5
Insider Activity
Insider filings disclose company executives' and directors' transactions in their own shares — useful, delayed, and easy to over-interpret.
6 min - 6.6
Market and Business Risk
Business risk lives inside a company's operations; market risk lives in the environment around every investment. Each is monitored differently.
7 min
Optional supplemental lessons
Extra reading for this level. Optional — they don't count toward this badge or the certificate.
- Where Reliable Information Comes From · after Lesson 6.1 · 5 min
Primary sources versus opinions and marketing.
- Building an Investment Thesis · after Lesson 6.1 · 5 min
Write down why you own something and what would change your mind.
- Evidence Levels and Missing Data · after Lesson 6.6 · 5 min
How to treat missing or weak evidence.
Worked case · Hypothetical example
Thesis and contrary case from dated evidence
Skill: Separating filing facts from inference; calculating a ratio
Fictional Harbor Foods Co. Evidence dated as of its FY2025 annual report, filed 2026-02-20.
| Revenue FY2024 → FY2025 | $250m → $300m |
|---|---|
| Operating cash flow FY2025 | $50m |
| Capital spending FY2025 | $20m |
| Largest customer share of revenue | 35% (disclosed) |
Worked through
- Ratio: Free cash flow = $50m − $20m = $30m; FCF margin = $30m ÷ $300m = 10%.
- Facts: Revenue grew 20%; one customer is 35% of revenue (both stated in the filing).
- Inference: 'Growth will continue' is an inference, not a fact in the filing.
- Contrary case: Losing or repricing the 35% customer would hit revenue and margins.
Limitation: Evidence is as of 2026-02-20; later filings may change the picture.
Your turn
Check yourself against the rubric
- Each claim is tagged fact or inference correctly
- Contrary case uses the concentration disclosure
- Names a specific, observable disconfirming signal
Your answers are saved privately in this browser. Practice isn't graded and doesn't count toward badges or the certificate.