Track 05 · Charts & Applied Practice
Your first research checklist
The whole curriculum in eight steps, a repeatable process from idea to journal entry.
Roughly twenty minutes once practised: from “what does this company sell” to “what would prove me wrong”.
- Step 1BusinessCan you explain what it sells in one sentence?
- Step 2FinancialsRevenue and margin trend over five years.
- Step 3Balance sheetNet cash or net debt — and can it be serviced?
- Step 4ValuationP/E and PEG against peers and its own history.
- Step 5DividendsCovered, growing, or about to be cut?
- Step 6AllocationWhat % of the portfolio — and what breaks it?
- Step 7InvalidationThe specific condition that proves you wrong.
- Step 8ChartTrend and timeframe — context only.
Anything you cannot answer is a gap in the thesis, never something to hand-wave past.
The eight steps
Eight questions, roughly twenty minutes once you have practised. Anything you cannot answer is a gap in the thesis and never something to hand-wave past.
- Business: can you explain what the company sells, in one sentence?
- Financials: revenue and margin trend over five years (Track 02).
- Balance sheet: net cash or net debt, and can it be serviced? (Track 02).
- Valuation: P/E and PEG against peers and its own history (Track 03).
- Dividends: covered, growing, or cut? (Track 03).
- Allocation: what % of the portfolio, and what breaks it? (Track 04).
- Invalidation: the specific condition that proves you wrong. (Track 04).
- Chart: trend and timeframe context only. (Track 05).
Turn the checklist into a screen
Every quantitative step above is a filter the screener runs across 6,700+ US stocks at once. Write your thresholds from Steps 2–5 and let the machine find the companies that match, then apply Steps 1, 6–8 by hand to the shortlist.
That division of labour is what the tools on this site are for: arithmetic at scale, judgement where it counts.
Keep a journal
For each idea, record the thesis, the numbers behind it, the invalidation condition and the date. Six months later, review what happened and, more importantly, why your reasoning was right or wrong.
The journal is what converts screen results and chart readings into skill. Without it, every decision is judged on whether it made money, which teaches almost nothing.
Where to go next
Every screener filter says plainly what it measures and why. Open one and read it before you change a threshold.
Then start small: one position sized with the risk rules, one thesis written down, one review scheduled.
Three things to remember
- 01Eight questions take you from business to invalidation condition in twenty minutes.
- 02Let the screener do arithmetic across the market and apply judgement to the shortlist.
- 03A written journal is what turns decisions into experience.
Try it on live data
Tools on this site are for research and education. Nothing here is financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell.