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Every term, metric and signal the app uses — explained in plain English. Each entry covers what it is and why it matters for a long-term investor.
The big annual report every US public company files with the SEC. Contains the audited financials, what the business actually does, and a 'risk factors' section listing what could go wrong.
The single most important document for understanding a business. The 'risk factors' section is especially useful — written by the company itself, in plain English.
The quarterly financial report. Less detailed than the annual 10-K but more current.
Useful for spotting recent operational changes — new products, lawsuits, supply chain issues — between annual reports.
How much interest the US government is currently paying on 10-year bonds, as an annual percentage.
This is the 'reference price' the whole market is measured against. When it rises, almost all other asset prices feel pressure.
What the dividend yield has averaged over the past 5 years on this stock.
A sanity check. A yield way above this average usually means the price dropped, not that the dividend got more generous.
A short write-up that takes all the numbers and turns them into a story you can actually read. Covers the bull case, the bear case, and key risks.
Numbers alone don't tell you why anything matters. This connects the dots in plain English so you see both sides.
The average price target across Wall Street analysts — what they think the stock should trade at in 12 months.
Better as a sentiment indicator than a forecast. Targets often get revised after price moves rather than before.
The combined opinion of professional Wall Street analysts who cover this stock. Scaled 1 (Strong Buy) to 5 (Strong Sell).
Useful as one input among many. Analysts as a group tend to follow the price rather than lead it, and rarely issue outright 'Sell' calls.
An estimate of the stock's typical daily price swing, expressed as a percentage. Big number = jumpy stock.
Useful for sizing positions and setting realistic expectations. A stock that normally swings 5% a day is a different experience than one that swings 1%.
How much the stock has historically moved when the overall market moves. Beta 1.0 = moves with the market. Beta 1.5 = swings 50% more. Beta 0.5 = half as much.
A rough proxy for how bumpy the ride will be. Higher-beta stocks tend to amplify both wins and losses.
Tells you if the company itself is in good shape: making real money, not buried in debt, and ideally growing.
Over the long run, the stock follows the business. A healthy company tends to keep getting more valuable; a sick one slowly bleeds.
The range the 'true' hit rate is likely to fall within. A statistical hedge against small-sample lucky streaks.
A 60% hit rate based on 10 trades could easily be luck. The same 60% based on 500 trades is much more meaningful. The confidence range captures that.
How much consumer prices have risen over the past year. The standard inflation measure.
Above ~3% historically pressures both stocks (companies feel margin squeeze) and bonds (interest rates rise).
Can the company pay its bills over the next 12 months using the cash and short-term assets it has now?
Below 1 is a short-term liquidity yellow flag. Most healthy companies sit between 1.5 and 3.
How much the company has borrowed compared to what the owners have put in. Higher means more borrowed money in the mix.
Lower is generally safer. Heavy debt amplifies the good times and crushes you in the bad ones. A lot of debt = less margin for error.
The annual cash the company pays out to shareholders, expressed as a percentage of the stock price. If yield is 3%, you'd collect $3 per year on every $100 of stock.
Part of your total return comes from dividends. But a very high yield often signals the price has crashed — always check whether the dividend is well-covered.
How far the stock has fallen from its recent high. A 20% drawdown means the stock is down 20% from its peak.
Frames the worst case that real investors have actually lived through with this asset. Helps set realistic expectations before things get rough.
How much the company's profit per share grew compared to a year ago.
Over the long run, stock prices track profits. Growing earnings is the engine.
Tells you if today's economy (interest rates, inflation, growth) is a tailwind or a headwind for this type of asset.
A great company in the wrong moment can underperform for years. Same business, different weather.
Like P/E but adjusts for the company's debt and cash. Tells you what you're really paying for the business itself.
Useful when comparing companies that borrow very different amounts. P/E alone can make a debt-heavy company look misleadingly cheap.
An estimated 'fair price' range for the stock based on the business fundamentals, plotted against the actual price.
When the price runs far above or below the band, it often reverts. Sometimes the band is wrong though — treat as a guide, not gospel.
Does the company actually produce enough cash to cover its dividend payments? A simple yes/no check.
If the answer is 'no', the company is paying dividends with borrowed money or reserves. That's often a precursor to a dividend cut.
The actual cash the business produces each year, expressed as a percentage of the stock price. (Free cash flow = the cash left over after running the business and reinvesting.)
Cash is harder to fake than accounting profits. A solid business yielding 5%+ in real cash is a strong sign of real, distributable value.
A combined view of how cheap the stock is, how strong the business is, and how fast it's growing.
The most important lens for buy-and-hold investing. Compounding works through the business doing well — not chart patterns.
Out of every dollar the company sells, how much is left after paying the direct cost of producing the product.
Indicates pricing power. Software and luxury brands often keep 70%+. Groceries keep more like 20%. Higher usually means a more durable business.
How fast the company's sales and profits are growing compared to a year ago.
Growth multiplies the value of a good business. But growth alone — without profits or quality — is fragile when conditions get tough.
A one-line summary of how the stock looks today across all four signals.
Describes the picture, not a recommendation. The same picture can be right or wrong for different people, goals, and time horizons.
How much extra interest investors are demanding to hold riskier 'junk' bonds instead of safe Treasury bonds.
When this widens, it's a sign of credit stress — companies are seen as more likely to default. Spreads above ~6% usually accompany recessions or sharp drops.
How this metric compares to the same stock's own past — typically the last 5 years.
Strips out noise. A stock trading at its 5-year-low P/E is often more interesting than one trading at the sector median.
How often this signal has been right historically — what percentage of the time the asset moved in the predicted direction over the given period.
Anywhere near 50% is essentially a coin flip. Sustained hit rates above ~55–60% with a lot of data behind them are worth paying attention to.
When a company executive, board member, or large shareholder buys their own company's stock on the open market — reported to the SEC.
Insider buying has historically been a modestly positive signal. Insiders only buy for one reason: they think the stock will go up. Selling can have many reasons (taxes, diversification) so means less.
When multiple insiders buy within a short window — a 'cluster buy'.
Historically a stronger signal than one insider buying alone. When several insiders agree, it tends to mean something.
How much extra punch a leveraged ETF aims to deliver. A 2× fund tries to do twice what the underlying index does each day; a 3× fund tries for triple.
The 'each day' part is important. These funds reset every day, and over weeks or months they often drift away from a simple multiple of the index — usually for the worse.
Across all four signals, this stock currently looks unusually attractive — usually cheap, healthy, and in a friendly environment.
A description of the picture today. Not advice — the same picture can be right or wrong for different people.
Does the current economy (growth, inflation, interest rates) favor this kind of asset, hurt it, or sit somewhere in between?
Even a great company can struggle for years in a hostile environment. This flags whether the wind is at its back.
A short label describing today's economic weather — combining growth, inflation, interest rates, and stress in the credit markets.
Different regimes have historically favored different assets. Bonds tend to shine in recessions; growth stocks in calm, low-rate times. The 'weather' affects what works.
Mixed signals. Some attractive features, some weaker ones.
A neutral profile. Different long-term strategies will reach different conclusions on this kind of picture.
Most of the signals lean positive. The stock looks like it's worth a closer look for a long-term investor.
A description of the picture today. Not advice — the same picture can be right or wrong for different people.
Roughly how many years of profits it would take the company to pay off all its debt, after using up its cash.
Above 3× starts to look heavy. Above 5× can be dangerous if business slows. Below 1× — or negative, meaning more cash than debt — is very healthy.
Out of every dollar of sales, how much actually ends up as profit after all costs and taxes are paid.
Stable, high margins are usually a sign the company has a real edge. Thin or shrinking margins are a yellow flag.
Price-to-book. Compares the stock price to the company's accounting net worth (what it owns minus what it owes).
Most useful for banks and asset-heavy businesses. Less meaningful for software or brand-driven companies, where the real value isn't on the balance sheet.
Price-to-earnings. If a stock has a P/E of 20, you're paying $20 for every $1 of yearly profit the company makes.
Lower is generally cheaper. But a really low P/E can also mean the market expects profits to fall — always check the business health alongside it.
Price-to-sales. Compares the stock price to how much revenue the company generates each year.
Handy when a company isn't profitable yet. Cheaper is generally better, but $1 of low-margin sales is worth less than $1 of high-margin sales.
What percentage of the company's profits is being paid out as dividends.
Below 60% is usually comfortable. Above 80% leaves the company little room to invest, weather a bad year, or keep the dividend growing.
Takes the P/E and divides it by how fast the company is growing. A PEG of 1 means the price roughly matches the growth.
A P/E of 25 sounds expensive — unless the company is growing 25% per year, in which case PEG is just 1. Lets you fairly compare a fast grower against a slow one.
An example of how much a portfolio could put into a single stock, given how jumpy it is, while keeping single-position risk in a sensible range.
Helps frame how much exposure to one company is reasonable. Educational — not a recommendation. Real allocation depends on your situation.
How much money the example position would represent, in dollars, given the chosen portfolio size.
Just an educational reference. What you actually allocate depends entirely on your personal situation.
The stock's daily closing price, with two moving averages and bands showing the typical price range.
Moving averages give a quick read on the trend. The bands show whether the price is extended high or low compared to its recent range.
Tells you if the stock looks cheap, fair, or expensive today — compared to how it's been priced in the past, and to other companies in the same industry.
Paying less for the same business is one of the biggest drivers of long-term returns. But cheap isn't always good — sometimes a stock is cheap because the business is in trouble.
A score for how strong the underlying business is — does it make money efficiently, keep debt under control, and run profitable operations?
Strong businesses tend to weather bad years much better and grow steadier over the long run. Quality is the most consistent predictor of long-term success.
How wildly the stock has actually moved over the past 30 days, scaled to a yearly figure.
Tells you how jumpy the stock has been recently. Forward-looking proxies can lag — this is the rear-view mirror.
Most signals are negative across price, business, and environment.
A description of the picture today. Not advice — the same picture can be right or wrong for different people.
A reference price below the current one, where someone using stops might choose to exit. Sized to how volatile the stock typically is.
Illustrative only. Setting a stop is a personal call — many long-term investors don't use stops at all and just ride out drawdowns.
Steady growth combined with falling inflation. The 'best of both worlds' for markets.
Historically the most favorable backdrop for broad stock returns. Things just tend to go up.
The economy is shrinking. Unemployment is rising and corporate profits are falling.
Historically the worst environment for stocks broadly, especially cyclical companies. Government bonds often act as a hedge.
Growth is slowing and investors are getting nervous. Money flows toward safer assets.
Historically friendly to bonds, high-quality stocks, and defensive sectors (utilities, staples). Cyclical and debt-heavy companies often struggle.
The economy is healthy, money is flowing freely, and investors are happy to take chances.
Historically friendly to stocks — especially growth stocks and smaller companies. Bonds and gold often lag in this environment.
Persistent inflation combined with weak growth. Rare and painful — the 1970s, briefly.
Historically tough for both stocks and long-dated bonds. Real assets like commodities and certain real estate have held up better.
Return on assets. For every $100 of stuff the company owns, how much profit does it produce per year?
Higher means the business is squeezing more profit from what it owns. Above ~10% is strong; below ~3% means it either needs lots of capital to operate, or is struggling.
Return on equity. For every $100 the owners have put in, how much profit comes back each year?
A common headline measure of how productive a business is. Watch out — heavy borrowing can puff it up artificially. Always check ROA too.
Return on invested capital. The cleanest version of 'how good is this business at turning money into more money'.
A consistently high ROIC is the fingerprint of a great long-term compounder. The Warren Buffett type.
Year-by-year measures of how efficiently the business turns money into profit (ROE, ROA, ROIC).
A consistently rising or high line here is the fingerprint of a great long-term compounder.
How much the company's sales grew compared to a year ago.
Sales are the foundation. Consistent revenue growth is a basic requirement for long-term compounding — without it, the business has to squeeze profits out of a shrinking pie.
How this metric compares to other companies in the same industry. Shown as a percentile from 0 to 100.
A P/E of 30 is expensive for a utility, cheap for a software company. Comparing within the same industry removes that distortion.
How positive or negative the recent news flow has been, plus what company insiders are doing.
Sentiment moves prices fast and changes quickly. Best treated as a tiebreaker, not the main reason to do anything.
What recent news, analyst commentary, and company insiders are saying about this stock right now.
Useful as a temperature check. The story can move prices day-to-day, but it shouldn't override the bigger picture.
How the price chart is behaving: is it going up, going down, accelerating, stalling?
Useful for short-term context. Less important for long-term investors — over years, prices follow the business, not the chart.
The same stock viewed over three time frames: short (days–months), medium (months–year and a half), and long (year and a half plus).
What looks weak short-term can look strong long-term, and vice versa. If you plan to hold for years, the long-term view matters most.
The percentage difference between today's price and the average analyst target.
Big negative upside (target below price) can suggest the stock has run ahead of even bullish analyst expectations.
How strong the US dollar is compared to a basket of other major currencies.
A strong dollar is generally a headwind for US companies that sell abroad, and for emerging-market assets. It quietly shapes a lot of returns.
How the stock's valuation ratios (like P/E) have moved over time, plotted against the sector average for context.
Shows whether today's valuation is high or low compared to this stock's own history. Often more telling than the raw number.
A score from −100 (very expensive) to +100 (very cheap). Combines a few common ratios, compared to the stock's own past and to its peers.
Paying less for the same business has historically been one of the biggest drivers of long-term returns.
A stock that looks cheap on the numbers — but is cheap for a reason. The business is quietly deteriorating, so the 'bargain' keeps getting cheaper.
Buying cheap-looking stocks that keep falling is one of the most common ways long-term investors lose money. This flag helps separate real bargains from broken businesses.
Often called the 'fear gauge'. Measures how much volatility traders are expecting in the S&P 500 over the next month.
Above 25 signals stress in the market. Above 35 typically marks a panic. Low VIX (below 15) suggests calm — but also complacency.
The slow loss that leveraged ETFs suffer when the market is choppy, even if the underlying index ends flat.
A specific reason leveraged ETFs are widely treated as trading tools rather than long-term holdings.
Several signals lean negative — typically expensive, weakening fundamentals, or fighting the current environment.
A description of the picture today. Not advice — the same picture can be right or wrong for different people.
The gap between long-term and short-term interest rates. When it's negative (short rates higher than long), the curve is 'inverted'.
Inverted yield curves have come before most US recessions, usually 6–18 months ahead. Not a perfect predictor — but historically a serious warning sign.
Educational information only. Not investment advice.