Fundamental analysis | Trading and investing

What is a balance sheet?

You can use it to help check the health of a company.

What are sectors and industries?

Effective portfolio designs begin with an understanding of the organizing structure used to classify and evaluate the thousands of publicly held companies offering investment opportunities.

What is a cash flow statement?

Investors can gain valuable insights from this financial statement.

What is stock analysis?

Exploring key stock ratios and patterns.

What is equity?

What you need to know about this often-used financial term.

Introduction to fundamental analysis

Fundamental analysis is a method used to determine the value of a stock by analyzing the financial data that is 'fundamental' to the company.

A tale of 2 paths to capital: Debt and equity

See how these 2 pillars of capital structure—equity and debt—provide you with a company's financial blueprint.

Company financial statements

Public companies draw from the financial ledgers of the company every 3 months to publish detailed reports about their financial condition. Watch this video to learn how to navigate these reports.

What is a balance sheet?

You can use it to help check the health of a company.

What is an income statement?

The income statement is one of the key financial documents (along with the balance sheet and the statement of cash flow) used to assess a company's financial performance.

What is a cash flow statement?

Investors can gain valuable insights from this financial statement.

Delving into a company's financial statements

Understanding a company's financial statements is step one in evaluating investment potential.

Getting the most out of supplemental company reports

Because the S&P 500 index is sometimes viewed as a surrogate for the performance of the overall U.S. equity market, many people assume that the range of potential equity investment might be only 500 individual companies.

Cast your net widely for fundamentals

Fishermen know that spreading their nets over a wider area is a fairly sure way to increase a catch. In the same spirit, financial professionals can look beyond common company reports to build a more thorough picture of investment potential. Here is an overview of some possibly fruitful sources to work.

Sources of special insight into fundamentals

Savvy analysts use public records to understand details about business conditions. Here's an overview of a few of the resources available to you.

What are sectors and industries?

Effective portfolio designs begin with an understanding of the organizing structure used to classify and evaluate the thousands of publicly held companies offering investment opportunities.

Understanding the differences between domestic, international, and global companies

From a US investor's perspective, there are 3 broad categories of companies, each subject to different legal and accounting regimes.

What is market cap?

A quick way to measure a company's size.

Convertibles and preferreds

While there may be many kinds of hybrids in the investment universe, convertible bonds and preferred stock occupy important positions.

Company earnings

Understanding a company's earnings may help you evaluate a company's intrinsic value.

Simplify comparisons with financial ratios

Ratios of common financial values provide handy tools to group companies with similar attributes.

Company valuation ratios

Valuation is the financial process of determining what a company is worth. Here is a list of principle valuation ratios.

Management and growth ratios

Management effectiveness has many dimensions and without standardized points of reference, it can be difficult to evaluate. These ratios can be used to compare management performance against peers and competitors.

Earnings, dividends, and valuation

There are many different techniques that can be used to determine value. Here are some of the most commonly used methods.

Inflation: Why it is important to companies and investors

Inflation may drive significant changes in value, but those changes are generally not felt equally across the board. Learn how to identify each impact in order to account for the influence of inflation most effectively.

Metrics: Widely used economic gauges and what they mean

Economic indicators are not always exactly what they seem. Titles may use terms that have plain meanings in common usage, but they are also often terms of art with precise meanings in their technical context.

Drawdown

In this lesson you will learn what drawdown is and how analyzing drawdown may impact your investing or trading strategy.

5 stock research tools

Here’s how you can analyze investments using powerful tools and resources.

Dividends, earnings, and cash flow discount models

Financial theory posits that the value of an investment can be seen as the sum of the future cash flows the investment is expected to produce.

Inform your investments using company earnings data

Learn about data available on Fidelity.com and how to use this fundamental information to support your individual investment style with this short video.

Assessing a company's dividends on Fidelity.com

In this video you will learn about the data available and how to use this fundamental information to support your individual investment style.

Deconstructing the assumptions used for reported book values

The book value of a company asset as reported in the company's balance sheet may or may not represent the actual market value of that asset or the future economic value to the company.

What is a bond?

Bonds can add stability and income to portfolios.

How to buy bonds

What to know about this fixed income investment.

Stocks and bonds: What's the difference?

The 2 core investments for most portfolios.

Bond ratings

Learn how bonds are rated and what ratings mean for your investment strategy.

Buying and selling municipal bonds in the secondary market

Trading municipal securities in the secondary market is an entirely different experience than a new issue bond offering. Learn more about the differences and what you should pay extra attention to during the process.

The essentials of GAAP

Watch this video to learn what makes the guidelines for GAAP so valuable.

The essentials of GAAP: How it shapes fundamental data

Generally accepted accounting principles establish the framework for financial reporting in the United States.

Circumstances where adjustments to GAAP figures might be useful

While generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) may define the lingua franca of financial reporting, investment analysts often modify GAAP-based results in order to improve the insights they can get from standard bottom-line summaries.

Normalizing the GAAP perspective on fundamentals

Every company faces unique and nonrecurring situations in its normal course of business. The impacts of these circumstances must be accounted for in the income statements and balance sheets that the companies provide to investors.

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What's in the charts?

A weekly illustration of trends and potential patterns to help analyze market developments.

Analyzing stock fundamentals