Read the competitors and the suppliers, not just the company
A company describes itself as it would like to be seen. Its competitors, customers and suppliers describe it as it actually is - and their filings are public.
Every company presents itself in the best available light. That is not deceit, it is the nature of the document. The corrective is cheap and public: read what the competitors, suppliers and customers say, because their accounts of the same market are written for a different audience and rarely flatter the company you are studying.
Claims that can be checked
A company claiming it is gaining share can be tested against the reported volumes of everyone else in the market. Claims of pricing power can be checked against what customers say about cost pressure. Claims about demand can be checked against suppliers' order books. Where the accounts diverge, that gap is where the real research question lives.
Industry-level understanding transfers
Work spent understanding an industry does not expire with one company. It makes the next candidate in the same field far faster to assess, and it is how a circle of competence widens honestly - by depth in a field rather than a shallow pass across many.
Public sources go a long way
Annual reports, industry-body data, regulatory filings, earnings-call transcripts and trade publications carry most of what is needed. The advantage is not access to something secret; it is the willingness to read widely and connect what is already public.
Got a question on what you have just read - on bottom-up research, quality investing, or the Category III AIF structure? Write directly to the office. These essays are general views only, not investment advice.
A research-led equity investor with over twenty years in the Indian markets. Designated Partner of Stonebridge Advisors LLP, Investment Manager of Anchor Rock Investment Fund - I, a SEBI-registered Category III AIF.