Take a look at this chart of the S&P 500, and note the big dip starting in 2000 and repeating in 2008. If you happen to be an investor who went on that roller coaster ride both times, you can probably be forgiven for being too dizzy at this point to delve into the obfuscatory world of 10-Qs, 10-Ks, and other byzantine company filings mandated by the SEC in the interest of transparency.

Unfortunately, however, maybe that’s the only way these days to get the real scoop on a company’s financial health. Investor outsourcing of crucial due diligence to the media, stock analysts, and even the ratings agencies led to massive losses in the accounting scandals in early last decade and in the financial collapse later on.

So when it comes to your money, how can you trust anyone but yourself these days?

“While there aren’t a lot of hard and fast rules for mining SEC filings for interesting nuggets, it’s a pretty safe bet that if the words “company yacht” are mentioned in the filing, it’s worth at least a quick skim.”
The web site footnoted.org received a lot of favorable press last year, including this report on [...]