Sentivalark | Analysing company fundamentals

Structured resources to help you research more effectively and think more independently as a private investor.

Understanding the research process

Good investment research is not a linear checklist — it is an iterative process of gathering information, forming a tentative view, testing that view against the evidence, and revising it honestly when the evidence demands it. The resources in this section are designed to help you build that kind of process: one that is disciplined without being rigid, and thorough without becoming paralysing.

We cover the core stages of research — from reading a company's annual report with the right questions in mind, to understanding how macroeconomic context shapes the environment a business operates in. Each guide is written for the private investor who is doing this work independently, without a research team behind them, and who needs practical methods rather than academic theory.

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Analysing company fundamentals

A company's fundamentals are the foundation of any serious research process. Understanding how a business generates revenue, what drives its costs, how it is financed, and where it sits competitively within its sector gives you the framework you need to evaluate news, management commentary and market moves with appropriate context. Without that foundation, you are reacting to events rather than understanding them.

The guides in this section walk through the key elements of fundamental analysis in plain language — covering the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement not as accounting exercises but as sources of insight into a business's actual condition. They also address qualitative factors: competitive positioning, management track record and the structural dynamics of the sectors in which companies operate.

Working with scenarios and assumptions

One of the most valuable things a private investor can do is to think explicitly about the future conditions their investment case requires. Scenario analysis is the structured way to do that — and it is more useful as a tool for examining your own reasoning than as a method for predicting outcomes. The guides here introduce practical approaches to building and comparing scenarios without overclaiming what they can tell you.

Alongside scenario work, we address the discipline of assumption surfacing: the practice of naming the beliefs your thesis depends on and asking whether they are well-founded. This is uncomfortable work, because it often reveals that a compelling investment case rests on conditions that are less certain than they first appeared. But it is precisely that discomfort that makes the process valuable.

Sentivalark | Analysing company fundamentals

Understanding the research process

Analysing company fundamentals

Working with scenarios and assumptions

Stay sharp on investment research