Havilah Research
Launch & access guide

HAVILAH RESEARCH COURSE

Global Stock Investing Master Class

From what a share is to reading filings and financial statements, valuation, industry analysis, charts and trade timing, and portfolio and risk management: 210 lessons in 7 parts, in order. Written for investors outside the United States who buy U.S.-listed stocks. Numbers and stock examples are for learning only, not investment recommendations.

7 parts26 chapters210 lessons

PART I

Getting started with global stock investing

Chapter 1Investing in stocks: what you buy and why prices change

  1. 001What do you own when you buy a stock?
  2. 002Why do companies issue shares?
  3. 003Two ways to make money from stocks
  4. 004Who sets share prices, and why do they change?
  5. 005Is a stock with a low share price really cheap?
  6. 006Why a share price can fall even when the company earns more
  7. 007What new investors must tell apart

Chapter 2How does the U.S. stock market work?

  1. 008Reading the map of the U.S. stock market
  2. 009How do the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes differ?
  3. 010How do individual stocks, ETFs, preferred stock and ADRs differ?
  4. 011When many people want to buy, at what price does your order fill?
  5. 012What time does the U.S. market open where you live?
  6. 013How pre-market, regular-session and after-hours trading differ
  7. 014What do stock splits, trading halts and delistings leave shareholders with?

Chapter 3Opening a brokerage account and placing your first order

  1. 015Which brokerage account should you choose?
  2. 016What is deducted when you convert your home currency into dollars?
  3. 017How do you use market, limit and stop orders?
  4. 018How to check the ticker and quantity on the trading screen
  5. 019Can your order be filled at a different price?
  6. 020When are the proceeds from selling U.S. stocks settled?
  7. 021Your first hypothetical trade, from start to finish

Chapter 4Preparing your money, currency and taxes

  1. 022How much can you invest?
  2. 023Deciding your time horizon and the losses you can accept
  3. 024How do you calculate returns and compounding?
  4. 025Why a U.S. stock can rise in dollars while your home-currency return shrinks
  5. 026What taxes apply to U.S. dividends?
  6. 027Reporting gains when you sell foreign stocks
  7. 028Risks that are easy to miss before you trade, and a checklist

PART II

Finding good companies and understanding their business

Chapter 5Where to find information on U.S. companies

  1. 029What to check before the stock news
  2. 030How to search for a company on SEC EDGAR
  3. 031What should you read in a 10-K annual report?
  4. 032Comparing the 10-Q quarterly report with the earnings release
  5. 033When something important happens, look for the 8-K
  6. 034Reading 20-F, 6-K and ADR filings from non-U.S. companies
  7. 035Where can you find information on shareholders and management?
  8. 036What should you trust when numbers are wrong or change?

Chapter 6How do companies make money?

  1. 037Start with a company's products and customers
  2. 038How is revenue made?
  3. 039What lies behind a high revenue growth rate?
  4. 040How far can you rely on recurring revenue?
  5. 041Does winning a contract mean the revenue is certain?
  6. 042What is the risk when sales depend on a few customers?
  7. 043The money actually left when you sell one product
  8. 044Summarize how a company makes money on one page

Chapter 7Understand the industry to understand a company's profits

  1. 045What a bigger market size really means
  2. 046The supply chain behind a single product
  3. 047Who makes money from a supply shortage?
  4. 048Does expanding a factory raise revenue right away?
  5. 049Reading changes in the economy from inventory and orders
  6. 050Industries with many competitors versus few
  7. 051Some companies lose money even in a growing industry
  8. 052How to narrow down investment candidates with an industry map

Chapter 8Analyzing competitive strength, management and what shareholders get

  1. 053How do good companies keep their competitive advantage?
  2. 054Where competitive strength shows up in the numbers
  3. 055Where does management put the company's profits?
  4. 056Why your share can shrink even when the company makes a profit
  5. 057How to check related-party transactions and dual-class voting
  6. 058When do share buybacks help shareholders?
  7. 059Why do mergers and acquisitions sometimes fail?
  8. 060Building a management scorecard as a small shareholder

PART III

Reading financial statements as an investor

Chapter 9The income statement: how revenue becomes profit

  1. 061How do the three financial statements explain each other?
  2. 062When does a company recognize revenue?
  3. 063Is a company with a high gross margin a good company?
  4. 064Why do R&D and SG&A expenses rise?
  5. 065How do operating income, EBITDA and net income differ?
  6. 066How far can you trust adjusted results?
  7. 067Why does the number of shares affect EPS?
  8. 068How to avoid comparing quarterly results the wrong way

Chapter 10The balance sheet: cash, debt and staying power

  1. 069How the balance sheet works
  2. 070How should you read a large cash balance?
  3. 071What should you suspect when receivables rise quickly?
  4. 072What burden can inventory place on a company?
  5. 073How do factories, equipment and software show up in financial statements?
  6. 074Why do goodwill and lease liabilities matter?
  7. 075Are customer prepayments and deferred revenue a kind of debt?
  8. 076What happens when debt comes due?

Chapter 11The cash flow statement: accounting profit versus real cash

  1. 077Why can a profitable company run short of cash?
  2. 078How is operating cash flow calculated?
  3. 079Is buying equipment an expense or an investment?
  4. 080What does free cash flow (FCF) show?
  5. 081Why inventory and receivables eat up cash
  6. 082Is stock-based compensation free because no cash goes out?
  7. 083Cash flows from borrowing, share issues, dividends and buybacks
  8. 084Linking the three financial statements to find errors

Chapter 12Using financial ratios to judge a company's health

  1. 085How do you compare growth rates correctly?
  2. 086Why a company's margins improve
  3. 087Is a company with a high ROE always a high-quality business?
  4. 088Does ROIC show how well a company uses the money it has invested?
  5. 089How can you screen out companies with too much debt?
  6. 090How a company's ability to generate cash connects to its value
  7. 091How to compare ratios across companies on the same basis
  8. 092The numbers look good, so what might be wrong?

PART IV

The economy, earnings and valuation

Chapter 13How interest rates, exchange rates and the economy move stock prices

  1. 093What does it mean when people say the economy is good?
  2. 094Why does the Fed raise and lower interest rates?
  3. 095Why do growth stocks wobble when Treasury yields rise?
  4. 096How inflation changes a company's profits
  5. 097When credit markets seize up, which companies are at risk first?
  6. 098Why a strong dollar affects each company differently
  7. 099Why do industries perform differently over the business cycle?
  8. 100Applying macroeconomic indicators to stock analysis

Chapter 14Reading earnings reports together with market expectations

  1. 101Why market expectations matter more than the results themselves
  2. 102Can the share price fall even when EPS beats estimates?
  3. 103How do you estimate next quarter's and next year's revenue?
  4. 104How far can you trust backlog and contracts?
  5. 105Whose revenue does a CAPEX announcement turn into?
  6. 106What should you listen for on an earnings call?
  7. 107How to find the next event that could move the share price
  8. 108Updating your investment view before and after an earnings release

Chapter 15Judging price levels with P/E, P/B and EV/EBITDA

  1. 109Even a good company can lose you money if you pay too much
  2. 110Market cap versus enterprise value (EV)
  3. 111What does it mean when a P/E is 10x or 30x?
  4. 112How can you use market cap relative to revenue?
  5. 113Does a low P/B really mean a stock is undervalued?
  6. 114When should you use EV/EBITDA and EV/EBIT?
  7. 115How do you compare companies in the same industry?
  8. 116When can a high valuation be justified?

Chapter 16Estimating a company's future results yourself

  1. 117What assumptions should you prepare before making a forecast?
  2. 118Forecasting revenue from price and sales volume
  3. 119Turning market growth into a company's revenue growth
  4. 120When revenue grows, how much does profit grow?
  5. 121How much must a company invest to keep growing?
  6. 122Why you should also forecast share count and debt
  7. 123Building a simple model that links the three financial statements
  8. 124Where does your forecast differ from the market's?

Chapter 17Fair value and margin of safety with a DCF

  1. 125Is KRW 1 million today worth the same as KRW 1 million in 5 years?
  2. 126How does a DCF calculate what a company is worth?
  3. 127Cash flow to the whole firm versus cash flow to shareholders
  4. 128How do you set the cost of equity?
  5. 129What is WACC, and why does capital structure matter?
  6. 130How do you estimate a company's value 10 years from now?
  7. 131Completing a real DCF spreadsheet
  8. 132How much does a 1-percentage-point change in the discount rate affect value?
  9. 133What future does the current share price assume?
  10. 134Turning fair value into a price per share and trading conditions

PART V

Hands-on company analysis by industry

Chapter 18Hands-on: semiconductor, AI and software companies

  1. 135Where does the money in the semiconductor industry come from?
  2. 136Why do actual shipments of advanced chips matter more than production capacity?
  3. 137Who earns the profits in advanced packaging and optical communications?
  4. 138The economics of data center investment, power and cooling
  5. 139How should you evaluate a cloud company's revenue?
  6. 140Judging the growth and profitability of SaaS subscription companies
  7. 141Why does a platform company benefit as its user base grows?
  8. 142Connecting the AI investment boom to earnings, cash and share prices

Chapter 19Hands-on: financial, healthcare, consumer and cyclical companies

  1. 143How is a bank different from an ordinary manufacturer?
  2. 144Where do an insurance company's profits and losses come from?
  3. 145Evaluating the future value of pharmaceutical and biotech companies
  4. 146How do you measure the competitive strength of consumer goods companies and retailers?
  5. 147When do more orders show up in the results of manufacturing and industrial companies?
  6. 148Why are energy and commodity companies so sensitive to industry conditions?
  7. 149How do you judge a REIT's dividend?
  8. 150What changes when you apply company analysis to foreign markets

PART VI

Technical analysis and timing your trades

Chapter 20Chart basics: price, trend and volume

  1. 151What technical analysis can and cannot tell you
  2. 152What a single candle on a candlestick chart tells you
  3. 153Why do daily, weekly and monthly candles look different?
  4. 154How do you tell an uptrend from a downtrend?
  5. 155How do you draw trendlines and channels?
  6. 156How reliable are support and resistance?
  7. 157How to read gaps up and down after an earnings release
  8. 158Does a surge in volume always mean accumulation?
  9. 159How to find stocks that are stronger than the market

Chapter 21Using technical indicators and chart patterns properly

  1. 160How do you calculate and read a moving average?
  2. 161Is VWAP a benchmark for institutional trading?
  3. 162Do you have to sell when the RSI goes above 70?
  4. 163What kind of change does MACD capture?
  5. 164How do Bollinger Bands show volatility?
  6. 165How can you use ATR for stop-losses and position size?
  7. 166Reading triangle, flag and head-and-shoulders patterns
  8. 167The limits of volume profiles and indicators of buying and selling pressure
  9. 168Do more technical indicators make your judgment more accurate?

Chapter 22Timing trades with fundamental and technical analysis

  1. 169Deciding when to buy a good company
  2. 170How do breakout trading and pullback trading differ?
  3. 171Can you use the same strategy in sideways and falling markets?
  4. 172When should you decide your analysis was wrong?
  5. 173When should you sell a stock that is showing a profit?
  6. 174What should you check the day before an earnings release?
  7. 175Why the way you place an order changes your results
  8. 176Marking your investment plan on a real chart

PART VII

Portfolio, risk management and putting it all together

Chapter 23Building a portfolio with ETFs and diversification

  1. 177How one ETF lets you invest in many companies
  2. 178How to compare major U.S. index ETFs
  3. 179What happens when a theme ETF and individual stocks overlap?
  4. 180How do growth, value, quality and momentum strategies differ?
  5. 181Country and currency diversification for investors outside the U.S.
  6. 182What happens when you hold leveraged or inverse ETFs?
  7. 183How should you read distributions from covered call and high-dividend ETFs?
  8. 184Building a long-term portfolio with core and satellite investments

Chapter 24Position sizing and money allocation to control losses

  1. 185If you feel very sure, should you put all your money in?
  2. 186Setting your stop-loss price and number of shares together
  3. 187Adjusting how many shares you hold to a stock's volatility
  4. 188You bought several stocks, so why do they fall all at once?
  5. 189Will a stop-loss order protect you from bad news overnight?
  6. 190What is MDD, and why is it hard to recover from a loss?
  7. 191When should you bring your portfolio weights back in line?
  8. 192Preparing for a severe market crash

Chapter 25Testing your strategy and reducing psychological mistakes

  1. 193How value investing, growth investing and trend following differ
  2. 194Why do investors keep making the same mistakes?
  3. 195Why a backtest with great-looking results can be dangerous
  4. 196What happens if you use information you could not have known at the time?
  5. 197Will rules fitted to the past work in the future?
  6. 198Why real-world results fall short of theory
  7. 199Which measures matter more than the win rate?
  8. 200How should you keep an investment journal so that you improve?

Chapter 26From analyzing a real stock to buying and selling it

  1. 201Finding 10 candidate stocks to analyze
  2. 202Gathering the original documents for one company
  3. 203Putting the industry, competitors and earnings drivers on one page
  4. 204Building a revenue, margin and cash flow model
  5. 205Calculating fair value and a downside scenario
  6. 206Setting a candidate buying price and exit criteria
  7. 207Calculating an order size that fits your account's risk
  8. 208From a practice order to the fill, settlement and tax records
  9. 209Updating your view when new information comes out while you hold a stock
  10. 210Your final investment report and a readiness check before your first real trade