Eight more industries

The previous course covers seven industries whose accounts need their own reading. This one covers eight more, chosen because a US stock picker meets them constantly and because each one breaks a ratio that works everywhere else.

An asset manager earns a fee on a balance that moves for two entirely separate reasons. A pharmaceutical company expenses the thing that produces its future revenue. A miner's asset quantity is a function of an assumed price. An oil producer publishes a discounted present value that is not a valuation. A shipping company's revenue is days multiplied by a spot price. A semiconductor company commits capital years before it knows the demand. A homebuilder's balance sheet decides who survives a downturn. And an airline's entire result sits in the gap between two numbers quoted in cents.

Every lesson reads one real filing, named with its accession number and filing date, and nothing in this course is illustrative. The subject is what a particular industry's disclosures show, so an invented example would teach nothing.

You need industry-analysis first, and accounting-standards helps for the reserve and segment disclosures.

What you will be able to do

Open a 10-K in any of these eight industries and know which three disclosures matter, which standard ratio is meaningless there, and which industry-specific measure replaces it.