Everyones gotta find their own process. And then the work begins refining it and evolving as an investors. In a world of "this is what youre taught"...everyone runs to the income statements. Personally, the first place I go when looking at an investment is the balance sheet. Why? Because Im not interested in crappy balance sheets. It only means...bad things. Poorly managed, declining profits, interest rate/refi risk...and many more derivative negatives. Whereas Ive made an absolute fortune, finding companies with pristine balance sheets, and "nothing really going on"....playing inflections or event driven stuff. CKX a good recent example. Nintendo falls into this bucket as well. When the balance sheet is a fortress, you have time to sit around and wait to see the cards turned. You can also employ your own leverage to put on the investment. Whereas some crapco with a huge debt burden, you sweat more and more with every tick of the clock.