Understanding The Numbers

The three pieces which help you put the puzzle together are the Balance Sheet, Income Statement (Profit & Loss) and Cash Flow (+ the footnotes.) These are the key financial statements which together help you fully appreciate a company's current health. In isolation they provide you insight which could be misleading. All three of these statements are related and you need to understand them with respect to the other.

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(If this is your first time, reading these statements, this takes a while initially, and this article is certainly longish, however, my aim is to give you enough in one shot.)