I know better than wading into these facts and figures discussions, and it's fine for anyone to always look at every detail of a company's numbers and such, so be it, but it just isn't necessary to get really good investing results. I will wade in just to speak up for the concept I've followed for 3+ decades of simply buying good to very good companies and holding them for the long term, rarely selling, never looking at a financial statement, or paying much attention to anything about the numbers. The long ago abandoned, but orignial concept of TMF was LTBH. They have provided an investor with capable companies over the years, and it wasn't a stretch to figure out that technology was the place to be, in good part, and it hasn't been too difficult to build a really good portfolio for the long haul using their picks. And I had to g r o w my money back in the day, not preserve capital. There wasn't much to preserve 20 years ago. And selling based on short term info, looking back, stand out as my biggest mistakes (like selling NVDA about 10 years ago).

I have mind boggling returns and I don't 'follow' the companies' fundamentals or anything else, other than sometimes hearing or reading about quarterly results. 1997 AMZN shares, cost basis four cents (not a typo), AAPL up 2,100%, NFLX up 4,200%, GOOG up 1000%, BKNG up 1,500%, UNH up 1,400% and a bunch of others like SBUX, WM, BRK-b, ATVI, CMG, COST with also truly stellar gains. I have about 50 stocks, don't follow any of them, and 90+% of them have done really well or well enough. The few losers don't matter. It has created a lot of wealth for me.

I'm glad I was around TMF in the earlier years. They had a simple message and they stuck to it. Not so much now.

conifer