Risk notice and transparency

This page says what Inside Stocks is, what it is not, and where the method reaches its limits. Knowing the limits is what makes the rest trustworthy.

What Inside Stocks is

Inside Stocks is a journalistic, editorial information service. It classifies published company figures by fixed, disclosed rules. There is no recommendation to buy, sell or hold, no price target and no forecast. The content is neither investment advice nor an investment recommendation within the meaning of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. Inside Stocks commits to the German Press Code (Pressekodex) of the German Press Council, including guideline 7.4 on business and financial market reporting.

For each company, Inside Stocks answers two separate questions: how many of the published quality rules the latest reports meet, and where today’s share price sits compared with the company’s own valuation history. Both are results of a calculation anyone can reproduce with the same figures.

What Inside Stocks is not

Not investment advice. Investment advice requires a personal recommendation that is based on an assessment of personal circumstances or presented as suitable for the investor. None of that happens here: we know neither your financial situation nor your goals, experience or risk tolerance, and we do not ask for them. All content is public and the same for everyone.

No recommendation, no price target, no forecast. We do not say whether you should buy, hold or sell a share, nor where a price is heading. There are no target prices, no fair values, no timing and no probabilities for future price moves. The position of the price against its own range describes the past; it is not a judgement of value.

No personal selection. There is no recommendation list, no selection tailored to your details and no hint as to what suits a portfolio.

Who is responsible

Responsible for the rule set, analysis and presentation is Florian Maier, owner of Scale Smart, management consultant, Executive MBA, TU Munich and Tsinghua University. Name and date of production also appear on every single analysis. Address and contact details are in the imprint.

Timing and data status

Every analysis states when it was produced and the date of the price it refers to. Both appear on the company page itself, not only here. Figures also carry the date of the annual report they come from, not the date they were retrieved.

Time horizon

The quality grades describe a state that can change with every new annual report, so roughly quarterly. The historical test is computed over a 36-month window. The method says nothing about shorter periods: a company with a high quality points can do worse than the market tomorrow, next week and over a year.

What the method depends on

The grades follow from fixed thresholds applied to reported figures. Move the thresholds and the grades change. The main assumptions and their effect:

• The thresholds themselves. Every threshold is a set limit, not a law of nature. A company just below one loses a point although it differs little from a company just above it. How far a value is from its next threshold is therefore shown in the workings of every grade.
• Equal weighting. The four grades are added, not weighted. Anyone who considers cash flow more important than growth will arrive at a different order. That is why the four individual grades always appear next to the total.
• The valuation range. It comes from the company’s own history, not from an industry comparison. A company whose multiples have always been high over ten years is therefore never above its range merely because it is richly valued. With fewer than four comparable fiscal years, no range is given.
• The business model. Which valuation measures are allowed is decided by the regulator’s official industry code. If that code is wrong or does not fit the actual business, the wrong measure is chosen. The page states which one was used.
• Currency. Prices and amounts are shown in the share’s quote currency, not converted. Anyone investing in euros also carries the exchange rate risk; it is not part of any grade.
• Missing and implausible data. Gaps are not estimated. If years or figures are missing, the grade is left out and the page says what is missing. If figures do not fit together, for instance after a stock split not yet reflected in the latest report, the page shows no value at that point and states the reason. A missing grade is not a poor result.

Changes

If a grade changes from the previous analysis of the same company, that is shown with its date in the History section of the company page. If a rule changes, the rule set gets a new number, the change is listed on the method page, and every page states the number it was computed with. Nothing is quietly adjusted.

Transparency note

The publisher invests his own money in shares, including in companies analysed here, and buys and sells on an ongoing basis. For every company here, assume that he holds or has recently held shares in it. There is no statement per company, because with ongoing trading it would be out of date within days, and an outdated statement would look verified. The analysis follows exclusively from published rules with no discretion; own positions have no influence on the result. The same figures produce the same grade, regardless of who computes it and what they own.

Inside Stocks receives no payments, benefits in kind or other advantages from issuers, brokers, asset managers or analysed companies. There is no advertising, no paid placement and no referral commission. From launch, revenue is meant to come exclusively from user subscriptions.

General risks

Securities can lose value, up to the total loss of the money invested. Historical analyses, even a test computed over many years, say nothing about future prices. A result seen in the past may be due to chance or to market conditions that do not recur. Price and company data can be delayed, incomplete or wrong. Anyone buying securities should only invest money they can afford to lose and, if in doubt, seek advice from someone who knows their personal circumstances.

Errors and corrections

The full workings of every analysis are stored: input values, source, threshold, rule set and time. We accept reports of errors at the address in the imprint. Corrections are made traceably, never quietly.