Here's our guide on how to research stocks — and keep track of the ones you own

CNBC

11 hours ago

Here's our Club Mailbag email [e-mail] — so you send your questions directly to Jim Cramer and his team of analysts. We can't offer personal investing advice. We will only consider more general questions about the investment process or stocks in the portfolio or related industries. When Jim Cramer says that investors need to do the homework, what is the homework and where do you find it? -Maxine G. This is a crucial question for all investors to ask. You are correct that we preach "buy and homework," as opposed to the "buy and hold" mantra that many long-term investors tout. In this piece, we'll provide some tips to get you started with the homework, but it's important to remember that the homework never ends. Think of it like investigative journalism. You know there is a story there — in this case, a potential investment opportunity — but the magnitude of the story (or opportunity) isn't going to reveal itself until you've turned over as many stones as possible, and then a few more. Put another way, the homework is not a task that needs to be accomplished, but rather an ongoing journey that requires you to stay on your toes and constantly reconsider your investment thesis as new information is revealed. So, where do you find the homework? In an education article a few years ago , we discussed in great detail five types of information that investors can use to conduct the homework: 1) company filings 2) earnings calls 3) earnings estimates 4) geopolitical and macroeconomic news 5) industry-specific news. The information covered in that article is as relevant today as it was back in 2022, so we'd strongly encourage members to click the above link and go read it — whether it's a refresher for longtime members, or for the first time for those who have joined the Club more recently. Rather than rehash everything we covered in that piece, we wanted to use this space to highlight a few additional tools for members to consider because even our own homework process has evolved since we wrote it. One we've recently become fans of is the smartphone app called Quartr , which provides a convenient location to listen to earnings calls and Wall Street conferences, as well as the ability to read transcripts in real-time. It also provides analyst estimates across a few different metrics, which, as mentioned above, is an important part of the homework process. On the app, you're able to "follow" the companies in your portfolio and their close competitors, so all their activities are in one place. We also think it's important to consider podcasts as a source of investment information. While we won't highlight any one specific podcast — there are so many, and arguably more important than the podcast host itself is the guest — we view them as great sources of information because the interviews tend to be in a long, free-flowing format compared with what you might get elsewhere. This gives industry experts and/or executives the opportunity to delve deeper than they may be able to in other settings, which gives us a deeper understanding of the topic or company in question. A recent example where this helped us was when Club holding Meta Platforms announced a collaboration with the defense startup Anduril to develop headsets for the U.S. Army. The day of that announcement, we saw that Anduril founder and CEO Palmer Luckey appeared on a podcast where he talked extensively about its work with Meta, providing background on their relationship and their ambitions. It helped shape our understanding, and we even quoted what Luckey said in our analysis article the next day . When evaluating an investment opportunity or keeping tabs on the stock once it's in your portfolio, you'll want to do more than read the news and analyze the qualitative aspects of the investment. It is also important to crunch some numbers to determine the company's financial health and valuation. We previously put together a five-part series on how to analyze an earnings report . In a separate story, we provided three ways to evaluate a company's debt level to judge the riskiness of buying its stock. We've done a few explainers on valuation in the past, too. For example, we have discussed the two primary ways that investors value stocks and the role that interest rates play in both. We have also explained how to calculate your own price-to-earnings (PE) and price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) ratios . And relatedly, we more recently did a deeper dive into the importance of a PEG ratio . For many investors, layering in some technical analysis is also part of their investment process — though, as we've noted in the past, our primary focus is on the business fundamentals. While we may take a position when the fundamentals are strong and the technicals are weak, we would never look to invest in a company in which the fundamentals are lacking, no matter the technical setup. In our view, technical analysis works until it doesn't, whereas fundamental analysis works until the fundamentals change — and if you're doing the homework, you'll know when that happens. We've provided some technical analysis in the past . If you go back and revisit that article, keep in mind that the technical setup is always changing. So, at this point, think more about the lessons and the tools used in that piece, rather than keying into any level that may have come up on those charts, which represent only a snapshot in time. Finally, if you're considering an investment because of its dividend yield, you'll want to be sure that the payout is actually sustainable. We explained how to do that in a previous story. In the end, the homework is a continuous process; Jim's recommendation is one hour of homework per week for each stock you own. While we've provided a number of useful tools and considerations here — and in the articles linked throughout this commentary — investors can also be rewarded for constantly thinking outside the box and looking for information in every possible place it may be available. This includes simply walking into a location of the company you're interested in and asking some questions, which has become known as the " scuttlebutt " method. The concept was popularized by Philip Fisher's book "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits," and it's all about seeing the operations in real life, speaking with store employees, managers, customers, suppliers, competitors, and so on. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.