Garden path the long term investors were lead to., page-32

I like to go further than face value . I try to work out how the business works, how it makes its money. Then work out how the numbers come to be printed in the books , like is it $ in the till or is it booked as current revenue with future payments required etc, or WIP. Then how reliable is this WIP?, Has it been converted to REAL cash in the past or have they never had big cash balances? If not why not? If money not in the Bank, where the fk is it? There's heaps to do to work out how much BS they be spinning, lots of ratios to cross check info and the books . If you have a thorough understanding of the books and good business nouse you'll be surprised what you can work out but it takes time and effort, sometimes takes me months to work out what's going on, sometimes I can't even get that far so I leave them shares alone.
When I look at the books and the numbers I think WHY and HOW have they put that number in that column, HOW are they running the books? Are they stretching the accountancy rules to the limit? Or are they conservative and leaving room for error? Accounts are not and exact science, they are allowed to use discretion or get some amount of wiggle room in certain areas, different countries different laws, they have notes attached and all sorts of loop holes.
Best Wishes