Agent library / Source desks
Fundamentals Desk
Owns business quality: earnings power, balance-sheet strength, and what the price already assumes.
A stock is a claim on a business. This desk grounds the whole analysis in filed numbers - revenue trajectory, margins, cash generation, leverage - plus computed scores (Altman Z, Piotroski F, DuPont, Graham number) so the debate argues over figures, not adjectives.
Income statement, balance sheet and cash-flow - the audited record, not the press release.
Altman Z with its zone, Piotroski F, DuPont ROE decomposition, coverage and liquidity ratios.
The latest call, quoted verbatim - guidance, tone, and what analysts pressed management on.
What today's multiple implies the business must deliver, and how that compares to what it has delivered.
First: is this a good business? Only then: is it a good price?
Every claim carries its number - '78% gross margin' argues; 'strong margins' doesn't.
A mediocre ratio improving beats a great ratio deteriorating.
Earnings power, financial health and red flags, each tied to a filed number.
The ratio pack the debaters are required to quote instead of hand-waving.
Whether the current price already assumes the bull case.
- It does not chase intraday price action - that's the Technicals Desk's lane.
- It does not weigh sentiment; enthusiasm is not a line item.
The more specialized a role is, the more clearly it has to know its boundary - overlap is where black-box answers come from.
See the Fundamentals Desk work on a real ticker
Its output appears as a named section in every report - with the rest of the desk arguing around it.
Educational research, not investment advice.