The Research Handbook
The Individual Investor’s Research Handbook
From company analysis to quantitative strategies and capital management. Build a research process with clear questions, traceable evidence, and checkable examples.
For individual investors who want a systematic approach. No finance degree or handwritten code is required. Read the handbook and use its materials freely, with or without CoTrading.
Contents
Part 1
Before You Begin: Goals, Money, and Your First Record →
Clarify your goals and financial boundaries, distinguish money needed for essential living costs from investable funds, and complete a first simple research exercise.
3 chapters · 6 articles
Part 2
Markets, Returns, and Risk →
Understand investment assets, trading processes, return calculations, and major risks.
3 chapters · 8 articles
Part 3
Evidence, Research Questions, and AI Checks →
Check sources, pose testable questions, and develop a habit of verifying AI outputs before entering either research path.
3 chapters · 7 articles
Part 4
Understanding a Company →
Build a record of a company's business, industry, finances, and governance from original sources.
4 chapters · 10 articles
Part 5
From Valuation to Investment Judgment →
Produce a research report that includes valuation, scenarios, contrary evidence, and conditions for review.
2 chapters · 6 articles
Part 6
Turning Ideas into Testable Strategies →
Learn the mathematics required for each task, assess data and computing needs, turn ideas into rules, and check AI implementations.
4 chapters · 11 articles
Part 7
Evaluating Backtests and Research Results →
Complete research that accounts for costs, checks for biases, includes out-of-sample validation, and states its limitations.
3 chapters · 9 articles
Part 8
A Deeper Look at Factor Investing →
If you choose the factor research path, construct signals from stock-level fields, evaluate cross-sectional evidence, and build a simple portfolio that others can review. Readers focusing on fundamental or time-series research may skip this part.
3 chapters · 6 articles
Part 9
Capital, Portfolios, and Multiple Strategies →
Translate household constraints into account, strategy, and per-trade budgets, then check returns and operations. Study optional multi-strategy research after establishing evidence for individual strategies.
6 chapters · 17 articles
Part 10
Thinking, Psychology, and Decision Discipline →
Recognize biases in your own judgment and improve decisions through records, contingency plans, and reviews.
2 chapters · 6 articles
Part 11
Projects and Continuing Research →
Jump to the sections you need to complete a company or strategy project, then explore reproduction and model comparisons in more depth. Clarify your capability boundaries and plans for continuing research.
4 chapters · 7 articles