The Quantery blog
Practical notes on testing investment ideas: building screens from raw fundamentals, backtesting without fooling yourself, and reading the numbers straight from the filings. Research, not advice.
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Revenue, net income, and margins on the income statement
Where revenue, gross profit and net income sit on a real income statement, what gross margin and net margin each measure, and where the two disagree.
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Share count and dilution: why per-share numbers drift
Basic vs diluted share counts, where they sit in a filing, how issuance and buybacks move every per-share number, and how to test for dilution.
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Gross debt vs net debt: how leverage reads on a screen
What total debt and net debt are, where they sit in the filings, when subtracting the cash is fair, and the two ratios a thesis uses to measure leverage.
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Working capital and the current ratio, explained
What current assets and current liabilities are, how working capital and the current ratio come off a real filing, and where the ratio stops working.
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When a one-time gain flatters your value screen
Dollar Tree booked $1.31 a share of tariff refunds and Dollar General $0.25. Why one-off cash gains slip past earnings-quality checks and skew trailing screens.
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How to read a balance sheet: assets, liabilities, equity
The accounting identity behind every balance sheet, what book value really means, why a profitable company can show negative equity, and how a screen reads it.
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Quantery 1.6.0: the universe is part of the thesis
Release notes for 1.6.0. A new Universes page brings standard index universes (S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Dow 30) with point-in-time membership, named custom ticker lists, universe-aware backtests, and four new MCP tools. Thesis universe filters now apply on every scan.
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Trailing vs forward numbers: what a thesis can trust
What trailing twelve months means, how it is built from four filed quarters, and why a screen scores filed numbers instead of forecasts.
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How the three financial statements fit together
The balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement answer three questions and lock together at two joints. Here is the map, and where a screen reads them.
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How to tell if a backtest result is real
Three backtests of the same screen, three different verdicts. How to use perturbation and coverage checks to separate a robust result from a lucky one.
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Quantery 1.5.0: every number can now show its work
Release notes for 1.5.0. Click any value a scan produced and see the rule that scored it, the inputs behind it, and the filing on SEC EDGAR. Plus clickable run history with two-run compare, a per-company data coverage card, and three new MCP audit tools.
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How to choose the universe your screen runs on
Exchange lists, market cap floors, sector exclusions, and missing data decide what your stock screen can see. How to make those choices on purpose.
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Turning an oil price spike into a testable thesis
Energy stocks surged on Middle East supply fears while the EIA forecasts lower oil next year. How to split that headline into claims you can actually test.
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How to connect Claude to Quantery over MCP
Turn on Quantery's local MCP server and connect Claude Code or Claude Desktop, so your assistant can build theses, run screens, and backtest on your machine.
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When capex outruns cash flow: a screen for the AI buildout
Alphabet borrowed $25 billion the same summer its free cash flow went negative. How to turn debt-funded capex into a screen you can test.
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Net current asset value: pricing the business at zero
What net current asset value is, how to compute it from the balance sheet, what the net-net record shows, and why a live screen finds almost none today.
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Your first scan in 10 minutes
Install Quantery, activate a trial key, run a proven starting-point screen, and read the survivors table. Then change one rule and make the screen yours.
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How to build a thesis worth testing
From a hunch to testable criteria: choosing measurable proxies, killing vague rules, and one worked example built from raw fundamentals.
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What makes a backtest honest
Point-in-time data, survivorship bias, look-ahead, excluded costs, and walk-forward testing: what a good backtest result does and does not tell you.
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Free cash flow: the number that's hardest to fake
What free cash flow is, how it's derived from the actual filings, why it diverges from earnings, and how to express an FCF screen from raw fundamentals.
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