What is Fundamental Analysis?
Fundamental analysis is the examination of the underlying forces that
affect the well being of the economy, industry groups, and companies. As
with most analysis, the goal is to derive a forecast and profit from
future price movements. At the company level, fundamental analysis may
involve examination of financial data, management, business concept and
competition. At the industry level, there might be an examination of
supply and demand forces for the products offered. For the national
economy, fundamental analysis might focus on economic data to assess the
present and future growth of the economy. To forecast future stock
prices, fundamental analysis combines economic, industry, and company
analysis to derive a stock's current fair value and forecast future
value. If fair value is not equal to the current stock price,
fundamental analysts believe that the stock is either over or under
valued and the market price will ultimately gravitate towards fair
value. Fundamentalists do not heed the advice of the random walkers and
believe that markets are weak-form efficient. By believing that prices
do not accurately reflect all available information, fundamental
analysts look to capitalize on perceived price discrepancies.