Welcome to the StockZuse Help Manual. This guide explains what StockZuse is, how it works, and how to use its research and analysis tools to identify and evaluate potential stock investment candidates.
StockZuse can be used to analyze an individual company at any time. However, StockZuse also provides a documented Research Strategy for investors who want a structured process for deciding where to research and which companies to evaluate.
What is StockZuse?
StockZuse is a stock research and analysis system designed to help individual investors identify and evaluate potential stock opportunities through a structured research workflow.
Rather than beginning with a stock and immediately trying to decide whether it is a good investment, the StockZuse workflow moves progressively from the broader stock market to individual Company Candidates and then to the evaluation of their Business Quality.
The StockZuse Research Strategy identifies areas of market leadership, applies defined screening criteria, and uses independent research to narrow the investment universe to a focused group of Company Candidates.
Those Company Candidates are then evaluated using ZuseScore, StockZuse’s objective, documented methodology for evaluating Business Quality using company financial information.
Together, the Research Strategy and ZuseScore form a structured workflow for moving from where to research to which companies to evaluate and what their financial results indicate about Business Quality.
A Structured Research Workflow
Each stage of the StockZuse workflow has a specific purpose.
The Research Strategy progressively narrows the investment universe using market leadership, defined screening criteria, and independent research. The resulting Company Candidates are then evaluated using the ZuseScore Methodology, which provides an objective assessment of Business Quality based on defined financial metrics, formulas, and scoring rules.
The workflow is designed to organize research rather than make an investment decision. After ZuseScore Evaluation, investors can conduct additional research into valuation, company and industry risks, SEC filings, recent developments, and other information they consider relevant before making their own investment decisions.
The StockZuse System is designed to help answer two fundamental questions:
Where should I look for investment candidates?
The StockZuse Research Strategy begins with the broader U.S. stock market, using the 11 S&P 500 sectors as a starting framework. It progressively narrows the research universe through Sector Selection, Industry Selection, Stock Screening, and Company Candidate selection.
The use of S&P 500 sectors does not limit StockZuse research to companies included in the S&P 500. The sectors provide the starting framework for identifying areas of market leadership.
How does a candidate’s Business Quality measure against consistent financial criteria?
The ZuseScore Methodology objectively evaluates individual Company Candidates using defined financial metrics, formulas, and scoring rules.
Within the Research Strategy, ZuseScore Evaluation is the final step. Each Company Candidate is evaluated using the same documented methodology.
Together, the Research Strategy and ZuseScore provide a structured path from the broader stock market to the financial evaluation of individual Company Candidates.
The StockZuse Research Strategy
The StockZuse Research Strategy is the central research framework behind The StockZuse System.
It consists of four steps:
Step 1 – Sector Selection
Identify the three S&P 500 sectors with the highest trailing one-year performance.
Step 2 – Industry Selection
Rank industries within each of the three Selected Sectors by trailing one-year performance, retain the Top 4 industries from each sector, and then rank the combined group to identify the four Target Industries.
Step 3 – Stock Screening
Screen companies independently within each Target Industry using defined screening criteria, rank the qualifying companies using the LSEG StarMine Equity Summary Score (ESS) available through Fidelity, and select the Top 3 from each Target Industry as Company Candidates.
Step 4 – ZuseScore Evaluation
Evaluate each of the 12 Company Candidates using the objective ZuseScore Methodology.
The process can be summarized as:
Investment Universe → 3 Selected Sectors → 4 Target Industries → 12 Company Candidates → ZuseScore Evaluation
The Research Strategy is intended to provide a structured and repeatable method for finding companies to research. It does not predict which sectors, industries, or stocks will perform best in the future.
See Research Strategy in the StockZuse Help menu for the complete process.
You Can Also Analyze a Company Directly
Using the Research Strategy is not required to perform a StockZuse analysis.
If you already have a company you want to research, you can analyze that company directly with StockZuse without first completing Sector Selection, Industry Selection, or Stock Screening.
This makes StockZuse useful in two ways: you can follow the complete Research Strategy to identify Company Candidates, or you can use ZuseScore independently to investigate a company you have identified through your own research.
See How to Analyze a Company with StockZuse for instructions on performing an individual company analysis.
Open Research. Open Methodology.
Transparency is a fundamental principle of StockZuse.
The StockZuse Research Strategy is an open research process. The steps, data sources, screening criteria, ranking procedures, and decision rules used to identify Company Candidates are documented.
ZuseScore uses an open, objective methodology. The financial metrics, formulas, scoring rules, point allocations, and data sources used to evaluate Business Quality are documented.
StockZuse is designed so investors can understand how Company Candidates were identified and how analytical results were calculated rather than relying on an unexplained list of stocks or a “black box” rating.
See the research. See the methodology. Make your own decision.
Who is StockZuse for?
StockZuse is designed for individual investors who want a more systematic approach to stock research.
It may be particularly useful for investors who want to:
- Reduce the influence of market emotion on investment research
- Use a structured process for deciding where to begin researching
- Look beyond currently popular stocks and investment themes
- Use defined criteria and a repeatable process to identify candidates for further research
- Evaluate companies using objective and consistent financial criteria
- Understand how research candidates were identified
- Understand how a company’s ZuseScore results were calculated
StockZuse is a research tool. It does not provide individualized investment advice or make investment decisions for you.
Understanding ZuseScore Results
StockZuse is designed to make its financial analysis understandable and auditable.
When viewing a ZuseScore analysis, you can examine the individual metrics that contributed to the result. Selecting a metric displays additional information about the calculation, including the financial value, formula, scoring rule, and points earned.
StockZuse also displays the Composite Result, showing the points earned and points possible based on the financial data available for evaluation.
This allows you to consider both the ZuseScore and the amount of the methodology that could be applied rather than relying on the score alone.
See ZuseScore Methodology for a complete explanation of the metrics and scoring system.
Research, Not Prediction
StockZuse is designed to support research, not prediction.
Market leadership can change. Research opinions can change. Company financial performance can change. Stock prices can change. Neither selection as a Company Candidate nor a ZuseScore result predicts future stock-price performance.
The structured Research Strategy ends with ZuseScore Evaluation, but the investor’s research does not have to end there.
After completing the Research Strategy, investors may choose to consider valuation, current stock price, company and industry risks, recent developments, SEC filings, analyst opinions, personal investment objectives, and other information they consider relevant.
These considerations are discussed in Beyond the Research Strategy.
The investor makes the investment decision.
Help Topics
Use the links in the sidebar to explore the StockZuse Help Manual.
The Help Manual is organized into three primary sections:
- StockZuse Help — Using the StockZuse application
- ZuseScore Methodology — How the Business Quality of individual companies is objectively evaluated
- Research Strategy — The structured research process used to narrow the investment universe to individual Company Candidates
Contextual Help
From within StockZuse, press the F1 key to open the Help Topic related to the screen or window you are currently using.
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