Full Company Breakdown
Understand the business before you look at the price
This is the tool version of step 1 on How to Research a Stock. You can do that step with a 10-K and a notebook. Framework 01 is for when you want the same pass against live filings and news, in one write-up.
When to run it
- First look at a US stock you do not already know.
- Refresh before earnings if you have not read the company in months.
- After someone sends you a ticker and you can feel yourself skipping to the chart.
Do not run Framework 01 to get a buy/sell. It will not give you one.
What the write-up is supposed to cover
A Framework 01 output should let you answer:
- Product or service in one sentence
- Who the customer is
- Which segment or geography is most of the revenue
- How the company gets paid
- What management says is driving growth now
- The two or three risks that are actually in the way of that story
If the output is a data dump with no sentence you could say out loud, the run failed. Read Item 1 yourself and try again.
What this framework cannot do
- It does not tell you if the price is cheap. That is Framework 03 (Fair Value Stress Test).
- It does not build a bear case as a peer of the bull case. That is Framework 02 (Bull vs Bear + Moat).
- It does not check whether earnings are cash. That is Framework 04 (Earnings Quality Analyzer).
- It does not grade management or read Form 4s. Later frameworks.
- It does not size the position.
Beginner kit after this page: write the two-minute explanation, then run Framework 02 or 03. The other twelve wait. Map is at Which Framework, When?
Walkthrough: AMZN as a first 01
Notes a first pass should produce — not a finished model
- Amazon is a store, a cloud company, and an ads business under one ticker, with Prime sitting on the store.
- Shoppers, corporate cloud customers, and advertisers are different payers. Treating "Amazon" as one customer is how the story gets sloppy.
- Most of the revenue is still the store. More of the profit story is AWS and ads. A first run should make that split impossible to miss.
- Growth talk that only mentions AI or only mentions the store is incomplete. Both can be true at once; the write-up has to say which one is doing the work this year.
Still open after a 01: the exact profit mix, a fair-value range, and whether cash matches the earnings release. Those are other sittings.
Full published 15-framework write-up on this ticker (not tonight's 01): AMZN analysis.
Do it yourself, then run 01
Before you spend a credit:
- Open the latest 10-K, Item 1.
- Write the five bullets on the checklist — section 1, Business.
- Cover the ticker. Explain the company in two minutes.
If you cannot finish that, Framework 01 will only write a smoother version of your confusion. If you can finish it, run 01 and see what the filings add that you missed.
Method page for the whole sequence: How to Research a Stock. If you have not bought the default index yet, you do not need this framework: How to Start Investing.
Common questions
Do I need Framework 01 if I already use the product?
Yes, if you cannot describe how the company makes money without looking. Using Amazon Prime is not the same as understanding AWS vs the store vs ads.
Is this a DCF or a rating?
No. It is a business briefing. Price targets and letter grades from a first pass are a warning the output drifted.
What do I run next?
Framework 02 if you only have one side of the story. Framework 03 if you already understand the business and the fight is the price. Not all 15.
Run Full Company Breakdown
Same questions as step 1 of the research sequence. Live SEC filings, prices, and news instead of a blank page. This is the optional faster pass — not a substitute for the two-minute explanation.
Try AlphaLens Free → Use code REDDIT-FREE-TRIAL · No card required · Then $39/mo or $299/yrThen: Framework 02 or Framework 03. Stop.