The Secret Language of Financial Reports: the Back Stories That Can Enhance Your Investment Decisions

Wise investors uncover a company's real story.

The Secret Language of Financial Reports helps you read a company's annual report like a good book so you can make informed investment decisions. From reading the fine print to interpreting what isn't accounted for, this authoritative guide provides a road map for seeing past the complexity and jargon in company reports in order to understand what is and is not communicated there. Through numerous diagrams, insightful analogies, and real-world based examples, it deconstructs and explains the critical aspects of an annual report by revealing 14 underlying “secrets.”

In The Secret Language of Financial Reports, Mark E. Haskins demystifies the process of creating annual reports in order for you to fully understand the main purposes, fundamental premises, basic content, embedded compromises, and inherent shortcomings of these documents. He offers detailed coverage of:

• Balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flow
• The auditor's report, financial statement notes, and management's discussion and analysis
• Strategies for applying the information you decipher

Mark E. Haskins is a professor in the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, where he teaches financial reporting.