I think Pudawocky's point is very reasonable.  However, one of the real and imminant "ethical versus dirty" dilemmas we're facing a the moment is the "single use" masks we are all required to wear - and eventually dispose of - as part of lock-down regulations.  Is anyone aware of technology currently available or being developed to make these masks biodegradable?  Just an idle thought with real investment potential - Skip the ethics here!

Hi everyone!

I have been working my way through the Strawman Member Backgrounds post in an attempt to get to know my fellow Premium Members.

I’ve come to the realisation that many of us are champing at the bit to assist in some way however a large proportion of us are inexperienced in company valuations. I’m hoping we can get some of the more experienced members to give us a few pointers through this post and then we can each select a company to deep dive in the interest of adding some great content to the site.

My aim is to find a stock that is out of favour or up-and-coming that might be worth investing in. Being that many of the companies in favour on the Strawman website are small cap companies I thought I’d start there.

I have been using the Global Screener on website TIKR (for those who haven’t used it, referral link here) with the basic conditions of:

Last Market Cap  | < | 300

Country | is one of | AUS

This screener has SO many options when it comes to company metrics. I have a very limited understanding of what I should be screening to find a company worth deep diving and would very much appreciate any assistance of what other conditions I should add.

 I should say that I added the following condition:

Industry | is not one of | Biotechnology; Tobacco; Water Utilities; Oil, Gas and Consumable Fuels; Metals and Mining

with the view that Biotech is well outside my circle of competence (and view the companies as “winning ticket” type investments), Water Utilities tend not to have high returns and the other 3 industries being “dirty” and not of interest to me.

Once we work through some of the nuances then perhaps we could each select a stock and throw up as much research on it as we find in a straw (or three or more).

Perhaps it may be of some benefit for us all to agree on a set of metrics that we can work on displaying in each of our straws so that we can easily compare the results? I remember seeing one member who had a set of metrics for each company that they created a straw on and it was very easy to follow their thesis.

Looking forward to hear your responses!