Anatomy of a note

What actually arrives.

Section by section, the shape of a completed initiation note and which step of the run produced each part. Page ranges are typical — a note runs 40 to 50 pages depending on how much of a business there is to explain.

pp. 1

Summary and recommendation

Rating, price target, the implied return, and the thesis in three paragraphs. Written so a portfolio manager who reads only this page has the argument.

Step 5, drawing on 1 and 3
pp. 2–4

Investment thesis

The two or three things that have to be true, each stated as a claim with the evidence under it and the observable that would falsify it.

Step 1
pp. 5–12

Business and market

What the company sells, to whom, at what margin, and against whom. Segment economics, the addressable market, market share and where it is moving.

Step 1
pp. 13–20

Financial analysis

Five years of history rebuilt from filings: growth, margin bridges, returns on capital, working-capital behavior, the debt schedule and covenant headroom.

Step 2
pp. 21–28

Projections

Six years forward on named drivers, each one traceable to something in the business section rather than to a growth rate typed into a cell.

Step 2
pp. 29–36

Valuation

DCF with the WACC build shown, trading comps, precedent transactions, a football field, and a two-way sensitivity grid on the assumptions that actually move the answer.

Step 3
pp. 37–41

Risks and the bear case

The bear case argued properly rather than listed — written as its own advocate would write it, then answered.

Steps 1 and 3
pp. 42–45

Appendix

Full model output as tables, the exhibit index, and the source list with a link against every figure that came from outside the model.

Steps 2 and 4
The files

You get the working files, not just the PDF.

The model is the point. A note you cannot interrogate is a note you have to take on faith, so the spreadsheet arrives with its formulas live and its assumptions in labeled cells — with a client-ready note, and with every note on a coverage plan.

PDF
Initiation_Report.pdf

The note itself. 40–50 pages, every exhibit embedded at print resolution, internal links resolving.

XLSX
Financial_Model.xlsx

Sixteen tabs of live formulas — not pasted values. Change a driver and the valuation moves. Included from the client-ready licence up.

PNG
chart_01…34.png

Every exhibit as a separate 300 DPI file, generated from the model, ready to drop into your own deck.

MD
Research_Document.md

The underlying research with its citations intact, if you want to check the work or build on it.

Pick a name and see it for yourself.

A run takes about five hours and costs $29. You will know inside the first ten pages whether it is worth the next one.

Start a run →