This is a courtesy translation. In case of doubt, the German version applies.
This page states what Inside Stocks is, what it is not, and where the method reaches its limits. It carries the disclosures that belong with an investment recommendation. Knowing the limits is what makes the rest trustworthy.
Inside Stocks grades companies by fixed, published rules and states where today's price sits within the company's own historical valuation band. Such an opinion on the present value of a security is an investment recommendation within the meaning of Article 3(1)(35) of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014. We say so explicitly rather than denying it, and we comply with the disclosures this entails.
Not investment advice. Investment advice requires a personal recommendation based on an examination of personal circumstances, or presented as suitable for the investor. Neither happens here: we know neither your financial situation nor your goals, your experience or your risk tolerance, and we do not ask. All content is public and identical for everyone. No licence under German securities or banking law is required for this.
No price forecast and no price target. We do not say where a price is going. There are no target prices, no dates and no probabilities for future price movements.
No personal selection. There is no recommendation list, no selection tailored to your input and no indication of what fits a portfolio.
Responsible for the rule set, the analysis and the presentation is Florian Maier, owner of Scale Smart, management consultant, Executive MBA, TU München und Tsinghua. Name and role also appear on every individual analysis. Address and contact details are in the imprint.
Status of the notification under § 86(1) of the German Securities Trading Act: Inside Stocks is in a closed test and is not publicly available. The activity will be notified to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) under section 86 (1) WpHG before it becomes publicly available.
Every analysis states the time at which it was completed and the date of the price it refers to. Both appear on the company page itself, not only here. Key figures additionally carry the date of the annual report they come from, not the date they were retrieved.
The quality grades describe a state that can change with every new annual report, so roughly quarterly. The historical analysis behind the classification is computed over a 36-month window. For shorter periods the method says nothing: a company with a high quality sum can trail the market tomorrow, next week and over a year. If you think in weeks, this is the wrong place.
Grades come from fixed thresholds applied to reported figures. Move the thresholds and you get different grades. The main assumptions and their effect:
If a grade changes compared with the previous analysis of the same company, that is shown on the analysis, with the reason. For every company, the list of all analyses from the past twelve months is permanently and freely accessible and linked from each company page. If a rule changes, the method version gets a new number, and older analyses remain readable under their old number. Nothing is quietly revised.
The producer invests his own money in shares, including in companies graded here, and buys and sells on an ongoing basis. Individual positions are not disclosed. The result follows fixed, published rules with no discretion: the same figures produce the same grade, regardless of who computes it and what they own.
Inside Stocks receives no payments, benefits in kind or other advantages from the companies it grades, from issuers, brokers or asset managers. There is no advertising, no paid placement and no referral commission. Revenue comes solely from user subscriptions.
Securities can lose value, up to the complete loss of the money invested. Historical analysis, including a test computed over many years, says nothing about future prices. A result observed in the past may rest on chance or on market conditions that do not recur. Price and company data can be delayed, incomplete or wrong. Anyone buying securities should commit only money whose loss they can bear, and in case of doubt seek advice from someone who knows their personal circumstances.
For every analysis the full derivation is stored: input values, source, threshold, method version and time. At the request of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority we disclose the basis of an analysis.