Stocks Under Rocks: How to Uncover Overlooked, Profitable Market Opportunities

14. Crunching Numbers

Let’s face it, most of us learned math from a vampire made of felt on “Sesame Street” (you remember “The Count!”). Here’s where some basic stock market math comes in, and I’m going to stick with a bikini format—covering the essential parts with a minimum of material.

Heck, we’re the country that invented math anxiety. (They say most of us are using only 20 percent of our brain. Sometimes it makes me wonder what I am doing with the other 70 percent.) There are some numbers and calculations that are very helpful to the investor. The math isn’t complex, and most of the figures are readily available on the Internet on sites such as Yahoo! Finance.

There are several ways to value a stock, and I think that the best way to show ...