· Quite a few classes of companies are in industries subject to regulation by public agencies and are required to file financial statements with them which are open to public inspection. Most of these reports are considerably more elaborate than the average published statement (SEC). These include railroads, public utilities, banks and insurance companies.
· Some important information still not generally available like explanation of important differences between the income reports and that on which income tax was computed and present insured or appraised value of the fixed assets.
· Trade journals provide a detailed picture of the current and prospective state of the industry. Thus it is usually possible for the analyst to acquire without undue difficulty a background of fairly complete knowledge of the history and problems of the industry.