炒股基礎：如何看懂一家公司的資產負債表

How many times have you flipped to the back of a company's annual report or 10-K and found yourself blankly staring at dozens, or even hundreds, of pages of numbers and tables?

你有多少次直接翻到一家公司的年終報告或10-K表格的最後，結果發現自己盯着幾十頁甚至幾百頁的數字和表格都懵了？

You know that these should be important to your investment decision, but you're not quite sure what they mean or where to begin.

你知道這些對你的投資決定很重要，卻不太懂這些都是什麼意思或者該從哪兒開始。

When you are looking at numbers like these, there's a good chance you are looking at a company's balance sheet. 

你看到這樣的數字時，很可能看到的是該公司的資產負債表。

What is a balance sheet? Why does it matter? Why are professional investors so obsessed with studying it, and even more importantly, how are they able to use that analysis to reduce their portfolio risk and make better, safer decisions when it comes to putting their own money to work?

什麼是資產負債表？它爲什麼重要？爲什麼專業投資人都如此癡迷於研究它呢？甚至更重要的是，他們怎麼能使用這些數據分析來減少投資風險，在把自己的錢投出去的時候能做出更好更安全的決策呢？

In this investing lesson, I'm going to help you answer some of those questions by teaching you the basics of balance sheet analysis.

今天這節投資課，我要教給你，用資產負債表分析的基礎知識來解答你這些疑問中的一部分。

Smart investors have always known that financial statements are among the keys to understanding a company.

聰明的投資人都知道財務報表是理解一家公司的關鍵之一。

The balance sheet, especially when reviewed in conjunction with the other accounting records and disclosures, can warn of many potential problems.

尤其是把資產負債表和其他會計記錄以及披露信息綜合在一起評估時，它才能給你一些潛在問題的警告。

When used correctly, it can help you determine what a business is really "worth."

如能正確使用，還能幫你確定一個投資產品是否真“值得”投。

By deciding that you are going to read this lesson, you have taken the first step on the road towards financial statement fluency.

你決定要上這一課就是朝着熟知財務報表邁出了第一步。

The Role of the Balance Sheet In the Financial Statements 

資產負債表在財務報表中的作用

For every business, there are three important financial statements you must examine:

對於每一個投資產品而言，都有三個你必須要看的重要的財務報表：

•The Balance Sheet - The balance sheet tells investors how much money a company or institution has (assets), how much it owes (liabilities), and what is left when you net the two together (net worth, book value, or shareholder equity).  In this lesson, we are going to learn to analyze a balance sheet.

•資產負債表——資產負債表告訴投資者一家公司或機構有多少錢（資產）、欠多少錢（負債）、二者加一起剩多少（淨值、賬面價值或股東權益）。這一課我們要學會分析資產負債表。

•The Income Statement - The income statement is a record of the company's profitability. It tells you how much money a corporation made (or lost).

•損益表——損益表記錄公司收益，告訴你公司賺（或虧）多少錢。

•The Cash Flow Statement - The cash flow statement is a record of the actual changes in cash compared to the income statement. It shows you where the cash was brought in and where the cash was disbursed.

•現金流量表——相比損益表，現金流量表記錄現金的實際變化，體現現金流入來源和去向。

Accounting is the language of business and these three financial statements, the balance sheet among them, are the report card. From the balance sheet, we can learn:

會計是一種商業語言，這三種財務報表包括其中的資產負債表是成績單。從資產負債表中我們能瞭解到：

•How much debt the business has relative to its equity

•相對於權益該產品有多少負債

•How quickly customers are paying their bills.

•客戶支付賬單的速度

•Whether short-term cash is declining or increasing.

•短期現金正在減少還是增加

•The percentage of assets that are tangible (factories, plants, machinery) and how much comes from accounting transactions.

•有形資產（工廠、車間、機器）比重以及有多少來自財務交易

•Whether products are being returned at higher-than-average historical rates.

•產品返廠率是否高於歷史平均比率。

•How many days it takes, on average, to sell the inventory the business keeps on hand.

•該公司賣出手裏的庫存平均要多少天。

•Whether the research and development budget is producing good results.

•產品研發預算是否花得其所

•Whether the interest coverage ratio on the bonds is declining.

•債券利息補償率是否在下降

•The average interest rate a company is paying on its debt.

•公司還債的平均利率

•Where profits are being spent or reinvested.

•賺得的利潤花在哪兒或重新投在哪兒

（翻譯：菲菲）