How Do You Understand Stock Market Business Balance Sheets?
Unlike the income statement, a balance sheet is a snapshot of all the assets of a company. It also shows how those assets were purchased: via liabilities or stockholder’s equity. While all companies are different, the balance sheet, as created by the Securities and Exchange Commission, requires the same amount of information, regardless of the industry or business. Pull up the balance sheet of E-Trade Securities. See Resources for a link to the balance sheet provided by Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo! Finance is rated No. 1 in popularity by Alexa.com as measured by number of visitors. Start with the assets. This is always the first section of any balance sheet. Assets are split between current assets and long-term assets. Current assets are those assets held by the company for less than one year and are ordered in terms of liquidity. Cash or marketable securities are always considered short-term assets. Scroll down to liabilities. Liabilities are also lumped in terms of short- and long-term sec
