The Market Fortress Papers, No. 2. Groundedness

Every number shown with the document behind it. The standard of a record you can check rather than believe.

Ask anyone at a public company where a number in their last filing came from. The figure is almost always correct. The answer to the question is almost never immediate. Someone recalls pulling it from a schedule, which came from a report, which someone else prepared. The document that establishes the figure usually exists. What does not exist is a durable link between the figure and that document. This paper describes what an unproven number costs a company, the standard Market Fortress holds in its place, what that standard guarantees in terms specific enough to be tested, and what it cannot do.