There is an illuminating illustration of the time cost of research in the soon-to-be published book 'The Smart Money Method' written by Steve Clapham, a former top hedge fund analyst and founder of training and research firm Behind the Balance Sheet. Mr Clapham puts the hours needed to really get to know a company at about 100 plus. He then breaks down the hours a professional analyst needs to monitor routine announcements during a year, getting to a total of 16 for European stocks (eight for the annual report, four hours for interim results, and two trading updates requiring two hours each).
