Reading financial statements can be tricky business if you’re just getting started in the investing game. But if you invest based on company fundamentals, knowing how to navigate an income statement, balance sheet, or statement of cash flows is absolutely essential.

That’s why I wrote a series on getting started with financial statements for TheStreet.com a while back… here they are:

Getting Started: The Income Statement -

First of all, the question should probably be “What is income?” For a company, as with an individual, net income is “take-home” pay. That means it’s the money that a company records as profit at the end of “the day.” The income statement is the financial statement that’s used to get to that oh-so-important number.

Getting Started: The Balance Sheet -

Simply put, the balance sheet is one of the most important financial documents you can use to evaluate a company’s fundamentals (“Getting Started: Fundamental Analysis”). As one of the principal corporate financial statements, the balance sheet’s job is to essentially tell investors where a company stands financially.

The balance sheet consists of two main sections: first, assets (usually presented on the left) and second, liabilities and shareholders’ equity (usually presented on the right).

Getting Started: The Statement of Cash Flows -

Cash is the lifeblood of most companies, and many a company has crumbled from a lack of it. Why is it then that the statement of cash flows is probably the least understood of the big three financial statements? It’s time to get in the know about cash flow.

A new article in Investor’s Business Daily quotes me and mentions the Rhino Stock Report when talking about share buyback programs. Here’s a small bit of it -

Companies normally jump at the chance to repurchase shares they see as undervalued. But the wretched economy makes for much-tougher choices, says Jonas Elmerraji, editor of the Rhino Stock Report, a monthly investment newsletter.

“Clearly the biggest downside is letting go of your cash,” he said. “Right now, cash is king. If companies part with liquidity on their balance sheet, they could be put in a very precarious position.”

Ultimately, I think that share buyback programs can be effective for companies looking to increase their share price, but they’re not an end all be all. True, I’ll definitely mention a material share buyback when a company I like has an initiative in place, but the chances of a buyback alone changing my tune on a stock are pretty much nill.

Seeing a flaky company stage a buyback when they don’t have a mountain of cash to sit on is a bad idea in this environment, and it’s actually one situation where I’d say a buyback program can hurt a company’s share price.

What do you think about buyback programs? Feel free to hit up our new comments on our sprarkly new website.

Note: To get the report 10 Companies that Will Thrive in 2009, sign up here for our FREE BETA!

Ran across this interesting article on Yahoo Finance – The 15 Companies that Might Not Survive 2009.

So, who do they think will hit the chopping block in the next 10 months? The list includes companies like troubled automaker Chrysler as well as Trump Entertainment Resorts (TRMP) and Six Flags (SIX). One company that I sincerely hope won’t go bust is Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI). Says the article:

The music rocks, but satellite radio has yet to be profitable, and huge contracts for performers like Howard Stern are looking unsustainable. Sirius is one of two satellite-radio services owned by parent company Sirius XM, which was formed when Sirius and XM merged last year. So far, the merger hasn’t generated the savings needed to make the company profitable, and Moody’s thinks there’s a “high likelihood” that Sirius will fail to repay or refinance its debt in 2009. One outcome could be a takeover, at distressed prices, by other firms active in the satellite business.

The music certainly does rock, and I’m not about to give it up just yet. Are there any other companies you think won’t make it through 2009? Light up the comments…

P.S. Interested in 10 Companies that will thrive in 2009? Join our FREE BETA and you’ll get that special report when I release it next month! Sign up here…

Why is it that even the most technologically advanced phone in the world doesn’t have an investing app worth using?

We’re increasingly becoming a wire-free society. Since the Blackberry became a cult phenomenon in the early 2000s, business-class mobile applications have been coming out in a big way. After all, you can get your Bloomberg terminal ported over to your Blackberry these days. You can even make trades from your Blackberry. For better or worse enterprise-level business software helps busy professionals stay connected when they’re not at the office.

Here’s the problem – I traded in my Blackberry a year and a half ago for an iPhone, and until now I haven’t looked back. But when you’re responsible for keeping an eye on a portfolio of stocks for a couple hundred BETA subscribers, it becomes helpful to have a half-decent investment platform on the iPhone. The problem is that it doesn’t exist right now.

If you’re after stock information on the iPhone and the standard “Stocks” program just won’t cut it, the stable of Apps available today consist of:

1. Bloomberg – free, but doesn’t do a whole lot beyond delayed stock quotes and news. Certainly not the same as the Bloomberg Anywhere service you can get on your Blackberry.
2. StockWatch – a portfolio tracker for the iPhone. Like Bloomberg, limited feature set.
3. StockCharts – while I was initially excited at the prospect of interactive stock charts for the iPhone, reviews suggest that the timeframe is locked in at 1 year. Great.
4. TickerPicker Lite – this (and its full featured cousin) offer the technicians a possible (but not yet passable?) solution for the iPhone. In addition to advanced charting features, this one offers real time quotes.

Notably left off this list are the premium Apps that offer real-time quotes for a small fee… right, because I wouldn’t just go to Google Finance, Yahoo! Finance, or one of the other free sites that have real-time data now. Unbelievable.

If you’re an iPhone developer and want to make a halfway decent investing utility for anyone who needs a feature set beyond what’s available now, consider including portfolio monitoring, news, level II quotes, and halfway decent charts. Yes, it’s easy to throw together a crappy iPhone App and sell it for a couple bucks if you know what you’re doing. If you spend the time to make a good one, you might actually build a following and make some money too.