romdistortionandnoise.pletely,in-vestors“discount”afirm’ountingperformance.Indoingso,theymakeaprobabilisticassessmentoftheextenttowhichafirm’sreportednumbersreflecteconomicreality.Asaresult,investorscanhaveonlyanimpreciseassessmentofanindividualfirm’sperformance.Financialandinformationintermediariescanaddvaluebyimprovinginves-tors’understandingofafirm’scurrentperformanceanditsfutureprospects.Effectivefinancialstatementanalysisisvaluablebecauseitattemptstogetatmanagers’insideinformationfrompublicfinancialstatementdata.esstothisinformation,theyrelyontheirknowledgeofthefirm’petitivestrategiestointerpretfinancialstatements.essfulintermediarieshaveatleastasgoodanunderstandingoftheindustryeconomicsasdothefirm’smanagers,andareasonablygoodunderstandingofthefirm’scompetitivestrategy.Althoughoutside