One of the biggest traps of investing is the refrain "do your own due diligence" (DYODD). Frankly at its worst this can be a hollow and dangerous encouragement for inexperienced investors to take a cursory peak at the company's own propaganda -- news releases and investor presentations -- before plopping down good money on a bad speculation. Even worse is the false assurance that people can get by hearing it directly from the horse's mouth (talking to company management or its investor relations department). Actual, real due diligence starts by reading the company's financial statements and other regulatory disclosures (insider trading reports, technical reports, etc.). This can be hard and time-consuming. It requires you to know how to interpret financial and technical information. Sometimes though real due diligence is easy enough that just about anybody can do it, if they simply knew how. Since I'm a provocateur but also because I want to see markets be