stock-balance-sheet-review

# Stock Balance Sheet Review ## Purpose Read the balance sheet for survivability. Most retail investors ignore the balance sheet until a recession exposes the leverage they didn't price in. Surface leverage and liquidity risks, goodwill bombs from past M&A, working-capital deterioration that signals customer-credit pressure, and off-balance-sheet hooks that compound in stress. Output a structured Findings set with quantitative thresholds. ## When To Use - Orchestrator dispatches balance-sheet review (always-on in Standard / Strict depth). - User asks "is <ticker> financially safe", "what's the debt situation", "can <ticker> survive a recession". ## When NOT To Use - Earnings quality / cash flow → `stock-earnings-quality-review` - Business model → `stock-business-review` - Capital allocation history → `stock-management-review` - Competitive position → `stock-industry-review` ## Mandatory Gates ### 1) Execution Integrity Gate Read the balance sheet from the most recent 10-Q (more recent than 10-K). If only 10-K is available, note the date staleness in Execution Status. ### 2) Industry-Norm Gate Leverage tolerable for a utility is catastrophic for SaaS. Identify sector before applying thresholds. Default thresholds below are general; flag if your sector materially shifts them. ### 3) Off-Balance-Sheet Gate Read the "Commitments and Contingencies" footnote in every review. Operating leases were brought on-balance-sheet by ASC 842 (2019), but contingent liabilities, guar...