ou will start a course that introduces what financial information firms provide to investors, how it is prepared and what signals it may convey to the investors. But before we dive into the corporate world, let's step out for a second and think about financial reporting from investors' perspective. Have you made investment decisions such as buying, holding, or selling a company's stocks before? What influenced your decision? What do you want to tell firms' manager to provide to you when you need information to assist you make an informed decision? Reliable information? Timely information? What is the most important message you are looking for when reading a company's financial report? Do you have doubts when reading the information provided, meaning do you trust the numbers you read? Do you care about managers' forecast about the firm's future (such as cash flows, growth, risk environment, challenges). Have you ever had different opinions on firm growth, industry growth, and economy growth from those estimated by the managers? What can you do if there are differences in the projections of the firm's future? If you have not made an investment decision ever, think about those questions as if you were about to make an investment.