Company & sector research
Initiating-coverage notes, position memos, industry maps, thesis updates, and competing cases grounded in filings and direct sources.
Open an actual example →Prospective student contributor program
Good work gets better when someone else can challenge it.
AEA Fellows is the framework for eventually opening this site to other students—to build models, investigate companies, cover market news, write newsletters, publish opinions, and explain finance without hiding behind finance vocabulary.
The honest status: this is the program design, not a claim that a cohort already exists. I have not selected fellows or opened applications yet. I am publishing the standards first so the opportunity has a real shape before it has a roster.
Why build this
From one student’s journal to a student research table.
AEA started as a way for me to make my own decisions visible. The next version should add something I cannot create alone: disagreement before publication, specialties beyond my own, and work useful to readers who do not arrive speaking markets.
The goal is not to imitate a bank or pretend students are already professionals. It is to practice professional habits early—clear questions, defensible sources, honest uncertainty, respectful debate, and revisions that remain on the record.
Seven publishing desks
Different work. One visible standard.
A fellow would choose a lane, own a specific deliverable, and work with an editor or peer challenger before it reaches the site.
Three-statement models
Income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow forecasts connected by clear assumptions, with DCF, multiples, and scenarios where they actually help.
Open an actual model →Markets & earnings desk
Same-day news briefs and earnings reactions that separate what happened, why it matters, and what remains unknown.
Open an actual example →Opinion & long-form writing
Evidence-led arguments on businesses, policy, technology, ethics, or markets—with the strongest counterargument included, not buried.
Open an actual example →Newsletter & journal
Weekly and monthly writing that connects the individual stories, decisions, and lessons without turning every market move into a grand theory.
Open an actual example →Methods & research tools
Screeners, calculators, datasets, visualizations, and methodology notes that let a reader test a claim instead of simply trusting it.
Open an actual example →Financial-literacy explainers
Plain-language guides on banking, credit, borrowing, saving, investing, and halal finance—built around questions people actually ask.
Open an actual example →The publication route
Six gates between an idea and a byline.
- 01Pitch
State the question, why it matters, and what evidence could change the answer.
- 02Source
Build from filings, data, direct documents, and clearly labeled secondary reporting.
- 03Build
Draft the article or model with assumptions and missing information visible.
- 04Challenge
Give a peer the job of finding the weak link, not just fixing commas.
- 05Publish
Add a byline, date, sources, disclosures, and the limits of the conclusion.
- 06Revise
Update the record when facts change. The original reasoning does not disappear.
Editorial standard
What earns the AEA byline.
A polished conclusion is not enough. The work has to show how it got there and where it could be wrong.
Read the full Research Standards →- 01
Source before story. Link the evidence and distinguish reported fact from interpretation.
- 02
Countercase before confidence. Address the strongest serious objection.
- 03
Assumptions in daylight. Models show inputs, scenarios, and what drives the result.
- 04
Disclose tools and interests. Holdings, conflicts, data limits, and meaningful AI assistance belong beside the work.
- 05
Revision without erasure. Corrections are dated and the reason for the change stays visible.
- 06
No stock-pick theater. AEA Fellows would publish educational research, never solicit clients, capital, or trades.
Credit & ownership
Your work should still look like yours.
Each contributor would receive a named byline and retain credit for the thinking, writing, and model they produced. Editing should sharpen an author’s voice, not sand it into AEA house language. I would remain responsible for the site’s publishing standard and final editorial decisions.
Current statusBuilding the table before filling the seats.
Applications are not open yet. The next step is to test the workflow, prepare contributor templates, and decide how the first students can be supported well enough to make the experience worth joining.
See the kind of work Fellows would build on →