Hi Dan,

It's nice to read that my advice has been useful for you!

Regarding Zack's...I don't specifically endorse Zack's, but what I do endorse is using their research reports as a useful first blush at what a research report looks like. Regarding 'reasonableness'...that is a natural inclination when you are first starting off creating your own research reports. However, to my mind it is a two-edged sword and one that should be drawn from its scabbard carefully. Why? On the positive side, you can use another's research report as a measure of reasonableness as you suggest. This helps ensure that your views are grounded and not crazy. However, on the negative side of things, relying on another source as a check on your own thinking can lead to a highly detrimental dependency. Namely, that you come to rely on the opinions of others to inform your own. I consider this to be one of the deadly sins of Wall Street. Most important is for you to develop tools in accord with how your mind works. Markets themselves provide amazing feedback for whether or not you are discounting reality accurately. So my advice would be to barely utilize others' research as a check on your own. I would barely glance at it.

If you are looking for a way of measuring your investment success take a look at this post I wrote: http://blogs.stage.cfainstitute.org/investor/2014/05/26/how-to-measure-… There is advice here that you can use to improve your performance.

Hope that helps!

Jason