The VI Stack curriculum

Worked example: Visa Inc. — run through all five gates

In March 2020, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell to 0.

Worked example: ARK Innovation ETF — 2021–2023 repricing: 10Y yield 0.5% → 4.2% drove a 75% drawdown without earnings collapse; pure duration shock

In October 2008, the spread between investment-grade corporate bonds and US Treasury yields reached 620 basis points, the widest since the Great Depression.

Worked example: US credit spreads — 2022 cycle: IG peaked 170bps / HY peaked 590bps despite the fastest Fed tightening in 40 years; spreads correctly signalled "repricing, not credit crisis"

When Wells Fargo's net interest margin compressed from 5.

Worked example: Silicon Valley Bank — March 2023

In 2022, the fastest Federal Reserve hiking cycle in 40 years compressed the S&P 500 P/E ratio from roughly 24x to 17x, not because earnings fell, but because the discount rate applied to future earnings normalized from near zero to 4%-plus, and valuations built on ZIRP-era...

Worked example: Zoom Video Communications — the 2022 discount rate collapse

General Mills' gross margin fell from 35.

Worked example: General Mills vs. Colgate-Palmolive — the 2021–2023 pricing power gap

Macro 04: Knowledge Centre

Worked example: US energy sector — the HY blow-out of 2015–16

When you buy shares in a company that earns revenue in a foreign currency, you are making two investments at once: one in the business, and one in the exchange rate. Most investors only research one of them.

Worked example: 🏷️ Procter & Gamble — 2014–2015

Between June 2014 and January 2016, the oil price fell from $115 to $28 per barrel.

Worked example: Delta Air Lines — the 2014–2016 oil crash

In 2007, with the Baltic Dry Index averaging 7,070 points for the year and briefly touching 11,793 in May 2008 (its highest level in recorded history), dry bulk shipowners placed orders for new vessels at a pace that would add more than 50% to the existing global fleet.

Worked example: Dry bulk shipping — 2004–2016

In March 2022, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, the first increase since December 2018.

Worked example: S&P 500 — 2022 hiking cycle: Fed Funds 0.25% → 5.50% in 16 months, long-duration tech multiples compressed 75–80% as discount rates repriced

Between 1999 and 2002, the US economy went through a recession triggered by the collapse of the technology bubble.

Worked example: The COVID cycle — 2020–2023

In January 2000, the S&P 500 traded at 32 times trailing earnings.

Worked example: Microsoft — 2013–2019

In November 2006, a private equity consortium paid $44 billion to take Clear Channel Communications private.

Worked example: Anheuser-Busch InBev — 2016

In 1998, Enron reported net income of $703 million.

Worked example: Apple — 2013–2023

In March 2009, Bank of America traded at $3.

Worked example: Berkshire Hathaway — 1965–2023

In January 1972, Blue Chip Stamps proposed paying $25 million for See's Candies, a California chocolate business with $4.

Worked example: Coca-Cola — 1988–2023

In 1986, two American steel producers faced identical industry conditions: falling domestic demand, intensifying competition from low-cost foreign producers, and steel prices that made profitable operation nearly impossible except at the top of the cycle.

Worked example: Five moat types — five companies, one decade

In the summer of 2011, Coca-Cola raised the price of a case of Coke by approximately 4% across its primary North American markets.

Worked example: Three businesses — one test

Between 1990 and 2010, two American retailers grew their store counts by roughly the same magnitude.

Worked example: ROIC decomposition — two software businesses

In the summer of 2022, two consumer staples companies faced the same macroeconomic environment: raw material costs surging, logistics costs elevated, and consumers under pressure from 9% CPI inflation.

Worked example: Gross margin decomposition: three businesses under pressure — 2021–2023

In 1988, two large American industrial companies each generated roughly $800 million in free cash flow.

Worked example: Capital allocation across four decades — two industrial conglomerates

In 2002, Amazon reported its fourth consecutive year of net losses.

Worked example: Amazon — when GAAP losses hid a cash machine (2001–2006)

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the largest in US history at the time, triggering the most acute phase of the global financial crisis.

Worked example: Lehman Brothers — leverage visible in the balance sheet (2004–2008)

On June 18, 2020, Wirecard AG (a German payment processor included in the DAX 30 index) announced that €1.

Worked example: Four red flag patterns — four cases

On February 19, 2020, the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high.

Every year, DALBAR publishes a study that has produced the same uncomfortable finding for three decades.

Worked example: The same fund — different investors

In 1988, a research analyst at a major brokerage firm published a 50-page report concluding that Enron's financial structure was sound, its earnings growth sustainable, and its stock undervalued.