Securities and Exchange Commission

The US federal regulator of securities markets, set up in 1934. It enforces disclosure by listed companies, oversees exchanges, brokers and fund managers, and brings civil cases for fraud and insider trading.

Its rules produce the documents you'll read when you analyse a US company: the annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and the proxy statement before each annual meeting, all free on its EDGAR database. Foreign companies listed in the US usually file an annual report on Form 20-F instead, which is how Indian companies with American listings publish their accounts there.

Its comment letters to companies, also public, show where the regulator questioned a company's accounting, and the replies are often more candid than the annual report.

Read the comment letters too. They're public, so there's no reason to skip them.