Scuttlebutt

Philip Fisher's method: learning about a company from the people around it rather than from its own disclosures. Competitors, former employees, suppliers and customers each know something the filings do not.

The questions that work are indirect. Asking a competitor which rival they most respect, or a former employee what the company is genuinely good at, produces more than asking either about the company directly.

The method's limits are legal and ethical rather than practical. Building a mosaic from many non-material pieces is legitimate; obtaining one material non-public fact is not.

Ask about the industry. The company appears in the answers.