90% of my portfolio is built from Fool recommendations. Over the years, after following their recs for so long, my knowledge a d understanding of the companies I own has taken on a life of its own. So I now know what I’m looking for when the have release EOY results and quarterly results. I’ve followed the Fool for over 20 years now. The key is, read the research and check out the message boards. There are true nerds on there who can read financials like nobody’s business. Even more important than that are the ideas to get you started, TMF has done a great job of identifying trends and visionary leadership and that’s the most important piece of the long term buy and hold method (that and never selling, with a few exceptions).