The Microcap Minute Classroom. Module 7, chapter 6: Building your own watch habit: fifteen minutes a week <div class="learn" markdown="1"> **What you will learn** - A simple 15-minute weekly routine that needs no money - Why a small watch list beats a big one - How to keep a notebook that actually teaches you - The rules that keep the habit honest </div> You do not need to follow the market ball by ball. Think of this like checking cricket scores once a week, or keeping a pocket-money diary: five calm minutes of noting things down teaches you more than hours of worrying. Here is a routine small enough to survive even exam season. ## The weekly fifteen minutes Pick one fixed time. Sunday evening works well. **First five minutes: the tracker feed.** Open the Smart Investor Tracker and scan the newest items. Anything from the funds, activists, or insiders you have learned about in this module? **Second five minutes: EDGAR.** Open EDGAR's full-text search and type the names of your companies, one at a time, newest filings first. You are only checking: did anything new appear? This simple search box is your second five minutes each week. **Last five minutes: your notebook.** Write the date, what changed, and one question for next week. Three lines. That is all. And if nothing changed, write "nothing new". A quiet week is also an answer, and writing it down keeps the habit alive. ## The rules that make it work **Keep the list small.** Five to ten companies you genuinely understand. Maybe Apple, because you know the iPhone, or Microsoft, because you have used Windows, or Coca-Cola, because you can explain its business in one sentence. A small list you actually read beats a long list you skim. **Source first.** Summaries anywhere on the internet come second. The filing comes first. **Remember the calendar.** A 13F you read today is up to 45 days old. A Form 4 is two days fresh. A new 13D means a story is starting. Freshness changes what a filing means. **One signal never decides anything.** An insider buy, plus a fund adding, plus a business you understand is still only the start of research, not the end. And this habit is for learning. If real money is ever involved, that is a separate, slower decision, made with grown-ups and far more homework. ## A worked example: one Sunday Your notebook might read: "12 May. Apple: a famous fund trimmed its position (13F, so 45 days old). New Apple 8-K on EDGAR, skimmed it. Question: did the fund trim again next quarter?" That entry took minutes. But after three months of Sundays, your notebook shows patterns no single filing can: the same fund trimming twice, an insider buying again. Once a month, reread your old entries before you write a new one. That is when the habit starts paying you back in understanding. The tracker's reports page is good Sunday reading when you have three extra minutes. <div class="try" markdown="1"> **Try it yourself** Do the full routine today, not someday. Tracker feed, five minutes. EDGAR search for one company, five minutes. Then your first notebook entry with today's date, five minutes. Set a reminder for the same time next week. The habit only counts if it repeats. </div> <div class="takeaways" markdown="1"> **Key takeaways** - Fifteen minutes a week, at a fixed time, beats two hours once in a while. - Watch five to ten companies you understand. Ignore the rest. - Notebook rule: date, what changed, one question. - Signals only start research; they never finish it. </div> **Read one real thing:** [Apple's filing list on EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000320193). Notice how many different form types one company produces in a single year.. I am Ritu, a synthetic voice, and the words I am reading are Ayush Agrawal's.

# Building your own watch habit: fifteen minutes a week <div class="learn" markdown="1"> **What you will learn** - A simple 15-minute weekly routine that needs no money - Why a small watch list beats a big one - How to keep a notebook that actually teaches you - The rules that keep the habit honest </div> You do not need to follow the market ball by ball. Think of this like checking cricket scores once a week, or keeping a pocket-money diary: five calm minutes of noting things down teaches you more than hours of worrying. Here is a routine small enough to survive even exam season. ## The weekly fifteen minutes Pick one fixed time. Sunday evening works well. **First five minutes: the tracker feed.** Open the Smart Investor Tracker and scan the newest items. Anything from the funds, activists, or insiders you have learned about in this module? **Second five minutes: EDGAR.** Open EDGAR's full-text search and type the names of your companies, one at a time, newest filings first. You are only checking: did anything new appear? This simple search box is your second five minutes each week. **Last five minutes: your notebook.** Write the date, what changed, and one question for next week. Three lines. That is all. And if nothing changed, write "nothing new". A quiet week is also an answer, and writing it down keeps the habit alive. ## The rules that make it work **Keep the list small.** Five to ten companies you genuinely understand. Maybe Apple, because you know the iPhone, or Microsoft, because you have used Windows, or Coca-Cola, because you can explain its business in one sentence. A small list you actually read beats a long list you skim. **Source first.** Summaries anywhere on the internet come second. The filing comes first. **Remember the calendar.** A 13F you read today is up to 45 days old. A Form 4 is two days fresh. A new 13D means a story is starting. Freshness changes what a filing means. **One signal never decides anything.** An insider buy, plus a fund adding, plus a business you understand is still only the start of research, not the end. And this habit is for learning. If real money is ever involved, that is a separate, slower decision, made with grown-ups and far more homework. ## A worked example: one Sunday Your notebook might read: "12 May. Apple: a famous fund trimmed its position (13F, so 45 days old). New Apple 8-K on EDGAR, skimmed it. Question: did the fund trim again next quarter?" That entry took minutes. But after three months of Sundays, your notebook shows patterns no single filing can: the same fund trimming twice, an insider buying again. Once a month, reread your old entries before you write a new one. That is when the habit starts paying you back in understanding. The tracker's reports page is good Sunday reading when you have three extra minutes. <div class="try" markdown="1"> **Try it yourself** Do the full routine today, not someday. Tracker feed, five minutes. EDGAR search for one company, five minutes. Then your first notebook entry with today's date, five minutes. Set a reminder for the same time next week. The habit only counts if it repeats. </div> <div class="takeaways" markdown="1"> **Key takeaways** - Fifteen minutes a week, at a fixed time, beats two hours once in a while. - Watch five to ten companies you understand. Ignore the rest. - Notebook rule: date, what changed, one question. - Signals only start research; they never finish it. </div> **Read one real thing:** [Apple's filing list on EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000320193). Notice how many different form types one company produces in a single year.

That was chapter 6 of module 7. The text, the pictures and the exercise are on the lesson page. Thank you for listening.