Imagine two lemonade stands across the street from each other. Both are listed at $1,000. Stand A nets $200 a year and runs itself; Stand B nets $20 a year and the owner works weekends to keep it alive. The price tag is identical. The value isn't. Public stocks work the same way — only the lemonade stands are large businesses, and the gap can be hidden behind glossy logos and chart patterns. Valuation is the discipline of ignoring the price tag long enough to ask what the cash actually justifies.

“Two stocks at the same price almost never represent the same deal. The whole game is figuring out which one you're really being offered.”