I never took an accounting class in college or grad school. I suppose it would’ve been helpful. But, of course, I didn’t know then that I would be looking at earnings reports frequently in my career as a financial journalist. I have learned in the last decade that it is, however, possible to teach yourself what to look for in a company’s earnings release. And, if I don’t know, I ask someone who does. This week’s series, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Earnings,” is designed as a tutorial for investors about corporate profits. But, in the process of doing the series I also discovered a wealth of information out there that can help retail investors do their own investment research.

Thanks to Regulation Fair Disclosure (commonly known as Reg FD), implemented by the SEC in 2000, all investors, not just professional ones, now have access to material information about public companies. That means you as an individual investor can get the SAME earnings information about a stock you own or might be thinking about buying as Wall Street analysts have available to them. And, thanks to the internet, you can access a company’s quarterly earning release on the day it reports or any time you might feel like doing so. You can also listen to the SAME earnings conference call that the analysts are listening to. Just go to the company website and find out how. In most cases it’s really very easy.

Of course, you can still rely on a broker to disseminate the information to you. But, if you want to go directly to the source, you can. The burden is simply on you to do so.