A YouTube channel · Est. 2026
Every public company has to tell the SEC, in writing, how it makes its money. Almost nobody reads it. We do. Each episode takes one company you know, reads years of its filings line by line, cent by cent, and follows the money until the business explains itself.
Exhibits A–B
The story a company tells in its ads and the one it tells its regulators are rarely the same story. Here is what the filings said about the first two companies we read.
Exhibit A · Costco
2¢of every dollar
Costco sold $297 billion of merchandise in fiscal 2026 and kept roughly two cents of every dollar. So how did it earn $9.2 billion? A $65 card, a supplier float most shoppers never see, and a business built so you never cancel.
Source: Costco 10-K annual reports, fiscal 2017–2026, and its Q4 FY2026 earnings call. Episode 001.
Exhibit B · Delta Air Lines
$8.2Bfrom one card partner
In 2025 Delta took in $63.4 billion and kept $5.8 billion as operating profit. That same year, American Express paid it $8.2 billion. That payment isn't profit, but since 2020 the cash Delta gets for selling miles has been larger than its operating income every single year.
Source: Delta Air Lines 10-K and 10-Q reports, 2017 to September 2026. Episode 002.
Season one · On file
Each episode runs about twenty minutes and answers one question you can only answer from the filings.
| No. | Company | The question | Release |
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Costco | How do you earn $9.2 billion while keeping two cents on the dollar? | Nov 12 |
| 002 | Delta Air Lines | How does an airline sell miles it hasn't flown, and why does it own an oil refinery? | Nov 19 |
| 003 | Live Nation | Follow the fee, the sponsor and the fans' money sitting on its balance sheet. | Nov 26 |
| 004 | McDonald's | Is it secretly a real estate company? We checked the claim against its own filings. | Dec 3 |
Release dates hold only if the numbers do.
Method
No insiders, no rumors, no hot takes. Just the documents a company signs, and the arithmetic.
Every number comes from the company's 10-K, its 10-Q or the company itself. When a figure is our own calculation, we say so.
Before an episode ships, an independent check recalculates its numbers against the filings.
Each video's description lists the filings behind it, so you can check our work.
Narration and some imagery are produced with AI; the research and the numbers are checked against primary sources.
Nothing on this channel is investment advice.
Tools
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