Having established initial basic financial analyst's toolset in the first two weeks of this course, some caution is warranted as we turn our attention to some of the pitfalls associated with uncritical use of financial statements by analysts. Specifically, we highlight how the use of historical cost and accrual-based accounting might lead to sub-optimal corporate financial decision-making. We then discuss how the agency relationship between management and the owners of a company may also lead to poor corporate decision-making. We conclude with a cautionary tale of misleading accounting practices and the regulator's response to these cases.