What is Testa Dura Research?

Calabrian Italian for hard-headed, durable, difficult to crack. A philosophy I try to follow when picking the companies I write about.

About

After reading a post about the importance of aspiring equity research associates posting their work online, I was inspired to start writing about public equities I’ve found conviction in.

The name Testa Dura comes from my family’s Calabrian heritage. In Calabrian Italian, testa dura means hard-headed. Calabrians are notoriously stubborn people to convince. The name came to me specifically because of my family and how difficult it was to convince them to start investing their own money after decades of letting it get eaten away by inflation.

This page won’t be about personal finance, though. It’s dedicated to my thoughts, write-ups, and independent equity research on stocks I’ve personally dug into.

The main purpose of this publication is to showcase my thought process and growing collection of stock pitches, both good and bad. My hope is that readers come away with a sense of my passion for equity research and my aspirations in this industry, along with a firsthand look at how my ability to formulate investment theses has evolved since I started as a finance student in Canada.

You’ll find everything from early write-ups to detailed pitches I’ve done through university investment clubs, primarily in healthcare and financials, alongside my own independent research. Some pieces will be long, some will be short, depending on how deep the conviction runs.