Beneish, Lee and Tarpley (2000) represents one of a small, but growing number of studies that develop and test contextual fundamental analysis techniques. Such studies offer great promise for increasing our understanding of the role of accounting information in evaluating firm performance. However, these studies also introduce their own unique research design issues. In this paper, I discuss the opportunities and research design issues facing this new line of research, using Beneish, Lee and Tarpley to illustrate my points.