How the scores work

Every tool on this site runs the same engine. A ticker goes in; live data comes back (prices and volumes, financial statements and analyst estimates via Yahoo Finance, search interest via Google Trends, headlines via Yahoo/NewsAPI, chatter via StockTwits); and the same value-investing framework runs every time.

The Value Score (0–100)

One number summarising measures of business quality, valuation against intrinsic value, market psychology, market attention, and durability of competitive advantage, weighted so no one factor can dominate the result. The number is shown without signal labels or recommendations - a description of the underlying calculations, not investment advice. Where no intrinsic value could be computed, that is stated plainly and the affected values are marked.

Deep Dive’s Value Score includes today’s live market attention (search interest, news, social chatter). Scanner and Top 200 use the same formula without it, since a live reading for every company on those pages isn’t practical - Deep Dive shows that figure too, directly beneath its own score, so the two can be compared.

Moat Score (0–100)

A separate read on how likely the business is to stay as good as it looks today, not just how good it is right now. It’s also folded into the Value Score above. Above 70 = Strong moat, 40–70 = Moderate moat, 40 and below = Weak/no moat.

Intrinsic value

The primary model is a discounted cash flow built from the company’s own reported free cash flows, benchmarked against today’s price to estimate a fair value. Where a full DCF isn’t possible, a simpler estimate is used instead and labelled as such. For a bank or insurer, operating cash flow includes premium/float/deposit flows that aren’t shareholder cash, so the model substitutes net income instead - labelled Financials mode wherever it applies.

A stock trading meaningfully below intrinsic value is labelled UNDERVALUED; meaningfully above, EXPENSIVE; between, FAIR.

What the price implies (reverse DCF)

Alongside the standard DCF above, the Deep Dive page also runs it in reverse: it solves for the growth rate that would make the model’s fair value equal today’s price. That figure - the implied growth rate - describes what the market is currently pricing in, shown alongside the growth rate the model itself assumed, so the two can be compared directly.

This is a calculation from stated inputs, not a forecast: it says nothing about whether the implied growth rate is realistic, only what it is. Where the base free cash flow rests on an estimate, this figure carries the same red-flag note as the Intrinsic Value it’s derived from.

Psychology and discovery readings

Alongside the valuation models, the site reports what the crowd has been doing: distance below the 3-month high (fear), distance from the 50-day average and greed/ FOMO terms, and a discovery reading built from volume, search interest, news and social chatter. These are measurements, stated as numbers - the site does not display entry levels, targets or trade verdicts.

The red-flag rule

Whenever a number rests on a default or average because real data wasn’t available, it’s shown in red. An estimate is never dressed up as a fact - you always know which numbers are computed and which are assumed.

Rational Compounder Research

The Research section is different: it isn’t computed at all. It’s the author’s own hand-built workbook analysis of selected quality compounders - a decade of earnings history, four independent fair-value methods (trailing P/E, forward P/E, DCF, and a 10-year equity method), and written Buffett/Munger-style judgment on management, moat and risk. Every threshold and colour band on those pages comes from the original research, not a generic screen. Forward P/E applies the median of the last five fiscal years’ P/E ratios rather than today’s, so a short-term de-rating or spike doesn’t carry straight into a five-year forecast. The 10-year equity method grows book value at the lowest of three rates - its own historical growth, ROE times retained earnings, or the DCF’s earnings growth plus 10 points - so a high-ROE retainer’s book value isn’t held down to an earnings-sized ceiling.

Limitations, honestly

Data is sourced from free public feeds and can be delayed, revised or occasionally wrong. Intrinsic value is an estimate resting on assumptions - reasonable assumptions, shown openly, but assumptions. Scores are model outputs, not personal advice, and none of this considers your circumstances. Use it the way it was built to be used: as the starting point for your own judgment, not a substitute for it.