Financial Moat Visualizer
What’s the Citadel Displaying?
- Moat (Blue): A wider blue moat means the corporate beats its business in key metrics. It exhibits a robust edge over opponents.
- Citadel Partitions (Grey): Thicker grey partitions present robust common efficiency over 5 years. Stronger partitions imply higher income and development.
- Towers (Crimson): Taller purple towers present yearly enhancements. Increased towers imply the corporate is getting stronger.
- Basis (Darkish Grey): A darker basis means low debt and monetary security. A faint base alerts increased threat.
- Drawbridge (Brown): An open brown drawbridge means the corporate meets all minimal requirements, confirming a real aggressive benefit.
Introduction
The Inventory Engine is a software designed to assist traders uncover high-quality Indian shares.
It’s extremely impressed by Warren Buffett’s philosophies of inventory investing.
I’m excited to share the internal workings of our Financial Moat Algorithm. This algorithm is the a part of the Total Rating’s broader algorithm, and it additionally the center of the pre-built screener’s algorithm referred to as “Warren Buffett Kind Shares”.
Its function is, figuring out corporations with sustainable aggressive benefits that shield their profitability and market place over the long run.
On this submit, I’ll stroll you thru the logic behind the algorithm, its key parts, and the way it matches into the broader GMR Rating.
I’ll attempt to as clear as attainable about our method with out diving into the proprietary code.
1. What Is an Financial Moat, and Why It’s Vital?
Warren Buffett famously described an financial moat as a aggressive benefit that makes an organization troublesome to problem.
To symbolize it symbolically, I current to you a picture of a fortress (firm) which is surrounded by a water physique (moat / aggressive benefit) offering safety from outdoors competitors.

In Indian inventory market, the place development is ample however volatility is widespread, I believe, figuring out corporations with sturdy moats is important for long-term traders.
Which builds an financial moat for a corporation?
It may be pushed by model loyalty, price benefits, community results, or regulatory protections.
What are the advantages of a moat for a corporation?
Moat finally interprets into constant income, pricing energy, and resilience towards competitors.
Inherently, aggressive moat is a qualitative metric. It isn’t straightforward to quantify in numbers and symbolize as a ranking. So this was the problem. Constructing an efficient algorithm that actually represents moat of a inventory was my job.
Therefore, I needed to take an alternate method to code the algorithm of aggressive edge. It shifted my focus to the evaluation of monetary “after-effects” that sign a moat’s presence.
As a substitute of counting on qualitative judgments (like model notion), we deal with measurable outcomes like excessive returns, margins, development, and monetary stability. These metrics replicate an organization’s capacity to outperform its friends.
The financial moat algorithm assigns a Moat Rating which charges shares within the sale of 0 to five. This most rating is then utilized in our pre-built screener referred to as “Warren Buffett Kind Indian Shares.”
Ultimately, the moat rating additionally feeds into our holistic Total Rating (0-100). The general rating consists of 5 extra algorithms: value valuation, development, profitability, monetary well being, and administration high quality.


2. The Logic Behind the Financial Moat Algorithm
Our algorithm is constructed on the premise that an organization with a real financial moat will exhibit superior monetary efficiency in comparison with its business peer.
Metrics of such corporations are constant over time, and present indicators of strengthening its benefit.
To realize this, we consider 5 key metrics: Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Gross Revenue Margin (GPM), Internet Revenue Margin (NPM), Income Development, and Debt-to-Fairness Ratio.
Right here’s how I attempt to take a look at these metrics from the lens of financial moat:
- #1. 5-12 months Common Efficiency: We calculate the 5-year imply/median for every metric to seize sustained efficiency. That is additionally finished for smoothing out short-term fluctuations. For instance, a constantly excessive ROIC signifies environment friendly capital use. It’s a hallmark of a moat-driven firm (like Nestle) in India’s FMCG sector.
- #2. Trade Comparisons: A moat isn’t nearly absolute numbers; it’s about outperforming friends. We examine every metric’s 5-year imply/median to the business common. For instance, if we’re analyzing Reliance Industries, we are going to examine it with the Oil & Fuel sectors common. That is finished to quantify how a lot an organization stands out from its friends. An organization like Asian Paints, with margins far above the paints business common, scores extremely for its brand-driven moat.
- #3. 12 months-over-12 months (YoY) Development: A strengthening moat ought to present enchancment over time. We reward corporations with constructive YoY development in ROIC, GPM, NPM, and income. Even when the expansion is incremental, it’s rewarded. Concurrently, the algorithm is codes in a manner that declines get penalized. As an example, Titan’s regular margin development displays its increasing Jewelry market dominance. Equally, fall in margins of DMART over the previous couple of years is now displaying in its moat ranking (2.48 out of 5 which is common).


- #4. Minimal Thresholds: Not each firm that beats its business common has a moat. We set baseline thresholds (symbolic values: ROIC ≥8%, GPM ≥25%) to make sure an organization meets a minimal normal of aggressive energy. This filters out corporations with weak fundamentals, even when they outperform a low-bar business.
- #5. Normalization: To deal with outliers and business variations, we normalize the metrics (e.g., scaling relative to business ranges or normal deviations). This ensures truthful comparisons throughout various sectors like IT (e.g., Infosys, Tech Mahindra) and FMCG (e.g., Dabur, Britannia).
These parts are mixed right into a Moat Rating (scale: 0-5). Right here, the upper scores replicate stronger, extra sturdy aggressive benefits.
The rating considers whether or not thresholds are met, the diploma of business outperformance, and the consistency of YoY enhancements.
That is manner the algorithm coded to make sure that it captures each static and dynamic moat alerts.
3. How the Moat Rating Matches into the Total Rating
The Moat Rating (0 to five) is a important enter into the GMR Rating (0-100).
GMR Rating ranks shares within the “Warren Buffett Kind Indian Shares” screener. Kind of, we will say that the moat rating is the GMR Rating for this screener.
The Total Rating integrates the moat rating with 5 different algorithms:
- Worth Valuation Algorithm: Assesses whether or not the inventory is pretty priced (e.g., P/E, P/B relative to development prospects).
- Development Algorithm: Evaluates income and earnings development traits, tailor-made for India’s high-growth market.
- Profitability Algorithm: Measures constant revenue era, complementing the moat’s margin metrics.
- Monetary Well being Algorithm: Analyzes debt ranges and money circulation stability, reinforcing the moat’s low-debt focus.
- Administration High quality: Makes use of proxies like promoter holding and governance rankings to evaluate management energy.
The moat rating carries vital weight within the Total Rating.
That is my manner of together with the learnings of Buffett’s inside my aggressive benefit (moat) rating.
For instance, an organization like Solar Pharma may rating 4+ out of 5 for its moat (excessive ROIC, low debt, robust development) and obtain a Total Rating of 78 of of 100.
A inventory which excels in valuation, development, moat, and profitability usually tends to get a greater Total Rating.
4. Why This Method Works for Indian Shares
India’s market is exclusive.
Right here, excessive development is in sectors like IT, client items, and financials. However there are additionally regulatory complexities and financial volatility.
Our algorithm is tailor-made to this context:
- Sector-Particular Thresholds: We alter minimums and business averages for Indian sectors (e.g., decrease ROIC thresholds for capital-intensive industries like infrastructure, increased for IT).
- Dynamic Benchmarks: We replace business averages respective inventory information to replicate the sector’s fast-evolving market.
- Give attention to Stability: By emphasizing 5-year averages and YoY traits, we filter out corporations with momentary spikes, essential in India’s cyclical financial system.
For instance, an organization like Maruti Suzuki may rating excessive for its moat attributable to its dominant market share, constant margins, and low debt, making it a one of many higher picks in our screener.
5. Why I’m Sharing The Particulars
Because the coder, I’ve designed the algorithm to be rigorous but sensible, balancing complexity with usability.
Whereas I can’t share the precise formulation (secret sauce) or the mechanism of how scoring in finished, I’ll share whatver I can.
I intend to share these particulars in order that you already know what makes the Inventory Engine completely different from different screeners out there on the web.
Speaking concerning the Moat algorithm, I can guarantee you that every metric is rigorously normalized, thresholds are sector-specific, and scoring is calibrated to reward true Buffett-style shares.
We’ve backtested the algorithm on Indian shares (e.g., Nifty 50, Nifty Subsequent 50, and BSE 500) to make sure that high quality corporations do get a greater rating. Furthermore, what I like about this algorithm is that, it’s much more environment friendly to filter our junk and low high quality shares. So, you possibly can ask, how the Inventory Engine will rating an organization like Vodafone Concept? See the snapshot from my Inventory Engine.


Conclusion
The Financial Moat Algorithm is the muse of our “Warren Buffett Kind Indian Shares” screener (GMR Rating).
It’s designed to determine corporations with lasting aggressive benefits.
By specializing in ROIC, margins, development, and monetary stability, normalized, benchmarked towards industries, and evaluated for enchancment, we guarantee our Moat Rating captures the essence of Buffett’s philosophy.
When mixed with the broader Total Rating, it empowers traders to seek out high-quality Indian shares poised for long-term success.
Strive the Inventory Engine at apps.getmoneyrich.com and see how our screener highlights moat-driven gems like Eicher Motors or Solar Pharma.
Tell us your suggestions, within the feedback part beneath.
Have a cheerful investing.