How wide is the moat?

A moat is whatever stops competitors from taking a company's profits. Answer ten questions honestly and the castle shows how well defended the business is.

Company you are scoring

How this works

Each answer scores 0 to 3, and the questions carry different weights. Pricing power and a long record of high returns on capital count most, because they are the clearest evidence that a moat exists. A business can look strong on paper and still fail the questions about what it costs to stay in place.

The score is a way to organise your thinking, not a rating. Two people can score the same company differently, and that disagreement is useful: it points at the part of the business you need to study more.

Moats change. Technology can drain one in a few years, and a business that must keep spending heavily just to hold its position may have less of a moat than it seems.