EDITORIAL STANDARD
Research standards & methodology
How Monopoly MOAT sources, dates, calculates, reviews, and corrects the factual claims used in the Landlord Ledger and ETF comparison.
LAST REVIEWED AUG 25, 2026
The short version
We prefer primary sources, put unlike figures on the same basis before comparing them, preserve the date attached to every observation, and disclose where an estimate is still awaiting independent review. We do not convert a missing fact into a confident-looking number.
Primary sources first
Fund facts come from issuer pages, prospectuses, fact sheets, and SEC filings. CPI observations come from BLS.
One comparison basis
Dates, NAV-versus-market-price, distributions, and benchmark proxies are stated rather than silently mixed.
Dates travel with figures
Every mutable fact carries an as-of date. A live comparison is rejected unless the complete set shares one date and basis.
Corrections stay visible
Material corrections are logged, the affected page is updated, and the source record is retained for review.
Return methodology
The currently displayed twelve-company figures are older estimates running from July 2016 through January 2026, with Spotify beginning at its April 2018 public listing. They remain labelled pending verification. The next calculation contract is fixed at July 29, 2016 through July 31, 2026, with a same-date SPY observation for Spotify, but that replacement will not be published until its provider, display rights, inputs, and independent review are complete. The current-fund panel has a pre-rendered issuer-NAV fallback through July 31, 2026. In the browser, that whole set is replaced only when the daily Marketstack adapter returns adjusted EOD market-price returns for MPLY, MOAT, TOLL, and SPY on one date: YTD from the prior year-end close and trailing 1Y from the last common trading close on or before the one-year anniversary. Those adjusted-close calculations incorporate splits and distributions and are labelled as market-price total-return estimates, not official issuer NAV total returns. The bases are labelled and never mixed. SPY is an ETF proxy; it is not presented as the S&P 500 index itself.
Inflation methodology
The cash illustration uses the not-seasonally-adjusted CPI-U US city average, all items series (CUUR0000SA0). It expresses the purchasing power of July 2016 dollars in July 2026 terms and rounds only the displayed dollar result.
Spending estimates
The spending table and receipt are internal, rounded illustrations of annual US consumer spending routed to the named companies. They are not audited household budgets. The table is an unconditional per-capita model; the receipt is an interactive scenario for a reader who selects a product or service. The two are kept conceptually separate even when a rounded input is shared.
Current primary sources
- MPLY issuer page Strategy Shares
- MOAT issuer page VanEck
- TOLL issuer page Tema ETFs
- SPY issuer page State Street
- CPI-U series guidance US Bureau of Labor Statistics
- CZAR liquidation filing US Securities and Exchange Commission
Review and corrections
The fixed current-fund set shown on this site was reviewed and approved on Aug 25, 2026. The Landlord Ledger's historical-return replacement, spending-model evidence, and any live market-data display rights remain subject to independent calculation and publication review. To challenge a figure or report a correction, email contact@mplymoat.com with the page, figure, preferred source, and observation date.
USE THE WORKSHEET