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 OCT 3, 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.

Return methodology

The daily panel uses a complete, same-date set of Marketstack adjusted closing prices for MPLY, MOAT, TOLL and SPY. YTD starts at the prior year-end close. A one-year comparison is published only when all four funds have usable starting prices on the newest eligible date returned on or before the one-year anniversary. A start up to three calendar days earlier is labelled Approx. 1Y with its actual dates and duration. A larger gap or incomplete starting set is withheld while valid YTD remains available. Snapshots older than five calendar days are not used. Adjusted closes are intended to reflect splits and distributions; results are market-price total-return estimates, not issuer-published NAV total returns.

The homepage initially shows a separately labelled issuer-NAV YTD comparison through July 31, 2026. A valid live set replaces all four fallback rows together; dates and bases are never mixed. SPY is an ETF proxy, not the S&P 500 index itself. The earlier twelve-company historical-return comparison has been withdrawn pending a reproducible, consistently sourced replacement.

ETF overlap methodology

The ETF Overlap X-Ray excludes cash and calculates portfolio intersection as the sum of the smaller weight for every matched security. MPLY–TOLL uses CUSIP matching where available; pairs involving MOAT currently use normalized tickers. Each fund retains its own issuer observation date, so the output is a dated approximation rather than a synchronized portfolio. We publish derived pair metrics, not a machine-readable copy of the full issuer holdings, while redistribution and identifier rights remain under review.

Private-exposure methodology

We identify the disclosed portfolio instrument first, then follow the ownership chain only as far as primary evidence permits. TOLL's Aug 21 file discloses indirect private Kalshi exposure through an SPV at 7.64% of NAV. SpaceX began public trading as SPCX on Jun 12, 2026, and MPLY's Aug 25 file identifies its 4.337716% position as common stock; describing that current holding as private would be stale. MOAT's Aug 24 holdings disclose no current private-company or SPV position. Unknown legal, valuation, liquidity, fee, and look-through terms remain explicitly unknown rather than being inferred.

Thesis-falsification methodology

The kill sheet separates evidence completeness from trigger status. A user records an observable threshold before the current observation; missing or insufficient evidence is “untestable,” not a pass. The worksheet produces no score, rating, recommendation, or buy/hold/sell output, and custom entries remain in the browser and are not sent to analytics.

Inflation methodology

The illustration holds $1,000 of nominal cash without interest from July 2016 to July 2026. It expresses the ending purchasing power in July-2016 dollars, using BLS CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted (CUUR0000SA0).

1,000 × 240.628 ÷ 333.918 = 720.6200, rounded to $721. The difference is $279 in July-2016 purchasing power. The nominal balance remains $1,000; this is not a savings-account return or a measure of a particular household's inflation.

Sources: BLS July 2016 observation, corrected series and BLS July 2026 release, Table 1. Retrieved October 3, 2026. The archived August 2016 release carries an erratum; the calculation uses the corrected 240.628 observation instead of its original 240.647. Rounding is applied only to the displayed dollar amounts.

Company-return and spending estimates

We withdrew the former company-return comparison, average-spending table and automatic spending receipt on October 3, 2026. Their inputs did not provide a sufficient source record for the precise amounts shown. Selecting a service also did not establish a reader's actual bill or how much revenue reached a particular company. Those outputs are not available on the homepage or receipt embed.

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

October 3, 2026: withdrew unsupported company-return and spending outputs; aligned the one-year return policy across the homepage, standards and disclosures; verified the CPI illustration against corrected BLS observations and made its formula and date basis explicit. Archived estimates must not be treated as verified performance or household-spending data.

The current ETF source snapshots and Research Desk calculations shown on this site were reviewed on Aug 26, 2026. The daily performance adapter publishes derived percentages only; raw Marketstack data and credentials never reach the browser. Any replacement for the withdrawn company-return and spending estimates must include a reproducible source record and consistent calculation basis before publication. To challenge a figure or report a correction, email contact@mplymoat.com with the page, figure, preferred source, and observation date.