Stocks & Signals is an independent supply chain investment research platform based in Switzerland. We map the whole value chain of an industry, score every company in it, and tell you where the structure is mispriced — and when it isn't. The method: find the bottleneck positions that control each chain, then score every company with our VCQM framework (Valuation, Consistency, Quality, Momentum) to separate the ones trading below what their position is worth from the ones already priced for perfection.
Why we built this
The tools we wanted didn't exist. Institutional platforms track fundamentals but not chokepoints, and cost upwards of $30K per seat. Retail research recycles the same mega-caps that passive money already owns. And the question that matters was going unanswered systematically, across industries, at a price an individual investor can justify: who controls the irreplaceable nodes of an industry, and which of them is mispriced? So we built it ourselves.
What this looks like in practice
One example from our published research, as of the July 2026 snapshot. ASML, the famous EUV lithography monopoly, trades at roughly 61 times earnings. The #2 maker of the photomask blanks those machines print from, an equally irreplaceable position, trades near 16 times, because it sits inside a Japanese glass conglomerate the market reads as an ordinary industrial. Same chokepoint economics, opposite multiples. The market pays full price for the moats it can see and misses the ones wearing industrial labels. Finding that second kind of company, and being honest about when a "moat" is really the first kind at the wrong price, is the product.
Who we are
An independent research team based in Switzerland. Ten-plus years on the buying side of industrial supply chains, negotiating with sole-source suppliers and watching a single component hold a product launch hostage. Twenty years building software, much of it for the buy side. Ten years building the algorithmic systems we invest with. We publish under the company name rather than personal bylines. Every report is dated, every call stays on the record, and the scoring framework is documented in public.
What we believe
Not every bottleneck is worth owning. Market dominance alone isn't a thesis. A monopoly at the wrong price is a bad investment, and an industry without a durable chokepoint deserves to be called that. When that's the case, we say so, and the same scoring framework still ranks every company in the chain, because an industry without a monopoly still has better and worse businesses at better and worse prices.
Concentration gets mispriced in both directions. A genuinely irreplaceable supplier can trade below the sector median because the market reads it as ordinary. A famous moat can stay priced for perfection while competition quietly dissolves it. Our job is telling one from the other.
Structure beats news. Headlines describe what already happened. The supply chain describes what has to happen next. We'd rather know who the system depends on before the disruption than react to it after.
Chokepoints don't respect borders. Lithography sits in the Netherlands, advanced foundry in Taiwan, critical materials in Japan. We cover companies wherever they trade, because a US-only view can't even see the chain.
Coverage and cadence
One new industry report every week. Each covered industry refreshes in full on a quarterly cycle. Every report is built from a fresh data snapshot, dated on the report itself, and covers the chain across US, European, and Asian exchanges under each company's most liquid listing.
How we stay independent
We take no payment from companies we cover, run no advertising, and don't sell subscriber data. Subscriptions are our only revenue. Ratings are impersonal and generated by the same methodology for every company in the universe. We run our own portfolios on the research we publish, and we may hold positions in the securities we cover.
Editorial standards
Every rating comes from the same quantitative framework applied uniformly across the coverage universe, built on up to five years of quarterly fundamentals per company. No company can pay to be covered, excluded, or re-rated. If we find a material error in a published report, we correct it. The framework's principles, components, and design reasoning are public; the exact ratios and weightings are proprietary. Full detail on how the score is built: the Value Edge methodology.
Where the data comes from
Regulatory filings, industry databases, and institutional-grade financial data providers. We source the numbers; we don't scrape headlines.
What we are not
Not a registered investment advisor. We don't manage money, execute trades, or give personalized advice. Research, not recommendations tailored to you.
Judge the work, not the pitch
The fastest way to evaluate us is to read a report. Get the free preview issue: a complete industry report with the full value chain map and selected analyses ungated, no credit card required.