Introducing the Caesar Score

Great for checking long-term prospects for companies

Hey!

If you’ve spent any time around here on NASDUCK, you know I'm always looking for ways to find smarter ways to pick stocks. Well, I've got something exciting for you today—it's a brand-new tool I'll be using in NASDUCK to help us quickly spot winners (and losers).

An experimental podcast on the topic:

Meet the Caesar Score: an easy-to-understand financial health metric developed just for NASDUCK that lets us evaluate any publicly traded company in just seconds. It combines key financial metrics into a single score—saving you hours of digging through complicated reports.

I decided to keep the name of its author, my dear friend Caesar, who’s been quite helpful behind the scenes with all the coding and algorithms.

Why should you care? 🧐

When you're investing your hard-earned money, you don't want to rely on a single number (like just the P/E ratio). That's like buying a car based only on how shiny it is. You need the full picture—and that's exactly what the Caesar Score gives us.

Actually, while testing it, Caesar and I have been quietly using it behind-the-scenes for our long-term stock and earnings analyses!

From now on, I will be bringing it up in my analyses.

Here's how it works 👇

The Caesar Score measures 8 essential areas of a company's financial health:

1. Cash Flow Quality: Are profits backed by real cash or accounting tricks?

2. Interest Coverage: Can the company easily pay its debt interest?

3. Margins: How profitable is the core business?

4. R&D Investment: Is the company investing wisely in its future?

5. Liquidity: Can it quickly pay bills if needed?

6. Leverage: Does it carry too much debt compared to its peers?

7. Growth: Is revenue and profit actually increasing?

8. Technical Momentum: Is the stock moving in a healthy direction?

Each metric is compared to industry benchmarks—meaning tech companies won't be unfairly compared with utilities, and vice versa.

What does the Caesar Score look like?

You don't need a finance degree—just look at the emojis:

• 🟥⚠️ Negative: Severe trouble—steer clear!

• 🟥 0–4: Weak—be cautious.

• 🟨 4–8: Okay—worth a closer look.

• 🟩 8–12: Good—solid financials.

• 🟩🟩 12–16: Great—strong and steady.

• 🟩🟩🟩 16+: Outstanding—potential home run!

What makes it stand out? 🚀

Unlike traditional metrics like the Piotroski F-score (which only looks at fundamental indicators of profitability, leverage, liquidity, and operating efficiency) or the Altman Z-score (which primarily predicts bankruptcy risk), the Caesar Score:

• Covers a broader range of financial health factors, including growth potential, technical momentum, and sector-specific context.

• Provides a dynamic, holistic snapshot that's relevant for both short-term trading and long-term investing.

How long is it good for? ⏰

The Caesar Score is most accurate within about 3 to 6 months after calculation. It's good practice to check scores quarterly or whenever significant news or financial reports are released.

Let's be real about the limits ⚠️

No tool can predict the future (or can it?!), but the Caesar Score relies on accurate, timely financial data from trusted sources like Financial Modeling Prep. Occasionally, things might shift faster than the data updates.

Also, each metric has a fixed weighting. Sometimes a business might have strengths that don't fully fit into the tool. So, treat the Caesar Score as your starting point, not the final word.

Examples

Here are a few quick examples of the score:

• QCOM: 16.050 🟩🟩🟩

• MSFT: 12.160 🟩🟩

• AAPL: 9.065 🟩

• WMT: 7.146 🟨

• DXCM: 6.125 🟨

• TSLA: 5.690 🟨

• TTWO: 0.026 🟥

Bottom Line 🔥

This tool is about giving us an instant, practical overview. It's quick, clear, and comprehensive—a serious time-saver for anyone trying to invest wisely without losing sleep over financial statements.

I'll be using the Caesar Score regularly in NASDUCK to quickly filter stocks and identify both opportunities and hidden risks. Consider it your financial health radar.

Got questions or feedback? Hit reply—I’m always here.

—Rick