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For quite some time, I have been looking for a value investment tool that focuses on the specific metrics Buffett actually uses, rather than just the standard data you can find anywhere.
Most tools I found were either locked behind a paywall, didn't focus on the specific non-standard data I wanted, or just dumped raw data without the context I needed (like capital allocation efficiency or forensic checks).
So, I decided to build my own small private project, which I launched on **safetymargin.io**.
It's still in an early stage, but thought it would be nice to share it here. Any feedback is welcome!
Here is a breakdown of the features:
**Buffett-Specific Tools**
* **$1 Retained Earnings Test:** Calculates how much money management created in terms of market value for every $1 they kept.
* **Owner Earnings:** Estimates Buffett’s preferred metric (Net Income + D&A − Maintenance CapEx) rather than just standard FCF.
* **ROIIC:** Return on Incremental Invested Capital to answer the question whether the new capital they are spending actually generates returns
* **Buyback Effectiveness:** A score that looks at whether management bought back stock when it was cheap or expensive. It also accounts for stock options to see if the buyback actually reduced the share count or just dampened the dilution from issuing stock to employees.
* **Investment Checklist:** A built-in checklist with custom notes to track your thesis.
**Forensic Accounting (Quality Checks)**
* **Beneish M-Score:** Checks for potential earnings manipulation.
* **Altman Z-Score:** Estimates insolvency risk.
* **Sloan Ratio:** Checks if earnings are backed by real cash or just accounting accruals.
**Core Valuation & Mr. Market's Mood**
* **DCF & Sensitivity Analysis:** A customizable DCF with Bear/Base/Bull scenarios. It also allows you to toggle Owner Earnings instead of FCF.
* **Reverse DCF:** It calculates what growth rate the market is currently pricing in. This is a great addition since it avoids the sensitivity of DCF to the set values.
* **Mr. Market's Mood:** A sentiment gauge (0–100) based on analyst ratings, short interest, and momentum to answer the question about whether Mr. Market is currently optimistic or pessimistic.
* **Normalized FCF:** A toggle to switch between LTM and 3-Year Averages to smooth out cyclical behavior.
* **12 Key Metrics:** A color-coded dashboard covering P/E, FCF Yield, ROIC, Gross Margin, Debt/Equity and others.
Since this is a private project, it is free and there is no sign-up required. But that also means that everything you enter (DCF, notes, thesis, ...) is saved locally in your browser. Also, note that I use a free API to get the data that is used by the tool to derive the Buffett-like metrics. Therefore, the fundamental data is limited to 4 years. That's not really sufficient for value investing of course, but getting a longer history is expensive, unfortunately.
There are certainly bugs present, so please let me know if you spot anything weird!