Agent skill

Qualitative Valuation

by JoelLewis in JoelLewis/finance_skills

Assess business quality, competitive positioning, and sustainability of value creation beyond financial models.

MITAuto-check passedBusiness, Finance & HR

Install Qualitative Valuation

skills CLI
$ npx skills add JoelLewis/finance_skills --skill qualitative-valuation -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install JoelLewis/finance_skills qualitative-valuation --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JoelLewis/finance_skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/wealth-management/skills/qualitative-valuation .claude/skills/qualitative-valuation && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
qualitative-valuation
GitHub stars
206
Token cost
~2.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,136 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
91
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Assess business quality, competitive positioning, and sustainability of value creation beyond financial models.

  • Works in 5 steps: Network Effects: the product becomes… → Switching Costs: customers face… → Intangible Assets: brands, patents,… → …
  • The user asks about economic moats
  • SKILL.md covers Core Concepts, Worked Examples, Common Pitfalls and Cross-References
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Qualitative Valuation is an agent skill from JoelLewis/finance_skills. Assess business quality, competitive positioning, and sustainability of value creation beyond financial models. Use when the user asks about economic moats, competitive advantages, Porter's Five Forces, management quality, ESG integration, or business model analysis. Also trigger when users mention 'does this company have a moat', 'switching costs', 'network effects', 'brand value', 'management track record', 'capital allocation', 'insider ownership', 'red flags', or ask whether a company's advantage is durable.

Its SKILL.md is about 2.3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Business, Finance & HR, covering Financial modeling and Product strategy. The repository describes itself as: Claude Code skill plugins for financial services — 81 skills across 7 domain plugins covering investment management, compliance, advisory practice, trading, and operations. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The user asks about economic moats
  • Competitive advantages
  • Porters Five Forces
  • Management quality

Example prompts

  • “does this company have a moat”
  • “switching costs”
  • “network effects”
  • “/qualitative-valuation”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Network Effects: the product becomes more valuable as more people use it (payment networks, marketplaces)
  2. Switching Costs: customers face significant cost, effort, or risk in moving to a competitor (enterprise software, banking relationships)
  3. Intangible Assets: brands, patents, licenses, or regulatory approvals competitors cannot replicate; brands must confer pricing power to…
  4. Cost Advantages: structural cost advantages from process technology, scale, location, or unique resources
  5. Efficient Scale: a market that supports only a few players, where new entry would drive returns below the cost of capital (utilities…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 5c498ea. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Qualitative Valuation loads about 2.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 135 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,136 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~135
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from JoelLewis/finance_skills at commit 5c498ea, republished under its MIT licence (© JoelLewis). 1,136 words, ~2,346 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/qualitative-valuation/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
qualitative-valuation
description
Assess business quality, competitive positioning, and sustainability of value creation beyond financial models. Use when the user asks about economic moats, competitive advantages, Porter's Five Forces, management quality, ESG integration, or business model analysis. Also trigger when users mention 'does this company have a moat', 'switching costs', 'network effects', 'brand value', 'management track record', 'capital allocation', 'insider ownership', 'red flags', or ask whether a company's advantage is durable.

Qualitative Valuation

Core Concepts

Economic Moats (Morningstar Framework)

An economic moat is a structural advantage that protects a company's profits from competition. Five sources:

  1. Network Effects: the product becomes more valuable as more people use it (payment networks, marketplaces)
  2. Switching Costs: customers face significant cost, effort, or risk in moving to a competitor (enterprise software, banking relationships)
  3. Intangible Assets: brands, patents, licenses, or regulatory approvals competitors cannot replicate; brands must confer pricing power to qualify
  4. Cost Advantages: structural cost advantages from process technology, scale, location, or unique resources
  5. Efficient Scale: a market that supports only a few players, where new entry would drive returns below the cost of capital (utilities, pipelines, railroads)
Moat Width
  • Wide moat (20+ years): multiple reinforcing moat sources, each backed by hard evidence
  • Narrow moat (10+ years): at least one evidenced moat source with moderate durability
  • No moat: commodity business with no structural advantage; competes on price

A moat claim is only as strong as its evidence. Do not award moat sources based on narrative — use the rubric below.

Evidence Rubric: What Qualifies a Qualitative Claim

Anchor every claim in observable results, with retention and realized pricing as the strongest evidence:

ClaimQualifying evidenceDisqualifying signs
Pricing powerRealized price increases at or above inflation with stable volumes and retention; gross margin held or expanded through input-cost cyclesPrice increases followed by churn spikes; persistent discounting to hold share
Switching costsGross retention >90% (>95% for enterprise) or net revenue retention >100%; multi-year contracts; implementations measured in quarters; deep data/workflow integrationHigh churn; month-to-month terms; easy data export and low migration cost
Network effectsUnit economics measurably improve with scale (take rates, engagement, liquidity per user); winner-take-most share dynamicsUser growth without any engagement, pricing, or cost benefit
Brand (intangible asset)Sustained price premium over comparable products for yearsAwareness without a premium; growth dependent on promotional spend
Cost advantageMargins persistently above peers, traceable to scale, process, or resource accessOne-off cost cuts; margin gap explained by product mix
Management qualityMulti-year ROIC > WACC; buybacks executed below subsequent intrinsic value; acquisitions that met stated return targetsSerial dilutive M&A; buybacks concentrated at price peaks; recurring guidance misses
Mapping Findings to Valuation Inputs

Translate qualitative conclusions into explicit adjustments to discount rate, fade period, or terminal assumptions in quantitative valuation. These ranges are judgment calibrations, not formulas — document the specific evidence behind each adjustment:

FindingCalibrated adjustment
Wide-moat evidence (2+ reinforcing, retention-backed sources)Discount rate -0.5 to -1.0pp, or terminal multiple +1-2 turns, or extend the above-WACC return fade to 15-20 years
Narrow moat (one evidenced source)Fade above-WACC returns over ~10 years; no discount-rate change
No moatFade returns to WACC by terminal year; terminal growth at or below inflation
Confirmed pricing powerHold or modestly expand forecast margins; resist mean-reverting them prematurely
Governance red flags (see checklist)Discount rate +0.5 to +1.5pp, haircut management guidance, or walk away
Material unmitigated ESG/regulatory exposureDiscount rate +0.5 to +1.5pp, or (often more transparent) probability-weight an impaired-earnings scenario
Key-person or succession riskDiscount rate +0.25 to +0.75pp

If combined adjustments exceed roughly 2pp on the discount rate in either direction, the qualitative overlay is driving the valuation — re-examine the base-case cash flow assumptions instead of stacking adjustments.

Qualitative Red Flags Checklist

Any single flag warrants deeper investigation before relying on a valuation model:

  • Aggressive accounting: revenue recognition changes, newly capitalized expenses, non-GAAP adjustments that always exceed GAAP. Check: trend in the non-GAAP-to-GAAP gap over 3+ years.
  • Related-party transactions: deals with insider-controlled entities that may not be at arm's length. Check: proxy statement and footnote disclosures.
  • Excessive M&A: serial acquisitions that obscure weak organic growth and add integration risk. Check: organic growth disclosed vs reported growth.
  • High management turnover: frequent CFO or auditor changes signal potential problems. Check: 8-K filings for departures and stated reasons.
  • Divergent cash flow and earnings: net income growing while operating cash flow stagnates. Check: accruals (net income minus OCF) as a share of assets over time.

Worked Examples

Show full SKILL.md (466 more words)Show less
Example 1: Moat Assessment — Enterprise Software Company

Given:

  • Cloud-based ERP platform with 95% gross retention, 120% net revenue retention
  • Average customer implementation takes 12-18 months
  • Data integration with customer systems creates deep embedding
  • No network effects; moderate brand value; costs in line with peers

Assess: Moat sources and width, using the evidence rubric

Solution:

  1. Switching Costs — STRONG (qualifies): 95% gross retention and 120% net revenue retention clear the rubric thresholds, and 12-18 month implementations with deep data integration explain why. The 120% net retention also evidences realized pricing power: existing customers are paying more each year without offsetting churn.
  2. Network Effects — ABSENT: an ERP system does not become more valuable to one customer because another adopts it.
  3. Intangible Assets — DOES NOT QUALIFY: the brand is recognized but confers no measurable price premium over peers.
  4. Cost Advantages — ABSENT: cost structure in line with competitors.
  5. Efficient Scale — ABSENT: the market supports multiple competitors.

Assessment: Narrow-to-wide moat. One moat source, but with unusually strong retention evidence; durability 15-20+ years barring a technology shift. Valuation-input mapping: extend the above-WACC return fade toward 15-20 years and hold forecast margins, but skip the full wide-moat discount-rate reduction because there is no second reinforcing source.

Example 2: Governance and Regulatory Risk — Discount Rate Calibration

Given: Base cost of equity 9.0%. The company operates in a high-carbon industry with no transition plan; pending carbon-tax legislation could reduce EBIT by 15%. Governance is strong: independent board, aligned compensation, no red flags.

Calibrate: Adjusted cost of equity

Solution:

  • Unmitigated regulatory/environmental exposure: +1.5pp (top of the +0.5 to +1.5pp range — exposure is material, unmitigated, and legislation is pending)
  • Strong governance: -0.25pp partial offset (well-governed firms adapt better)

Adjusted cost of equity = 9.0% + 1.5% - 0.25% = 10.25%

Alternative (often more transparent): keep the 9% discount rate and probability-weight a scenario in which EBIT falls 15% when the carbon tax passes. Both approaches capture the same risk; do not apply both at once.

Common Pitfalls

  • Narrative fallacy: a compelling story is not evidence — require the rubric's observable results before crediting a moat
  • Confirmation bias: seeking information that supports a pre-existing thesis while dismissing contradictory evidence
  • Moat erosion: technology disruption can destroy moats faster than historical patterns suggest (e.g., retail disrupted by e-commerce)
  • Double-counting: adjusting the discount rate and the cash flows for the same risk overstates the impact
  • Overweighting management charisma: a compelling CEO presentation does not equal good capital allocation — check the multi-year ROIC and M&A record
  • Static analysis: moats, competitive positioning, and regulatory risks evolve — reassess periodically

Cross-References

  • quantitative-valuation (wealth-management plugin): quantitative models that qualitative analysis informs and contextualizes
  • financial-statements (wealth-management plugin): ROIC, margins, and cash flow patterns that validate qualitative assessments
  • forward-risk (wealth-management plugin): risk premium adjustments from ESG and business quality factors
  • diversification (wealth-management plugin): qualitative sector/factor analysis informs diversification decisions

© JoelLewis, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in plugins/wealth-management/skills/qualitative-valuation of JoelLewis/finance_skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 5c498ea

Compare with similar skills

Qualitative Valuation next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Qualitative Valuation compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Qualitative Valuation this skillJoelLewis/finance_skills206—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Agent Business Canvasharperreed/dotfiles334—~3kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Financial Unit Economicsnicepkg/auto-company1951 repos~3.4kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Startup Business Modelsnicepkg/auto-company1951 repos~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Biz Cac Ltvasgard-ai-platform/skills242—~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Biz Unit Economicsasgard-ai-platform/skills242—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Agent Business Canvas

    harperreed/dotfiles

    A skill your agent uses when evaluating, designing, or pressure-testing the business model of an AI agent product.

    334 GitHub stars~3k tokensUpdated 8 days ago
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Financial Unit Economics

    nicepkg/auto-company

    A skill your agent uses when evaluating business model viability, analyzing profitability per customer/product/transaction, validating startup metrics (CAC, LTV, payback period), making pricing…

    195 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~3.4k tokens
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Startup Business Models

    nicepkg/auto-company

    A skill your agent uses when choosing or evaluating a startup revenue model, pricing/value metric, packaging/tier design, or calculating unit economics (LTV, CAC, payback, gross margin, NRR)…

    195 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.8k tokens
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Biz Cac Ltv

    asgard-ai-platform/skills

    Calculate and analyze Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) to evaluate unit economics and marketing efficiency.

    242 GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 4 mo ago
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Biz Unit Economics

    asgard-ai-platform/skills

    Analyze unit economics to evaluate per-unit profitability and business model scalability.

    242 GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated 4 mo ago
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Ops Business Model Canvas

    asgard-ai-platform/skills

    Apply the Business Model Canvas (BMC) to map and evaluate business models across nine building blocks.

    242 GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated 4 mo ago
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed

More from JoelLewis/finance_skills

All 91 skills in this repo
  • Asset Allocation

    JoelLewis/finance_skills

    Determine how to distribute capital across asset classes using strategic and tactical allocation frameworks.

    206 GitHub stars~2.5k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Bet Sizing

    JoelLewis/finance_skills

    Determine how much capital to allocate to individual positions within a portfolio.

    206 GitHub stars~2.5k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Commodities

    JoelLewis/finance_skills

    Analyze commodity markets including futures curve dynamics, roll yield, and supply/demand fundamentals.

    206 GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Currencies And Fx

    JoelLewis/finance_skills

    Analyze currency markets, exchange rate mechanics, and FX risk management for international portfolios.

    206 GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Debt Management

    JoelLewis/finance_skills

    Provide frameworks for managing and paying off personal debt effectively.

    206 GitHub stars~2.5k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Diversification

    JoelLewis/finance_skills

    Build diversified portfolios using correlation analysis, efficient frontier construction, and factor-based diversification.

    206 GitHub stars~2.3k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

Questions about Qualitative Valuation

What does Qualitative Valuation do?

Assess business quality, competitive positioning, and sustainability of value creation beyond financial models. Qualitative Valuation is an agent skill from JoelLewis/finance_skills. Assess business quality, competitive positioning, and sustainability of value creation beyond financial models.

When should I use Qualitative Valuation?

Qualitative Valuation fits situations like: the user asks about economic moats; competitive advantages; porters Five Forces; management quality.

How do I install Qualitative Valuation in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add JoelLewis/finance_skills --skill qualitative-valuation -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/wealth-management/skills/qualitative-valuation in JoelLewis/finance_skills) into .claude/skills/qualitative-valuation in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Qualitative Valuation in Codex?

Run `npx skills add JoelLewis/finance_skills --skill qualitative-valuation -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/wealth-management/skills/qualitative-valuation in JoelLewis/finance_skills) into .agents/skills/qualitative-valuation in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Qualitative Valuation in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add JoelLewis/finance_skills --skill qualitative-valuation -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/qualitative-valuation, .gemini/skills/qualitative-valuation, .github/skills/qualitative-valuation and .opencode/skills/qualitative-valuation in your project.

What does Qualitative Valuation need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Qualitative Valuation is instructions for the agent only.

Does Qualitative Valuation access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Qualitative Valuation safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Qualitative Valuation use?

Qualitative Valuation is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Qualitative Valuation use?

About 2.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 9.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Qualitative Valuation?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Qualitative Valuation: Agent Business Canvas (harperreed/dotfiles, 334 stars), Financial Unit Economics (nicepkg/auto-company, 195 stars), Startup Business Models (nicepkg/auto-company, 195 stars) and Biz Cac Ltv (asgard-ai-platform/skills, 242 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Qualitative Valuation?

JoelLewis (a GitHub user) maintains it in JoelLewis/finance_skills, which has 206 GitHub stars. The repository holds 91 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on July 18, 2026.

Source: JoelLewis/finance_skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.