Check a Score in five minutes.
Every Max Noble Score is built from dated, linked sources. You do not have to take my word for it. Take any company on the board, follow these four steps, and see if you land where I did.
The four steps
Open the company on the board
On the Morning Brief, every company carries its signals. Each one has a date and a link to the source. Open them.
Find the strongest fact
Ignore opinion and headlines. Ask one thing: what is the most serious event the sources prove? A court ruling beats a filing, a filing beats a missed payment, a missed payment beats a warning.
Match it to one anchor
Find that fact in the table below. That band is where the Score must sit. Nothing about the share price counts.
Compare with the board
If the board’s Score sits inside your band, it checks out. If it does not, tell me, with the source. When I am wrong, the record stays.
The anchors
From −100, declared bankrupt, up to the companies with only an early sign. The same table I use every morning.
- −100
- A court has declared the company bankrupt or ordered it wound up.
- −90
- The company itself has filed: insolvency, Chapter 11, administration or another court-led rescue.
- −84
- Creditors have asked a court to declare it bankrupt, and no ruling is reported yet.
- −80
- A court-led rescue has happened, and the business goes on under a new owner.
- −70 to −78
- No filing yet, but a dated debt event: a missed payment in its grace period, a filing reported as being weighed, or going-concern doubt with large debts due within three months.
- −40 to −68
- No dated debt event, but it needs emergency money to keep going, or its owners will not put in more.
- 0 to −38
- Serious strain: a forced sale or break-up, heavy losses, lenders’ warnings.
- +2 to +50
- One clear sign: heavy borrowing, falling sales, bonds or shares priced for trouble.
- +52 to +98
- An early sign only.
Three rules that override everything
- −80 or below only with a sourced filing or court decision. −100 only with a court’s decision.
- Above −80, the Score is my opinion of the facts, and every line about the future says could or may.
- A company keeps its Score until the facts change. When it moves, the board says why.
Worked example · Mercer International, from the board of 1 November 2026.
The signals listed, each dated and linked:
- Did not pay $25.8m of interest due on its bonds; 30-day grace period · 1 Oct 2026 · source
- Reportedly weighing Chapter 11, Bloomberg reports · 21 Oct 2026 · source
- May pursue Chapter 11, TokenPost reports; auditors’ going-concern doubt reported · 22 Oct 2026 · source
No filing is sourced, so it cannot go to −80 or below. A missed payment in its grace period is a dated debt event: the anchor is −70 to −78. The board shows −76. Inside the band, so the Score checks out. If a filing is sourced tomorrow, it moves to −90.
How the Score works → · Landed somewhere else? Tell me on LinkedIn →