The Max Noble Score · the formula on one page

One signed number, one sentence. It judges the business, never the share price.

1 · The formula

Score = the sum, over eleven pillars, of grade (0–10) × weight ÷ 10. The weights add up to 100, so the sum runs from 0 to 100. Round to the nearest whole number. Then apply the lowest cap that the warning signals trigger.

Source: editorial/max-noble-score.md, draft v1, 17 October 2026, and the eleven-pillar tables in each analysis. Higher is healthier. There is no code for it in the site; each analysis does the sum by hand.

2 · The inputs and their weights

Pillar	Weight	The question
Financial strength	20	Can it pay its bills for the next 12–24 months? Cash, debt, liquidity, cash conversion.
Business model	10	Does the way it makes money still work?
Competitive advantage	10	Why would a rival struggle to take its customers?
Management	10	Do they say what they will do, and then do it?
Risk	10	How exposed is it to things it cannot control? Lower risk, higher grade.
Future potential	10	Is there a believable way back or forward?
Customer love	8	Would customers miss it tomorrow?
Capital allocation	8	Has money been spent wisely?
Growth quality	6	Is growth profitable and repeatable?
Innovation	5	Is it still building what customers will want next?
Culture	3	Do people inside still believe in it?
Total	100	Each pillar also carries a confidence level, its evidence with a source, and one sentence of conclusion.

Status: the weights and caps are Claude's first proposal, still open for your review. Every Score in the log is marked provisional until back-testing is confirmed.

ProposedWhat a grade means

The draft gives no anchors for the 0–10 grade. Until it does, two analysts can grade the same facts differently. A suggestion:

Grade	Meaning
9–10	Best in its industry, shown in the filings for several years.
7–8	Clearly better than most rivals.
5–6	About average. Nothing broken, nothing special.
3–4	A clear weakness, with evidence.
1–2	A serious weakness that already costs money.
0	Gone: no cash without a court, no customers, no plan.

3 · Warning signals and caps

Cash kills before strategy does. So signals can override good grades. The Score can be no higher than the cap.

Condition	Maximum
Formal insolvency filed: bankruptcy, administration, Chapter 11, konkurs	−62
Auditor's going-concern warning, or three or more red signals	−42
One or two red signals	−22
Three or more amber signals	−2

Red (nine): credit insurers pull cover · going-concern warning or late accounts · covenant breach, waiver or emergency amendment · runway under 12 months · large debt due within 12 months with no clear refinancing · missed interest, rent, tax or supplier payments · owner withdraws support or sells for a token sum · formal sale process, restructuring advisers or emergency directors · rating cut to distressed levels.

Amber (six): operating cash flow negative two years or more · repeated profit warnings, or guidance cut twice in 12 months · several CEO or CFO changes in 24 months · fire sales of assets or brands · heavy closures or large layoffs · supplier terms stretched sharply.

Market prices such as bond yields and credit default swaps are logged but not counted. ProposedA market-signal red has been suggested in the analyses and is not yet adopted.

4 · The output: −100 to +100 and the bands

Score	Meaning
+90 to +100	Generational business
+80 to +89	Exceptional
+70 to +79	Outstanding
+60 to +69	Very good
+40 to +59	Healthy
+20 to +39	Questionable
0 to +19	Weak
−20 to −1	Structural concerns
−40 to −21	Business survival uncertain
−60 to −41	Distressed
−100 to −61	Broken business model / in insolvency

Below −20 is the distress zone, where the fall begins. Shown as: Name · Score · Meaning, then confidence, signals counted, cap applied, and a one-sentence verdict. The 0–100 sum is shown on the signed scale as 2 × sum − 100, with a true minus sign; no letter grades (Sir Max, 31 Oct 2026).

5 · A worked example (an invented company)

Company X grades: financial strength 3, business model 5, advantage 6, management 4, risk 3, future 5, customer love 7, capital allocation 3, growth 4, innovation 5, culture 5.

6 + 5 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 5.6 + 2.4 + 2.4 + 2.5 + 1.5 = 43.4, so 43, shown as −14.
It has two red signals: a covenant waiver and a large loan due in nine months. Cap −22. Final: −22 · Business survival uncertain.

Customers like it. The lenders, it seems, are less sentimental.

6 · Rules that sit around the number

Never a Score without its reasons. Every pillar has evidence and a source.
Thin sources mean low confidence, and the Score is marked provisional. ProposedCall it provisional when pillars worth 30 or more of the 100 points are low confidence.
Before a filing, the Score is my opinion on stated facts: "in my view". It never says "is bankrupt".
Every Score goes in the score log with its date. Misses stay on the record.
ProposedCheck it against a benchmark: for listed manufacturers, Altman's Z-score (1968) calls below 1.81 its distress zone; a Score under 40 should usually sit there too, and when the two disagree, I say why.

7 · What it is not

Not investment advice. Never a tip to buy, sell or short.
Not a judgement of the share price.
Not the Max Noble Meter. The Meter runs the other way: higher is closer to bankruptcy, 100 means a court has declared it. "95/100 · Filed" is a Meter reading, not a Score. The Meter is what the Morning Brief shows; the Score lives inside the analyses.
Not the 2-minute Power Test at /scorecard. That is ten self-assessment questions, each worth 0 to 3, summed and scaled to 100. It borrows the pillars, with simpler meanings.
Not a credit rating. No letters, and the method is not the agencies'.

Prepared for Sir Max · 28 October 2026 · Asset Scoreboard