Meet PLOW+M: The Framework For Everything TOLL+M Can't See

Introduction

Over the past few months, TOLL+M has become the backbone of almost everything I do here. The model has even been brought up by some institutional investors, and I'm working on some fascinating collaborations for research in the months ahead.

But that's not why I'm writing this.

TOLL+M is how I rank REITs, midstream companies, defense contractors, BDCs, stock exchanges, royalty companies, and pretty much anything else that owns something the world cannot easily replace.

There's just one problem.

When I ran Amazon (AMZN) through TOLL+M, it scored 63 out of 100. That's a "poor fit." On Low incremental capital intensity, it scored 5 out of 20, which is the lowest number in the entire TOLL+M library.

And yet, Amazon is in my portfolio. It's a top-4 position.

That means one of two things. Either I don't trust my own framework, or the framework wasn't right for Amazon. I'm going with the second option (obviously), but you deserve a much better explanation than that.

Additionally, ever since I covered Amazon and bought it, some people have brought up that it may make sense to add a different framework to the mix. That's what I spent almost two full weeks researching.

So, today, I'm introducing PLOW+M, the second single-stock framework of Main Street Alpha. In this article, I'll explain what it is, why we need it, how each pillar is scored, how it differs from TOLL+M, when I use which model, and why it matters whether you're an income investor, a growth investor, a retiree, or all of the above.

I'll use Union Pacific (UNP) and Amazon as examples, as they are the first two companies I scored (two of many more to come!)

So, let's dive in!