Welcome to Heavy Moat Investments (Start here)

Your guide to this publication: Key features, links, who am I, what are my goals, my investment process, reviews and more

Feb 22, 2025

Welcome to Heavy Moat Investments!

If you're new here, this post is your guide to everything you need to know about this newsletter. Whether you're a free subscriber looking to learn or a premium member ready to dive deeper, this will help you navigate my research, understand my investment approach and get the most value from your subscription.

What You’ll Find Here

At Heavy Moat Investments, I focus on high-quality companies with strong competitive advantages at fair prices. My goal is to find businesses with sustainable moats, rational capital allocation, high reinvestment runway at high ROIC and strong cash flow generation—the kind of companies that compound wealth over time.

Here’s a breakdown of the content I provide:

Deep Dives – In-depth research on high-quality European Small/Mid caps and global compounders. There are always two seperate parts to the analysis: Business model, management and industry & fundamentals and valuation.
Investment Pitches – Quick yet actionable investment ideas, often covering under-the-radar companies. Usually includes >12% IRR opportunities.
Earnings Updates – Focused reviews of earnings reports with major price movements or unexpected developments.
Portfolio Updates – Insights into my real-money portfolio, with valuation matrix and thesis updates.
Investment Strategy Posts – Broader discussions on valuation, capital allocation and long-term investing principles.
Trade Alerts – Notifications on my personal transactions, providing transparency into my investment decisions.
Premium Chat – A space for premium members to discuss market moves, share insights, and ask questions directly.

As a free subscriber, you’ll receive portfolio updates, previews of premium content and insights to improve your investment journey. Premium members get full access to my research, deep dives, investment pitches, earnings updates, chat and real-time updates.

I recently made my deep dive into Ashtead Group free—so you can see exactly what to expect: Business model deep dive - Fundamentals and Valuation deep dive!

👋 Who Am I & What Are My Goals?

My name is Niklas, a former software developer and passionate private investor. I’ve been publicly documenting my investment journey for years through Twitter (since 2020), Seeking Alpha (2022-2023) and this newsletter (since 2023).

My investing philosophy is built on:

✅ Rational, cash flow-based investing – I focus on companies with strong fundamentals and cash generation, not hype, operating in attractive industries with long-term secular tailwinds.
✅ A long-term mindset – I seek businesses that can think and compound wealth over the years, not just quick gains. Often with large insider ownership.
✅ A focus on quality – I don’t chase turnaround stocks or speculative plays. Instead, I look for great businesses that can reinvest most of their cash flows at high rates of return or return it back to owners. ✅ Keeping it simple – You won’t find 5,000-word reports from me, I believe that you can make great investing decisions with a simple framework and in easy to understand language, while still covering all relevant areas. This way we can avoid most underperformers and find the rare winners worth holding for life.

Since tracking my portfolio in early 2022, I’ve outperformed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 by 10% and 6% while staying within my circle of competence. My goal is to provide transparent, research-driven investing insights that help professional and private investors alike make better decisions in an easy to understand fashion.

My portfolio since starting on 3rd January 2022 with my HMI strategy

SPY and QQQ performance since 3rd January 2022

🔍 What Kind of Companies Do I Cover?

I primarily focus on:

European Small & Mid-Cap Companies – Hidden compounders with strong fundamentals.
Global High-Quality Businesses – Industry leaders with sustainable moats.
Under-the-Radar Opportunities – Stocks that are overlooked by the broader market.

My research is independent, transparent and data-driven, with an emphasis on businesses that create long-term shareholder value.

📌Some relevant links to better navigate the service

📖 Full Post Archive – Browse all my research & insights. 📊 Portfolio Updates – Stay up to date with my investment decisions.
📂 Portfolio Explained – Read my investment cases for all holdings.
🔍 All Deep Dives Library – Explore my in-depth analysis of top businesses. 🔍 Business Model Deep Dive Library – All business model deep dives in one place. 🔍 Fundamentals Deep Dive Library – All fundamentals deep dives in one place. 💡 Investment Pitches – Quick takes on stocks with high upside potential. 📢 Earnings Updates – Reactions & discussions on key earnings reports.
💬 Join the Premium Chat – Get real-time updates and discuss investment ideas.
📱 Get the Substack App (optional) – A smoother reading experience with notifications for new posts.

🔧 Tools & Resources (Exclusive Discounts via Affiliate Links)

I use a variety of high-quality tools to research, track, and analyze investments. As a subscriber, you can access exclusive discounts on these essential resources. They each also offer a compeling free plan if you want to try it out first:

📊 Koyfin – 20% Off + 7-Day Free Trial

My go-to research platform for in-depth financial data, stock screening, and professional-grade analytics.

📈 Finchat – 15% Off

A powerful tool for visualizing data with unique KPIs, perfect for quickly assessing financial trends and company performance.

📌 Portseido – 20% Off

An easy-to-use portfolio tracking tool that calculates returns and offers fast, responsive support.

💡 Check them out and upgrade your investing toolkit today!

📩 Next Steps

📌 Want to stay updated? Subscribe to Heavy Moat Investments and get new insights directly in your inbox.

📌 Thinking about upgrading? Premium subscribers get full access to deep dives, earnings updates, real-time portfolio insights, exclusive chat and much more.

📌 Let’s connect! Join the discussion in the premium chat or follow me on Twitter for more insights.