Munger Mode rating: 4 out of 5 — Buy. Our own rating from the research report below, on business quality first: moat durability and management, with price separating the top three.
Charlie liked to say the best business is a toll bridge with no competing bridge. CME Group is the closest thing American finance has to that bridge. It owns the benchmark futures contracts on U.S. interest rates, the S&P 500, crude oil, natural gas, gold, and corn — contracts whose liquidity cannot be replicated because open interest lives inside CME's own clearinghouse and cannot be closed anywhere else. The business converts roughly 65 cents of every revenue dollar into operating income, spends barely one cent of every revenue dollar on capital expenditures, and mails essentially all of its earnings back to shareholders. The moat has repelled every well-funded challenger for forty years, and the newest one (FMX, backed by ten global banks) has so far barely registered.
Recent filings analysed: 8-K (2026-08-11), 10-Q (2026-07-24), 8-K (2026-07-22), 8-K (2026-06-17).
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