See the forces inside the portfolio.

The Push–Pull Framework asks where an asset’s value comes from, how its risk arrives, and how each position changes the behavior of the whole.

The Push–Pull mark

Every position gets a number.

The Push–Pull axis A scale from nought to one hundred. Pull, meaning stored stability, at the left. Push, meaning forward momentum, at the right. Five bands: Strong Pull, Pull-Leaning, Balanced, Push-Leaning, Strong Push. PULL stored stability PUSH forward momentum 0 20 40 60 80 100 Strong Pull Pull-Leaning Balanced Push-Leaning Strong Push
  • 0 – 20Strong Pull · stored stability
  • 20 – 40Pull-Leaning
  • 40 – 60Balanced
  • 60 – 80Push-Leaning
  • 80 – 100Strong Push · forward momentum

Push and Pull are not judgments of quality. A position at ninety is not better than one at ten; it is differently shaped, and it will behave differently in a portfolio.

The same five questions, every position.

Each answer is scored, the five are averaged, and the average is where the position lands on the axis. No question counts for more than another, which is deliberate: the moment one does, the number starts arguing for a conclusion instead of describing a shape.

  • 01 Energy

    Does value come from stored strength today, or forward potential still being released?

  • 02 Time

    Does risk accumulate gradually, or arrive in compressed moments and discontinuities?

  • 03 Momentum

    Does the asset provide gravity and ballast, or accelerate as adoption compounds?

  • 04 Entropy

    Does it stabilize an existing order, or disrupt and reorganize the system around it?

  • 05 Perception

    How much rests on demonstrated fundamentals, and how much on belief in a future state?

The axis says what a position is.

Conviction asks whether it has earned a place.

  • Valuation

    What is being asked for it, against what it is plausibly worth.

  • Moat

    Whether the advantage is defensible, or merely current.

  • Financial Trajectory

    The direction the numbers have actually been traveling.

  • Assumptions Credibility

    What has to be true for the case to hold, and how much of it already is.

  • Insider Ownership

    Whether the people running it are exposed to the outcome.

  • Employee Sentiment

    What the people inside believe about the place they work.

A position can score high on the axis and still not earn a place. The axis describes shape; conviction decides whether the shape is worth owning. Read together they answer two different questions: what is this, and should it be here at all.