Finance & Risk Scoring

Credit, market, and risk-based ranking models — how credit scores, market index weightings, and ESG or risk scoring systems are structured and calculated.

Credit Rating Agency Grades — How S&P, Moody's and Fitch Rank Debt How credit rating agencies rank borrowers: letter grades from AAA to D, analyst-driven assessment, the issuer-pays model, rating watches, and post-2008 criticisms.
Dow Jones Industrial Average — How the Price-Weighted Method Works How the Dow Jones Industrial Average works: price weighting, the divisor, 30 committee-picked companies, stock-split distortions, and why critics call it an anachronism.
ESG Company Scores — How Sustainability Ratings Work How ESG scoring systems rank companies: environmental, social and governance pillars, disclosure-based indicators, provider divergence, and greenwashing criticisms.
FICO Credit Score — How It Ranks Borrowers How the FICO credit score works: the five weighted factors (payment history 35%, amounts owed 30%), the 300–850 range, update mechanics, and criticisms.
Risk Scoring Models in Banking — How Banks Rank Borrowers How bank risk scoring works: PD/LGD/EAD, application and behavioral scorecards, logistic regression, Basel internal ratings, and model-risk regulation.
S&P 500 Index Methodology — How Membership and Weights Are Set How the S&P 500 works: committee selection criteria, float-adjusted market-cap weighting, profitability requirements, quarterly rebalancing, and criticisms.
Stock Market Index Weighting Methods — How Indexes Rank Companies How stock indexes weight companies: price-weighted, market-cap weighted, equal-weighted, and fundamental weighting — the design choices behind every index.
VantageScore — How the Credit Bureaus' Model Ranks Borrowers How VantageScore works: the tri-bureau model, its factor weightings, thin-file scoring from one month of history, the 300–850 range, and how it differs from FICO.