Building a screening frame before you open the filings

A screening review without a written frame turns into a sequence of one-off opinions. That feels thorough in the moment and useless three months later, when nobody remembers why a name survived.

Start with constraints you already have

Most private books already carry informal rules: no micro-caps, no double-digit net debt to EBITDA, no single name above a certain weight. Write those down. If a rule is soft, say so — “prefer” is different from “hard stop.”

Separate quality from price

Mixing “is this a sound business?” with “is it cheap today?” in one score produces mush. Run quality and balance-sheet tests first. Valuation bands come second, against peers that actually compete for the same capital.

Liquidity is not optional colour

A brilliant thesis trapped in a name you cannot exit in size is still a problem. Agree a minimum average volume or spread tolerance before the pass begins, especially for AIM and smaller overseas listings.

Freeze the frame before the first keep/remove

Once names are on the table, emotional attachment rewrites criteria. Freeze the document. If the frame itself is wrong, amend it deliberately after the pass — and record the change — rather than bending it mid-argument.

When we run an equity screening review, the frame is the first deliverable you approve. Everything else hangs from it.