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Investing in Hidden Monopolies: Why Customer Loyalty Creates Superior Moats and How You Can Profit
Investing in quality companies is often cited as the most reliable way to achieve successful investment returns. However, the question why do so many investors adopting this approach fail to generate such returns?
Many books have been written on investing, but only every few generations a book emerges that challenges the way we think about investing. This is such a book. After decades of research into why some companies stay successful while others fail, former Head of Equities, Patrick Wierckx managed to uncover the answer. Now, for the first time, he shares his insights in a book that captivates even the most experienced investors. By drawing on his more than 25 years of institutional investment management experience, he offers a groundbreaking approach to help investors analyze companies more accurately and achieve successful investment returns.
Whether you are a beginning investor or a seasoned professional, Hidden Monopolies offers an invaluable resource for every investor who wants to take full advantage of those companies that deliver superior returns over the long term.
HIDDEN MONOPOLIES will teach secrets to achieving successful investment returnsHow to let investments work for you, rather then against youHow to effectively analyze a company in a short period of timeHow to find hidden gems among companies that are built to lastThe timeless principle that underpins enduring business successHow to spot the warning signs hiding behind a company's successHow to predict a company's future success even when data is scarce
Many books have been written on investing, but only every few generations a book emerges that challenges the way we think about investing. This is such a book. After decades of research into why some companies stay successful while others fail, former Head of Equities, Patrick Wierckx managed to uncover the answer. Now, for the first time, he shares his insights in a book that captivates even the most experienced investors. By drawing on his more than 25 years of institutional investment management experience, he offers a groundbreaking approach to help investors analyze companies more accurately and achieve successful investment returns.
Whether you are a beginning investor or a seasoned professional, Hidden Monopolies offers an invaluable resource for every investor who wants to take full advantage of those companies that deliver superior returns over the long term.
HIDDEN MONOPOLIES will teach secrets to achieving successful investment returnsHow to let investments work for you, rather then against youHow to effectively analyze a company in a short period of timeHow to find hidden gems among companies that are built to lastThe timeless principle that underpins enduring business successHow to spot the warning signs hiding behind a company's successHow to predict a company's future success even when data is scarce
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 12, 2025
About the author
Patrick Wierckx
1 bookPatrick J. Wierckx, former head of Equities, has successfully managed institutional equity portfolios for more than 25 years. Patrick is an Amazon Bestseller Author, an Institutional Investor Award-nominee, and the author of several academic papers, as well as other publications. He is a CFA Charter holder, a registered ESMA Institutional Investment Advisor and a member of the CFA Institute. Patrick holds a master's degree in business economics.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 10, 2025
This book was thoughtfully written for active equity investors. It provides deep ideas and frameworks on how to analyse customer behavior. Connecting with clients through value-adding services and products in a meaningful way is the key to sustained business success. Long-term investment success depends on it. Particularly if you have the tools and stamina to research the size of the "moat", competitive advantages, and general business quality. Customer-obsessed companies like Amazon and Apple, but also lesser-known names are discussed. Food for thought for deep-diving stock-picking aficionados that like the ideas of Buffett/Munger, Nick Sleep, Michael Mauboussin, and Pat Dorsey. Highly recommended.
July 1, 2025
A Must-Read Guide to Finding Real Moats Where It Matters Most: The Customer
Hidden Monopolies is a compelling addition to the growing library of books on “economic moats”—that famous Buffett idea describing a company's ability to defend profits and market share against competitors. What sets this book apart is Patrick Wierckx’s sharp focus on the customer as the true foundation of any moat.
After all, the customer is the ultimate source of cash flow—the “gift that keeps on giving” when loyalty is secured. Wierckx does an excellent job unpacking the strategies companies use to create those loyal, high-value customers, with vivid, well-chosen examples that make the ideas stick.
Equally valuable, the book offers practical tools to assess how deep and wide a company's moat really is, and how durable it might be—critical input for serious valuation work.
If you're an investor looking to sharpen your eye for quality businesses with sustainable competitive advantages, this book will improve your process. It’s not just theory; it’s a clear, usable framework for identifying the companies that can keep delivering year after year.
Hidden Monopolies is a compelling addition to the growing library of books on “economic moats”—that famous Buffett idea describing a company's ability to defend profits and market share against competitors. What sets this book apart is Patrick Wierckx’s sharp focus on the customer as the true foundation of any moat.
After all, the customer is the ultimate source of cash flow—the “gift that keeps on giving” when loyalty is secured. Wierckx does an excellent job unpacking the strategies companies use to create those loyal, high-value customers, with vivid, well-chosen examples that make the ideas stick.
Equally valuable, the book offers practical tools to assess how deep and wide a company's moat really is, and how durable it might be—critical input for serious valuation work.
If you're an investor looking to sharpen your eye for quality businesses with sustainable competitive advantages, this book will improve your process. It’s not just theory; it’s a clear, usable framework for identifying the companies that can keep delivering year after year.
June 30, 2025
This book explains that how customers feel matters more than who the competitors are, proving real life examples and a practical toolkit for identying hidden monopolies.
May 24, 2025
Most investing books repackage the same ideas. Hidden Monopolies is different. It taught me to spot companies with "monopoly-like" power through the lens of customer behavior — something other frameworks overlook.
May 24, 2025
Hidden Monopolies reframes company analysis through the lens of customer value. This perspective makes the book both insightful and actionable for long-term investors. A must-read.
June 5, 2025
If you aspire to become a better investor, I recommend you buy and read this book.
The book provides a great framework to think about the long-term competitive advantage of companies through the lens of the customer, who is the main driver for long-term cashflow generation of each business. You’ll need to do the work, but I’m quite certain it will be worth it.
Not only does the book provide insight into what to look for in “great companies”, it also helps you “weed out” those companies that have weaknesses in their long-term competitiveness that might not have been so apparent without reading the book. The book entices you to challenge your perspective on the long-term prospects of a company by zooming in on factors that are important but seem to be “underrepresented” in the field currently.
Becoming a better investor is a journey that never ends. The beauty of it is that you keep on learning, either from your mistakes or the mistakes from others, but also from those things you see tested through time either by yourself or by others and that turn out to work. Doing that for a long time and with great passion produces books like this one in my opinion.
The book provides a great framework to think about the long-term competitive advantage of companies through the lens of the customer, who is the main driver for long-term cashflow generation of each business. You’ll need to do the work, but I’m quite certain it will be worth it.
Not only does the book provide insight into what to look for in “great companies”, it also helps you “weed out” those companies that have weaknesses in their long-term competitiveness that might not have been so apparent without reading the book. The book entices you to challenge your perspective on the long-term prospects of a company by zooming in on factors that are important but seem to be “underrepresented” in the field currently.
Becoming a better investor is a journey that never ends. The beauty of it is that you keep on learning, either from your mistakes or the mistakes from others, but also from those things you see tested through time either by yourself or by others and that turn out to work. Doing that for a long time and with great passion produces books like this one in my opinion.
February 4, 2026
This was good. A solid addition to the qualitative analysis world that investors must find edges within if they are going to survive the AI revolution in our field.
August 29, 2025
In addition to being a financial analyst, I'm a collector of mental models. This book, along with another I've read recently, Where the Money Is: Value Investing in the Digital Age, goes a long way towards providing mental models that help to explain the current success, some might say outsized success, of a relatively few companies here in the U.S. in 2025.
Wierckx goes beyond the overt moats (barriers to competition) supported by competitive advantage to help the reader discover 'hidden moats' driven by customer advantage. (I say 'help the reader', but as you will discover, it takes a lot more work beyond the reading or even understanding of Wierckx's model).
Note the subtle difference between 'competitive advantage' and 'customer advantage', The author's assessment of moats begins and ends with the customer. He reviews Michael E. Porter's Five Forces model, but in a Jui-jitsu move with Buyers (customers), embraces them to capture them on the firm's side of the moat through intense customer focus, making it difficult for customers to leave.
Wierckx enumerates five moats:
1) 'Sticky Product' moats
2) 'Complementary Product' moats
3) 'Information Asymmetry' moats
4) 'Ecosystem' moats
5) 'Platform' moats
Not just an idea guy, he goes into great detail over how to measure customer loyalty and stickiness. He further breaks down the barriers to customer switching into Base Barriers (those internal to the customer), Exit Barriers (those keeping you customer with you), and Entry Barriers (those that have to be overcome for your customer to use a new firm). Within these three types lie 20 separate barriers to evaluate - each with a different impact depending on the type of moat being evaluated. Like I said, there's work involved.
Wierckx gives a formula based on your findings to quantify the moat strength (MSI).
This book is very thorough and provides a great framework for analysis. I'd encourage the reader to test the author's assumptions and tailor his formulas to their own needs.
An added bonus: the author gives a wealth of resources to help the reader find the crucial metrics surrounding customer retention and satisfaction.
Two criticisms: the MSI formula is overly complex as presented - you do not need matrix algebra to calculate the score. And two, many of the illustrations are too simple or just plain useless.
The premise aims for the casual investor; the detail aims for the practitioner. The ideas in this book will receive immediate implementation in my work.
Wierckx goes beyond the overt moats (barriers to competition) supported by competitive advantage to help the reader discover 'hidden moats' driven by customer advantage. (I say 'help the reader', but as you will discover, it takes a lot more work beyond the reading or even understanding of Wierckx's model).
Note the subtle difference between 'competitive advantage' and 'customer advantage', The author's assessment of moats begins and ends with the customer. He reviews Michael E. Porter's Five Forces model, but in a Jui-jitsu move with Buyers (customers), embraces them to capture them on the firm's side of the moat through intense customer focus, making it difficult for customers to leave.
Wierckx enumerates five moats:
1) 'Sticky Product' moats
2) 'Complementary Product' moats
3) 'Information Asymmetry' moats
4) 'Ecosystem' moats
5) 'Platform' moats
Not just an idea guy, he goes into great detail over how to measure customer loyalty and stickiness. He further breaks down the barriers to customer switching into Base Barriers (those internal to the customer), Exit Barriers (those keeping you customer with you), and Entry Barriers (those that have to be overcome for your customer to use a new firm). Within these three types lie 20 separate barriers to evaluate - each with a different impact depending on the type of moat being evaluated. Like I said, there's work involved.
Wierckx gives a formula based on your findings to quantify the moat strength (MSI).
This book is very thorough and provides a great framework for analysis. I'd encourage the reader to test the author's assumptions and tailor his formulas to their own needs.
An added bonus: the author gives a wealth of resources to help the reader find the crucial metrics surrounding customer retention and satisfaction.
Two criticisms: the MSI formula is overly complex as presented - you do not need matrix algebra to calculate the score. And two, many of the illustrations are too simple or just plain useless.
The premise aims for the casual investor; the detail aims for the practitioner. The ideas in this book will receive immediate implementation in my work.
May 20, 2025
Hidden Monopolies is one of the few books that has genuinely shifted the way I think about businesses and competitive advantages.
At its core, this book challenges the dominance of frameworks like Porter’s Five Forces, which have long been the default for analyzing industry structure and competitive dynamics. The central thesis of Hidden Monopolies is a unique one: the true staying power of a company lies in its customer behavior. How often do its customers return, how much friction there is to switching, and how embedded the product or service is in daily life. These are the modern moats.
What makes this book stand out is its clarity and practicality. The author doesn’t just critique existing models — he builds a compelling new one. He explains how to identify different forms of customer dependence, how to observe them in both qualitative and quantitative ways, and how to incorporate them into investment decisions.
Highly recommended for fundamental investors, equity analysts, and anyone who deals with corporate strategy.
At its core, this book challenges the dominance of frameworks like Porter’s Five Forces, which have long been the default for analyzing industry structure and competitive dynamics. The central thesis of Hidden Monopolies is a unique one: the true staying power of a company lies in its customer behavior. How often do its customers return, how much friction there is to switching, and how embedded the product or service is in daily life. These are the modern moats.
What makes this book stand out is its clarity and practicality. The author doesn’t just critique existing models — he builds a compelling new one. He explains how to identify different forms of customer dependence, how to observe them in both qualitative and quantitative ways, and how to incorporate them into investment decisions.
Highly recommended for fundamental investors, equity analysts, and anyone who deals with corporate strategy.
May 20, 2025
Hidden Monopolies is one of the few books that has genuinely shifted the way I think about businesses and competitive advantages.
At its core, this book challenges the dominance of frameworks like Porter’s Five Forces, which have long been the default for analyzing industry structure and competitive dynamics. The central thesis of Hidden Monopolies is a unique one: the true staying power of a company lies in its customer behavior. How often do its customers return, how much friction there is to switching, and how embedded the product or service is in daily life. These are the modern moats.
What makes this book stand out is its clarity and practicality. The author doesn’t just critique existing models — he builds a compelling new one. He explains how to identify different forms of customer dependence, how to observe them in both qualitative and quantitative ways, and how to incorporate them into investment decisions.
Highly recommended for fundamental investors, equity analysts, and anyone who deals with corporate strategy.
At its core, this book challenges the dominance of frameworks like Porter’s Five Forces, which have long been the default for analyzing industry structure and competitive dynamics. The central thesis of Hidden Monopolies is a unique one: the true staying power of a company lies in its customer behavior. How often do its customers return, how much friction there is to switching, and how embedded the product or service is in daily life. These are the modern moats.
What makes this book stand out is its clarity and practicality. The author doesn’t just critique existing models — he builds a compelling new one. He explains how to identify different forms of customer dependence, how to observe them in both qualitative and quantitative ways, and how to incorporate them into investment decisions.
Highly recommended for fundamental investors, equity analysts, and anyone who deals with corporate strategy.
July 1, 2025
Het boek 'Hidden Monopolies' gaat over wat het duurzame concurrentievoordeel ('moat') van een bedrijf werkelijk inhoudt.
Als je geïnteresseerd bent in duurzame marktdominantie is dit boek zeer de moeite waard! Het bewijst dat klantafhankelijkheid – en niet de zwakte van de concurrent – de echte moat is.
Als je geïnteresseerd bent in duurzame marktdominantie is dit boek zeer de moeite waard! Het bewijst dat klantafhankelijkheid – en niet de zwakte van de concurrent – de echte moat is.
April 28, 2026
Very well thought out and thorough.The book was mis-titled..the monopolies mentioned are definitely not hidden! The book would be improved by more case studies and the description of smaller companies that nobody would think of that had consumer-focused monopolies
June 6, 2025
The ‘moat’ concept redefined. This book gives you a unique customer-focused way to look for businesses that will stand the test of time. Recommended also for entrepeneurs!
July 3, 2025
I recommend this book. It is rare to see a book blend customer psychology with investing so effectively.
September 21, 2025
great concise overview of customer-centric moats
November 19, 2025
Looking at businesses from a different angle, giving you a clear investment edge. This book should be read by every investor.
February 5, 2026
Great body of work
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews