Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) closed at $190.31 on October 2, up 20.38% over twelve months. For most of its history, the firm was a trading house, and trading houses do not have moats. They have good years and bad ones depending on what markets do.
Morgan Stanley spent the last decade trying to become something else. Whether that worked is the question worth answering.
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What is Morgan Stanley’s (MS) Economic Moat, and is it Widening or Narrowing?
The Moat is Money That Does Not Leave:
An advisory relationship works differently from a trade. The client pays a percentage of what they have invested every year, and that fee arrives whether markets rise or fall. Those relationships are unusually durable. People change banks reluctantly and change the person…
