StoneX Group Inc. SNEX

The business

StoneX is the plumbing of global markets for clients too small or too specialized for the megabanks: futures clearing for grain elevators and energy hedgers, securities market-making, physical metals, payments to frontier countries. The reported top line is a meaningless $132B because physical commodities pass through it; the economic revenue is net operating revenue, about $2.1B last fiscal year and now compounding faster. Growth comes from acquisitions that bolt client books onto fixed clearing infrastructure, R.J. O'Brien being the largest yet, adding 32 million listed contracts and $6.6B of client float in its first full quarter. The moat is that infrastructure plus regulatory licenses across dozens of jurisdictions, tedious to replicate and sticky once a hedger clears through you.