The pool
What the pool holds, how positions are tiered, and how stocks are added or removed.
The pool is the protocol's balance sheet. Every stock the treasury has acquired sits in it, each with committed backing, and every distribution is carved from it. Understanding the pool is understanding what you actually own exposure to.
Composition
The pool holds dividend-paying equities exclusively. Non-payers are excluded by construction — a position that pays nothing produces no income stream, which removes the entire hold side of the redeem-or-hold decision and reduces the position to a price bet.
Selection criteria, in rough order of weight:
- An established payout. A record of paying, not a single recent declaration.
- Coverage. Payments funded from earnings and cash flow rather than from borrowing.
- Liquidity. Enough depth in the underlying that positions can be acquired and unwound without distorting price.
- Diversification. Preference for names that reduce concentration in sectors already heavily represented.
Tiers
Every position carries a tier. Tiers are descriptive labels for the kind of exposure a position represents — they are not a quality ranking, and a Small Cap position is not a worse outcome than a Blue Chip one. They exist so you can filter, and so the pool's shape is legible at a glance.
| Tier | Positions | Backing | Share | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Chip | 20 | $3.8M | 52.4% | Mega-cap issuers with multi-decade operating histories and the deepest secondary-market liquidity. |
| Growth | 20 | $1.8M | 25.5% | Lower current yield, higher historical dividend growth rate. Held for compounding rather than income. |
| Dividend Aristocrat | 20 | $1M | 14.3% | Issuers with 25+ consecutive years of dividend increases. The income core of the pool. |
| Mid Cap | 20 | $420.4K | 5.9% | Mid-capitalisation issuers with established payout policies and thinner liquidity than blue chips. |
| Small Cap | 20 | $140.2K | 2% | Smaller issuers, often regional. Highest variance in both yield and price. |
How a stock is tiered
Tiering is a function of market capitalisation and payout profile. Capitalisation sets the default band; payout history can override it. An issuer with 25 or more consecutive years of dividend increases is classified as a Dividend Aristocrat regardless of its capitalisation band, because that record is the more informative attribute. A large issuer with a low yield and a high dividend growth rate is classified as Growth rather than Blue Chip, because holders of that position are being paid in appreciation rather than income.
Tiers are reviewed as circumstances change. A reclassification does not affect positions already distributed; it changes how the position is labelled and filtered going forward.
Backing and weight
Each position has backing — the value committed to it when it entered the pool, adjusted for subsequent additions. Backing does two jobs:
- It sets distribution weight. Slices are carved in proportion to backing, so heavily-backed positions dominate what holders accumulate. See Synthetic ETF.
- It sets redemption value. Redeeming a position pays out against its prevailing backing. See Redeem vs hold.
Allocation odds
The odds figure on each card is inversely proportional to backing: the smaller the backing, the higher the odds. This is the selection probability inherited from the single-position allocation model, and it is deliberately the opposite of distribution weight. A cheap position is easy to draw; an expensive one dominates your accumulated holdings. Both figures are shown because they answer different questions.
How stocks enter
Acquisitions are funded from accumulated tax revenue. When the treasury reaches a workable size for an efficient purchase, it acquires a position and lists it. The listing records the acquisition, assigns a listing ID, and the position becomes eligible for distributions immediately.
Because acquisition is funded by trading activity, pool growth tracks volume rather than time. A quiet month adds little; a volatile month adds a lot. See Tax.
How stocks leave
Positions exit the pool in three ways:
- Full distribution. Repeated slicing eventually exhausts a position. It leaves the pool having been fully distributed to holders.
- Corporate action. Acquisitions, delistings, and mergers force an exit. Proceeds are recycled into the treasury for redeployment.
- Removal on criteria failure.If an issuer suspends its dividend, it no longer meets the pool's only hard requirement and becomes a candidate for removal.
A removal never claws back positions already distributed. Holders keep what they received; the position simply stops appearing in future distributions.
Viewing the pool
The full pool is browsable from the home page in grid or list view, filterable by tier, with each card flippable to show P/L, backing, odds, payout frequency, listing date, and listing ID. Every acquisition also appears in the Explorer as a Stock acquired event.