My advice for the next decade: Keep on the lookout for tomorrow’s big baggers. You’re likely to find one.

If you own a retail company, another key factor in the analysis is figuring out whether the company is nearing the end of its expansion phase—what I call the “late innings” in its ball game. When a Radio Shack or a Toys “R” Us has established itself in 10 percent of the country, it’s a far different prospect than having stores in 90 percent of the

No wonder people make money in the real estate market and lose money in the stock market. They spend months choosing their houses, and minutes choosing their stocks. In fact, they spend more time shopping for a good microwave oven than shopping for a good investment.

Sterling’s aspirin sales were 6.5 percent of its total revenues, but close to 15 percent of the company’s profits—aspirin was Sterling’s most profitable product.

You don’t necessarily have to know anything about a company for its stock to go up. But the important point is that (1) the oil experts, on average, are in a better position than doctors to decide when to buy or to sell Schlumberger; and (2) the doctors, on average, know better than oil experts when to invest in a successful drug. The person with t

Sooner or later every popular fast-growing industry becomes a slow-growing industry, and numerous analysts and prognosticators are fooled.

But for as long as they can keep it up, fast growers are the big winners in the stock market. I look for the ones that have good balance sheets and are making substantial profits. The trick is figuring out when they’ll stop growing, and how much to pay for the growth.

In general, corporate insiders are net sellers, and they normally sell 2.3 shares to every one share that they buy. After the 1,000-point drop from August to October, 1987, it was reassuring to discover that there were four shares bought to every one share sold by insiders across the board. At least they hadn’t lost their faith.

It turns out that most hotels and motels lose money on their restaurants, and the restaurants cause 95 percent of the complaints.