100 to 1 by Thomas W. Phelps
Key Takeaways
Few ask too much from their investing – have high goals for your returns
Fortunes are made by buying right and holding on
4 criteria for fast growing companies
Small, sheer size militates against great growth
Relatively unknown
Unique product that would do an essential job better, cheaper, and/or faster than before, or provide a new service with prospects of great and long-continued sales increases
It must have a strong, progressive, research-minded management
Take 13F direct investing list and make that universe – take the most appealing and do deep dives to truly understand
Except to learn from experience, one should never waste time looking back
Stay with your investments as long as the companies are increasing their earnings
Who is talking often more important than what is being said – never forget that people whose self-interest is diametrically opposed to your own are trying to persuade you to act every day. Try to identify people whose interests correspond with yours
Never if you can help it take an investment action for a non-investment
Stock “too high,” need the realized gains for tax purposes, stock not moving, new management, new competition…
Timing not too important if find the right company
Don’t have to buy small, murky stocks near the bottom to get a 100 bagger (IBM, Pfizer…)
Often more profitable to ignore the market and focus on stock selection
Buy a good stock (earnings, good assets that people don’t think will earn) when nobody likes it
More important to be right than quick
Buy right and hold on does not equal buy and forget – eternal vigilance
When any rule / formula substitutes thought, discard it
Must consider future size / revenues of potential 100 bagger
20% compounded over 50 years, a company must be 9,100 times as big at the end of the period as at the beginning
Must evaluate the competitive status of the company not as it is today but as it will be six to eight years from now, when it is three or four times bigger
