Originally posted by tigershark 40 times forward is that a strict rule  there are many ted stocks that are 40 timesforward  a few you own basant, i also have some so could you pl be more specific as to what exactly you mean is it 40 forward with slowing growth be a more appropiate answer

That is certainly not the rule but it is the staarting point with some caveats;

1. There is tremendous scale and size of opportunity giving rise to visibility of earnings which can be back calculated. For eg. With the banking companies that we own we can check with in terms of branches; in retail with space signed etc etc.

2. Such earnings should be non cyclical so much that it is independent (to a large extent) on global cycles, international events, stk mkt movements.

3. There are comparable global business moodels with the global leader at 10x mkt cap to the local one which we are holding.

4. At smaller mkt caps (less then 2000 cr) everything is ignorable because a new business foray changes vevrything.

Interesting. Could you merge this post of yours here: EXIT: When to sell a stock?

I bought Infy in it's 2000 high of 7200 just before the dot com bust, present value adjusted to 900. Held it till this Jan and sold at 1350. Would have held longer but needed the funds. Can't help sometimes.

 I don't think any regular guy would have bought Infosys in '93 and held on to it.

   However, I know plenty of people who have held ITC, Reliance, L&T etc for long times and seen them go up over a 1000 fold.