I don't know that there are precise or insightful answers to this question, but how do you find stocks like BID (Sotheby's), that go pretty steadily up at an astonishing rate. Since March '09 BID is up over 500%. Granted, that was a generational low, but still, 500%; I've made maybe 30% since then (that may just be a reflection of my lack of ability!). I made some money on BID along the way, but only maybe 1/10 of what buying and holding would have done. Always figured it'd come back down to maybe twice its lows in '09, but nope, just kept on climbing (well, a decent pullback last July).