peter lynch averaged around 29.2% a year for thirteen years running magellan. this is his single filter for whether you should own something. "if you can't explain to a ten-year-old in two minutes or less why you own a stock, you shouldn't own it." "i'm amazed how many people own stocks they would not be able to tell you why they own it. if you really press them down, they'd say , the reason i own this is the sucker's going up." "and that's the only reason they own it." "if you want a piece of crap like that, you will never make money. somebody will come along with more whetstones or less whetstones, or a bigger megaflop or a smaller megaflop, and you won't have the foggiest idea what's happened." "i made money in dunkin donuts. i could understand it. when there were recessions i didn't have to worry, i could go there and people were still there. i didn't have to worry about low-priced korean imports." "i made 10 or 15 times my money in dunkin donuts."