Nifty Fifty

In the 1960s, there was a group of 50 stocks that all investors "had to own." These were names like Kodak and Xerox and Panasonic and Datsun, all of which are more than dead now, but they also included names like Disney, Coca-Cola, Gillette, GE, and a few other very growthy companies which traded at a higher price-to-earnings multiple than did the rest of the market. There were 50 of them, and this high multiple was considered... nifty.