Gabelli Asset Fund

I was a freshman economics student when required to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. Shortly thereafter appeared an article about the Gabelli Asset Fund, lowering its minimum deposit to zero for initial investment. That was right in my budget, so I chipped in to seed my first individual retirement account at age 18. Twenty years later the fund has returned an average of 10.05%, versus Standard & Poor's 500 index at 7.67%.

Here are ten big winners in that portfolio, showing their return over the last decade:

Lufkin Industries: 806%
Precision Castparts: 660%
Ametek: 604%
Flowserve Corp.: 594%
PACCAR: 549%
Flowers Foods: 519%
BorgWarner: 482%
Church & Dwight: 477%
Rollins: 452%
EOG Resources: 424%

Not bad!