I came across this NY Times article from 2000 where big time investors were asked to name one stock to buy and hold until 2010. Here is the list with split-adjusted stock prices for 2000, 2010, 2020. JDS Uniphase was spun off into two companies in 2015. JDSU and CSCO were the two trendiest companies as both went up several thousands of percent from their IPO in the 1990s.
| 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| JDS Uniphase | 100 | 3 | |
| Cisco | 60 | 20 | 45 |
| Oracle | 39 | 25 | 55 |
| Nokia | 48 | 13 | 4 |
| Medtronic | 51 | 38 | 100 |
| Flextronics International | 35 | 7 | 14 |
| Henry Schein Inc. | 5 | 22 | 67 |
| Waste Management | 25 | 35 | 116 |
| Zee Telefilms | 500 | 137 | 284 |
| Jones Apparel Group | 10 | 11 | 28 |
Yikes. 2000 was the peak of the dot-com bubble so the trendy stocks were the wrong choices. The winners were in the untrendy sectors of medical supplies, retail clothing, and garbage.