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Classic Value Investors

Peaceful Investing (Dr. Vijay Malik)

Peaceful Investing (Dr. Vijay Malik) is a Classic Value Investors screen. It checks every NSE-listed stock against 3 conditions computed from nightly data, after excluding heavily pledged promoters and very small market caps. This page explains the rule, each figure and its source. It lists no stocks and is not advice.

What it does and why

Dr. Vijay Malik's 'Peaceful Investing' framework, documented at vijaymalik.com, is built around a simple idea: find businesses that generate real cash profits, grow without external capital, and are run by management that maintains financial discipline — then hold them. The nine criteria collectively profile a self-sustaining, cash-generative, low-risk business. CFO/PAT >= 1 in most years (cash flow quality) is the most important screen: it eliminates companies that report accounting profits while collecting less cash. Self-sustainable growth rate (no dilution needed) completes the picture. This is the most thoroughly documented and widely followed individual Indian investor framework available.

The rule, step by step

A stock must satisfy every condition below. Conditions are grouped under the pillar they test.

Earnings Quality

  • Years CFO Exceeds PAT (last 5) ≥ 4
  • PAT CAGR (5Y) > 12

Financial Safety

  • Debt/Equity < 1

Management Discipline

Described in the philosophy; not a pass/fail condition in the current rule

Hard excludes

  • Promoter pledge above 30% of the promoter's holding
  • Market cap below ₹500 crore
Passes the screen

Ranked by PAT CAGR (5Y), highest first.

The figures it uses

Years CFO Exceeds PAT (last 5)

Used in a condition
Formula
Of the latest five fiscal years, how many had operating cash flow above PAT, paired by fiscal-year label; abstains if any year lacks either figure and for banks
Input fields
cashFlowsFromOperatingActivities, pat
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=cf&period=annualFinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=pl&period=annual
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Debt/Equity

Used in a condition
Formula
Total debt ÷ total equity from the latest annual balance sheet; a company reporting zero debt has a ratio of 0; none is given when the debt figure is unknown or equity is not positive
Input fields
total debt, total equity
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=bs&period=annual
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

PAT CAGR (5Y)

Used in a condition
Formula
PAT ((Latest ÷ value 5 years earlier)^(1/5) − 1) × 100, both values positive
Input fields
pat
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=pl&period=annual
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Promoter Pledge

Hard exclude input
Formula
Pledged shares as a share of the promoter's own holding: pledgedSharesPct ÷ promoter holding × 100; blank when the quarter is not listed
Input fields
pledgedSharesPct, promoter holding
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterlyFinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/pattern/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Market Cap

Hard exclude input
Formula
Close × paid-up equity shares ÷ 10,000,000 (₹ crore)
Input fields
close, paidUpEquityShares
Source of record
Upstox · public historical candles, NSE_EQ|{ISIN} (no auth)FinEdge · /api/v1/daily-quotes/{symbol} (fallback)FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Corporate actions
Adjusted for corporate actions before use
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

What each figure means

Revenue CAGR (3 Years, %)

Compound annual growth rate of revenue over the past 3 fiscal years.

High is better

PAT CAGR (3 Years, %)

Compound annual growth rate of net profit over the past 3 fiscal years.

High is better

CFO / PAT Ratio (Most Recent Year)

Operating cash flow divided by net profit. A ratio >= 1.0 means every rupee of reported profit is backed by at least one rupee of actual cash received.

High is better

Debt-to-Equity Ratio

Total debt divided by total equity. Lower is safer. Vijay Malik requires D/E < 1.

D/E < 1 ensures the company owns more than it owes — the equity cushion exceeds the debt burden. Above 1, any adverse business cycle could threaten solvency.

Low is better

Promoter Pledged Shares (% of Total Equity)

Percentage of total equity pledged by promoters as collateral. Vijay Malik requires this to be 0% or near zero.

A promoter who has pledged shares is financially leveraged against the stock's price — a classic risk factor that Vijay Malik explicitly screens out. Any pledging disqualifies a company from this framework.

Low is better

Try the rule

Type hypothetical values to see which conditions they satisfy. These are not real stocks and nothing here is stored.

  • Years CFO Exceeds PAT (last 5) ≥ 4—
  • Debt/Equity < 1—
  • PAT CAGR (5Y) > 12—

Enter values to begin

How sensitive is it?

How many stocks pass if this threshold were set differently. Counts only; no stocks are named.

A worked example

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Evidence

What the harness measured

no_verified_figureNot yet tested

We have not measured this screen yet, so there is no record to explain.

Live monitoring

Not yet testable — 0 of 6 points needed to chart a rolling information coefficient.

  • 5-day IC -0.002 · signal date 2026-10-14 · n 4447

This is a historical, statistical measurement produced by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD's research harness on past data. It is not a prediction, and past results do not indicate future results. The universe is today's Nifty 500 constituents, so the sample is affected by survivorship bias. It describes how a screen's selections behaved in the past and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation.

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Rule version 1.0.0

Questions

How is this screen calculated?
Each stock is tested against 3 conditions using figures computed from exchange prices and company filings, adjusted for corporate actions. The rule is versioned; this page shows version 1.0.0.
How often does the screen update?
The figures are recomputed once each trading day after the nightly compute. A stock whose figures are more than three days old is left out rather than shown stale.
Is this investment advice?
No. This is educational material describing a screening method. It does not recommend any security and does not consider your circumstances.
Educational use only — GoQuant is a research tool. This page explains a screening method and is not a recommendation. Investment advice is provided by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD (AltQube), SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, registration no. INA000018373, under a signed advisory agreement and after a risk profile. Past performance is not indicative of future results.