Nifty Fifty, Definition
Nifty Fifty refers to a group of large cap NYSE stocks that were popular among institutional investors in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
The group included names such as General Electric, Coca Cola and IBM (which continued to perform over the long term) and recently challenged companies such as Polaroid and Xerox. The group generally contained companies with consistent earnings and high P/E ratios.
While this group are seen to have fueled the bull market of the early 1970's they suffered during the bear market of 1974. Companies in the Nifty Fifty were also called 'one decision' stocks, because they were considered safe to buy and hold indefinately.