Old Investing Advice Gems from Wallstraits days

[d.o.g.]

d.o.g how many years of discounted cf or cf evaluation we should do? 5 years 10 years? or 20 years for predictable ones?

I do not have the answer. For myself, I only do DCF when the cash flows are certain AND finite i.e. at some point they run out.

Most operating companies are organized as perpetual going concerns, this means you need to take a view on the next 30 years - or more. I have no confidence in my ability to see the future 30 years from now. So I don't normally do DCF on going concerns.

I normally use DCF only for limited-life entities e.g. mines, oil/gas leases, shipping trusts, highway concessions etc. For such entities the limited life simplifies the problem considerably since I do not need to project cash flows beyond the termination date.