The stock market can be an enigma at times, even for us stockbrokers. Let me provide an example.

Hand in the air if you have bought a Domino’s pizza recently? Yep, I thought as such. I made the mistake of buying one many years ago, it was in the early hours of the morning when I didn’t have kids and could keep my eyes open past midnight. I vowed never to divert from the traditional authentic Italian pizza I grew up with each Friday night. I’ve asked around, and albeit a small sample, I realised it’s not just me that doesn’t rate the pizza.

In light of that, my question to you, dear reader, is would you buy shares in Domino’s Pizza if your stockbroker called you and recommended them as an investment? Probably not, I dare say. Well, I suggest you hang onto your hat. In the past five years, shareholders of Domino’s Pizza, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, have enjoyed a 547.07 per cent rise in the share price, 577.15 per cent if you include dividends. To quantify it, $10,000 invested 5 years ago is now worth a touch over $5,700,000 or so if you avoided the temptation of taking profits along the way. Why the stellar performance?

As it turns out, Domino’s Pizza is a brand with a global presence, sophisticated payment system, extremely strong balance sheet and an efficient supply chain. They sold $95m worth of pizzas last year. That’s a lot of pizza, wouldn’t you say? Close to 2 million at $5 a pop. Around $30m of sales were derived from Japan. (Between you and I, based on those numbers, I reckon there’s a market in Japan for a traditional Italian pizza franchise.) Japan aside, there’s also significant demand for this product in Europe, despite the perception amongst people I know that there isn’t.

On the flip side, whenever I visit a JB Hi-Fi store, I find the place packed to the rafters with people. You can’t help but think, ‘look at all these people, they must be making truckloads of money’. Most are browsing, others are enquiring and more often than not, depending on the time of day, there is some type of small wait at the registers. The internet aside, JB Hi-Fi one the cheapest places to buy TVs, video games, iPads (stuff you can’t download for free) as well as other appliances and even white goods. They keep their costs low, have a ‘stack ’em high, watch ’em fly’ business model and transfer the savings onto the consumer.

However, despite consistently selling products considered hot property, the JB Hi-Fi share price has gone backwards by around 5 per cent in the past 5 years. (Worth mentioning the company listed on the ASX in 2003 at 155c a share and is now trading at 1606c. If you’d invested $10,000 back in 2003, it would be worth … no, it’s too painful.) It just goes to show, even though the business might seem popular and sales numbers are strong (over $3bn in full year 2014 across 169 stores) it’s the impact on the bottom line that matters. Popularity doesn’t necessarily mean strong investment returns. JB Hi-Fi operates on a net profit margin of around 3.7 per cent, meaning 3.7c of every $1 of revenue goes to the bottom line. That margin exceeds that of other listed retailers on our market, but there isn’t much reward for effort, is there?

The lesson here in a nutshell is: if you’re having a night in with pizza and a DVD, the pizza joint will make the most money from you, don’t let personal biases or opinions turn you against an investment, do your homework, timing is everything, perception is not always reality and despite what anyone tells you, the stock market is a great place to get rich slowly, and broke quickly.

*Sam Fimis is a stockbroker with Patersons Securities and author of Premiership Portfolio: 6 Step Guide to Succeeding in the Stock Market. @premportfolio