Ekansh Mittal, a 29-year-old Kanpur-based trader, is making a killing on Dalal Street as some of the shares he holds have surged up to 1,700 per cent in last six years.Ekansh has a knack for spotting potential multibaggers in smallcap and midcap segments. He picks easy-to-understand businesses and those which have the ability to generate high returns on capital employed (RoCE) because of their inherent sustainable competitive advantage. Currently, his portfolio includes stocks such as Cera Sanitaryware Acrysil and VST Tillers , among others.Ekansh spotted Cera Sanitaryware, Wim Plast and Acrysil in 2011, and they have delivered 1,700 per cent, 1,400 per cent and 500 per cent returns, respectively, till now. And he is still holding these stocks.In 2012, Ekansh bought VST Tillers Tractors , which has delivered 400 per cent return till date. He also bought Amara Raja Batteries at Rs 100 in 2012. The stock is currently trading near Rs 930. He does not hold this stock any more.In 2013, Ekansh picked Can Fin Homes and Symphony and they have delivered him 1,500 per cent and 600 per cent returns till date. He bought Can Fin Homes at Rs 165 and Symphony at Rs 205. On May 12, 2017, Can Fin Homes was trading at Rs 2,661 and Symphony at Rs 1,460, indicating a return of 1,500 per cent and 600 per cent, respectively, in three years.In 2016, he bought Prima Plastics which has delivered him over 200 per cent return so far. Two other stocks, Pokarna and DFM Foods (bought in 2015), have delivered up to 200 per cent returns too.It has not been a winning trip all the way. And Ekansh doesn’t shy away from talking about the bets that have gone wrong.He told ETMarkets.com that IPCA Labs and Eros International were two picks on which he lost some money. In IPCA Labs, he failed to understand the gravity of the USFDA-related issues and believed the issues would get resolved early, but the company is taking too long to recover. In the case of Eros International, he was not sure of its accounting policies.Besides error of commission, there have been errors of omission as well. Ekansh says he missed out on investing in Ajanta Pharma Astral Poly Technik and La Opala RG despite realising their potential early.Ekansh prefers stocks that can grow earnings at a rapid pace without requiring access to outside capital markets and have a long runway ahead in terms of expanding market demand and/or shifting from the unorganised to the organised segment.He keeps an eye on the management prior to selecting a stock and goes for companies which are run by able, honest and owner-managers with interests directly aligned with minority shareholders and can be purchased at valuations where the growth component of the value equation comes free.As for stock picking, once a stock has been screened on the basis of financial performance, “We compare it to peers to get an overview of the overall industry and understand industry dynamics in more detail. Lastly, we try and reach out to the management through one-on-one meetings, AGMs or through conference calls but the focus is not to get future guidance but to improve our overall understanding of the business and the various variables involved,” he said.It was around November 2008 when Ekansh opened his demat account and started investing in equities directly from his pocket money. He was a third-year student of B Tech at that time in Noida. Since, he has become a Sebi-registered analyst and has been running his equity research firm Katalyst Wealth since 2011.On his research firm, Ekansh said: “When I started Katalyst Wealth, there were not many long-term investment-oriented research outfits. Brokerages want you to buy and sell at regular intervals as they earn their commissions from trades, while real wealth is created over longer term through steady compounding and through reduction in expenses and taxes and that’s how I wanted my clients to build their wealth.”He was featured in Forbes India in 2015.Ekansh likes to read and hear interviews of market legends such as Raamdeo Agrawal Sanjay Bakshi and Vijay Kedia “These are all giants of the investing field and there’s so much to learn from their experiences, both good and bad,” he said.