As a Warren Buffett fan, I finally got to reading this book which is highly recommended by him. Buffett, it is said, is 85% Ben Graham and 15% Philip Fisher - whatever that means. I think that is a nice slogan but Buffett is really 100% Buffett. Unlike Graham and Fisher, Buffett is more than a money manager. Buffett has an incredible ability to buy entire companies with their management included.

I wanted to like Fisher's book, but I found it so boring that I quit after about 100 pages. Normally I don't write reviews for books that I quit (after all it is possible that I did not give the book a fair chance), but I figured if I read more than a third of a book I should be allowed to critique it and hopefully help future readers. I hope this review helps you.

Fisher guides us through 15 points to study before buying stock in a company. His points are certainly valid but they are too academic. Furthermore he does not guide the reader as to how to go about really acquiring the necessary knowledge. He dedicates three pages to "scuttlebutt" which is supposed to help us learn how to go about acquiring the necessary information. His writing style is very dull. I can read a dull book if it teaches me stuff but I did not find this book educational. The book is a better fit for management consultants who have to make fancy presentations to their clients than to investors. Fisher advocates buying growth stocks with certain characteristics, but there is no discussion on the price the investor has to pay for the growth. You can buy an outstanding company but if you overpay for it then it is a lousy investment. If you invested in Microsoft, a well managed company that is almost a monopoly in 1999, your returns would not be that impressive today. In the past 9 years nothing particularly went wrong with Microsoft - it is just that the price was too high in 1999.

If you are still considering purchasing this book, I recommend scanning the chapter on the "15 points". If it clicks then maybe it is the right book for you.

This book is a timeless classic on growth investment principles and research. Some reviewers have implied that Fisher's painstaking research is not practical and doesn't apply today. Beware, because if you are like Philip Fisher and you don't like diversification, the lack of research can be deadly to your investments! As he plainly states in the book, if you are not going to do the research, you should still learn what it entails so you can hire someone who can do the proper research for you.

This book has much more than the original "common stocks and uncommon profits". It's a nice collection of some of Fisher's greatest works. Just wish there was a hardcover version.

Warren Buffet has often referred to Fisher as his second biggest influence after Graham. Need more be said? You must read this book if you're interested in investing your own money. Fisher has a number of tenets that are well worth learning before you buy a stock. Fisher, like Buffett, was also a buy-and-hold-for-the-long-run investor and made most of his money with only a few stocks. This book is definitely worth the money.

The book is not even close to what the title claims to be. The strategy in the book is outdated and it spent too much time to "polish" the author family instead! It's not for those who want solid knowledges for real battles. It was not worth the money I paid at all.

One of the main, repetitive advices is this book is to talk to the CEO or CFO of the company whose stock you are going to buy. I am rather confused how that is possible for an average investor. Since I am not yet in the same league as Warren Buffet or even Mr Fisher, I found much of the book's advice useless to me.
There are some good points though (not paying attention to trailing P/E too much, not being obsessed with price of the stock, Cost averaging, not selling a winner to take profits, etc.) which make the audiobook useful.

I realized before I looked up this title on Amazon, it would have alot of 5 star reviews, simply for Fisher's stature in the market, and the praise he gets from Buffett. Having said that, your typical investor will probably not analyze the company the same way Fisher did.

Example in the book: Point 10-How good are the company's cost analysis and accounting controls? Fisher suggests talking to people within the company, at least to try to get some feel of how good they are, knowing it will be very difficult to get a precise understanding of how good they are. He spends a page basically explaining accounting controls are important, but it's difficult to analyze in a company.

There are a few things in the book like that above. Fisher stressed talking to the competition to get a sense of how well the company you are actually researching is doing.

There are other important gems in the book, however, that you should be able to find readily available on the internet or newspaper. These concepts have allowed me to make good money in the market, that I would have otherwise not earned as an investor in growth stocks. For that reason, this book is highly recommended for your growth stock investor.

It is so interesting to see Fisher praise companies such as Alcoa, Dupont, Dow, IBM, Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard, and Motorola as excellent growth companies... in 1957. Very rarely does he mention a company not in business today, and I can only think of 2 that didn't "work out," Ampex and California Micro Devices. Neither of these are growth stories. However, continuing to name companies in 1957 that are today, steady, sizable operations should tell you something about his acumen for picking strong long term investments.

This is a book worth reading, understand some concepts will be hard to implement, but seeing the results he obtained gives you incentive to do the best you can to research as much as he did.

In summary: This book is not overrated, and it is the best "growth stock" book I have ever read.

Having been associated with Wall Street for 35 years, I was lucky enough to have been in the same room with Philip Fisher on more than one occasion. He was a completely self-contained man, extremely comfortable in his own skin. He knew who he was, what he was, and what he could be. He possessed zero airs about him. These traits seem to run freely in many MASTER investors, including Warren Buffett.

Many have mentioned that Buffett considers himself to be 85% Benjamin Graham, and 15% Philip Fisher. This needs to be updated. If you spoke with Buffett today, he would tell you that those ratios are distorted, and the reason is Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's investing partner at Berkshire Hathaway.

Charlie Munger is cut from the same cloth as Philip Fisher. They are growth players, and willing to pay up for a stock. For decades Buffett could NEVER PAY UP for a stock. He wanted them dirt cheap, so cheap in fact that some big plays got away from him forever. I don't know how many years ago, Buffett mentioned in a meeting I attended that he once owned a considerable amount of Disney. It would be a controlling amount in today's market; it got away from him, and tens of billions of dollars in that play alone.

In the old days when Buffett was strictly Graham and Dodd, he could not buy a GROWTH stock. He still cringes at the thought. Munger however taught Buffett to pay up. An example was Flight Safety International for which Buffett paid a previously unheard price-earning ratio. There are people around Buffett who know him well who will tell you that Munger is the superior investor. What you need to know is that sometimes stocks are DIRT CHEAP because they are DIRT, to use a Munger line.

Philip Fisher like Munger is a MASTER INVESTOR worthy of spending whatever time you can spare studying. If you want to walk in the footsteps of a MASTER, you must study the MASTER, and Fisher has a tremendous amount to offer.

I have managed billions of dollars in my lifetime. I am telling you this because you need to know that the SKUTTLEBUTT method that Fisher is famous for is something that anyone can used, starting today. Most of Wall Street research or any research that I have seen over the decades is not worth the paper it is printed on. On more than one occasion I have asked if the paper is soft enough to use for toilet paper.

With the scuttlebutt method, you talk to everyone but the company you are studying. Please allow me to illustrate. If you are thinking of investing in a car company, you start visiting car dealers. You learn the lingo, you read trade periodicals, maybe even a few car magazines, but be careful. Magazines and newspapers are completely jaded in their reporting by how much advertising dollars they receive from certain companies. You didn't know that because no one will ever dare print it.

If a newspaper wants to bury an important story on a company that gives them tremendous advertising dollars, they will run the unfavorable story, but it will be in the Saturday morning edition, which is the least read edition of the week. You need to know these things. I used Scuttlebutt back in the 80's, to accumulate a massive position in Chrysler when it was near bankruptcy. The stock went from $6 to $200 after splits. It isn't hard. You don't need to be a big market player, anybody really can do it.

You do need an inquisitive mind, and I believe an innovative one as well. Fisher was a guy who thought outside the box, and that's why he was immensely rich, as is his son Ken. Philip Fisher is a guy that made a fortune in FMC Corporation, owned it for 30 or more years. He was a ground floor player in Texas Instruments, owned it and made thousands of percent on the stock. He was every bit Buffett's equal, and to Fisher's credit, he gave us the greatest gift of all. He wrote a book, and was open with his readers about how to attain great wealth in the market.

He takes the "Efficient Market Hypothesis" (EMT), and blows it out of the water. His returns and Buffett's are so many standard deviations away from the mean, that EMT can't survive an investigation based on their results.

He gives you a 15-point criteria list to identify the types of companies that meet his screening. He also gives you five don'ts, and then five more to protect you as an investor. What Fisher is really doing is giving you a TEMPLATE to used as an investor. This is what you need. This is no different than going into the Marine Corps, and spending 12 weeks in basic training. Once you're done, you have certain smart behaviors drilled into your psyche so deep that in combat, and investing is combat, you can fall back on these techniques to survive. They become automatic. No matter what investment turns up, you can put it through the filters that have stood the test of time.

In closing, I would like to say one more thing about the Scuttlebutt technique. Recently, I had to make a decision to invest a considerable amount of money in the auto sector. One of the people I consulted with, is a legend in his 90's, who is the greatest mutual fund investor of the 20th century, probably worth over a billion dollars. He says to me in passing, do you know whom Toyota, the greatest car company in the world fears? The answer is the South Korean car companies. That my friends is worth a fortune, and is a 20 year stock play that Philip Fisher would have envied.

Richard Stoyeck

Philip Fisher was one of the chief proponents of value investing. He was extremely good at it and he did very well for those whom he advised. He provides much very sound advice to one seeking to purchase stocks based on their value, as opposed to the current market mania. His advice: invest only in companies that you know and that meet the criteria laid out in the book. Unfortunately, the average investor cannot do much of what he did. In trying to know a company, he spoke to customers, competitors, the management, and lower ranking employees. To be sure, this is great advice but completely impractical for the average investor. It is much more suited to a mutual fund manager and, by inference, you should invest in those funds that follow this approach.

The version of the book that I read contains a preface and introduction by his son, Kenneth L. Fisher, himself an investment advisor of note. He points out that his father held on to some of his stocks too long, an important factor for any investor to consider. Deciding what and when to buy is much easier than deciding when to sell because selling involves having to disentangle oneself from an emotional commitment to a stock, especially to one that you may have owned for a long time.

As this is the book that influenced Warren Buffett to adjust Ben Graham's classic value investing methodology, it's definitely worth a read.

The essential message of Fisher is that it is better to pay a premium for a great business than a discount for a lousy business. To this end, Fisher goes about explaining how to uncover such great businesses in the securities market.

Robert Stephenson-Padron
MSc student (economics & finance)
University of Navarra, Spain

This book is probably one of the most fundamental books on stock Investing.
Warren Buffet had said his investing style is 85% Ben Graham and 15% Phil Fisher. I think it is the reverse. My opinion is most of Warren's suceess has come from following Phil Fisher.

Funny thing is, this book basically stresses common sensical fundamentals required for investing and I bet 90% of the investors overlook these rules.

Philip Fisher's thoughts and experience are invaluable and timeless. Not as boring (to read) as the intelligent investors (though both are equally important reading). I particularly like the chapters about "Fifteen points to look in a common stocks","when to buy", "when to sell", "Five don't", and "Developing your investment philosophies". One particular topic that I like best is about "Don't follow the crowd". Also on "How I go about finding a growth stock"

Some of the area that the a company/stock (to buy) should have a lot of these criteria:
1. Product and service with potential increase in sales for seveal years
2. Management who commited to develop products to continue growth
3. Size of company's research versus its size (enough research needed)
4. Good sales organization
5. Worthwhile profit margin
6. Activity to improve profit margin
7. Good labor and personal relation
8. Outstanding executove relations
9. Depth in management
10. Good accounting controls and cost analysis
11. favorable (degree of skills) compare to the competition
12. Long range outlook on profit
13. Equity financing in the next couple years should ot cancel the existing shareholder benefit from the anticipated growth
14. Management talk freely to investor about tings that goes well and also when things doesn't go well
15. Management needs to have unquestionable integrity

Five don'ts for investor:
1. Don't buy into promotional companies (development companies)
2. Don't ignore stocks just becuase it is traded over the counter
3. Don't buy stocks because you like the tone of annual report
4. Don't assume the high price is an indication of future growth
5. Dont quibble over small fraction (when you buy a stock)

Five additional don'ts for Investor
1. Don't overstress diversification
2. Don't be afraid buying in a war scare
3. Don't forget your Gilbert and Sullivan
4. Don't fail to consider time as well as price in buying a true growth stock
5. Don't follow the crowd

This book also covers what a good business should have (it recaps of what they teach you in business school). I have 10 years of investing experience before I read this book (I know I should have read this book earlier), and in my opinion this book should work as a guideline to develop our own investing philosophies (and not our philosophy itself). There are no one size fits all strategy in the investing world. This book will also help to open your eyes (especially for beginner) that investing (the right way) is not easy and is a complex process, however the result from a patient and diligent investor could be great.

There are 3 important aspects of a business (apart from the stock price) which this book will cover most of them:
1. The Business (and the Industry)
2. The Financials
3. The People (Management, Personnel)

I also recommend you all to read Ben Graham's "The Intelligent Investors" (with commentary by Jason Zweig who will give more recent and relevant example), and Peter Lynch's "One up on Wall Street". Once you read them all (coupled with some real experience), then you are ready to be an investing pro...

Happy Investing!

Philip Fisher's thoughts and experience are invaluable and timeless. Not as boring (to read) as the intelligent investors (though both are equally important reading). I particularly like the chapters about "Fifteen points to look in a common stocks","when to buy", "when to sell", "Five don't", and "Developing your investment philosophies". One particular topic that I like best is about "Don't follow the crowd". Also on "How I go about finding a growth stock"

Some of the area that the a company/stock (to buy) should have a lot of these criteria:
1. Product and service with potential increase in sales for seveal years
2. Management who commited to develop products to continue growth
3. Size of company's research versus its size (enough research needed)
4. Good sales organization
5. Worthwhile profit margin
6. Activity to improve profit margin
7. Good labor and personal relation
8. Outstanding executove relations
9. Depth in management
10. Good accounting controls and cost analysis
11. favorable (degree of skills) compare to the competition
12. Long range outlook on profit
13. Equity financing in the next couple years should ot cancel the existing shareholder benefit from the anticipated growth
14. Management talk freely to investor about tings that goes well and also when things doesn't go well
15. Management needs to have unquestionable integrity

Five don'ts for investor:
1. Don't buy into promotional companies (development companies)
2. Don't ignore stocks just becuase it is traded over the counter
3. Don't buy stocks because you like the tone of annual report
4. Don't assume the high price is an indication of future growth
5. Dont quibble over small fraction (when you buy a stock)

Five additional don'ts for Investor
1. Don't overstress diversification
2. Don't be afraid buying in a war scare
3. Don't forget your Gilbert and Sullivan
4. Don't fail to consider time as well as price in buying a true growth stock
5. Don't follow the crowd

This book also covers what a good business should have (it recaps of what they teach you in business school). I have 10 years of investing experience before I read this book (I know I should have read this book earlier), and in my opinion this book should work as a guideline to develop our own investing philosophies (and not our philosophy itself). There are no one size fits all strategy in the investing world. This book will also help to open your eyes (especially for beginner) that investing (the right way) is not easy and is a complex process, however the result from a patient and diligent investor could be great.

There are 3 important aspects of a business (apart from the stock price) which this book will cover most of them:
1. The Business (and the Industry)
2. The Financials
3. The People (Management, Personnel)

I also recommend you all to read Ben Graham's "The Intelligent Investors" (with commentary by Jason Zweig who will give more recent and relevant example), and Peter Lynch's "One up on Wall Street". Once you read them all (coupled with some real experience), then you are ready to be an investing pro...

Happy Investing!

This is an excellent book but is now outdated. By outdated I mean there is a better way to implement Fisher's strategy. Today the strategy can be executed at lower costs and less risk by using index funds or exchange traded funds and achieve superior results at about 30% less risk.

I also recommend a little book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission. Easy to read packed with precise directions for success. A cookbook for the investor just follow directions. I enjoyed this book a great deal. It shows how indexing and diversification strategies work and why they are so important to investing success. Unlike many other books, this one is not only informative, but also useful. There should be no question as how to implement the author's strategy and measure your progress. He skillfully addresses asset allocation, and shows how to minimize tax consequences by assigning securities to tax deferred accounts. The author does not dwell on lengthy longwinded discussions but cuts to the quick with useful recommendation and directions for the novice and experienced investor as well. I recommend this book for all investors.

simple & rational way to bit the market

This is one of the best books on investing I've ever read! Fisher gives a solid strategy for picking stock winners and staying invested based on his personal experience. He lived through the great crash of 29, and he has a ton of personal stories and experiences to relate. What's amazing is that the principles of the stock market never change! His advice is truly invaluable. Highly recommended for anyone who has or is planing to open a brokerage account. Even though this was written in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, it is definitely NOT out-of-date.

I have scanned the reviews listed here, and I am well aware that Warren Buffet is 85% Ben Graham and 15% Philip Fisher. Nonetheless, I must say that Fisher's book, while valuable insofar as it has some positive applications, has a few drawbacks, particularly as concerns the individual investor.

First and foremost, Fisher emphasizes prospective growth in earnings. As Ben Graham (and any number of other authors) has noted, "earnings" is strictly an accounting term that must be adjusted to accord to the investor's needs and market reality, as compared to GAAP requirements (Marty Whitman's book entitled "The Aggressive Conservative Investor" does an excellent job discussing the shortcomings of GAAP with respect to the individual investor).

Secondly, Fisher emphasizes quality in management (example: he advises "Does the management have a determination to continue to develop products or processes that will still further increase total sales potentials when the growth potentials of currently attractive product lines have largely been exploited?"). Again, this is something that institutional investors might be able to focus upon, but for an individual investor to come to a conclusion based upon publicly-available information might be somewhat difficult (as an aside, Porter's book on Competitive Advantage might be more useful for readers trying to determine a company's competitive environment).

I could lob comparable criticisms at a few of the other points (another example: "How effective are the company's research and development efforts relative to its size?"). From personal experience, any biotech company will likely trumpet the skills of its staff in uncovering new drugs, but the drugs must still be safe and effective per the FDA in order to be sold in the US. How can most individual investors reach any reasonable conclusion with respect to that point?

The fundamental shortcoming in this book is that most people seeking to apply his principles will be guided by word of mouth or the "irrational exhuberance" of the market. There is little analytical guidence to ensure that the investor's conclusions are grounded.

This leads me to my ultimate conclusion: although I've spent a fair amount of time lobbing rocks at this book, the book itself may be useful, but only if combined with the sort of in-depth financial statement analysis that Ben Graham proposes in "Security Analysis," which contains a detailed discussion of analytical means to review management performance, or perhaps an analysis of competive position as propounded in "Expecations Investing" by Rappaport and Mouboussin. To say things slightly differently, the book provides a good overview of a type of investment philosophy, but unlike the others referenced before, it does not provide tools to analyze a particular company.

Warren Buffett is in a different position than the average investor. To fail to realize that is folly. As a whole, the book reads easily, and Warren Buffett has said he likes Fisher - maybe that's why so many people like it - but without grounding on how to value a particular stock at a point in time, I cannot say that this book should a primary source of information for someone without grounding in finance and securities analysis.

I don't have much more to add than what was already mentioned in the (long) other reviews.

The most entertaining thing for me was that though this book was written many decades ago, it cautions against the very things that have happened recently. Nothing really seems to change in investing, and overexcited bulls will probably always bid the market up to inappropriate levels, at least for the short term.

By reading CSaUP, maybe you can tell where the next peak will be. I don't mean a number- I just mean within six months or so, which is all you need to be a shockingly successful investor (the flip side, which is even more important, is telling when stocks are insanely cheap).

This is another book for those of us who want to be like Warren Buffet when we grow up. It is a perfect complement to The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Grahm. While that book focuses on value investing this one focuses on investing for growth.Warren Buffett attributes 15% of his strategy from Philip Fisher.I read this book due to Mr. Buffett's recomendation.I will read anything a man suggests when his networth is $40,000,000,000.
My biggest key learning from this book was how Mr. Fisher focused on earnings as what determines the value of a stock. He gave an analogy of if you were able to buy stock in your graduating high school class based on what you believed would be there future earnings potential. How would you determine their value? Would you later sell stock in a student who went on to college and had huge earnings just because he was then overvalued? Would you want to buy stock in a student who went on to earn poorly just because he had potetial for more growth?This analogy shows we are buying coporate earnings when we buy stock, and quality and future growth is what we are looking for.
This book gives 15 points to look for in buying stock.
Mr. Fisher also had a chapter on why he does not believe in efficient market theory because the performance in stocks always shows they were not valued correctly because the future performance is not reflected in the current price,stock traders have never been able to price stocks correctly, if they did their would not be such variances in stocks a year later, some go up 1000% some go down 80% rarely does the P/E ratio predict this. I highly recommend this book in your financial library.

This book is really a must for anyone who is serious about investing. It reads very easy, gives information that is to-the- point and the book is rather engaging.

Fisher is an absolute must for all investors, amateur and professional alike. He writes down such sage advice that you can't help but be awed. Fisher writes as though he is a mentor or a professor, teaching the intricacies of the market and how best (at least the method that he used; he states himself that everyone's method of investing will vary) to increase your own net worth.

I must say that I can't really see myself using the fifteen points that he says he follows. For one, the common everyday investor would have a lot harder time applying the points and interviewing executives and others who have some working knowledge of that industry and company. His method is called the scuttlebutt method, in which you do your research and gain 50% of your knowledge of the company before you go to the company and interview the top executives, the competitors, the suppliers and the employees and so on. Although I must say I see the worth in what he is saying, I can't see the common investor in today's market being able to apply this method (Fisher himself says that because he was a fund manager he had connections to executives and scientists and people high up that he could speak to, which isn't something most people have access to).

Other than the fifteen points (which are a good broad way of looking at a company with some that can be applied) and the scuttlebutt method, the rest of the book is an invaluable tool for any investor. Even part two, Conservative Investors Sleep Well, imparts some invaluable information that every amateur investor should have read. Part three parts with some useful insight as well, although it focuses more on how Fisher came to have his philosophy and thus is more of a chronological reiteration of his past.

Fisher is a must for all investors. With this book you don't get much on the practical how to of investing, the actual know how, but more of a philosophy and a lesson on investing, which is even more useful. I would highly recommend this book to everyone.

assuming you are an investor as opposed to a trader, Fisher's book is an astoundingly important read.
you will not find formulas or discounted cash flows,
you read a genius's thoughts about the truly long view

Fisher's message is simple, yet important. Only great, growing companies create long term value for shareholders. Fisher's explanation of what makes a great company is a must for any investor.

He is the other half of Warren Buffett, while I like Graham better than Fisher, the wisdom in this book in undeniable.

Fisher is a growth stock adherent, and some have said that he is the Father of Growth Investing. Many contrast him to Benjamin Graham, whom more than a few have dubbed the Father of Value Investing. Fisher's book, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, provides an uneasy cornerstone for growth stock and technology stock investing. However, at some point, growth stock investing became synonymous with technology stock investing. As such, on one extreme, we have Fisher and growth (tech) stocks, and on the other we have Graham(and Dodd) and boring but predictable concerns with a margin of safety, and adherents to either extreme bicker back and forth as to which method for selecting common stocks for investment is better.

'Growth', I believe, is all fine and good, so long as you can find outfits that can hold their value, and continue to build value. Moreover, like its sister 'Growth', 'Opportunity' too is a wonderful thing, so long as 'Growth' and 'Opportunity' can be turned into profits and (dividend) checks in the mail.

Unlike Graham's sage advice, with which I agree 100 percent, I don't necessarily agree with Fisher's stance on many investment issues, but I do concede that the reasoning behind them does have merit. Take his position on dividends, for example. A company with excess cash and no reasonable opportunities for investment well within its circle of competence should send that cash to its shareholders, so long as it maintains a satisfactory reserve fund, can meet its financing needs, and has all of its investment needs met. Long experience has shown that companies that sit on top of a large (and growing) cash pile inevitably succumb to the temptation to squander it somehow or another (usually on vanity purchases), always to the detriment of its core business. Thus, companies that are generating cash in excess of their immediate and foreseeable needs (beyond a built-in cushion) should pay a dividend, and increase that dividend as earnings increase. Firms that don't do this, I believe, simply do not make for wise investments.

Furthermore, many have legitimately questioned the applicability of one technique underlying Fisher's investment method- the use of scuttlebutt. Most concerns have centered around how to go about doing it, which to me raises certain warning flags, and not on more important facets such as its usefulness (with regard to the kind of information gleaned) in practice and its potential (negative) consequences. One must exercise extreme caution when using scuttlebutt, for the following reasons. First, people, from individual investors to managers at publicly listed companies, especially the smaller tech outfits, know about this book, and so they also know how to use the book's information in order to present themselves so as to attract your investment dollars. Second, reliance on scuttlebutt depends to a great extent on how it comes your way (and Fisher partially acknowledges this, but limits his discussion to 'disgruntled' former employees of a company under consideration), and you have to exercise caution here, for you may find yourself in big trouble with the Federal Boys, or worse- with legal vultures circling over your head, should you act on it. Third, companies have a distinct disliking to scuttlebutt, as it may serve as one source of leaks of trade secrets or other sensitive information. Fourth, related to the third point, companies may intentionally use 'scuttlebutt' to 'plant' dis-information or even mis-information before small-time investors, specifically, and institutional investors, always. Finally, for those intrepid souls wondering how to put scuttlebutt to work, as an aside, for anyone who has attended college or some trade school, getting the inside story may be as easy as contacting the alumni office of your alma mater, or even as simple as hitting up a former frat, sorority or other college club member. More simply, one can directly contact folks involved in industry trade organizations as well.

In my mind, Mr. Fisher's method works best when one applies it to large and established concerns. When I ponder the investment problem, I come to the conclusion that your most reasonable assessment of a company must rest on an analysis of the company's past behavior, coupled with a current snapshot of the company in the context of its industry, and not on scuttlebutt. But then, Ben Graham said pretty much the same thing over and over again in his book Security Analysis.

Overall, I liked Fisher's Fifteen Points, but I liked the little mini-book, "Conservative Investors Sleep Well", which forms Part Two of the book, even better. You could obtain the same information by reading a denser book like Competitive Strategy, by Michael Porter, but getting the same information, in condensed form, from a seasoned and successful practitioner like Mr. Fisher imparts a level credibility, reliability and trust that all other sources lack. I also like Fisher's emphasis on understanding the business (and visiting the company if necessary to get detailed information, wherever possible, necessary and appropriate), a point that Graham, although he did not overlook it, did not specifically emphasize.

One must understand Fisher in order to know what to expect if all goes well with investment operations. In contrast, one must understand Graham in order to know what to expect if everything goes to hell in a handbasket. One can not successfully invest with only one or the other, as doing so will lead to mediocre results at best, and poor results more typically. One needs to know both.

Although I will not put the concept of scuttlebutt to practice, as it strikes me as being both dangerous and speculative, I will put the rest of the information to work. In sum, I will definitely keep the book, and it will sit next to my copies of Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis, where it will remain as one of my must-have and must-consult investment references.

This is definitely the best book I have ever read on investing. It clearly describes the qualitative factors to look for in a business. Warren Buffett is a big fan of Phil Fisher's books and investment philosophy, isn't that enough. I have read these books more than once and everytime I read them I learn something new. There is a wealth of information within these pages and I emphatically recommend this book. This book is essential reading for any real investor.

when "scuttlebutt" is one of the leading litmus tests before investing, you're dealing w/ a program that is impractical for average individual investors. but the book is quite valuable for its focus on long run investing, its 15 rules for investors (and moreso, the rules for investors to NOT follow), and its stress on conservatism in practice is very helpful.

ultimately, this book is less about security selection than it is in investing philosophy---which it excels at. that's why buffett loved it, and you may too.

I first read this book over ten years ago, and like the other reviewers, I too found it a difficult read. When I first read it, I thought the advice was somewhat impractical for the small time investor (try to imagine calling Bill Gates asking him what he thought of Steve Jobs' company). Graham's security analysis was much easier for the little guy investor to apply. Yet Fisher's techniques were and are used by the big time investors ( most notably Peter Lynch, and though I don't think he gives Fisher enough credit, Warren Buffett). Even the rankings of "Top CEOs" by Forbes, Businessweek, Fortune etc. was based on Graham's security analysis. Then came the corporate scandals of the 1990's, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Elliott Spitzer of New York and now the little guy investor can apply Fisher's theory of investing. Fortune Magazine's CEO ranking has as much to do about corporate governance as it does with security analysis. There are websites devoted entirely to corporate governance. The Institutional Shareholder Service was created solely to act as a corporate governance watchdog. I recently re-read Common Stocks. It's still a difficult read and you can't read it in one day or even in one week. It's a book that you have to read and re-read to get the most out of it. The most useful chapters for an investor are Chapter 3 "What to Buy: the fifteen points to look for in a common stock", Chapter 8 "Five Don'ts for Investors, and Chapter 9 " Five More Don'ts for Investors." Fisher's Common Stocks and Graham's the Intelligent Investor are the two basic building blocks that every investor must master to be succesful in the stock market.

I first read this book in 1992, and it did nothing for me. At the time, I had very little investment experience and was only starting to study the market. I re-read the book again in 2001 and, wow, it took me to a different level.

I would not recommend this book to investors who have less than 5 years of stock investing experience. You simply wouldn't get much out of it and might unintentionally lead you down the wrong path. Once you get your investing fundamentals down, this book will expand your horizon beyond your dreams.

Warren Buffett credited Ben Graham as the most influential force in his investment style/thinking, but I believe that it's Philip Fisher who gave him the edge and made him one of the great investors of the 20th century.

This is one of the most overrated business books of all times! The first time I read it, it was a torture. Then I picked it up for a second read because I figured that maybe I didn't quite get it the first time. How can so many people, including Warren Buffet, like it if it wasn't a good book? The second time I read it only confirmed my initial impressions. It is not too bad but it is clearly overrated.
Fisher's investment philosophy, the way I understood it, boils down to the following: Common stocks of good companies are worth buying at any price. Just find a good business with excellent growth prospects and buy the stock. The price will take care of itself.
This is the kind of approach that inflated the stocks of the so called nifty fifty in the early 1970s. Since Fisher's book was already a best seller by that time, I suspect that he was partially responsible for what has happened to the stocks of the nifty fifty.
Now, maybe I didn't quite get it. Maybe Fisher didn't really mean that a good business can justify any stock price, no matter how high. Then again, I read the book twice and if I couldn't get it then he didn't make it obvious enough. Only in the last part of the book (Conservative Investors Sleep Well) he suggests that value does matter. Unfortunately for many early readers, that part of the book was not written and added until long after the nifty fifty burst.
His approach toward finding future stars is not likely to work unless you do it during a bull market. Then again, almost any other investment strategy will make money in a bull market, even technical analysis. New technology developments and the state of future competition are too difficult to predict by any method. One of the few stars he ever found out was Motorola. It was a lucky shot because when he first found out the company, it was manufacturing TVs, not cell phones and pagers. Ironically, the company was soon kicked out of the television sets business for which Fisher chose them.
I don't know why Warren Buffet ever said that he liked Fisher's investment philosophy. I don't thing he is scuttlebutting for the future Intels and Microsofts.
Last but not least, the book is very poorly written. Fisher has absolutely no talent for a writer. His writing style is tortures for the reader. His editor probably gave up editing after the first few pages, crossed his fingers and sent the book to the printing press. Editing the book would have been equal to rewriting it. I don't think any editor would've had the patience and the time to do it.
To be fair, I like some aspects of Fisher's investment philosophy. He advocates long term commitment to strong businesses with good potentials. And, he wouldn't commit unless he had done a thorough investigation of the company. There are some other gems in the book such as his discussion of stock purchase timing but the reader has to dig them out from a pile of trivia. Three stars are well deserved.

There are only two books you will ever need to read to become a good investor. One of them is Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" (or better, Graham and Dodd's "Security Analysis"). The other is Philip Fisher's "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits".

It is telling that the man who combines the investment philosophies of both Graham and Fisher is widely acclaimed as the most brilliant investor alive today, Warren Buffet.

This is a book that you shouldn't just read once. It's a book you should read again and again. This is a book that you should read in cycles. Once you finish, you should read it again. It's short enough that you can read a chapter each night. This is a book that you should read until you can recite it word for word.

If you understand the principles in this book, and adhere stringently to Fisher's 15-point checklist for buying stocks, avoid his 10 don'ts, and purchase stocks at the right time, as he suggested how to do, you will almost certainly be investing in good companies.

If you then apply Graham's tests of value, you can avoid paying too much for those good companies. It is possible to have a good company but a bad stock (IBM is a great company today, and passes all of Fisher's criteria, but could you really justify buying it say $1,000 per share?).

When you do find companies that are good companies, but have bad stocks, keep an eye on them. What I mean by "bad stock" is that the stock -- in your opinion -- is priced too highly, even considering the company's excellent growth prospects (in other words, there is euphoria about it on Wallstreet that goes beyond reason). Eventually, the market will realize that, even for that great company, it was paying too much. The stock price will drop, and then, whenever everyone else is running from the company in fear of doom, you can scoop it up (assuming that it i still a good company).

Just as it is possible to have a good company but a bad stock, it is also possible to have a bad company but a good stock. You should not buy a stock just because it is cheap in PE, PEG, PS, or Price:book ratio. It is possible that the management may be so terrible that the company, in a few years time, may very well justify such current undervaluation. Even if the management is competent, it is still possible that the company' performance may justify that low price in a few year's time. When a stock is greatly undervalued by these measures, and has passed most of Fisher's criteria, then it is a great buy, because the market will eventually realize that management is brilliant and the stock should be priced higher.

Now, many have objected that Fisher's methods take a lot of time. Clearly, they do. So do Graham's. Certainly, using both methods in combination with one another will take a lot of time (you can use Graham's criteria first, or Fisher's, then apply the other set of criteria). If you don't have the interest or time to pursue this, then you should not be investing in invidiaul stocks yourself. Rather, you should find an advisor who does utilize these rules, or a mutual fund manager who does, and have him manage your money, if you want those kind of exceptional returns. In this case, you will still have to investigate the person managing your money, to make sure they're up to you're criteria, and stay on top of it, to make sure they continue to be. If you don't want to do that -- if you don't want to put in that effort -- then you should settle for ordinary returns, as Graham says. Invest in an index fund.

However, you should consider that there are not many stocks that will meet both Graham's stringent criteria, and Fisher's extremely stringent criteria. Of the tens of thousands of stocks, maybe 1,000 of them meet Graham's criteria. Of Those 1,000, maybe 50-100 meet Fisher's criteria. But, consider that you should only have to do this once, and thereafter only have to keep tabs on the companies (because you should have done it right the first time). Isn't several hours worth of work each night -- even for months -- worth finding a stock that will experience many hundreds of percent increase over 10 years?

To save yourself time, apply Graham's criteria first to eliminate fad stocks (dot-com), and other stocks that are priced too high. This will greatly cut down on your candidates. Then look at what's left and categorize it. Discard stocks from industries which you -- based on sound analysis -- believe aren't promising. Also discard those from industries which you don't understand. Of the remaining stocks, apply Fisher's criteria. To operate efficiently, apply his 15th criteria first: If there is any serious questions as to the management's trustworthiness to investors, don't even consider buying stock of the company, and don't waste any more time on it.

After reading these two books, you should know what criteria a company is to meet if it is a good investment, both Fisher's qualitative, and Graham's quantitative, criteria. You should apply the criteria that are easiest and quickest to filter through first. Then go through the criteria, progressively from more to less stringent. There's no point in wasting your time finding out about how great a company fairs on Fisher's first 14 criteria, only to find that it flatlines on the criteria of absolute importance (the integrity of management).

This is a great classic book on investing. The author's language is at times somewhat hard, but the gist is absolutely crystal clear: invest in high-quality growth stocks and don't be afraid to buy them at a slight premium, plus investigate fundamentals, managements' ability and competitiveness very thoroughly before committing funds for very long holding periods (10 years or more). Fisher's intuitive, "scuttlebutt" approach to investing is certainly different (and more successful) than that of quantitative mathematical folks. As Warren Buffet often says: "It is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong". It is impossible to quantify how popular a company's products will be in the future or how honest and able the management is. The Fisher's 15 points will help you assess these and other unquantifiable but nevertheless absolutely vital things about an investment.

This is definitely one of the best investing books I ever read. What separates this book from the rest is that it TELLS you how to invest. This is not one of those wishy-washy, "really depends on you" type of investing book. The author is 100% confident of his method and tells it as it is. Tons of valuable information that I can't possibly summarize it here. This book along with "The Intelligent Investor" lays the groundwork for Warren Buffet's approach. If it's good enough for him, I think it's safe to say it's good enough for you.

This book is an investment "classic" for a very good reason -- its full of useful information still applicable to today's markets. The only drawback is the writing style which is very much "1950's white man style" but you get used to it and it doesn't detract from the information provided.

What can I say except: buy this book! Fisher walks you through the methods he used to select stocks, and this method is still relevent today. For those of you in the know, Warren Buffet has acknowledged his use of Fisher's ideas, so you know they have merit. For the average investor, Fisher's approach takes a lot of work (this is no "get rich quick" scheme), but the rewards are tremendous. After reading this book you will make your investment decisions with a lot more confidence.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits is one of the classic investment texts written for the lay person.

Rather than just seeking value, Fisher realized that even a greatly "undervalued" company could prove a horrible investment. Sure, you might occasionally buy a stock for less than the company's cash-in-the-bank (back then, at least!). But what if the business is horribly run? It might not take long for the company to lose all that cash!

Even if the company returns to "fair" value, that ends the potential profit from investing in such a business. Holding an average company, because it was once undervalued, but is no more, makes little sense.

Fisher points out that the largest wealth via investing has been made in one of two ways. First, buying stocks when the markets crash and holding them until the markets recover. Secondly, with less risk and more potential return, you can also just invest in a small portfolio of companies which continue to strongly grow sales and earnings over the years. Then, if the company was correctly selected, you might never have to sell, while accruing a huge return on your initial investment.

Fisher pioneered the school of growth stock investing. In Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Fisher explains how he selects a growth company. He lists fifteen points which a company must have to be considered a superior investment.

Fisher's first point seems obvious: "Does the company have products or services with sufficient market potential to make possible a sizeable increase in sales for at least several years?"

Fisher shows that some companies might have potential substantial sales increases for only a few years, but after that have limited potential due to some factor, such as market saturation. For example, Fisher mentions the growth in sales of TV's until the U.S. market was saturated.

He also wisely suggests looking behind the products to seek other superior investments. While many TV manufacturers were competitive and it was difficult to tell which was best, Fisher points out that Corning Glass Works was, by far, the company most capable of producing the glass bulbs used in TVs.

Fisher tries to clearly distinguish between companies which are "fortunate and able" and those which are "fortunate because they are able." The second kind, the superior investments, are highly innovative and create new products which have growth potential. Fisher uses Dow Chemical as one example of a "fortunate because they are able" company.

The second point wants to know if management has the drive to innovate new products. A man ahead of his time, Fisher wonders about how much of a company's future sales might come from products not yet invented.

A constant theme of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits is examining what the company is doing to prepare for the future. Is the company spending wisely on Research and Development? Or, is the company just trying to maximize its current profit and reinvesting nothing for future growth?

Fisher explains why answering that question is difficult in practice. What different companies account for under R&D is one problem. Another is that some companies are more successful than others at turning money spent on R&D into future marketable products. Today, we must assume this question is far more difficult to answer!

In addition to questioning a company's R&D, Fisher wants to see a company with a strong sales organization and distribution efficiency. "It is the making of a sale that is the most basic single activity of any business," he writes.

Yet, why don't investors focus upon such key factors instrumental to a company's future growth? Fisher points out that certain issues are not quantifiable. That is why many investors tend to focus upon financial issues which can be expressed in a simple ratio.

How does the investor go about answering the "unquantifiable"? How does the investor know how well-managed the company is? Or, how does one evaluate the people factors, which Fisher says are the real strength of a superior growth company?

Fisher suggests the "scuttlebutt" method. This involves talking to suppliers, customers, company employees, and people knowledgeable in the industry, and, eventually, company management. From this information, an investor can get a good feel for the quality of the company as a growth investment. Fisher teaches us how to learn to ask the correct, company-specific questions.

Fisher acknowledges the "scuttlebutt" method is a lot of work. But, he asks, should it be easy to find such great companies, when finding only a few can easily lay the foundation for building huge future wealth?

I tend to think the average individual investor will not use the "scuttlebutt" method. And, for most investors and most companies, even if the investor had the desire to use this method, it would not be practical.

Yet, for investors seeking to make investments in smaller, local companies, the "scuttlebutt" method might be of value. For angel investors or mini-venture capitalists, reading "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" is probably also worthwhile.

The book also has some excellent thoughts about buying-and-holding a stock and when to sell a stock. Fisher's thoughts on diversification are also well worth reading, although I would recommend more diversification than Fisher claims is adequate.

Overall, this is a great book for the individual investor. You will not be able to follow the "scuttlebutt" method in practice, for most investments, and, maybe, the complexity of today's companies and scientific research in many growth companies make Fisher's method less practical today than in the past, but there is much to learn about business and investing from this book.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Becoming An Investor: Building Wealth By Investing In Stocks, Bonds, And Mutual Funds"

"Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" was an investment book with a different focus. Fisher focused not on valuation aspects such as the ones Ben Graham would use or technical trends that other would use, but instead focused on seeking out stable companies with good management and other qualities. Fisher prefers growth companies exhibiting substantial income and revenue growth. He likes what I would call the intangibles of stock investment; exceptional management, marketing, sales, and many other segments of a company. The only knock on Fisher's work is that he assumes normal people have the time or resources to seek out the leaders of a company. He also assumes that if you don't seek out the leaders of a company that you aren't doing your due diligence. Either way this book did provide me with several new concepts that I knew were important to investing but hadn't really thought about. This book will cover topics that Lynch, Graham and the other investment writers haven't covered.