Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It “As per Joshua Kennon..... "Philip Fisher is one of the most prominent and important financial thinkers in history. In this book, he examines the fifteen qualities of an excellent business. When this approach is coupled with Graham's "value" method, it can be a very powerful thing".” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“Around 4 years ago, while reading about investment philosophy of Buffett, I chanced upon a quote from him saying that his style was 85% Graham and 15% Fisher. I had been a avid reader of Graham by then but I was hearing about Fisher for the first time. Couple of searches later I got the details about this book called 'Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits'. The book came highly recommended by famous investors. When I read it I wasn't sure whether what Fisher said was at all possible. He talks about the growth stocks where you buy and hold for years seeing them grow 10 time..20 times. By that time I was into buying undervalued companies at low price and selling them as soon as they reverted to normal valuations. I liked his approach of analyzing the company's business by meeting with customers, employees , suppliers rather than focusing on vague and volatile numbers from annual reports. But I wasn't sure whether a individual investor can achieve this. On the second reading 4 year later, I found that my experience of last 4 years really back what Fisher had to say. I had realized that investing in good businesses and holding for long term is a better approach than buying stocks of troubled companies at dirt cheap prices. The main reason for this change was that my earlier focus on accounting numbers like EPS, P/E, ROE was proved wrong too many times. I had bought many stocks just because their financials looked great without bothering to know more about the company. The results of these decisions were disastorous. On the other hand many of my investments grew to 15 to 20 times their original value. When I did a detailed study then I realized that al the successful decisions were those where I had bought good businesses at attractive prices. I realized that a good business ensures that the financials will look attractive in long run but the financial figures which look attractive on first glance do imply a good business. I would rate this book the second most useful for the investors(the first of course is 'Intelligent Investor' by Graham). The book contains lot of useful tips about making your own investment strategy. It exposes many myths small investors generally hold. It reminds the investors that they are part owners of a business not a buyer of lottery tickets. If one thinks that by number crunching he can know about the characteristics and prospects of business, this book will bring him closer to the hard reality. Overall this book provides a very good reading with interesting real life examples. Being free of investment jargons this book is easily digestible to those who are new comers to the field of investing. I recommend this book to all the investors. Happy reading Kamlesh”
Kamlesh P wrote this review Thursday, June 5 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“As per Joshua Kennon..... "Philip Fisher is one of the most prominent and important financial thinkers in history. In this book, he examines the fifteen qualities of an excellent business. When this approach is coupled with Graham's "value" method, it can be a very powerful thing".”
To me, Reading Fiction is a waste of time wrote this review Wednesday, January 9 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Anybody who is interested in Investing in the Stock Markets should read 2 books for sure one is Ben Grahams - Intelligent Investor (Value Investing) and the other is this book. This book expounds the Growth Investing theory. The core point Phil Fisher makes in this book is about finding outstanding companies who have great earning potential in the future and who are managed by people with integrity. Once you identify such a company you should invest in it over a long period of time (5 to 10 year time horizon). According to Fisher once you identify such a company, as long as it maintains its growth potential and the basic fundamentals don't change you should not sell stock in such a company no matter how the stock price fluctuates over the short term (1 to 3 years).”
prashant2210 wrote this review Saturday, September 22 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Displaying 1-3 of 3
