Talk:Philip Arthur Fisher

Untitled
This page was voted on for deletion at Votes for deletion/Philip Fisher. The consensus was to keep it. dbenbenn | talk 23:21, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I think this article needs serious expansion. The original article, while clearly NPOV, included correct factual information. It is not fair to trivialize the influence of Ben Graham's _Security Analysis_ and _Intelligent Investor_ on Warren Buffet, or to denigrade Graham; however, it is undeniable that Buffet was influenced and changed by Fisher. Buffet's current investment strategy is correctly characterized as a blend of Ben Graham, Philip Fisher, and John Williams Burr (who also is deserving of a Wikipedia article, writing the definitive treatise _Theory of Investment Value_, which is still relevant today and forms the basis of modern finance theory). Along with the aforementioned books, Fisher's _Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits_ is among the most important books on investing ever written.


 * Actually, the name is John Burr Williams, not John Williams Burr. It would be pretty stupid to delete this article. I am amazed to see how short the article is, but the proposal to delete it demonstrates some people's ignorance of investment history. JHP 01:11, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Was Irving Fisher the father of Phil Fisher?
Irving Fisher called to 1929 crash wrong, and Phil Fisher was considered a great investor. Are they related?

Thanks,

Freeman fjelks@edgemoorcap.com

Removed section
I removed the material below from the main article as it seems unencyclopedic. It's more of a "how to" than a description of the man's life and career. Useful stuff...just not encyclopedic.

"Evaluating an investment" Fisher suggested using 15 questions to evaluate a company - these questions should be posed to suppliers, competitors, and consumers:


 * 1) Does the company have products or services with sufficient market potential to make possible a sizable increase in sales for at least several years?
 * 2) Does the management have a determination to continue to develop products or processes that will further increase total sales potentials when the growth potentials of currently attractive product lines have largely been exploited?
 * 3) How effective are the company's research and development efforts in relation to its size?
 * 4) Does the company have an above-average sales organization?
 * 5) Does the company have a worthwhile profit margin?
 * 6) What is the company doing to maintain or improve profit margins?
 * 7) Does the company have outstanding labor and personnel relations?
 * 8) Does the company have outstanding executive relations?
 * 9) Does the company have depth to its management?
 * 10) How good are the company's cost analysis and accounting controls?
 * 11) Are there other aspects of the business, somewhat peculiar to the industry involved, which will give the investor important clues as to how outstanding the company may be in relation to its competition?
 * 12) Does the company have a short-range or long-range outlook in regard to profits?
 * 13) In the foreseeable future will the growth of the company require sufficient equity financing so that the larger number of shares then outstanding will largely cancel the existing stockholder's benefit from this anticipated growth?
 * 14) Does the management talk freely to investors about its affairs when things are going well but "clam up" when troubles and disappointments occur?
 * 15) Does the company have a management of unquestionable integrity?

NuclearWinner (talk) 19:08, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I'd like to include information about his investment philosophy in Wikipedia somewhere. That is, after all, what the man is famous for. And the 15 points list you mentioned is the nucleus of that philosophy. I'm just unsure where I shall put that information - in this article, or should I create a new article called "Common stock and uncommon profits" (name of the book) or perhaps "Investment philosophy" of Philip A. Fisher? Offliner (talk) 04:08, 17 September 2008 (UTC)