Rating: 
Summary: The Best Investment Book of All Time
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: good but overrated
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: quite a few nuggets, but impractical at times
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: quite a few nuggets, but impractical at times
Review: 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.
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