Book · 1958
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
by Philip A. Fisher
Philip Fisher's 1958 growth-investing manual, where scuttlebutt due diligence and 15 questions about management replace balance-sheet ratios.
What does Reddit think of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits?
All 8 mentions live in r/investing, spread across 2019 to 2023, and the pattern is consistent: Fisher shows up in curated reading lists, never as a standalone recommendation. The ↑39 comment stacks him between Bogle and Malkiel; the ↑35 comment builds an entire curriculum around four books and slots him in. That's not a backhanded position — it signals the book has earned a fixed address in the investing canon without ever generating heat of its own. The one moment Fisher escapes list-mode is the ↑18 comment invoking his war-equals-buy thesis in real time, which generated some eyerolls. The ↑14 comment is more interesting: it pulls his first-chapter analysis of government market intervention and treats it as directly applicable to current Fed policy. For a book published in 1958, that's a credible claim. Not argued about. Just recommended.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · growth investing over value metrics
- · scuttlebutt research method
- · 15 questions for evaluating management
- · long-term holding over trading
- · government market intervention
- · canon reading list placement
Common praise
- + The scuttlebutt framework gives you a repeatable way to interview a company's ecosystem before reading the financials.
- + Redditors in r/investing cite the first chapter on government intervention as still accurate decades after publication.
- + Fisher's 15 questions hold up as a management evaluation checklist where pure ratio analysis fails.
- + The ↑13 commenter ranks it above The Intelligent Investor for modern application, calling it 'still pretty good.'
Common criticism
- − Eight mentions across 7 years in a single subreddit means this book generates no debate and little passion.
- − It almost never gets recommended on its own — it needs Bogle, Malkiel, or Lynch standing next to it before r/investing feels comfortable.
- − The war-as-buy-signal riff the ↑18 comment surfaced reads as the kind of folksy heuristic the book's analytical framework should have prevented.
Who it's for
You've finished The Intelligent Investor and want the growth side of the equation that Graham skips. This is that book. If your instinct is to hold a business for ten years rather than screen for cheap ratios, Fisher's 15 questions will feel like a system you've been running informally. Quantitative-first readers who want DCF models and screeners will find the scuttlebutt method frustratingly qualitative. Read it as the second or third investing book, not the first.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“The intelligent investor was my first investing book. I found it dense, I thought it was a little outdated but nevertheless it taught the idea of investing in the business. I recommending you supplement your reading with: 1. The little red book on common sense investing 2. Irrational Exuberance 3…
“The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel ​ But it comes with practice
“The Four I recommend the most, but read all of them info you have the time and motivation. Financial Statements: Thomas R Ittelson - Good primer for learning how financial statements are constructed and getting around them. Modern Value Investing: Sven Carlin - Essentially my entire investment st…
“Honestly, it's a long process of learning and continuing education. There isn't really a single book that will give you the answer to this, although some of the books and things that I've used are: * *The Intelligent Investor* * *Security Analysis* * *Margin of Safety* * *You Can Be A Stock Market …
“According to common stocks and uncommon profits ken fisher says when you hear war that is an immediate buy indicator. Edit he also says stonks only go up after wars so the possibility of escalation equals buy imo.
“The fed/gov has been intervening in the market for a long time. Read Philip Fisher’s Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. In the first chapter he talks about how the government has intervened in markets to keep them afloat and prices steadily upward. It’s well known and documented now that the US gov…
“Lynch’s books are great, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Fisher is still pretty good, Value Investing by Greenwald, Kahn, and Sonkin is wonderful (and FAR better than the Intelligent Investor especially in modern day times IMO), Howard Marks’s books aren’t bad, Margin of Safety is wonderful, W…
“I recommend that OP reads Philip Fisher’s “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits” and W Chan Kim’s “Blue Ocean Strategy.” I think he’s got a good foundation, but he’s obviously a beginner. I admire the man’s enthusiasm. But maybe we could point him in the right direction instead of simply stating he…
Convinced? Pick up Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
What else does r/investing read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
Benjamin Graham's 1949 framework for distinguishing investment from speculation, cited 100 times on Reddit by people still arguing whether it applies to today's markets.
The Simple Path to Wealth
JL Collins
A retired fund manager distills 40 years of index investing into one rule: buy VTSAX, ignore the noise, and wait.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Burton G. Malkiel
Burton Malkiel's 50-year argument that you can't beat the market, backed by data, and Reddit's most-cited reason to stop stock-picking.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
John C. Bogle
John Bogle's case for index funds in 200 pages: own the whole market, pay almost nothing, and wait — cited 262 times on Reddit and counting.
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Robert T. Kiyosaki
Tracked Reddit references and selected source excerpts for Rich Dad Poor Dad.
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel paid off a 3% mortgage early and calls it his best money decision ever — 209 Reddit mentions say the paradox is the whole point.
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually say about Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits?+
Broadly positive but quiet. All 8 mentions are in r/investing, and almost every one places the book inside a reading list rather than arguing for it alone. The ↑39 comment pairs it with Bogle and Malkiel; the ↑13 comment ranks it above The Intelligent Investor for modern investing. No one disputes it. No one obsesses over it either.
Is Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits still relevant in 2026?+
Depends on what you're after. The ↑14 r/investing comment pulls Fisher's first-chapter analysis of government market intervention and applies it directly to current Fed behavior — a reasonable case that the framework ages well. The war-as-buy-signal heuristic from the ↑18 comment is the part that hasn't aged as cleanly.
Should I read Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits before or after The Intelligent Investor?+
After. The ↑114 comment in r/investing describes starting with Graham, finding it dense, and then broadening out — a sequence the community seems to endorse. Fisher's qualitative approach makes more sense once you have Graham's quantitative baseline to push against.
Is Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits just a list-filler in r/investing reading guides?+
Mostly, yes — but that's not nothing. Eight unique commenters across 4 years all independently placed it in their top investing curricula. No single commenter dominates the count; it earned its spot repeatedly. That's a different kind of endorsement than a single viral thread.