The 9 Golden Rules framework the power behind Stock Doctor Star Stocks.

Dr Merv Lincoln

Co-Founder (1984 - 1997)

From very humble beginnings Dr. Merv Lincoln went on to become a world class 1500m and 1-mile distance athlete competing in the 1956 Melbourne and 1960 Rome Olympics and 1958 Commonwealth Games where he won a silver medal behind the great Herb Elliott. Merv was the 2nd Australian, to John Landy, and 11th in the world to break the 4-minute mile barrier during a halcyon era for Australian athletics.

Following his retirement from Athletics in 1960, Merv pursued a career as a Management Accountant and later joined the Economics and Finance faculty at the University of Melbourne in 1963 where he was senior lecturer for some 21 years. During this time, he completed his PhD titled ‘The Usefulness of Accounting Ratios to Describe Levels of Financial Risk’. He was awarded his doctorate in 1983.

Merv left Melbourne University in 1984 to establish his own consulting business, Merv Lincoln and Associates, where he lectured his theories of assessing the Financial Health and insolvency risk of businesses through the analysis of their financial statements and accounting ratios to large Australian corporations for commercial credit risk assessment.

Merv was an avid stock market investor and used his quantitative methodology to assess investment opportunities and manage his SMSF with great success. During the 1980’s Merv witnessed the poor advice being provided to mum and dad investors by brokers and advisors. This sowed the seed of thought that perhaps he could provide a service to investors that could qualify broker recommendations allowing investors to invest with a high degree of confidence.

With the advent of PC based computer technology in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s it was then that Merv realised that he could deliver his theory’s in a practical form to mum and dad investors. In 1991 he invited his son Tim, an experienced computer analyst, to help computerise and commercialise his quantitative methodology.

Merv and Tim set about testing and developing for the next 7 years. In 1997 Merv’s vision was born in the form of Stock Doctor, a software subscription services that analyses the financial statements and financial health of every Australian listed company. This allowed investors to focus on high quality businesses and avoid potential corporate disasters with all the crucial but difficult financial analysis done for them in an intuitive and timely manner.

Merv was an academic at heart and in 1997 decided to move into a more consultative role and appoint Tim as Managing Director to grow the business.
Merv was very proud to see his work embraced so broadly by the investment community in the fledgling years of Stock Doctor.

Sadly, Merv was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2004 and couldn’t enjoy and witness the enormous growth of Lincoln Indicators based on his genius. Merv passed away in 2016 after a long battle with the illness.

Merv would be incredibly proud to know that his work is helping thousands of people around the world, a legacy that will live on through his son Tim for many years to come.