The occurrence of fibonacci numbers in time series of financial accounting ratios: Anomalies or indicators of firm survival, bankruptcy and fraud? An exploratory study

Although there have been conjectures about the possible occurrences of Fibonacci numbers and golden means and ratios in financial statements, it is intriguing as to why managers should be reporting these rather stylized series of numbers. One possible explanation is that these numbers are merely random occurrences and are not a part of any systematic financial reporting pattern. Still other conjectures are that these numbers are generated by a process of skillful manipulation of accounting rules which has been documented in the empirical accounting literature. This study empirically verifies the null hypothesis that the occurrence of Fibonacci numbers, golden ratio and means in financial accounting ratios, is merely a random occurrence without any statistical significance. It constructed two samples: a random sample of 200 companies, and another sample of 200 companies that have survived 20 years or more.