To be successful as a trader, you have to understand that this activity is a continuous battle for survival. If you don't think like a warrior, you will have a very short life as a trader.
More than eighty percent of retail and intraday traders will kill their accounts in their first three months. The most successful traders learn the painful and costly rules of survival in the markets through trial and error.
The word "strategy" comes from the ancient Greek term stratēgía ("office of the general, command, generalate"), from stratēgós ("the leader or commander of an army, a general"), from stratós ("army") + ágō ("I lead, I conduct"). In other words, it is a matter of "thinking like a general".
The most important book on this subject, the Sunzi Bingfa, poorly translated as "The Art of War", deals with planning and strategic analysis. The fact that this book deals with strategy, not war, explains why its methods are perfectly applicable to the planning of market operations and to any other activity that requires foresight and analysis.
According to its author, the Chinese general and philosopher Sun Wu , known as Sunzi (Master Sun) or Sun tzu, success is not for the strongest or the most aggressive, but for those who best understand their situation and what their alternatives really are. By studying and understanding the strategic framework proposed by Sunzi, you will be able to analyze almost instantaneously any competitive situation in the markets, detect opportunities and make appropriate decisions.
This contribution and the following ones are a tribute to the millenary wisdom of this classic work and a gift to those novice or expert traders who, like me, were defeated before the markets for not having a Strategist mentality.
Dario van Krauser
Strategists Trader