Thoughts of a strategist

Most of the traders depend on other’s ideas / strategies to earn money in market. Because an average trader doesn’t have a time tested method and he is not willing to learn any. So he is depending on blogs , websites , TV and others to get so called recommendations to earn money. Whenever a recommendation fails we blame others but if the expected target is achieved we don’t even say thanks. Most of us doesn’t respect the efforts of many genuine analysts (there are a few frauds)in identifying the changing dynamics of the market.

I am reading book about strategies of war (as I don’t see any difference between war and trading) and recently I came across how a commander (Analyst) thinks when his ideas fail. I thought of sharing with you and I hope you will like it.

Defeat is bitter. Bitter to the common soldiers (Traders) , but terribly bitter to the commander (analyst). The soldier may comfort himself with the thought that , whatever the result he has done his duty faithfully, but the commander has failed his duty if he has not won victory – for that his duty. He has no other comparable to it. He will go in his mind the events of campaign. He thinks here I went wrong ; here I took the counsel of fears where I should have been bold ; there I should have waited to gather strength ; at that moment I failed to identify the opportunity when it was presented to me. He will also remember the soldiers whom he sent to attack and never returned . He will remember the look in the eyes of men who trusted him. “I have failed them” he says to himself and “ I failed my country”. He will see himself as a defeated commander. In the dark hour he will turn in upon himself and question his manhood. But he must not stop , if he wants to command the battle again , he must shake off these regrets , and stamp on them. He must beat off these attacks against himself and cast out the doubts born on failure. Forget them and remember the lessons to be learned from defeat – they are more important than victory – General William Slim (1897-1970)