Sun Tzu on Investing

Sun Tzu On Investing by Curtis Montgomery

This is a really decent little book written by the Chief Sage @ Wallstraits.com.

Applying the timeless pearls of wisdom and strategic insight from Taoist warrior and philosopher, Sun Tzu, this book simply makes great sense for everyone.

To win without fighting is best. Go forth armed without determining strategy, and you will destroy yourself in battle.

Much strategy prevails over little strategy, so those with no strategy cannot but be defeated. Therefore it is said that victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

To win without fighting is the best.

As Master Sun says, "When you know yourself, you are able to protect yourself."

Ask yourself some tough questions about why you want to invest in stock markets, here's a list to get you started.

• What are my financial goals throughout my life.
  
• Why should i buy stocks instead of fixed deposits, bonds or mutual funds?
  
• Based on my personal/family budget, how much capital can i deploy into stocks?
  
• Do i have the stamina to survive bubble and panic markets?
  
• Do i have the desire to understand businesses and investigate management?
  
• Do i have the patience to wait for business values to be expressed in share price?
  
• Can i emotionally detach myself from the daily market "buzz"?

These are the simple basic commonsense personal financial planning issues mentioned by Montgomery in his book (pg 4).

So why is personal financial planning so important?

Remember the blog entry: Is Market For Suckers?

Let me reproduce what is mentioned in the originating blog again.

Its amazing how life intervenes. Kids, whatever. its a fortunate few that can just shell it away and never touch it. Your “horizon” hits a dead end when you have to put money into a checking account. I have never seen any investing research that deals with random withdrawls that represents real world. And boy oh boy, if life hits you hard when the market is down, you make a withdrawl and you wont ever catch up.

If you do not plan your financial planning well enough, there is always a possibity that sometime in the future an incident might occur requiring some emergency funding. And if it does happen, would you then withdrawl from the stock market?

And as mentioned in the blog, what if this incident happens when the market is down?

Would the forced withdrawl cause a huge damage to your investment?

Is how your investment could be hampered by your own doing?

You could buy a good stock at a good price, but if you are forced to cut short on your investment before the investment could bear fruit for you due to poor personal financial planning, then the chances of you finding success in the stock market will be severly hampered!

Think of every footy match.. :P

Will it do your team any good if you are forced to play each match with 3 play players short?

Sooo.... if you cannot and do not "know yourself, then how are you are able to protect yourself.?

Tiok boh?

let me repeat Sun Tzu teaching one more time..

To win without fighting is best. Go forth armed without determining strategy, and you will destroy yourself in battle.

Much strategy prevails over little strategy, so those with no strategy cannot but be defeated. Therefore it is said that victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.