For any business to succeed, to be profitable, it must find its way

- it's most profitable strategy or direction. 

There are unlimited factors that influence the success and failure of

a business – both within and external to the business.

Some internal factors: management, workers strengths and

weaknesses, plans, implementation, processes, land, buildings,

infrastructure of communication and other systems, and so on.

Some external factors: markets, buyer’s wants and needs,

competition, economies, financial markets, global, national, and

local conditions, etc.

Put simply, a business strategy is the direction a business takes

resulting from the analysis of the combined effects of all the

internal and external factors influencing the business. The strategy

can be the manufacture, delivery, and service of a product or

products, providing services, or both.

To thrive, the business must focus on the strategy, plans, and

implementation of those plans - delivering world-class products and

services. To survive, business managers focus on profitability.

    For optimal success, there can only be one stock trade strategy – in

    the sales and delivery of products and services – being know as

    number one, with customer satisfaction, no matter the competition.

Stock Trade Business

Now, for a stock trading business, strategy development is not that

much different.

There are internal factors: trading computer and software, risk

capital, risk tolerance, trading style, important sources of

information and the not so important information (the noise), and

so on.

And the external factors: economies, stock and other markets,

financial instruments, information delivery and latency, breaking

news, earnings, interest rates, and so on. 

For trading success, one strategy is developed, considering

all the internal and external factors influencing trading - no matter

the markets, no matter the competition, no matter the trader's

strengths and weaknesses. Considering all the internal and external

factors of trading, all the financial instruments that can be traded, 

each trader chooses a strategy (or strategies, for some) for trading.  

The Trader's Consultant - Strategy Driven

To thrive in the stock trading business you must have an edge, a

trading niche where you can consistently make more money than

you lose.

To survive it's the same - making more money than you lose.

Here's the catch. Unlike traditional business, focusing on the money

while trading is a trap - it's the primary source of trader failure.

Like all businesses, to survive you must focus on the money, but,

while trading, it's all about a focus on winning. 

The strategy, while trading stocks then, is to win. Period. Not the

money. Tell that to the average loser and he'll think you're nuts.

Save the money talk for after the close or with your accountant.

Just like a world-class tennis player or golfer, the focus is on winning

points or strokes, not the purse or the money that can be made. 

Money is an emotional game; winning is a competence game

So, the trick for losing traders is to see that, like sports, the focus on

winning while trading is critical.

The challenge - trading to win, absent the concern about your

money, putting the money conversation on hold.

The second point is to acknowledge that learning to win in sports and

trading does not happen on your own.

That's where a trading coach and the discipline of trading with

other winners in a trading room comes into play.