Art of War - Can it be Applied to Trading?

Introduction
Many traders think that to make consistent profits in the markets, all you need is a holy grail. From my experience, a trading methodology or system is only one of the ingredients of success. The advancement of technology blinds us into thinking that all we need to be successful is state-of-the-art kit and the latest software. After all, banks fit into this category and they tend to do pretty well. However, technical wizardry is only of value if you know what to do with it. Does Warren Buffett rely on the latest technology to make his investments, or does he put his faith and his money into time tested principles of yesteryear? Modern technology is a useful tool for many traders, but to ensure it’s used wisely and to full advantage, they may benefit from studying some military principles dating back to around BC500.

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sun Wu" and "Sunzi"), a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician. Regarded as a classic military text, it was thought to have been compiled during what is known as the ‘Era of Warring States’, which resulted in a unifiedChinaunder the Qin Dynasty. What does war have to do with trading? Well, the two are comparable in many ways. Soldiers fight the battle, but it’s the thinking and decision making processes of the generals and politicians that tend to win (or lose) the war. Similarly, traders require computers and fancy software to execute their trades, but it’s their ability to assess the markets and how well they execute their trading plan that results in profit or loss.
Like war, trading is a brutal game. Generally speaking, for every winner there are one or more losers. To help ensure you are on the right side of this divide, it may pay you to consider the principles contained in The Art of War. What follows is just a selection, not the complete book, and your interpretations of the text may be different from those offered here

Good article but way to complex in some respects. What every trader needs is some tools and training, charting software and so on. The trader must be totally in confidence using these tools, think of a soldier going into battle, hardly the place to learn how to fire a rifle is it? A trader must know what his limitations are. Think again of soldiers going into battle, they will know what they are capable of attempting to achieve and will never attempt the impossible. Rather along the lines of "live to fight another day". Above all traders need to be disciplined in their approach with a clear plan to exploit their gains and cut short their losses. This is what makes good soldiers. Most of the Chinese soldiers I met in my life were a bunch of useless fookwits, indoctrinated by party promoting slogans so in my most miserable opinion the "Art of War" as published, certainly was not practised by the chinese at least during my lifetime. I am a consistently profitable trader, but I served in the British Army which is the finest establishment for training in the world.

the art of war from centuries ago can no longer be applied to war now nevermind the markets.
its just romanticising and lamenting over something that is a formidable foe.

A good book to read for trading, much better to have on your desk than many trading books.

nice article that help a lot.