How to be successful in investing – Learning from Sun Tze

I believe it is rather boring trying to learn how to read financial statements.  Let me digress to talk briefly about how to be successful in investing.  Investing is like fighting a war – a war between you and the Market, which is the amalgamation of all the market players.  Sun Tze has summarized it very well on how to seek victory in war, he said, “胜兵先胜而后求战 败兵先战而后求胜,” which can be translated into “the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.”  This means, to be successful in investing, you have to do your homework to be sure which stocks will appreciate in price before you invest in the stock rather than invest in the stock and then hope that it will appreciate in price.  The more you know more about a stock compared to other market players, the higher the chance you will beat the market.  There is a lot of information available in the quarterly/half-yearly financial reports, annual reports, company’s announcements on SGX website, the company’s website and the Internet, make sure you study and digest the information before you invest.  I believe most investors do not read and digest the information before they invest; hence, they are not so successful.  As such, I do not think it is difficult to be successful in investing because most of your competitors (other investors) first fights and afterwards looks for victory.