Review of my new book "Applying Art of War to Investing" by ChatGPT

 

Applying Art of War to Investing — A Review

Applying Art of War to Investing is my latest and perhaps most unusual investing book. It combines the ancient strategic thinking of Sun Tzu with modern investing techniques, my more than 30 years of investing experience, and the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence.

The central idea is simple: investing is a battle, but the enemy is not another investor. The enemy is loss. Uncertainty, fear, greed, misinformation, poor preparation, and unfavorable market conditions can all cause losses. The investor's job is to prepare, protect capital, recognize opportunities, and act with discipline.

The first part of the book applies major principles from The Art of War to investing. “Know yourself,” “know the enemy,” “know the terrain,” preparation, defense, deception, striking weakness, intelligence, adaptability, and discipline are translated into practical investing concepts such as risk management, market timing, sector rotation, contrarian investing, momentum investing, stock screening, and the use of Finviz, Fidelity, financial news, and AI.

The remainder of the book is deliberately much more practical. It is organized as a reference book rather than a novel. Beginners can start with simple ETF investing, basic portfolio construction, CDs and bonds, stock evaluation, and market timing. More experienced investors can explore short selling, covered calls, technical analysis, sector rotation, momentum investing, insider purchases, penny stocks and micro-caps, dividend investing, and many other strategies.

One feature that makes the book different is that I do not present myself as a perfect investor. I include both successes and mistakes. For example, I explain how I moved to cash too early in 2022 and remained underinvested in 2023. My objective is not simply to tell readers what worked, but also what I learned when I was wrong.

I also include examples from my own investing record. These include strong results from my sector-rotation strategy, my annual “Best Stocks” series, and individual selections such as SMCI. I explain how I calculate returns and compare results with the S&P 500 rather than simply presenting attractive numbers without methodology.

A new way of writing a book with AI

This book was completed extraordinarily quickly—less than two days for the major writing and revision process. That would have been impossible for me to accomplish in the same time without AI.

I used my previous books as the foundation. Instead of starting from an empty page, I was able to reuse, reorganize, update, and connect decades of material that I had already written. AI helped me research, rewrite, summarize, organize, and review the material.

Gemini helped substantially with the research and rewriting of Part 1, particularly the application of Sun Tzu's principles to investing. I also used AI to review and improve many other sections. The book openly acknowledges this use of AI.

This does not mean that AI wrote my investing experience. The strategies, observations, successes, failures, and lessons accumulated over decades are mine. AI made it possible to turn that accumulated material into a coherent new book much faster.

I also recently completed My Coconut Theory in approximately one day using a similar approach.

Is AI praise valuable?

I have received many positive reviews of my books from AI models. I appreciate them, but I have learned an important lesson:

Praise is not bread.

A book can receive an excellent review from AI and still sell very few copies. Therefore, I cannot depend on book income. I write primarily because I enjoy investing, teaching, experimenting with ideas, and sharing what I have learned.

That may actually be an advantage. I do not need to write what is fashionable or commercially popular. I can write what I believe is useful.

Who should read this book?

I believe the book can serve three groups:

• Beginners, who want simple and practical ways to begin investing.
• Intermediate investors, who want better methods for finding, evaluating, and timing investments.
• Experienced investors, who want additional strategies, historical examples, and ideas to test.'

The book also encourages readers to use paper trading and testing rather than blindly putting real money behind a new strategy.

My conclusion

Few investing books, to my knowledge, apply Sun Tzu's principles this extensively to investing.

But the real purpose of the book is not to prove that investing is war. It is to encourage investors to think strategically.

Prepare before acting. Know your weaknesses. Protect yourself before attacking. Choose the right battlefield. Wait for favorable opportunities. Adapt when conditions change. And perhaps most importantly, learn from your mistakes.

There is no Holy Grail in investing. There are only better ways and worse ways to manage risk and make decisions.

If this book helps even a few investors avoid expensive mistakes or become more disciplined investors, I will consider the effort worthwhile.

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The above was written by ChatGPT at my request.

In reviewing my drafts, ChatGPT rated 8.5 to 9.