there are lots of definations about strategy,who can tell me what is strategy?i found in this Elite Trader lots of people seems that also do not know this question,strategy is not the same as tactic.thanks
strategy is systematic formula which is within your tactic, tactic sets out a goal & strategy defines entry/exit/stop conditions.
I would say it's the opposite. Entry, exit and stop would be examples of tactics -- the particular decisions executed during actual trading. Strategy is the overall trading framework, encompassing the planning and preparation for all of the above, as well as the choice of markets and instruments to trade, broker(s), time frame(s), trade setups, money management / position sizing, risk management, trading psychology and so on. Look them up in a dictionary, but one good shorthand way to distinguish the two might be: strategy is the overall "What" to achieve specific goals, objectives or results; tactics is the detailed "How".
in trading terms... "A strategy is typically an idea that distinguishes a course of action by its hypothesis that a certain future position offers an advantage for acquiring some designated gain."
Think of Elliot Wave. Elliot Wave is a Methodology. It encompasses a set of market believes and assumptions. It answers questions about how price moves and when. It brings together human psychology and market behavior. It creates the entire prism through which all aspects of the market are viewed. Now a Strategy would be to go long during the 3rd wave as the AO oscillator crosses above zero. Strategy is how one goes about using the information that is distilled through the prism of one's methodology to implement trading opportunities within the context of the methodology. You may buy a breakout of the Value Area on a 5min chart on high volume. This is your strategy. Part of your methodology would thus be Market Profile. Without Market Profile, there is no context from which Value Area breakouts make sense. One needs to know the "back story". Far too many traders focus on when to buy or sell (this is strategy) as opposed to the why to buy or sell. The why has to do with the overall market belief system, or methodology. Buy this cross or when this indicator turns green are just strategies and usually done without context. Buy after a successful 'test' on low volume that occurs at the top of the Value Area once we have seen Stoping Volume in the background, is a strategy with contextual understanding. Part of that context, the understanding that markets are ruled by the supply/demand dynamic. Before you spend a lot of time looking for a strategy, search for a Prism through which to view the market and its movements. Search for a backstory that you can believe in. The best strategies usually naturally follow.
A trading strategy has three essential parts: an entry strategy (rule(s) for beginning a trade), an exit strategy (rule(s) for ending a trade), and money management aka position sizing (rule(s) for how much to commit to a trade). Some people here in ET think that a trader can shortchange or even ignore one of these parts and still have a good trading strategy. This is like thinking that a person can remove a leg from a three-leg stool and still sit comfortably.