The Corporate Mindset
Winning in Strat-O-Matic requires a corporate mindset.   You’re investing in player cards, ones that hopefully get better every year.  

The “Sell High, Buy Low” strategy works not only for the Stock Market but your own Strat-O-Matic team.  

Unfortunately, Wall Street has a determined market value for any transaction, at least at the time of exchange.   A Strat-O-Matic league has no such guide or method of collating divergent opinions.  

While you can ascertain a specific, valid player value for your team, no certainty exists that other managers share a similar analysis or opinion.  Bias, player and team needs, different evaluative frameworks contribute to this discrepancy.

The individual manager, however, has control of his assessment and attitude of risk/reward, and as such, can make decisions regarding his roster management system as well as engage in draft and/or trading decisions accordingly.  

In many respects, managing a Strat-O-Matic roster involves the same elements that govern financial investments.   The best portfolios contain various levels of risk and allow for different return dates.

Every Strat-O-Matic roster should have safe, consistent players.   Hopefully, a Strat-O-Matic roster has its highest percentage of players in the safe category, not the “risk” group.   Yet a balanced roster also requires players that fit into a risk/reward framework.  Scouting and obtaining the “safe” players requires much less work and insight than ascertaining those players best suited for succeeding in the risk/reward model.   Balancing the two considerations requires a proper ratio, just as it does with a financial portfolio.

A Strat-O-Matic roster that accounts for peak productivity also translates into periods of continued success.   Having a majority of players in their prime seasons of performance works well for contemporary seasons, not necessarily future ones.   For this reason, obtaining some of the “higher risk” players may mature in the future, thus minimizing any unnecessary or unwanted period of transition.

A corporate mindset also requires an accounting of mental or psychological conditions.

How do you handle risk?   Are you liberal or conservative in your investment strategies?   Some individuals build a portfolio around stocks and high-growth money market funds.   Others focus almost exclusively on such instruments as certificate of deposits or bonds, both of which offer much less risk as well as a lower rate of return.

Like playing the Stock Market, knowing your own basic inclinations and tendencies helps the decision-making process.   Can you live the results of a draft-day decision or trade?   Will you experience indecision or regret over a particular trade?  Can you handle the volatility of the potential outcome?  

You are the sole judge in determining whether or not engaging in speculative matters provides great benefits, mental stress, or losses.   Knowing what you can and cannot handle often provides the greatest rule of thumb in making any decision, whether financial or in the small world of baseball simulation games.     

Knowledge remains the best weapon against risk and uncertainty.  Understanding your own goals and utilizing the best prognostication methods minimize loss.   You don’t have to follow trendy or advanced formulas either.   Making a decision doesn’t require advantage statistical formulas, just a little more common sense than anything else.

The “Knowledge is Power” adage remains a little pedestrian, but nevertheless holds value as a human truism.  Buying and selling stocks on “tips” or “hunches” rarely creates financial success.  Making informed decisions based on company trends, history, and developments doesn’t eliminate fortune or risk, but you can live with the results, whether positive or negative, more easily.

Think “Corporate” when playing Strat-O-Matic.  Much of the game’s actions and processes share many similarities with financial investment strategies and models.