Two Mice and a Maze

Today I came across an old analogy highlighting the dangers of curve fitting your approach too much: 

A lesson from Steve Jobs

When traders seek improvement, more often than not they will ADD something to their routine or method of selection, or maybe start putting extra indicators on their charts.

Yet most of the successful traders I've had the good fortune to speak to or correspond with only really hit their straps when they REMOVED the superfluous elements from what they were doing.

They developed an understanding of what were the important elements in achieving profitability. They found simplification and clarification in what they were trying to achieve. They got rid of the extra elements or chart indicators they didn't need.

They used Occam's Razor in their approach to the markets.

Now here's a suggestion. Why don't you take the same approach to your thinking?

The rules of the game haven't changed

I started getting involved in trading back in 2003, and didn't get into trend following until 2006. As a result, I missed the huge trends (both up and down) from the dot.com bubble around the millennium.

While thinking idly back to those times, which are now getting on for 20 years ago (yikes!), I began pondering about how things have changed in the intervening period.

Back then, Facebook and Twitter didn't exist. The dot.com bubble sprang from something new to the masses called the internet. Mobile phones were nowhere near as common as they are today.

How on earth did we survive?

And that got me thinking, from a trading and historical viewpoint.