“They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns).” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Many new traders obsess too long over details that do not matter not realizing that at its core trading is simple. Money is made by buying what goes up and selling it to lock in profits while they are still there. How you do this is a personal choice that fits your risk tolerance and personality. You need signals that have proven to work in the past. You need a watch list that gives you a lot of opportunities to find trades.
Your position size has to keep you safe from ruin. Your stop loss is there to get you out of a losing trade while your loss is still small. A trailing stop gets you out of a winning trade while the profits are still there. Complexity of these parameters usually does not lead to more profits but only confusion. Once you know what matters in trading you can focus like a laser on creating your own trading system. Your trading does not have to be perfect only profitable and worth the work you put into it to make money.
Keep it simple, focus on profits not minutiae. Your edge in the markets does not have to be complicated it just has to work over the long term.
“Traders, when they make profits, have short communications; when they lose they drown you in details, theories, and charts.” – N. N. Taleb
