Whats So Hard About Simplicity?
I often marvel at unnecessary complication. Invariably new traders look for the secrets to success as though they are looking for something that is rare and difficult to find. They believe that by adding additional rules and filters to their trading systems they will improve those systems. Or perhaps a new multi-dimensional quantum oscillator will be much better than the moving average they had been using.
The truth is that lifes hardest questions often have simple answers, but we dont want to believe those simple answers. You will find this theme several places in my book, Way of the Turtle, because it was one of the reasons for the great disparity in results between the various Turtles. The unsuccessful Turtles could not embrace the simplicity of the rules required to make money as a trend follower.
In the chapter Mastering Your Demons, I wrote:
The success of the Turtle experiment has proven that Richard had a set of teachable principles that if followed consistently would result in profitable trading.
The funny thing is that most of the principles that Richard Dennis taught us were not new. Some were basic principles that had been espoused by other famous traders since before Richard was born. Yet the very simplicity of the principles we were taught in some respects was a hindrance for those of us who tried to follow them in those initial months.
People have a tendency to believe that complicated ideas are better than simple ones. Many find it hard to comprehend that Richard Dennis could have made several hundred million dollars by using a handful of simple rules. It is natural to think that he must have had some secret. Many of the Turtles fought that demon during our first few months of trading. Some of us thought that trading successfully couldnt possibly be that simple; that there must be something else to it. This type of thinking obstructed some of the Turtles trading so much that they never were able to follow the straightforward rules Richard had outlined.
My theory is that that belief and the need for complication come from insecurity and the resulting need to find some reason to feel special in some way. Having secret knowledge makes us feel special; possessing simple truths does not. Therefore, our egos drive us to believe that we possess some kind of special knowledge to prove to ourselves that we are somehow superior to others. Our egos dont want us to limit ourselves to commonly known truths. The ego wants secrets.
One of the major benefits of getting older is that many of us find that we have less and less to prove. We become comfortable in our own skin and stop seeking to try to be someone that we are not. This in turn makes it easier to embrace simplicity.
My advice for those who aspire to be great traders: Seek simplicty!
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Something from Curtis Faith from his blog
www.wayoftheturtle.com
Happy Trading!
Saint
