Stop Doing Dumb Sh*t

Seriously, it's like the easiest superpower

Author

Tim Vollans
September 01, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

In association with DarwinexZero. Allocating real capital to successful traders

Everyone focuses on doing really intelligent stuff. Nobody stops to ask if being cleverer is actually useful.

See, that’s my working theory for pretty much everything (and it ESPECIALLY applies to trading & investing).

Instead of focusing on optimising and perfection, what if we just tried doing less dumb shit?

Picture a giant, transparent water tank.

The tank can represent whatever you want. Your life, career, business, trading returns, health. Take your pick.

All the good stuff goes into the top of the tank.

In theory, that tank should fill up and compound over time.

In reality, we do dumb shit.

Which means the tank leaks…

Science

A lot of the time, our ego will push back at this idea.

Simple stuff isn’t attractive. We seek novelty.

There’s even a name for it…

Shiny object syndrome (SOS) is a pop-cultural, psychological concept where people focus on a new and fashionable idea, regardless of how valuable or helpful it may ultimately be.

People who face a fear of missing out are especially susceptible, as the distraction of shiny objects in themselves clouds judgement and focus.

The term shiny object syndrome is often used when people mistake something small and focused and fixate on it to the extent that they lose the big picture.

Which should sound familiar to any retail trader…

Hey, I’ve been trying this trading system for a week and it hasn’t made me any money. This guy seems to be making a lot of money with his MACD/RSI crossover fandangaroonio algo strategy. I’ll try that.

System hopping is the perfect example of dumb shit that it’s easy to stop doing.

This applies to much more than just trading, but we’ll stay in our lane for now…

Short list of dumb things to avoid. 

  • Boredom Trades. Just go and do something else. 

  • Revenge Trades. Do this if you hate money

  • System hopping. Stick to a first principles system and build around it

Actually, that’s really the point I want to focus on. Principles.

Trading is a business

Like any business, there should be some basic principles at the core.

Usually these are based around the aims & goals that the business sets out on inception.

Unsurprisingly, most businesses don’t put making money at the heart of those goals.

It’s not necessary. The purpose of every business is to profit.

Principles guide the ‘how’.

Trading is no different

When trading, what are you expecting to get paid for?

Maybe your ability to accurately forecast the future… (your talent is wasted here)

Identifying when the market has moved too far from ‘value’… (mean reversion)

Identifying when ‘value’ is changing because new information has changed perceptions… (trend)

And so on…

If you pile in on every new shiny object, these markets will chew you up & spit you out.

It’s a massive cliché but this Bruce Lee quote is a banger.

Keep doing the same things over and over again. Improve a little bit each time.

Reject complexity, change for changes sake and focus on not making stupid mistakes.

❝

If your goal is to become exceptional at ‘one kick’, why are you pissing about with those nunchucks?

Bruce Lee

Honestly, keeping it simple & cutting out the toxic dumb shit is a superpower.

And don’t listen to the cynical little ego telling you it can’t be that easy.

Cynics are dumb. They’ve just perfected the art of sounding smart…

While we’re on the subject of cynicism, David talks about every cynics favourite asset (and a few other things) here 👇

We Hate Gold But Maybe This Time...

The economy's clearly slowing - is gold set to outperform?

pro.fink.money/p/we-hate-gold-but-maybe-this-time

Plus his thoughts on oil reacting to today’s NFP data

Where's oil off to after NFP?

Supply driven rally faces off against employment data

pro.fink.money/p/where-s-oil-off-to-after-nfp

Also keep an eye on the Nigeria Effect.

Nigeria’s main labour union has just announced that they will "embark on a total and indefinite shutdown of the nation within 14 working days or 21 days from today until steps are taken by the government to address the excruciating mass suffering and impoverishment being experienced around the country,"

Nigeria produced 1.1 million bpd in 2022

And just for fun. This is precisely why we’ve started Fink.Money… 🤦‍♂️