“The right constraints can lead to your very best work.” – Austin Kleon
That’s a quote I love from Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like an Artist.
Artists and traders have much in common.
Uniqueness and success are highly correlated in both fields.
Great traders and artists don’t emerge from the womb with an innate ability.
They have a dedication to their process that creates uniqueness.
If you find yourself bouncing from strategy to strategy because they don’t seem to work, you’re very likely spreading yourself too thin.
Figure out how to go “an inch wide, but a mile deep,” as John Arnold claimed was a huge part of his success. (He’s generally known as the best energy trader of all time.)
It almost doesn’t matter the strategy you pick, but when you constrain yourself to a small area, you’ll almost guarantee you’ll end up with something unique the deeper you dig.
Here’s the podcast with John Arnold where he discussed the constraints he went out of his way to apply.
What constraints can you apply to yourself to lead to your best trading?
-Dave
