A number of years ago, when blogging about trading was almost non-existent, I happened to come across a site that fundamentally altered my idea of what trading was and what it could be.

It was the site of the now famous mystery man from the east: Maoxian

This is where I first was exposed to his “Trading For Dummies” series.  In this series “The Chairman” would analyse a trade using a set of six questions.

Although I had already been trading for a long time at that point, I was still working under the assumption that “more is better”, trying to cram as many studies and indicators as I could into my trading screen.

The beauty and simplicity of Maoxian’s style hit me like a ton of bricks and fundamentally altered how I looked at trading going forward.

One of the biggest stories this last year was the passing of Steve Jobs and there were countless articles, blog posts, and books about his life and his drive to make Apple one of the most iconic brands of all-time.

The key theme that Jobs championed was simplicity.  A minimalist concept that didn’t lessen the power of Apple’s products,  but actually made them more powerful and user-friendly.

I believe this simplification concept should be a part of every traders philosophy and traders like Sean McLaughlin have even quantified and expanded on this idea on his aptly named blog site: The Minimalist Trader.

As arbitrary as the start of a new year may seem, this lull in the markets is a great time to review and streamline your trading style. Removing the extraneous and unneeded clutter from your trading analysis and style will give you a clearer vision and help to make your trading more profitable in 2012.

Maoxian’s Trading For Dummies Series

The Minimalist Trader Framework