Sponsored by Pepperstone

No big claim in this one. Just a thought on why staying open-minded might be one of the most underrated attributes a trader can have... and what being open-minded actually means in practice.

A clickbait short came through my feed the other day. Guy ranting about how a specific strategy was total nonsense, how "this is how the funds do it." Except a bit of digging turns up four or five firms running exactly the strategy he says doesn't work. Twelve-year track records. All public.

So this episode is about the alternative. You look at a strategy and you land on one of three things: you like it and you'll test it later, you take something from it, or it's not for you. And then it ends there. No energy spent telling everyone else it's rubbish.

I cover:

• Why open-minded doesn't mean chasing shiny objects
• Taking the process, not the strategy (a hedge fund's stress-testing approach I nicked)
• Expressing the same trade idea a different way
• Moon phase strategies and why I don't care if they work
• Building your own playbook from borrowed parts

Most hedge funds don't beat the market. Most traders don't make money. That's just how it works. The best take the spoils.