Trading is a fascinating activity.

There are so many layers to it. And so many paths that you can go down.

Soon after we first got interested in the stock market I became captivated by technical analysis. I finally felt that I was in control. It gave me great confidence to have all these tools to use.

We bought some expensive charting software and I started playing with the hundreds of indicators that it contained. Exotic sounding devices with impossible to understand mathematical formulas.

So, armed with all these new tools, I was sure we would be making a killing in no time. Because now we had science on our side!

And so I spent night after night, weekend after weekend trying to understand them. Backtesting. Trying one and then another.

But still we struggled to pick the winning trades.

I can remember buying this add-on to our software that gave us even more indicators. And I was convinced this would finally make the difference.

So I tried yet more indicators. Using different settings and different combinations.

But success still eluded us.

And it took us quite a long time before we understood why.

But before I explain what we discovered, let me tell you about eating bitumen.

My office is close to home. So some years ago I decided it was silly for us to have a second car. And so I traded it in and bought a scooter.

Now the only real problem with scooters or motor bikes [apart from getting wet in the rain] is that you are fairly likely to get hit by a car at some point!

It just stands to reason.

So I am always careful to watch cars to see which way they indicate they are going to turn or whether they are stopping.

But this one day I was in a bit of a hurry.

And as I approached an intersection a car was parked at the stop sign on my right. I was going straight through and the driver was indicating to turn left.

[At this point I should remind some of our overseas friends that we drive on the left side of the road!]

So I knew it was OK for me to keep going straight through the intersection. Or so I thought!

Next minute I am slamming on my brakes as the car accelerates across the street immediately in front of me. As my scooter hits the fender I go flying across the front of the car and land on the pavement on the opposite side.

For anyone who has experienced such an event you will know what I mean when I say that it was like the whole thing happened in slow motion. Quite weird!

I can remember looking at the car as it headed for me and not believing that this was really happening.

Because I was convinced it was going to turn left. The driver had indicated that he was turning so what was he doing on my side of the road?

But there he was. I couldn