The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

Edmund Burke

Humans are curious by nature. Observe the behavior of any toddler and you’ll soon discover their favorite word is “why”. Why is the sky blue, daddy? Why can’t I eat Go-gurt for every meal? Why do I have to clean up my toys, daddy?  Why, why, why?

You were endowed with curiosity from the womb, and it remains embedded in your DNA to this day.

In fact, I suspect curiosity is what led you to click on today’s blog post after the title piqued your interest. Your impulse won’t go unrewarded.

No doubt curiosity is an essential part of the learning process. But in the world of trading, the question of “why” can be a dangerous thing. It can lead you on a never-ending quest for certainty; a merry-go-round of time wasting.

For traders, the question “why” is typically thrown about after a stock scores a notable rally or selloff. Why did AAPL tank? Why did oil rally?

The only true, complete answer to the AAPL query is that supply exceeded demand.

The only true, complete answer to the oil query is that demand exceeded supply.

But that’s not good enough for you, is it? No, you want to know why supply exceeded demand for AAPL don’t you? Why did all those people sell shares of AAPL today?

Well, fire up your financial news site of choice and you’ll be greeted with articles aplenty playing the blame game for AAPL stock’s woes. It’s a simple exercise for the writer, really. Just identify any news that may have hit in the past 24 hours and blame it on that.

But does it really matter? Does knowing some random news outlet’s best guess on what caused AAPL to selloff really matter to you as a trader? Who cares if the culprit was poor reception of Apple Music or a shakeup in management or supply issues for iPhones?

I can think of a number of dangers with the “why” obsession.

First, it’s a time waster. All the precious minutes you’re spending satisfying your curiosity could have been spent doing actual productive things like, say, finding a new trading opportunity or managing existing positions.

Second, knowing why doesn’t tell you what to do with your trade.

Third, and perhaps most important, the reason you discover for the stock move may cause you to disbelieve the price action and deviate from your well laid plans.

“Apple broke support on heavy volume and my plan says I should exit, BUT it was caused by news that T Swift (that’s Taylor Swift for all you old fogies) switched out her iPhone for a Samsung and, well, she would never do that – gotta be a rumor. Apple will bounce back. Screw the plan; I’m staying in.”

As a trader I don’t care why something happened. I simply want to be aware of what the stock did and what implications, if any, it has for the stock going forward. The news doesn’t tell you that, the price chart does.

Trade what you see, not what you think.

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