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Do you like cookies? I do.

I try not to eat them anymore as I need to watch my sugar intake, but I can easily state that they are my favorite. Compared to pies, cakes, puddings, mousses, or any other dessert, cookies are the best.

Despite not eating cookies now, I have personally eaten enough cookies to give the blue Sesame Street monster a run for his money.

Therefore, with my vast experience, I think I have found the “best cookie recipe ever.” Would you like my cookie recipe?

Now, I imagine that many of you are saying yes, you would like to have my favorite cookie recipe.

This is where things get interesting to me.

I have shared my recipes before: cookies, breads, smoking rub, street corn salad, and the list goes on and on. I have worked many of these recipes from a core concept to a developed, repeated, tried-and-tested successful recipe.

Despite my dozens, if not hundreds, of times making these recipes and the testing I have done, I get peppered with questions and requests to alter them.

I get things like, “What if I don’t like oatmeal? Can I just leave it out?”

“Can I do this with flax seed and sugar substitute since I don’t eat eggs or sugar?”

“I want to do a vegetarian version. What changes should I make to the rub?”

None of these questions or requests are wrong, and I think it is reasonable to want these things.

However, my recipe and all the testing were based on a specific cookie.

After hundreds of attempts, I am somehow supposed to know whether it will be good with flax seed and sugar substitute as though I tried all cookie variations.

Again, this is not a critique of someone wanting a healthier cookie. It might do us all good.

The critique is that this cookie recipe was offered as just that: a cookie recipe. If you change it, you will not get the same results the recipe calls for.

Will it taste good? I don’t know, but it won’t be the “best cookie recipe ever.”

Somehow, the requester thinks that their alterations will provide an equal or better result.

I would say it will provide a different result, and then I wonder: why did you want the recipe in the first place if you aren’t going to follow it?

You wouldn’t bake cookies at 250° instead of 350° because your oven heats faster and expect the same result.

You wouldn’t substitute salt for sugar and expect sweetness.

Yet people constantly believe their modifications will somehow produce the same outcome.

If we want the result but don’t want the process, or want the process to adapt to our own wants, that only guarantees we won’t get the same results.

If I want six-pack abs and my personal trainer gives me a diet plan and a daily workout schedule, I can then say, “OK, but I have things I need to do, so I can’t work out daily. Can I do two days a week? And I don’t like starchy vegetables. Can I just eat French fries?”

I can certainly say what I want, but it alters the plan, and I will not have the proven, tested results.

The trainer developed that program through years of experience with clients who followed it exactly. My modifications mean I’m no longer following a proven program.

I’m running my own experiment.

You might be wondering what cookies have to do with trading success.

Everything.

Because the same psychology that makes people modify a tested recipe is exactly what destroys trading accounts.

I have built trading systems and plans for over 25 years.

I have developed new indicators that have never existed, providing specific math with specific, predictable mathematical results.

Yet, I get the same requests to change it.

“Can I do this on a different time frame?”

“Can I not use your indicator and just use the MACD?”

“What if I can only trade on Fridays because that is when I don’t work?”

“Do I have to use that risk management?”

“What if I trail my stop faster?”

So many questions and adjustments.

Let me give you a specific example.

A trader took my system that uses 15-minute charts with a 2% risk per trade. He “optimized” it to 5-minute charts with 0.5% risk because he was nervous about volatility.

Six months later, he wondered why the win rate dropped from 68% to 51%.

The answer? It wasn’t the same system anymore.

He changed the timeframe, which altered the signal quality. He changed the position sizing, which affected his ability to weather normal drawdowns.

He essentially created a new system without doing any of the testing required to validate it.

Just like the cookie recipe, yes, you can make all of those changes to my system.

I can’t tell you what kind of results you will get because I haven’t tried all combinations and adjustments.

You may get good results with your adjustments or even better results than my system. I really don’t know.

The only thing I do know is your results will be different.

In my 25 years of trading, I’ve seen hundreds of traders modify proven systems.

I’d estimate 90% of modifications reduce performance, not because the changes are bad in themselves, but because they weren’t tested across multiple market cycles, different volatility regimes, and various market conditions.

I understand the impulse.

We modify because we want to feel in control.

We want to believe we can get the same results with less risk, less time, or less discipline.

It’s human nature to think, “This is good, but I can make it better for my situation.”

But markets don’t care about our preferences. They don’t accommodate our work schedules or our comfort with risk.

Markets reward consistency and punish randomness.

Now, let me be clear. I’m not saying modifications are never appropriate.

There are legitimate reasons to adapt a system.

Position sizing adjustments for different account sizes are necessary and smart.

Time frame flexibility may be required for different lifestyles, though this needs careful testing.

Minor adaptations for broker limitations or regulatory requirements are sometimes unavoidable.

The difference is in the approach.

These aren’t casual modifications made because something “feels” better. They’re calculated adjustments made with full awareness that testing is required to validate them.

I also know that if you want to alter my systems, that is up to you, but I won’t be changing my successful system and rules just to see if it can be done differently.

I’ve spent years testing what works. Every rule in my system exists because I learned, often painfully, why it needed to be there.

What I am saying is this: I will offer you my cookie recipe, and if you want to have the same results of the cookie I like, you will need to follow the recipe, both in the ingredients and in the process.

If you want to change it, it is no longer my recipe; it is yours.

And I will let you eat your egg-free, sugar-free, flax-filled raisin cookies to your heart’s content.

But here’s what I’d encourage instead.

I’m not saying my system is perfect or can’t be improved. I’m saying if you want to improve it, approach it like a scientist, not a gambler.

Change one variable at a time.

Test it for at least 100 trades.

Document everything: every entry, every exit, every modification you make.

Track not just your win rate, but your risk-adjusted returns, your maximum drawdown, and your psychological comfort with the system.

That’s how recipes and trading systems actually evolve. That’s the difference between random modification and genuine improvement.

In trading, as in baking, there’s a difference between following a recipe and understanding the chemistry.

Master the recipe first.

Follow it exactly, even when it feels uncomfortable, even when you think you know better.

Then, and only then, after you’ve proven you can execute it with discipline and consistency, consider experimenting.

Your account balance will thank you.

Blake Young
Senior Market Strategist, TheoTrade

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