Crazy hey?!
Me a pro trader who sells software for Betfair traders telling you to stop trying to make loads of money on Betfair.
Let me explain…
I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw this Tweet from Matt Gibson. He tweets some decent stuff actually, he’s worth a follow – let me know who else I should follow? I’m spending more time on the BTC Twitter and it would be great to follow the guys you think are the ones to watch.
BUT this tweet was gold because it’s something all of the traders I speak with have in common, they all want to get to the end result of trading which is making money, like really good money.
But struggle with the process. What I want to do here is break that apart a little.
What I am aiming to do with this (let me know if I have achieved it!) is to help you highlight where your trading falls down and give you some tools to help.
There’s usually 3 main things I see traders struggle with:
- Selections & strategy
- Discipline
- Bank management
Now, I could go for hours and hours on all of these and still not cover it all, there’s so much on each of these that you need to know.
I’ll give you some really actionable advice on each one and if you have any questions then send them to me and I will build out some more in-depth content on these for you, over the coming weeks.
I find not just traders, everybody in life wants to work on the things they are good at, but that doesn’t really move the needle and get you the biggest leap towards your goals.
It’s by working on flaws or weaknesses that can catapult us!
Example: On FIFA you have a striker who’s got high stats for dribbling and pace, he can get in the right place for a shot but his shooting is poor say 70s’ when the other stats are high 80’s.
Working on his dribbling and pace will help yes, but if he worked on his weakness, the shooting he has the biggest range to improve, he could get his dribbling from 87 to 89. No biggie, now get that shooting from 70 to 80 WOW now he’s banging them in like Haaland.
Selections & Strategy
Here is where it all starts for me, a lot of traders don’t have a solid way of selecting their trades, which means they aren’t really confident in them – there’s only one thing that will happen here long term!
They’ll blow that bank!!!
Not having confidence in your strategy leads to all kinds of issues, it’s the cornerstone of trading. If you believe in your selections and strategy you’ll be more disciplined and will manage the bank better.
But how do you get more discipline in your selections?
Well I have a guide which covers a lot about how to build a successful strategy, you can get that FREE here: LINK
But just the 10,000FT view of this:
- Start with one strategy
- Start with one sport
- Start with one market
- Build a strategy
- Test Test Test
- Compile the data
- Review it
- Tweak
NOW I’m going to say this takes time. It’s the one thing you don’t want to wait for as a trader isn’t it?
I get it, we all want to be making the big money… but the only way to get there is to give yourself time to work on this because it gets you set up for the long haul.
Warren Buffet (who knows a thing or two about investing) said…
‘Nobody wants to get rich slow.’
I’ll tell you right now what not many others will, it will take you time to build and get confidence with Betfair trading. But if 6 months of this, set you up with a strategy that could grow your bank month on month, wouldn’t that be worth it?
Stop trying to double your bank monthly. Remember the end goal.
Discipline
I wish I could solve this, I used to wish I could have a magic phrase that would get all traders to follow their rules. That was my number wish until I had a child. Now, sorry guys if I only got to have one set of people do what they’re told it would be my child!
Discipline is a tough one, people struggle with this. It stems from not having confidence in their strategy or selection.
They’ve picked a trade they don’t normally do or they followed another trader.
They have no idea why they are really trading it. This leads to a loss, which leads to putting more on and then spiraling out of control to try and get that money back.
Ultimately we don’t want to be wrong, that and not having confidence in our trading leads us to poor discipline.
The only way to counter this? Put on your big boy pants.
Do the work to get confident in your strategy and selections. Create some rules. Follow them.
Admit when you are wrong.
It really isn’t the end of the world!
You don’t also want to be that cocky trader who wins every time, pride always comes before a fall and all that….
Bank Management
Huggggggeeee topic this, like with all of these I could write and write about them for years – I have been! LOL!
If you’ve been following on you’ll know it starts with the strategy then discipline then ends with the management of the bank.
I see so many things from traders:
- When my banks big enough I’ll trade
- When I have 5K in Betfair I’ll be able to make X
- I need to be doing £100 stakes
The list goes on and on, seriously I could talk about this one for months and years. But ultimately….
You’ve got to see the things you are doing as an investment. You are investing in you and your education. It takes time…
Managing the bank gives you time. Time to fight on against betfair.
The almighty foe. Managing your bank keeps you in the game, without blowing banks and having to buy back in.
Some advice:
- Use a bank you can afford to lose
- Stick with 2-4% stakes of that bank
- Carry on for a full month
- Then the for the next month use the same % stake as you did the month before
This will grow the bank month on month, when you have a bad month and you will it will also mean it doesn’t wipe the bank out! I’ve also got a little exercise at the end of this that will really take this to the next level.
If you are still with me, good work!
I’ll recap this and give you one more piece of gold & let you go.
Instead of focusing on the end result, focus on the process.
Work on:
- Selections & strategy
- Discipline
- Bank management
Now, the cherry on top!
Make notes at each stage. What to make notes on? Everything!
Why did you do the things you did, what research you thought was important, what did you discard & why?
EVERYTHING!!
At the end of the month….
Grab a coffee, look through these and be honest with yourself where you are weakest and then open a notebook, google doc, whatever works for you.
Read through the notes and put 3 headings…
- Wins
- Challenges
- Focus
Under the wins, put the small and big wins. What did you do well at? What results did you get? What trade did you trade exactly to the plan, why was this a win for you? We aren’t just talking profit here, remember to focus on the process.
Challenges. Be HONEST! What did you struggle with? What don’t you know? Where do you need to go to get help with that?
Focus. Nice and simple this, what’s the focus you need to work on to get better next month.
Simple.
Do this and you’ll succeed on Betfair.
