I know you are excited but chill.
By Not Trading You’ll Actually Get Better At Trading.
Ryan, you are going to have to explain. How on this planet will I get better at trading by not trading?
So many traders say to me, well you have to have an edge, you have trade value. TRUE!
So why are you trading things that have NO edge or Value just because you feel you have to be actively making trades daily to profit?
OK, let me set the scene for you.
Pretty much every trader I have ever met has traded something they shouldn’t & they know it too.
They got their selections for the day and maybe nothing fits their criteria, they were so desperate to trade. So desperate to feel like they were making progress they traded something anyways.
Because if you’re not trading actively, how do you make progress?
Well you need to realize that trading is a puzzle, there are so many different parts to it.
For me there’s 2 key elements. The trading and mental aspect.
There’s the actual trading element that goes into it, for me its things like:
- The strategy
- The bank
- The selections
- The execution of the trades
Then there’s the mental aspect of it, things like:
- Fomo
- Bank management
- Staking
- Controlling emotions
- Managing time
- Expectations
By focusing on one side more than the other you are destined to fail in my eyes. This is part of the reason why when I say by not trading you are getting better because you are working on the mental aspect.
You are accepting that nothing meets your criteria and moving on, easier said than done though right?
But in this situation it can be really hard, because you are trying to talk yourself into making something tradeable that day, you are trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
It’ll never fit.
There’s two things that you can do that will help you stay on track with your trades and only do ones that fit, one is create a rules list and the other is a trading plan.
Both work in tandem with each other. So you need both. Don’t worry though I am here to break this down.
By doing this we make sure we only trade the best trades, proven to be profitable. I am also here thinking you’ve got and been through my super trader framework if not you can get it FREE.
I’ll talk you through an actual real life example of my own and how I go about all of this.
Working Example
I’ll use my Betgreen LTD, the rules for this strategy are:
- Home Fave under 2.0
- Draw odds between 3-5
- Home scored 1st 70% or more
These rules have been built from following my super trader framework, I start with an idea and tweak them based on data.
I start the day by logging into BTC stats and getting the games on the list. I am writing this on the 11th November & 2 games fit nearly all the criteria.
One of the games doesn’t have 70% or greater for the Home score first, so straight away I get rid of it and focus on the 1 game that fits everything.
Going through the rest of my checks to make sure the best players are playing etc…
This is where your rules come in, but they are only as good as you. If you don’t stick to them you’ve had it!
I’ve now got one trade narrowed down from my rules it then goes….
On the trading plan.
I can hear you going, ‘what does the trading plan look like Ryan?’
Simple.
I’ve got you
It’s got the date and then the trades listed underneath.
I’m releasing next week a detailed video on trading plans!!
Now you know the games you are doing that day and the kick off time.
All you need to do is get to the screen 10/15 before and have a double check of everything. My process is this….
Check the trade is still in line with the rules if yes, move on to the plan.
Check the trading plan, is everything still hunky dory? Players still playing nobody has been pulled from the line up – use Twitter or sofascore app here!
Trade the match and write the recap on the trading plan.
IF you’ve done this and there are no trades. Write that down, this is where the plan works because you can note it all down, the steps you are taking, the thoughts etc… you can feel like you are gaining momentum.
One thing I’ve really worked on is this….
Would I be annoyed with myself after doing that trade, because I know I shouldn’t be doing it – if it lost.
Buttt you’ll be saying what if I do it and it wins?
Well then you are a fool!!! As Gandalf said himself, this isn’t what smart super traders do. It might work once or twice but tell me, how’s that trading on hope working out for ya?
Not great is it?
Didn’t think so!
Now you’ve done your routine for the day if there’s trades, trade em, if not listen to a podcast about trading, look back over your daily notes on how you are doing, look at how your staking is improved.
Look at what’s happened on the great days and what’s gone wrong on your bad days and the mistakes you made on them, I BET on the bad days you were not disciplined and the good ones you were.
Doing this on the no trade days helps anchor the decision to not trade!
I gave a really good exercise to do to help you on non Betfair trading days on this post – Check it out.
This takes some work, you won’t master it daily
