Advice For The Inexperienced Sports Trader

The following is a brief extract from one of my many manuals covering the skills, psychology and strategic advice you will need to become a successful full-time sports trader.

“I have just completed a short beginners guide to betting exchanges and this is available should you wish via the blog along with a few other products which I will add to over time.

To the basics… I decided to cover this section with a series of  statements (which you will do well to learn and remember) and a little explanation to follow them.

Here goes in no particular order

(i) The trading strategy itself is largely irrelevant. It’s the individuals ability to implement the trading strategy

By this I mean, I can give you the best trading system in the universe but if you have limited experience of the markets, you don’t know how the price moves or why,  you don’t know what to do if it goes  wrong, you miss the entry or exit, you don’t exercise the required discipline,
etc…. YOU WILL LOSE MONEY.

Only experience, built up over time will put you on the path to success. Unfortunately I can’t bottle it up and sell it to you!

If you have a successful, profitable system, stick to it zealously. Do not deviate from the rules of your strategy or you will lose  money in the long term.

Be disciplined and keep losses  small and in control. If it goes  against you, get out, wait and get back  in. That is the essence of trading and what differentiates us from gamblers.

Your biggest priority at all times is preserving your bank.

(ii) When calculating profits, think in terms of percentage rather than monetary value

When  Trading, I’m looking for a hedged profit on all outcomes of between 15% and 20% of the value of my stake.
 

This  is a serious return on my money, unmatched by any financial institution in the world.

When  you begin  on a new market, you should  ideally  be using £2.50 stakes for the first few months. This  allows you to learn how the market moves with minimal risk whilst you build experience and gain knowledge.

As the great Paul Shires says  … “You won’t learn any more using huge  stakes, you’ll just lose  a lot more”

Great advice  from an expert in his field and details of what he offers are available in the
Tennis  section.

I always took the approach that if I can get consistent returns of 100% per week minimum against the value of my stake, and I can do that over a period of months, as long as I keep doing the same  things, I could keep increasing my stakes in confidence of bigger returns.

(iii) Start small, build foundations and the big rewards come later

What I mean is, take the time with small stakes to learn the markets properly.
Everybody needs  to go through the learning process if they expect to be successful traders long term.

If you take the time and make your stupid mistakes and take the big losses  on small stakes, you naturally gain the experience to help you later on. If you can think in terms of percentage rather than money, you can apply it no matter what stakes you are using.

Your aim is to be getting good profits over long periods of time. The  big rewards will come as you slowly increase your stakes.

(iv) Don’t increase stakes too quickly

I can’t overstate the effect a big jump in stakes will have on your trading and your profits. If you aren’t used  to trading with £100 and £200 stakes, simply don’t try to.
Build up slowly and that will come in time.

I started on £5 stakes on the tennis. I went to £250’s pretty quickly and I really shouldn’t
 
have. The  markets are extremely volatile and you can be looking at big red figures
(compared to what you’re used  to) pretty quickly.

Although you could probably turn it around quite easily  by sticking to the strategy, you don’t do it. You get scared, start trading ultra conservatively, leave  the game alone for fear of making it worse or go into mad mode and start chasing  your losses  or any combination of these things.

Believe  me when I say, the psychological aspect is the most difficult to conquer. But conquer it you must if you are to be successful and make a living from this.

Just be sure to do it slowly!

(v) Do your homework

Learn how to decipher the statistics in your market.

Pay attention to these statistics and use  them to structure your trades.

Read everything you can get your hands  on. There’s a lot of public domain stuff available on the forums that will help you massively.

There’s also a recommended reading list at the rear of this manual that I suggest you all consider carefully if you are serious about this as a full time income.

(vi) Above all else, practise practise practise!!!

The  only thing I can’t give you is experience. You’re on your own with this one
It will be difficult in the beginning  but if it wasn’t, everyone would be doing it.

Conservative estimates are that only 0.5% of all Betfair accounts are in profit overall.

Gives you an idea  of how much practise you’re going to need  before you get it right. Good luck!”
 
Now everyone is a beginner at some stage, but this article mostly assumes you know a little about how the exchanges work.