What do you think are the biggest mistakes that new traders make when attempting to become successful?The bold font, italics and underlining are mine, the question Sultan's and the answer Cassini's.
A couple of mistakes come to mind, one in the preparation, the other in the execution. One is over confidence. Too many people seem to think that profitable trading is just a matter of sitting down at the PC and that somehow the funds will simply roll in. They think that in a sport like horse-racing (something I never touch by the way) they have an edge over insiders and full-time traders with years of experience. Really? Optimism is good, but so too is realism. The other is the need to let winning trades run and cut the losing trades short, whereas the tendency is to do the exact opposite.
I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, a 'new' trader. This blog's over a year and a half old now and I'd been trading a fair time before I decided to start opening my soul to you lot!
So, you ask, what did you do this time Gun??
Well.... I am probably the only Chelsea fan in the whole wide world who laid them at 3-0 this afternoon with £200 at odds of 1.03. Yep, I chucked six quid of my hard earned cash in the direction of a draw or a United win. And then traded out for a handsome profit after the first (slightly) dodgy penalty.
I'm not going to witter on about it. But, if SAF mentions a disputed penalty from the first half of the game if I can bring myself to suffer Match of the Day tonight, there's an extremely good chance that Mrs Gun will be dispatched to Bluewater tomorrow in search of a new television set.
Ah yes, but think about all those times when you let the trade run and lost it all or ended up red! Greed is a killer.
ReplyDeleteThis highlights one of the problems in trading football, for me. Goals are everything when it comes to price swings and you don't get many of them. In higher scoring sports, when a team or player as momentum, it is easier to ride it out and accumulate the bigger greens. One point goes against you and it doesn't spell the end.
In football, your team can be banging on the door for half an hour but never score, then they concede and in a split second, your green is gone. I personally would just be happy with the one goal and take the green, especially in an even match up like Chelsea v Man Utd.
We've discussed 'gut feel' before Sultan. And I had that gnawing feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that Man U weren't dead and buried. But, of course, you're 100% correct - and green is green :-)
ReplyDeleteDespatched for a new tv LOL
ReplyDeleteFootball is a different beast when it comes to trading. As the Sultan said, locking in profit after that first goal wasn't a bad decision IMO.
ReplyDeleteIf you are solely trading on a match then achieving green status is your aim. You managed that early enough in the match (or in your play I guess would be more accurate). Hindsight is great (and you can in a way learn from it) but green is better :)
ReplyDeleteBen (NTF)
The TV escaped any long term damage Steve - thought SAF was almost contrite in his interview!
ReplyDeleteBen / Cassini - you are right but again what hurts is that nagging voice was right... and it seems to me that when I ignore it it was right massively yet when I listen to it it's usually wrong! Perhaps that's another of those peculiar human traits; selective interpretation with the benefit of hindsight.