I get quite a lot of mail from followers in similar positions, going through the same things but feeling as though it only happens to them!
It’s not unusual to feel like this as I once did. By way of a change one of the followers has kindly written a guest post about how he got into trading Betfair.
Enjoy…
Guest Post: Laurence, 24, Manchester.
My Background:
I like to think I’m still fairly young but throughout my childhood, I never had any interest in sports. Quite the opposite in fact! I was more of a music guy and could not get my head around people finding entertainment in balls hitting the back of nets. I studied music production at university but spent most of my time learning to make money for myself. Projects ranged from running a (techno) club night, building websites and buying+selling anything I could get my hands on. Basically, I learnt how to handle money and getting a real job never really occurred to me.
My introduction to sports betting/trading:
After uni, a family member introduced me to matched betting. It was fast, easy money. Even still, good things don’t last forever and I decided to look more deeply into the betting exchanges that I was using to lay off the free bets with.
I stumbled across Caans videos on Youtube and watched him print money trading the pre-race markets. I was hooked. It’s hard to say exactly how I spent the first few months “trading” as it’s all different with hindsight, but recently I looked back on some of my screenshots and it was quite frankly….embarrassing. I would be attempting to trade Irish races on a Monday afternoon using stakes 1/3rd the size of my bank.
No wonder I lost money.
Starting to profit:
It’s something you simply ignore when you first start off, but you soon realise that working on your mindset is critical to long term profitable trading. I started to write a trading diary where I would record (in horrendous amounts of detail) my trades for the day. I would include things like:
What fundamental analysis backed up my trade
What technical analysis backed up by trade
How I felt emotionally when making the trade
How many cups of coffee I’d had
How long I had been working for that day
The list goes on…
Although I went into too much detail to continue making records like this in the future, I began to notice particular patterns that were contributing to losing streaks and/or winning streaks. It was a game changer.
The big losses continued to haunt me for much longer than I had hoped. They were often due to technical errors or accidentally putting a £200 back bet in-running instead of £2… Silly stuff. It’s important to keep your spirits up at this stage as despite the stupid mistakes, I was doing well with my general trading process.
Cut out the big losses and let your small returns shine through. Simple!
Future Focus:
Like most new traders, I’d love to trade everything I can get my hands on. I don’t even know the rules of Cricket but would love to trade it! Luckily I’ve come to realise that you can’t be an expert in a massive amount of sports so I’ve chosen a few to stick at until things change:
Pre-Race and In Play Horses
Tennis
E-Sports Betting (CSGO in particular)
Football (leagues only)
Out of all of the above, I’d like to focus more on E-Sports Betting. Most people don’t even know what it is so even if you know a little bit about it, you have an advantage over most people. Plus, I always dreamed of the day where I could get paid to play computer games for a living. Getting paid to watch and bet on them is close enough, right?!?
If you take anything from reading this… You really have to focus on your strengths. I know it’s a cliché. You can waste lots of time and money trying to trade sports you have no idea about. Make it easier for yourself and focus on one thing at a time.
Some of you might be wondering what E-Sports is (not to be confused with virtual sports). Basically there are tournaments where professional PC gamers compete for big money. First person shooters and the like. The bookies are starting to add odds for it, although their compilers don’t have a lot to go off. There have been instances where massive value has been left on the table. Potentially, I think it could be a goldmine in future.
Related: Caan’s Story…
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