Betfair Trading Psychology

You've probably heard it many times before but I'm going to say it again anyway. Successfully trading on Betfair is not easy. I believe that trading successfully and in the long term is 60% psychological, 30% research and 10% skill.

The way you think can and WILL affect your success. If you think you can't trade successfully then trade successfully you shall not. Here are 3 main factors of trading psychology that you need to watch out for:

Failure

If you've tried a particular system or maybe you're having a bad day and lost money, you and many other people will feel a sense of failure. This is perfectly normal but we should not let this get us down. The reason for this is simple, failure is to be expected and should make us better if we learn from our mistakes. The great thing about Betfair is that we can try 100 different strategies and we only need 1 to work consistenly and we will be making money for years to come.

My general experience is that people give up too early and the ones who stick at it will find an edge eventually and will win in the long run - deservedly so. Failure does not have to costly either, you can paper trade and track your profit and loss on Excel spreadsheets (or a notepad).

If you've found something that works but you're having the odd losing day, I recommend taking a break. Never bet with emotions (more on this in the discipline section).

Greed

Greed can make you lose your bank. It is important to always test systems thoroughly before upping your stakes. Do not bet more than you can afford to lose and never bet your whole starting bank. i.e. If you set aside £1000 for trading, your liability should never be £1000. Idealy, it should be 5% of your bank to insulate down turns.

Discipline 

Discipline is trading or betting based on facts and pre-written instructions. Always stick to your method and never deviate. Many people tend to change their method "on the fly" if they having a winning or losing streak. Doing this is not discipline and eventually you will lose money because you didn't stick to your plan. It is important to seperate emotions and trading.