Almost two weeks into my second month and still profits to show for my endeavours, though plenty of losses to show for my mistakes, and so I continue to learn and hone my novice wings. Part of the learning for me is to look, read and hopefully digest the myriad of help and advice that is out there and then decide whether or not the information found is worthwhile or not.
One book I'm reading at the moment (on the advice of other bloggers) is Trading in the Zone, and for me it is a useful tool as amongst the many things it touches on is fully taking responsibility for the trades you make.
I've struggled with this and when something has gone badly wrong, I've blamed (in my head) everyone and everything, from my Internet provider for letting my Internet go down just after I had placed a £100 back bet in, to God for short changing me on my luck allocation. All of which of course is crap, because if I had had a back up mobile connection, I'd have been able to close that trade, and if I think of all the times, not trading wise, that I've had serious good fortune, then I certainly shouldn't be blaming anyone, least of all God for a few bad luck / bad strategies in my trading.
I'm beginning to believe, albeit slowly, that once you take responsibility for your trades, and accept that you will have some trades that swing violently against you from time to time, and that Karma is an important part of trading, then maybe I may start to get rid of some of the negative energy that I have from time to time. Time to Time? - Well - almost every day :-). Certainly something to work on.
As a footnote on Karma, - sad to see my shining light on patience and discipline died in auspicious circumstances last week, certainly not the most dignified way of going out. C'est La Vie Mon Ami, C'est La Vie.
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I've read Trading in the Zone and too found it useful. Another great source of info on the psychology of trading is at http://www.informedtrades.com/
ReplyDelete(they're actually talking stocks, but like the book, in respect of mind-set and other ways it is directly applicable to betfair trading).
One of their videos that tries to explain the handling of losses is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJdwwOjf6LI
Good luck! MG
Hi Mind Games.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pointers and the trading video link, though the link you have put up is about Managing Profit Expectations rather than handling losses. Can you send me the handling losses link. Many thanks.
Oops! Sorry about the wrong link. Have a look at this vid:
ReplyDeleteThe Effect of Losses
In this one he compares two systems and the different psychological impact of having a high strike-rate & small profits vs low strike-rate and large wins. It's more about managing expectations so that when losses occur they can be put into perspective - which in turn should help you deal with them. Hope it helps. There is a whole series of these vids - there is a link to the next & previous vid on Youtube at the end of each one, or you can search on informedtrades.com for the number / title of the vid you are looking for. MG
Not quite sure why I keep getting this link wrong, sorry. This really is the right one - please can you swap it out on my previous post. Thanks.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX11G4erDA4
Hi Mind Games, Thanks. I tried to edit your previous post to overwrite the link, but I am not able to edit other peoples comments - just reject or publish them.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for sending the link - and with over 19,000 viewings already, it's nice to know that there are plenty of us out there trying to crack this difficult nut - It isn't easy is it?