02 Ten common mistakes made by traders : HID Betfair Education

Trading Timescales

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:49:36 +0000

You must make sure that you match the timescale of your prediction of the price's movement with the amount of time you hold your position.

Not getting out instantly

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:47:36 +0000

To avoid losses traders have to be extremely short term.

Not doing scratch trades

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:46:48 +0000

The scratch trade is where you lay and back the selection at the same price.

Letting losing trades ride as bets

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:45:59 +0000

To be a successful trader you must be taking profits and losses of roughly the same size, but having more profits than losses, the scratch trade taking the place of the losses.

Reading form and watching racing

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:45:15 +0000

As a short-term trader the last things you should do are read form and watch racing on television. This is for people who wish to gamble on the outcome of the race.

Wanting to enjoy the racing

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:44:42 +0000

Trading is often described as boring and detracting from the enjoyment of racing. This may be the case but horse racing is of no concern to the trader so this comment is meaningless. Horse racing has nothing to do with what a trader is doing.

Over-thinking trades

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:44:11 +0000

Over-thinking trades has two drawbacks: firstly, cuts down their potential to make money by limiting the number of trades and secondly when the trigger is pulled they have put so much thought and effort into their trade that they fall in love with it. They are unwilling to get out of such a trade with an almost-instant scratch trade or an almost-instant small loss. This is why people ride their losses and end up gambling due to their inability to accept so quickly that they were wrong.

Not purchasing specialist trading software

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:43:13 +0000

If you wish to make money purely from trading, then it is worth every penny in subscribing to specialist software such as BetTrader PRO. They say necessity is the mother of invention and that's definitely the case with these products.

Getting distracted

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:42:11 +0000

Don't check emails, answer the phone, use instant messenger, other websites or the Betfair forum while the racing is on, this includes the slack period between races when you have 'greened up your position'. That's the time where you can sit back for a few minutes while nothing much is happening and relax a bit, but you must still watch the price and be aware of what is happening.

Trading for a profit of a pre-determined size

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:40:37 +0000

Many people decide how much they want to make out of a trade before they enter it and then set their exit price according to that rather than what it looks like they can reasonably get now. Wanting to make two ticks is great but putting your counter-trade in two ticks higher than you just laid at is gambling, not trading.