3 Trading : HID Betfair Education

Cold Trading - how is it done?

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:29:42 +0000

Ever wondered how these guys with no interest in horse racing can make steady profits by trading? Cold traders read the market and profit from its trends rather than studying the form.

Trading with Discipline

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:50:45 +0000

Discipline is paramount if you are to become a successful trader. Everyone can have a successful day, even a week or a month speculating on a market but to consistently produce profits over the long term you need to think like a trader. Below are just a few rules you may want to consider when executing your trades.

Example 1 - Cricket

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:02:13 +0000

Let's look at the example of the final test between India and Australia in November 2004.

Example 2 - Football

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:51:20 +0000

If only it was so easy - not every game will go exactly as you plan. Watch a few games and make some notes, rather than investing cash. If you have any statistics to help you out (number of draws on a certain cricket pitch, most popular time for goals to be scored in soccer etc), all the better.

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.

Advantages of exchanges

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:39:12 +0000

Betting exchanges such as Betfair have revolutionised betting due to the way they operate.