Last Ever Post....Its been Hell... I have to admit it. Goodbye.

[Derek27]

My point was I am now starting to believe that 80% of people trading Betfair Markets are losing money. Whilst 10-20% left are cleaning up the profits. The P&L sheets separate the wheat from the chaff.

You'll be surprised how many traders are breaking even, or making profits or losses so small they are in effect breaking even.

[stueytrader]

Trading is a bit like smoking, it's harder to quit than people think From what I've seen at least, it goes beyond sunk cost fallacy and ego etc.

I tried to copy others for a long time, it never worked. Doing my own thing has helped me a lot instead.

Good for you Stuey, spot on for me!

Get stuck in, build your own market experience, form your own opinions, make most of the mistakes yourself, learn from mistakes ffs, pick up what you can from other traders, find trading concepts that work and build a trading style that suits you around markets you actually like.

Yep, been there and done that on repeat - sometimes great, sometimes terrible, but always a good lesson to keep building upon. It doesn't end either - I don't think it ever will (for me at least).

[LeTiss]

Pretty much the same as myself Tiss!

But I have to admit, I still enjoy a punt!

Yes me too, but I've been able to separate in my mind the difference between a trade and a punt.

It's a bit like seeing an attractive girl and playing Shag, Marry, Avoid
You need to know what you're doing when you enter the market

[to75ne]

It's a bit like seeing an attractive girl and playing Shag, Marry, Avoid
You need to know what you're doing when you enter the market

you really do have a marvellous way of illustrating your thought processes - its a god given gift

[stueytrader]

It's a bit like seeing an attractive girl and playing Shag, Marry, Avoid
You need to know what you're doing when you enter the market

you really do have a marvellous way of illustrating your thought processes - its a god given gift

Yes, great analogy there Le Tiss!

I would add for myself sometimes (in this arena) that means deciding I am simply not trading at all, but that decision to leave a position has to be pre-planned and never ad-hoc.

[stueytrader]

Should clarify, my post above was about trading/betting and not sh@gging!

[Diginet]

Hi,

It seems like you are a decent trader with some great insight. Your problem is your metal strength to stick to a plan and letting FOMO dictate your trades. I would suggest you pick a time pre off for example 5 min or 10 min and back every race for £2 you have to green up 10sec before the start. Do this on every race you can for about a month to kick the habit of going in play and train your mind to stick to a plan.

You will be break even over a month and from your posts your losing money so you will also be in a better position financially which is a mental gold mine like a mental reset.



Good Luck

[RayC]

I would like to thank you all for some really interesting information.

I also have been thinking of giving it up as I am running out of funds and will need to go get a job again. It is a shame as all I need is to average £50+ a day so I can carry on writing my stories and novel and not worry as I am close to retirement age with no pension. I've been at this full-time learning for over 6 months, but I believe starting in the wrong place with a scalping course. I also have the problem of going in-play which inevitably will go wrong. So I traded only horses that if it did go against me significantly (frequently does - needing 4-5 races to recover), I could take IP as they at least 70% of the time Dobbed. Guess what? You got it, that didn't work either and I blow a couple of banks going on tilt.

Reading this tread I remembered that 30 years ago when I stopped smoking after many failed attempts, I managed it by not trying to give up, but rather be a smoker who would chose not to smoke. Every time I wanted or someone offered me a cigarette, I just repeated that choice until it became habit.

I think I have the tilt thing under control, so all I need to find in the next few months is a strategy to trading pre-off where I do not get it wrong so often and can exit with small loses when I do inevitably get it wrong.

So I will hang around a few more months.
Thanks again.

[Kai]

I've been at this full-time learning for over 6 months, but I believe starting in the wrong place with a scalping course.

Good luck Ray.

Just to add a few random thoughts here. Might be an unpopular opinion but I think time in general is a poor measure of progress. It can easily mislead people since there is no standard curriculum on "learning how to trade", it really is as subjective and as personal as it gets. It's more of a journey and an experience than it is a school subject, even though you do get tested (!) on a regular basis, by both the market and your own mind. But it's not necessary or even possible to pass all the tests at first, you're expected and to guaranteed to fail, so it's really about how you deal with failure and mistakes and lessons.

So 6 months is only 6 months, same as 6 years, time itself is neutral, it won't work in your favor or go against you on its own, it only matters how much progress you've made during whatever period you decide to measure, how much quality experience you've collected and how many good lessons you've learned. For example, learning your lesson after 2-3 attempts compared to learning it after 50 attempts will make all the difference.

People obviously learn at their own pace, depending on their ability or passion, the information they have at their disposal, the free time and resources etc, but without trying to sound pessimistic, any newcomer that can crack the markets in 2021 and beyond deserves a kudos from me. You might get a few more guidelines today than you would in the years before, but people very rarely follow the guidelines anyway so it would be fair to say that new traders are definitely at a big disadvantage for not getting in whilst the entry cost/barrier was substantially lower, purely because many edges have tried up by now and the margins on existing ones tightened. But like somebody once said...

"Every disadvantage has its advantage." - Ted Lasso

You say you started in the wrong place but it doesn't really matter where you start, you can easily change direction so you can end up on the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't even think it's a bad thing to start in the wrong places, if you are able to recognize bad trading concepts early on and move past them, then for me that's a very good sign.

[Thebest147]

Here is my P&L sheet since posting my resignation letter @ 15:20 - I sat there and read through it and realised what has been missing. I traded a few more a races with lower stakes and here are the results. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Plain to see you have not learned a thing, small gains small reds, and then what only can be a inplay unplanned gamble, and you think you have nailed it, please stop a save yourself time and effort, you only live once don't waste your time and money

[Realrocknrolla]

Here is my P&L sheet since posting my resignation letter @ 15:20 - I sat there and read through it and realised what has been missing. I traded a few more a races with lower stakes and here are the results. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Plain to see you have not learned a thing, small gains small reds, and then what only can be a inplay unplanned gamble, and you think you have nailed it, please stop a save yourself time and effort, you only live once don't waste your time and money

Another negative post.

[RayC]

Thanks Kai, sound words.

I realised this week that I have learnt a lot about the markets, though have much more to learn. I would also say to xtrader that I have discovered that by being strict about not going in-play, although I make loses and have more losing days, that my overall loses are a lot less. You never know a few more months of study and practise and I might see my trading bank grow.

[xtrader16]

Here is my P&L sheet since posting my resignation letter @ 15:20 - I sat there and read through it and realised what has been missing. I traded a few more a races with lower stakes and here are the results. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Plain to see you have not learned a thing, small gains small reds, and then what only can be a inplay unplanned gamble, and you think you have nailed it, please stop a save yourself time and effort, you only live once don't waste your time and money

What a terrible attitude I am glad I dont know you. Small profits and 2 small red's because I used small stakes. Troll somebody who is interested.

[Realrocknrolla]

Here is my P&L sheet since posting my resignation letter @ 15:20 - I sat there and read through it and realised what has been missing. I traded a few more a races with lower stakes and here are the results. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Plain to see you have not learned a thing, small gains small reds, and then what only can be a inplay unplanned gamble, and you think you have nailed it, please stop a save yourself time and effort, you only live once don't waste your time and money

What a terrible attitude I am glad I dont know you. Small profits and 2 small red's because I used small stakes. Troll somebody who is interested.

Most of his/her posts are negative and pathetic.

Keep up the good efforts

[TipTopTrader]

Hi Xtrader,
Having struggled with some of the issues that you have had. Turning losing trades into gambles, over staking, making impulsive decisions etc. Telling myself after some disastrous days. I'm giving up, I hate trading etc. Then only to wake up the next day and want to trade even more than the day before.

Why can't I just not do it?. I was asking myself this question hours later when my mind had calmed down. I was using a logical thought.

Short version, I found that it was my trader psychology. My brain was getting emotionally hijacked. Trying to use a logical thought when you're in an irrational state doesn’t work. If it was that simple then, no one would go in play.

I suggest that you go and watch Rande Howell, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCETBN5 ... X7V0txmbKg

He has a lot of free videos explaining the reason why these things happen, and of course he has a trading psychology course.

At the end of the day without a profitable strategy , you're wasting your money on a psychology course.

I don't think you're lazy. If you just used small stakes to prove that you can be profitable. In the long run you're saving money. After proving that you can make a profit. I would be working on the psychology part.

Enjoy the Tesla