Trading full time for a year any tips?

[Diginet]

Hi,
Iv dabbled with Betfair exchanges for a number of years with no real tangible results. More of a general hobby than a serious interest, however over the past 3 months I have taken it much more seriously with some excellent results. I have a couple of strategies which work day in day out and show a positive balance.
I'm in a fortunate position where I can take a year out to trade full time without the pressure of making any money so I have decided to do so in Feb 2022. Any tips from full time traders I should be aware of ?

Cheers

[iambic_pentameter]

Iv dabbled with Betfair exchanges for a number of years with no real tangible results. More of a general hobby than a serious interest, however over the past 3 months I have taken it much more seriously with some excellent results. I have a couple of strategies which work day in day out and show a positive balance.
I'm in a fortunate position where I can take a year out to trade full time without the pressure of making any money so I have decided to do so in Feb 2022. Any tips from full time traders I should be aware of ?

I'm not full-time but the full-timers I know would probably say:

1. 3 months excellent results - so what?
2. Why have the last 3 months been so good given that for a number of years you had no tangible results?

[Tuco]

Hi,
Iv dabbled with Betfair exchanges for a number of years with no real tangible results. More of a general hobby than a serious interest, however over the past 3 months I have taken it much more seriously with some excellent results. I have a couple of strategies which work day in day out and show a positive balance.
I'm in a fortunate position where I can take a year out to trade full time without the pressure of making any money so I have decided to do so in Feb 2022. Any tips from full time traders I should be aware of ?

Cheers

...the more you do, the better you will get - good luck!

[jamesedwards]

Start your own (non-sports trading) sole trader business and register for self assessment tax return. This way you can pay Class 2 voluntary National Insurance contributions and get a full year contribution for only £160 per year.

[Kai]

I'm in a fortunate position where I can take a year out to trade full time without the pressure of making any money so I have decided to do so in Feb 2022. Any tips from full time traders I should be aware of ?

Well done but confirm the edge first, lest you get carried away.

Are you able to quantify the edge and know where it's coming from? To gauge whether it should last long term or not.

[Realrocknrolla]

Ease into it… don’t go for a full 8 hours a day and burn yourself out. It can become tiring.

Do 2-3 hours at first and build yourself up or whatever you are comfortable with.

You wouldn’t be performing at your best if you are fatigued.

Do some form of exercise for an hour or so a day.

[ShaunWhite]

Get your house paid off first if possible, because you'll become a financial pariah. Forget changing or getting a new mortgage, or any credit tbh because they won't touch you. As far as the financial world is concerned you're unemployed scum and mentioning gambling makes that even worse. The answer is to earn enough folding money to stand on your own 2 feet.

[prestburydreams]

shaun surely u just set up a investment consultancy business and charge yourself 12k a year rather like a politicians second job it gives you a income and is not relatable to gambling

[prestburydreams]

good luck diginet but when you have been dabbling have you made money as like most people i have dabbles that do work but in between waiting for dabbles to come off there is a heavy period of dobbers and the dobbers cost me me serious cash if you have dabbled and withdrew the winnings the worlds yours and all thats in it...but if you do alot of dobbing and will have even more free time for dobbers its doomed for failure

knock um dead me old fruit

[ShaunWhite]

shaun surely u just set up a investment consultancy business and charge yourself 12k a year rather like a politicians second job it gives you a income and is not relatable to gambling

I prefer to play by the rules(ish), and frankly showing an income of 12 grand isn't going to set your credit rating alight, plus in the past I've had businesses auditted so I just don't want to go there again. And I also don't need credit so I don't bother.

[Crazyskier]

I've said this before, but by going the sole trader route (free Starling business and personal accounts, BTW) and paying yourself by withdrawing profits to Paypal then Paypal to business account and then business account to personal account, there is no almost zero negative impact on one's credit score, other than 'employed' being considered safer than 'self employed' for lending purposes.

The worst that happens with any credit application is the lenders do an 'open banking' check of income into personal, or you can usually provide 3 months' worth of business banking statements which simply show Paypal as the legitimate method of income.

The level of income declared to HMRC and therefore tax liabilities are your own concern, however this route as suggested does allow you to continue with the old NI contributions, which can be very important as one approaches retirement.

CS

[LeTiss]

Not having any financial pressures is a huge bonus. This is where I was lucky early doors.....my redundancy cheque covered my expenses for 6 months. When you're dipping into your trading bank to cover lifestyle or household bills, you're dead in the water.

Don't be blinded or influenced by other people's green screens
A) Some of them will be lies anyway, doctored
B) You're running your own race, not theirs....cutting corners is a recipe for disaster, because that leads to a lack of discipline with staking, and that invariably leads to blown banks

Try to separate your trading from normal living, but also don't let it rule your life and impede upon your social life and relationships
That's the biggest mistake I made, and I still struggle to get the balance right 13 years later

[Diginet]

Thanks for the replies. Some interesting thoughts, I'm deffo gonna go for it next year I could now if I wanted but racing will be pretty dead I guess for the next few months. I may post some results in a few months.

Cheers

[Kai]

Thanks for the replies. Some interesting thoughts, I'm deffo gonna go for it next year I could now if I wanted but racing will be pretty dead I guess for the next few months. I may post some results in a few months.

Some of the replies make it sound like it's all doom and gloom, but obviously many positives to take as well. This time of year could be an opportunity to explore other markets, never hurts to widen your horizons, football's going to be packed etc.

Anyway, there's plenty of full-time advice around, if you do a basic search there are 24 threads with "full-time" in the title : search.php?keywords=full-time&terms=all ... mit=Search

You can always ask if you need feedback on something specific, there are still many experienced trading minds lurking around. The people in a trading community like this are probably the closest thing you can have as "co-workers", it can sometimes alleviate the boredom in-between markets, since the normie outsiders don't really understand the highs & lows of trading

Best of luck

[jamesedwards]

Thanks for the replies. Some interesting thoughts, I'm deffo gonna go for it next year I could now if I wanted but racing will be pretty dead I guess for the next few months. I may post some results in a few months.

Cheers

Just thought of something else, although it's a bit shady. Consider asking Betfair to set a decent deposit limit now if you are confident you can still claim existing employment and still have last 3 months payslips and bank statements to show them. It's a bit of a gamble in case you fail an affordability check now, but if they decide to check your affordability in the medium future and you have no demonstrable income you might well find yourself frozen out. Especially if you are a losing account while you trial and learn about trading. The whole thing is a minefield especially for new full-time traders.