Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader
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So today was another profit day, really feeling the benefit of a trading plan. I know I deviated from the planned trade a little yesterday but the principal was still the same, I’d planned to lay under 1.5 goals but arrived too late and saw another opportunity in laying the correct score as my research had told me there was a high chance of more goals.
I honestly can’t express enough how creating a daily plan has changed my trading game, I’m up 11 points this month already from just 18 trades.
Finally feel like I’ve turned a corner, my mind feels clearer, I’m less stressed, enjoying family time more and generally happier all round.
Joining this community has been a big turning point for me so big thanks to everyone whose offered help and support so far
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@tom-david I guess I can only my answer my question here by asking if I’d have been annoyed at myself if this lost and the honest answer is that I wouldn’t. I checked all the previous stats as well as in play and I thought it out before placing the trade.
Marking today as a good day
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Well I don't know if it's a good or bad thing but I placed an unplanned trade this morning this morning. I have been sticking to laying under 1.5 goals as I enjoy the selection process and the fact you can set and forget suits my personality but the odds were out of my range this morning so I didn't get matched. Looking through the fixtures home team scored in second half in last 5 games and away team conceded in second half in last 5 games so laying the correct score at 50 minutes seemed too good an opportunity to miss, paid out 5 minutes later
Unsure if this a slip that paid off or if I'm starting to find myself able to make calmer decisions, as although unplanned it was researched........
Anyway, it paid off and my only other trade for today has been postponed so I can finish for the day
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Missed out on a trade this evening as tried to match a couple of ticks lower than offered price, started scanning the markets for another opportunity so had to tell myself off and put my phone away.....
Temptation resisted, pleased with that as could nearly have got carried away!
Mrs isn’t feeling too well so she’s off to bed early this evening so I’m going to read through @Darri blog, his latest posts have really resonated with me so sure I’ll find lots more value in it.
10% using code - ONLYJOKING
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@keith-anderson said in Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader:
What discount do we get for shopping at your store?!
Yeah I need some new clothes big time haha
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What discount do we get for shopping at your store?!
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Well this week has been a pretty good week for me, I’ve signed up with a business mentor who has been helping me with some mindset and self improvement disciplines for my business but lots of these cross over to trading and should help me to remove the emotion from trading.
Just starting the process but already feeling the benefits, this week I have strictly traded only my planned trades and have 8 points profit from 11 trades with 2 losses, not bad considering how poor the selections are this week.
Got a couple queued for tomorrow, starting to see the benefits in waiting to get better value, decided I’m going to start sharing my spreadsheet from next week as I feel comfortable doing so now.
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I only had 2 trades planned today, both of those were wins.
I've had a bit of spare time this morning as I seem to get up earlier during spring/summer so got most of my work done and used the BTC software and it opened up quite a trades from leagues I don't normally bother with but they fit my criteria perfectly so going to trade them will small stakes also.
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@richard-latimer this is my biggest motivation to snap out of some of these bad habits that keep me glued to my phone.
I'm finding that sticking to one strategy is helping me with this as I set them all up before KO and I'm more comfortable with loses now knowing that long term it works itself out so I'm not scrambling to cash out after a goal or just watching the odds move, I still feel the urge to watch trades but I just keep telling myself if I watch it I'm not going to act on anything so what's the point.
I'm starting to feel less stressed trading this way but still have days where I really struggle and make mistakes, I took the advise of some others and set up a spreadsheet for random trades, luckily there is nothing on it yet and I am hoping it stays that way.
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@tom-david said in Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader:
Time has always been an issue for me, I'm not the best at keeping time to say the least, I've never really been able to successfully manage a diary or any schedules and deadlines but this has really had a negative impact on my trading.
I run my own business and time management effects this quite negatively as well, but trying to fit in trading as well as s**t round the house and keeping a Mrs and kid happy can really take its toll. This is poor time management is one of the biggest reasons for my impulses, not taking the time to properly think something over before doing it usually means whatever you're doing isn't done the best it can be, whether it's trading, dealing with a task at work or even doing the weekly shopping, trying to meld them all together is never going to work.
I've tried everything from getting up ridiculously early to going to bed ridiculously late, too working into the evenings and not taking any days off but none of these have worked. One of the podcasts that Ryan put me onto about containers has really got me thinking about this over the last few weeks. It was about putting all the separate areas of your life into containers, where each part has it's own rules and parameters, this might sound simple but putting it into practice is really quite difficult, sure you can say you finish work at 5pm but when you're self employed sometimes customers, suppliers etc aren't prepared to wait for you to clock on again at 9am so managing this can be incredibly hard.
Sometimes when I'm chilling at home with my girlfriend, we will just be watching TV and I'll slyly answer a quick couple of messages on my phone and there's a brief moment when I can see how disappointed she is that I'm not fully present. Or sometimes when I nip out to do the shopping I'll end up sitting in the carpark for a couple of hours dealing with staff or customers and come home to the "where the f**k have you been!!!" look.
So anyway, I'm rabbling but back t containers, listening to the podcast and the experiences that I've had are making me realise that I have to separate all these things and to keep them separate I need to implement rules for all of them, the main rule is time allocation, so over the last couple of weeks I have started to figure out some kind of daily schedule for my time......remember I'm not a schedule kind of guy, in fact I pretty much hate them but I realise that if I'm going to get to where I want to be with my business, my trading and my family as well as fitting in some hobbies (which have all been dead for years) then I have to implement them.
I'll not bore you with what the schedule is but just another incessant rambling to clear my head.
Interesting read so far. More than anything up to now this resonates with me and I'm glad you're getting on top of it but I must sound a warning. These looks of disappointment ring all too familiar for me. Amongst other stuff, not being fully present in the moment with my wife and family has been the biggest downfall of my 17 year relationship and 10 year marriage so don't make the same mistakes.
There's no putting the genie back in the bottle.
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The quiet days have continued so barely traded the last couple of days, had a couple set yesterday but one lost, same again the day before so two losing days in a row.
At some points in the past this would have been end of days stuff with all out chaos trying to recoup the loses but last 2 days has been like water off a ducks back, I know the strategy works but it won’t work if I try to force it to.
I just need to wait for games that fit my criteria to pop up, 2 have flagged up today so I’m going from China to Estonia, 2 wins would recover the loss and I’m already eyeing up two for tomorrow so what’s the rush.
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Been a couple of quiet days for me, really busy with work but got a couple of trades lined up for tomorrow
Europa League Final almost scratched out this weeks profit but still in the green.
Looking forward to reading some of the blogs that have been suggested over next few weeks.
Have a good weekend all
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@tom-david interesting read, you might want to have a read of @eamonn-hogan’s blog as to how he’s turned things around from a similar position to you
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@dan-mackinnon yep or if you have a partner, imagine you had to tell them about each trade as its your family money your investing. She/He is more likely to be onboard a trade you have fully planned. If you just go on a whim because it looks good she/he would not be pleased. Thats why i always say to myself if i was to explain this trade to someone could i justify it and would it have any holes in it that that person would ask questions about. If a trade doesnt fit then leave it. Theres a thousand more game to come and another gameweek next week full with more games.
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@tom-david In regards to unplanned trades, something I read that I found helpful was consider what your future self would say if a) it won and b) it lost. More often than not the threat of a bollocking from future self if it loses isn't worth the risk! Or at least you're more objective about making a decision.
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@keith-anderson this is also a good idea, I actually use Betdaq as my main account, the only downside with it I find is that it's harder to cash out but I hardly ever do this so hasn't really effected me. I'm going to think about doing this as well as could be another obstacle to me placing a riskier trade.
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@Tom-David I have a Betdaq account which houses my riskier trades - you know, the ones that are a bit of a gamble. It stops them eating into my Betfair profit.
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@darri thanks again mate, really taken on board what you have suggested, I'm really tight for time today so I have set my trades up and know I won't be deviated from those today as I just don't have the time but this evening I'm going to set up a separate spreadsheet for unplanned trades and try and go back over the last few days to give it a head start. I'm hoping that just the thought of having to record them will put me off placing any to be honest......
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@tom-david Yep exactly mate, we all do it, there is a trade in every game to be had, but its upto us to select the best games from that gameweek. Typically from our original planned trades we do. We have spare time and we know how to trade so we start to think oh it would be nice to win a few extra points/% of bank while i have the time. Boom there goes two losers. Then we are relying on our planned trades to get us out the hole rather than drive the bank upwards. Happens to us all at some stage, just have to find ways to make sure they arent repeated, because just saying to ourselves i wont do it again isnt actually taking action on it. We need definitive proof they arent working and are a waste of time, could easily have just put on a audiobook or watched a few youtube videos instead to cure that boredom.
Liking this blog mate keep it up
it will help you long term, trust me mine was setup purely so i could improve my discipline, also helps you feel part of the forum and over time you too will be advising people to do these tricks you have learnt on your way too. The tricks are often slap in the face simple yet we just dont think of them at the time. -
@darri Hi mate, thanks for your reply, I will start reading it with my morning coffee as I've glanced at it and it does seem like it will offer me some really good insight. This tip about recording random trades although in reality is really simple has been like a revelation for me today, of course I should be doing this, why wouldn't I be doing it, not doing it is just lying to myself which is the whole point of doing this blog.
I thought that I would be able to totally stop doing this and most days I don't but occasionally like yesterday it just seems to happen. I know exactly why it happened yesterday, I don't normally watch my trades, I set them and I am confident that I can leave them run. However yesterday I was abit grumpy (it had been a long day) the Mrs and kid were watching absolute rubbish on the TV, I hate just watching tele, I'd much rather be doing something, so I was just jumping about and seeing what was happening in the markets and bang, 2 stupid decisions made in less than a couple of minutes.
I must set and forget
I must set and forget
I must set and forget
I must set and forget
I must set and forget
I must set and forget
