But every since I was a kid I understood compound interest. And simply by taking 5% per match anyone can build a workable bank and achieve a great lifestyle. I often set my trades up to net 10%. That allows a good margin for error for trade outs and unexpected events. My key skills really are keeping my losses down to almost zero and the patience and discipline to be satisfied with small regular stress free returns. Being able to plan and implement exit routes from bad trades is absolutely mission critical. Once I stopped losing money i started earning money !

But the only way to find out what it is like is to have a go. Good luck.

Trading is technically speaking very simple. In fact it is ridiculously easy to make a lot of money. Some people though find it extremely difficult to get the hang of. The reasons are almost always emotional lol. In particular a lack of patience. Some people seem possessed of an unquenchable thirst to be in the market doing something all the time. The thing is we need to match the type of trades we want to do with the circumstances in which to do them. If we want to be swing traders who back strong favorites when they get behind then that is what we do. We just wait for those. And they keep coming. But it is no good getting in from work, logging in, getting restless and just diving into the first thing you see because you are restless. The suicidal urge just to get into the market because of boredom or impatience is a lethal personal characteristic. If you suffer from this you need to get it under control or quit trading.

Thats it. Patience. A Zen like calm. It’s like fishing. Just wait. Then wait some more.You can train yourself into this type of patience. Each time you do it you become stronger. And once you feel the joy and benefit of receiving far higher odds than everybody else you find waiting becomes second nature. Then you are a Trading Master!

Lets not get into traders versus gamblers. We all want to make money in the sport. But many of our difficulties in learning how to trade have their roots in our gambling psycholgy. Not only that but everything we learnt about odds, value and markets is reversed in play. Thus faced with a poor situation many new comers freeze or panic. This post is meant to help you get over that.

Training, practise and maths is the key. For every trade we need to know the exit possibilities if it goes pear shaped. These need study or figuring out on a pad in relaxed moments. In play the stress can make it impossible to think clearly.

Example. Lets say you plunged on a cert lol like Safin early doors at 1.5. Some time later it occurred to you that far from winning 50 you were quite likely to lose 100. You now need to reverse course. The main skill is to understand that if you go red it does not mean that you are going to pay at the end of the match. There is still time on our side. Once you recognise that it is far easier to adapt the mindset to change tack. So our Safin bet. What to do when he is behind? Easy. Lay 75 at 2.0. But do it early. You now have 25 red on both sides.

Instead of staring at 100 loss you are looking at 25 loss. Furthermore if 100 was your full bank you still have 75 to play with. Back the winner with 75 at anything over 1.33 and you are home free. Its simple. It just about moving money from below to above the line.

Remember as long as your green is on the winner when the match ends – you win! Where the red or green was a minute earlier or 4 sets earlier makes no difference. We get settled at the end of the match. Not in play. Thank God. LOL.

Our second trade was Murray. Hopeless. Drifted all morning from 1.1 to any price. Massive profits for layers all round. Over 300% easily.

First of all the bank. Once I learned to trade without losing money, which was just before I learnt how to make money one thing happened right away. I can use a much bigger portion of my bank per trade. My trading bank is not huge. In a dire emergency it could be re deposited.

But I am bringing in 40% of bank per day pretty much every day without undue stress or hard work. Small bets as a portion of bank are a hangover from a gambling mentality where we expect to lose really. At least deep down we do. So we spread our bets thinly. It never works. Either our bank never builds up, or we blow what we have. I simply do not believe that there is any such thing as professional gambling. There may be exceptional cases but not for ordinary punters. But as a trader as an example if I had 200 pts, I would enter a 100 point trade quite happily.

But here is the thing. I would not risk a 100 pts on a trade. That is the difference. So in all my trades I know the downside, the profit potential and the emergency exit. Simply put as long as I have green on the short price as the match comes to a close I win. It doesn’t matter what the red is. I don’t intend to pay it. If the match flip flops then so do I. I simply reverse my position. So the important thing is to always have enough cash available to trade out. But do the maths. The amount you need spare depends on the odds of the trade u just entered.

Oddly for a trader my memory is shocking. But yesterday in play I laid a player at 1.07. I now can’t remember the name as I write this lol. A few minutes later I traded out at 1.48. Do the math. See the risk? See the profit? And see the exit if needed? It’s all there in the numbers. But it is very erroneous thinking to simply assume that further betting is going to increase your liabilities. It need not do. It can reduce them. Same with laying.

In summary trading is not about trying to predict winners. It is about transferring money to the winning side. Do comment and ask questions if you are interested.

Traders Test
Q1. You have 100 pts in yr account. You back with yr full 100 pt bank at 1.5. You then need to change course. How much money do you still have available to back the opposing player?

Which brings me to todays trade in the Warsaw Open. Bondarenko is at 1.21 and Dulgheru at 5.6. A punter would plunge straight on to the very strongly fancied Bonarenko. Not me. Dulgheru is good, tough, ambitious and determined and conditions suit her. Boradenko is in my view not likely to win today in 2 sets. I am laying the 2-0 (1.62) and taking profits as they come. Alona only needs to get in temporary trouble in one set and we are right on the money.

Update:
Less than four games gone and the 2-0 set lay on Bordarenko is gyrating wildly. I exited at 2.2 for a 100% profit.

Update Second Set
Lay Bondarenko at 1.33

RESULT: The strongly fancied Bondie in to 1.25 at one point was duly annihilated to tears and drama as predicted here. Good win with two clearly defined and indicated trades. LMAO.

Update #1:
Youzhny is hitting 1.9 already. I have greened up.

Update #2
In betting terms its all over for Youzhny facing first set loss. Layers can close out at 2.3 for a mighty profit of 220%.

RESULTS: Both winners. Youzhny tanked as expected for the lay. Bondarenko won in two sets.n

RESULT: Stunning loss in 2 sets for Sharapova. Layers who took my advice cleaned up.

If you invest a hundred unit stake at Betfair (dollars, pounds or euros) what might you achieve? LOL. Just firing up my open office spread sheet I see that if a person achieves a modest 25% return per trade than they reach the magic 1 million mark in 42 trades. Tennis matches return 25% quite regularly and 5 to 10 matches can be traded per day quite easily. In 50 trades they have omg – over 7 million in cash! How cool is that? Must tweak my trading techniques a bit!

Seriously though this does show the importance of having a financial blueprint at the heart of your trading strategy. Why not write yours down and pin it up by your computer? Something like”My strategy gives me 10 percent of bank per trade and I do 5 trades a day”. If you are not achieving it start working on your technique. And work on those numbers till they do work for you. Good luck.