Trading Psychology – breeze over this and you’re making a mistake. It’s totally under-rated.

New traders do it again and again. They don’t value the psychological impact that mind-set has on the bottom line to their trading results. I was once the same. Aside from having a strategy/edge in the market, trading psychology is a huge deal for the manual trader.

Why Mind-set is Crucial

Think about it like this: what use is any pro footballer, boxer or any professional athlete that can’t control their emotions?

In trading Betfair it’s no different.

You could have the best strategy in the world. But if you place the best in the wrong frame of mind you’re done-for. It’s common sense, but when you add losses into the mix things can go pear-shaped pretty quick. Going on-tilt as it’s known in the gambling world…

When Problems Start

There’s been much talk of it in financial trading too. After-all, trading betting odd’s isn’t much different.

The main problems arise when it comes to missing opportunities (where you would have made money). Being wrong, or just losing in general. Nobody likes to lose!

The worse part about having a bad attitude towards trading is; not realising it.

Once you start to realise how you feel in the moment. What motivates those bad, erratic clicks that don’t conform to your trading strategy? If you’re not using all you know to benefit, it’s as good as outright-gambling. And we all know that just guessing doesn’t work!

The Hard Part…

Knowing is the first step and arguably the most important. But just knowing isn’t enough either… it’s easy to see why new traders aren’t interested in dedicating the time to this, right?

Don’t get disheartened though. Realising all this is a really good thing, my personal results took a bit up-turn once I took it seriously, and began to monitor myself. It happens to everyone!

Making notes is always a good idea, purely because you can’t ignore your internal thoughts if you’ve just written it down or said it out-loud.

Changing your overall view on losing and making mistakes is also a good idea. Look at the bigger picture, does that £10 mistake really mean it’s the end of the world? No. Certainly not. However, going on-tilt and reacting badly in the next 5 races or matches really could.

Lastly, it’s probably a good idea to get rid of those targets initially. Goal-setting is important for sure, but having a lofty goal while you’re still learning the ropes is likely to be counter-productive, adding pressure the to mix.

You can find out more about Caan Berry and his background here.