This week, I feel like I’ve come full circle once more… frustration.
Dropping your guard for even a moment while trading can lead to missteps, especially for beginners trying to get a handle on the markets. It’s easy to feel down after a few bad results, when sometimes all you need is a few small tweaks. Your general market approach might not be far off.
Recent Problems…
This week, I’ve faced several challenges outside of the markets that have brought a lot of stress. This kind of pressure can quickly affect your trading, as any full-timer would confirm. Many who are new to trading on Betfair find themselves in similar situations. How you handle these challenges is crucial and can be the difference between long-term success and failure.
You don’t often see people sharing their struggles, but I think it’s important to keep it realistic—it happens to everyone at some point.
Earlier this week, I had a tumultuous day trading. I was stressed, and distracted, and should have taken the day off. Instead, I pushed through, which was my first mistake. Although the day ended not being too bad, it was an emotional roller-coaster.
Tunnel Vision
With that in mind, I targeted today to be smoother. I shut out all external stress and started trading with slightly reduced stakes. Lowering stakes and expectations can really help maintain consistency. An hour in, I was surprised to find I hadn’t lost on any races. This indicated I might have missed opportunities to earn more, but a stress-free afternoon was my priority.
Later, it wasn’t a massive win, but it was satisfactory, and the weather was perfect. The beer garden was calling!
When stressed or emotional (upset, angry, frustrated, fearful), we tend to develop ‘tunnel vision’, focusing narrowly on one aspect of what we’re doing. In trading, it’s crucial to consider various factors continuously. If you’re fixated on one runner’s ladder, you might miss critical information on another runner or a market overview, leading to poor exit or entry decisions. This is especially true when you have an open trade, likely due to the fear of losing money. That’s why it’s important to trade with stakes you are comfortable with and manage your expectations.
If you can, always try to see the bigger picture, even when it’s challenging, particularly with an open trade in the market.
Reminder: Betfair’s ‘green book’ competition is now underway. Share your green books on Twitter with the #betfairtraders for a chance to win some cash, a guide, and a video pack each week.
7 thoughts on “Crazy results: Tunnel vision trading the horse racing markets”
great post caan.
ive got the guide and the video pack mate but still cant get it,maybe it is head not in the right place etc?
Quite possibly greg… you can see the wild difference in results there for myself just with a different temprament. Almost like two different people! …Lowering stakes made me feel a lot better today too. I think the different days of the week make it harder at times too, Mondays this time of year can be a bit trappy. Saturdays are always that bit more stable though and more ideal for a scalper.
Hey Caan i can resonate with you there completely, yesterday i had a terrible day in work, came home and argued with the missus, i knew right then i shouldn’t have traded but carried on, lost the first 3 and tilted, gambled on a couple and my head was all over the place, and i genuinely believed i’d lost my edge. Goes back to the psychology you keep banging on about, and recognising when these moments occur. Today i was calm and relaxed and managed my best profit to date!
The trading guide and videos have helped me no end and have given me an insight that would have taken me another 6 months and a couple of lost banks to get! The guides spot on, but to see how its applied with the videos put things into perspective for me, so cheers mate.
Thanks for the kind words Darren 🙂 ….. it really is the difference if you’re in the right state of mind no doubt. Well done on the best profit too!
Great post Caan. Important to keep things realistic.
I too have bought the video pack. I practiced a little bit today. Started well then all went a little crazy. So easy to lose sight.
Thanks.
great post mate. i got the guide a few months back and it feels like it has jumped me forward a few months in my learning. havent quite got the hang of the mentality yet but there is hope. keep posting
cheers
Hi Caan,
This is one of your best posts to date. I am so guilty of this tunnel vision, I get transfixed on the ladder I’m trading, and frightened to take my eyes off it. I can understand how lowering the stakes can help, but I’ve got to get over another problem I’m having which is increasing the stakes as I trade during one race. Time to take it back to basics and make good use of the excellent guide and video pack.
Thanks
Dan