6 Bad Betfair Habits That Are Costing YOU Money!

We all have bad habits that we know we should cut out, no one is perfect after all. Whether that be smoking or eating junk food we all know we should stop but it takes a lot of mental willpower to actually do it.

When it comes to bad habits that cost us money most of us are likely to cut them out right away however when it comes to our Betfair accounts not everyone takes the same attitude.

Here are 6 Bad Betfair habits that many of us are guilty of. Hopefully once we realise these we can begin trying to cut them out.

1 – Trading Distracted

Wouldn’t surprise me if we all do this and I will admit I am guilty of doing this also. This is trading whilst your mind might be elsewhere. This could be looking at Facebook, Twitter, being on the phone or even playing a quick game of Candy Crush (Guilty as charged!) at the same time. In an ideal world you should be fully focused on the job at hand while you are concentrating on it. My worst habit is to flick the TV over at half-time only to get distracted and miss the opening the minutes of the second half which could be potentially very costly for me. I know that when the new year comes I will definitely be making an active effort to cut this out.

2 – Taking Prices Rather Then ASKING for Prices

The beauty of using the exchange over a normal bookie is that we can input the prices we want to take the bets at. However, not many actually do this. Most punters will just look at the market and go in at whatever price is available at that point. Without realising that waiting just a few more minutes might have increased that price by 10% or more which all adds up in the long run. Thankfully, I am very good at this and I have made a habit out of ALWAYS asking for a price a few ticks higher then what is available and most of the time I will be matched. For example, you want to back Over 2.5 Goals and the price is available @ 2.20. Instead of just taking that price why not ask for the price of 2.30 or even wait until the next attack is launched. It is very rare that a goal will go in before you get in but you will get much better prices in the long term. Every little helps!

3 – Greening Up Too Quick

Something many novices will do is to green up and cash out of a position too quickly. I have heard some novices says “Well profit is profit” but this is not really the case. By not hanging in for bigger profits you are actually costing yourself money in the long term. Why settle for 40% when you could actually make 80%?

4 – Not Researching

Always prepare for every event you trade and always have notes at the ready. By not researching you are likely to be missing out on some sort of key information that could really help you out. I know many traders who do regular research but then one week they feel they “know it all” and do not do as much research as normal. There could be crucial information available that would usually help them produce a profit on the event in question but by not researching they end up making more mistakes. I think we are all guilty of just trading an event because we noticed it is live on TV but this is one bad habit you need to cut out asap.

5 – Staking Wrong

Most traders are all taught to only commit a certain percentage of our bank to any particular trade but not all of us follow it. Sometimes sheer laziness is what causes this to happen. If you know you should only be committing 3% of your bank to a trade then that can mean you need to work out the calculation to find the 3% and in the heat of the moment not every trader will do it. It is easy to work out what 3% of £1000 is but 3% of £4467 is a little bit trickier off the top of your head. Ideally, we should work out what our stakes will be before the session begins so we do not have to think too much about it when in-play but not all of us do it. There is also the case of increasing the stakes when you feel a bit more “confident” about a particular trade which is a very bad habit to get into. You will find that trade you felt extra confident about actually ends up costing you extra in the long run. So cut it out!

6 – Trading On Tilt

We all have bad days and some days it feels like nothing goes our way no matter what we do. These are the days where we need to just down tools and take a break. The next day will be much easier I assure you. However, many of us will continue to keep trying in order to turn a corner. Sometimes it works but more often then not you will do even more damage. I am speaking from experience here as I know it is one of my own bad habits. I am now going to be active in making an effort to be able to get up and walk off when things are going badly. Trading when your mind is not right is something that will definitely cost you money the long term.