Sports Trading And Superstitions

With today being Friday the 13th I know of a trader who is taking today off because he feels the day is unlucky for him.

Sounds pretty crazy since why does a day falling on a particular date actually mean anything?

However, traders are normally quite a superstitious bunch. I think we all have our little quirks.

The Twitter Curse

Something, that I have learned is not to Tweet my trades or intentions. For some reason, whenever I do that it means its going to go wrong. I was doing this quite a lot last year and I soon felt that there was a “Twitter Curse” on me as the complete opposite of my tweet would then happen.

The trades you dont tweet then end up being winners but you cant mention those or you are pretty much just after-timing. So these days I prefer to tweet my “observations” and let everyone else decide if I traded it or not. 😉

This is also quite similar to the “forum jinx” that many traders and gamblers feel exists. This is when you have a good run on your personal selections but as soon as you announce them in public on an Internet forum it all goes belly up.

My friend informing me that he wont be trading or placing any bets today did make me chuckle however the more I thought about it, the more I think he might be on to something!

Seriously?

Well, my view is that when you are trading the markets or picking out selections for a bet you need to do so with a clear mind and without a clouded judgement.

If you feel there is some sort of “dark force” out there that is preventing you from picking the winners then its going to cloud your judgement.

So, if you think that Friday the 13th means you are doomed to fail then you are probably going to end up failing since thats only what you expect. You will probably take your eye off the ball slightly which will affect your edge.

The same explanation can be used to explain the “Forum Jinx”.

The selections you pick are all well and good when done in private and there is no pressure, but once you are revealing them in public there is a sudden added pressure. Even if you are only doing it for fun!

You might second guess outcomes you wouldn’t normally look at or even add on selections to keep the followers happy.

The main moral of this article is that whilst superstitions might seem silly to others and they probably are. However, if you have your superstitions then its best to just stick to it.

Do whatever you can to make yourself feel comfortable since its only your own money that you are risking. If this is by keeping your selections totally private or just by giving trading a miss every Friday the 13th then so be it!

So good luck if you are trading today, apparently you are going to need it!

Do you have any superstitions? No matter how strange they sound share below!