We all know the huge benefits that you can reap from keeping a good Betfair Trading Diary but many newbies might not know exactly what should be recorded within the diary.
I have listed here 8 things I believe are essential to record in any Sports Trading diary and these are ones I include myself too.
The Sport
Obviously, you will put the sport in firstly and if you were doing this electronically you may went to keep separate documents for each sport.
The Market
Keep track of the market and, I mean, the exact market you are involved in. For example, if you were trading on Man Utd-Swansea. I would record “Man Utd-Swansea, Match Odds Market”. You might be tempted to think you will remember the market you were trading when referring back to your records but it is easy to forget once you have multiple trades going on.
Time & Date
Recording the date is standard practice in anything but you may also want to record the time too. Once you have a fair bit of data you could filter your trades between early day and the evening to see when you do best. You may not realise it but fatigue in the evening may affect your trading decisions or you could actually be someone who does better in the evenings. Only your diary will tell you!
Price Entered & Stake
This will be where I enter the price that I back or lay at. So, in the same trade I may record. “Back Man Utd @ 1.35 with £500”
Priced Exited
This will be where I record the price I exit at. In this example, I may record “Lay Man Utd @ 1.01 with £500”.
Profit/Loss On Trade
This is self explanatory where I write in the amount that was made or lost on this trade.
Why The Trade Was Made
This is the interesting part and I like to leave a few good reasons why I felt the trade was on. These are usually in short notes and do not have to be an essay since it is only going to be you reading it. In this example, I may write “Man Utd strong home form, Swansea poor away form, Man Utd take the lead in first half of last 4 home games, Swansea concede first goal in last 6 away games etc”.
It is only by writing why the trade was made that makes me realise whether it was a good trade or bad trade. You obviously will not win every trade you make but as long as you are regularly making the right decisions you will do well in the long term.
I actually eliminated a lot of bad trades from my game when I realised how silly I sounded when giving a reason for making a trade. Sometimes, I had no real reason at all apart from that “the odds looked good” which is not a good way of going about it.
Good Trade/Bad Trade
This is where I am honest with myself about how the trade went. Not every winning trade is actually a good trade. If I entered a trade for a bad reason, got lucky and hit a winner then I will be honest and mark it down as a bad trade. If I see myself making a few bad trades in a row then I will question whether I am in the right mindset for trading that day and may even take a rest from it.
Do note, that if trading a sport like Tennis where I may do multiple trades per match then I will usually record that as one whole trade rather then each one individually as that would be too time consuming.
During a football match it is easy to keep track of each trade as I might only make 1 or 2 per match. If you find it hard to keep up with the action and record each trade then just do it after the match when it is still fresh in your mind.
Take it from me though, you will make much better decisions when you have to start giving reasons to yourself about why you want to make a trade!
