Trading football PRE-MATCH really should be the main focus of your trading on Betfair. Once you get into the swing of it there is plenty of money to be made with it and it is certainly not as hard as some people make it out to be. From all the emails and messages I get from people who try pre-match football trading I have spotted some common mistakes being made and I have listed them here.

Here are 4 Typical Pre-match Trading Mistakes….

Not picking the correct matches

I often find that once people sign up to TFT and try the paper chaser method for the first time they are eager to try it on almost every match on the coupon. The best matches to trade pre-match are usually going to be those that are televised in the evening. This is because you can be sure that these matches will be attracting interest which also means attracting money. It is the money that moves the markets. You should also look to getting involved with the big money competitions rather then the smaller ones. If there is Champions League on at the same time as The Championship then you have to expect the money will be more involved with the champions league. This is not to say you should avoid the other matches entirely but it can mean that when there is less focus on a match the prices can behave erratically and sudden moves against you can be common. You should stick to the BIG matches initially.

Getting out too early

This really has to be the biggest mistake that all new football traders make. A common scenario is getting into a trade in the morning and by the early afternoon they have made a few ticks so they take the profit The fear that the price might reverse and they lose that profit overcomes them so they end up taking a much smaller profit then they should. Only to end up kicking themselves when they see that price go even further and a much bigger profit has been missed. You will see in this pre-match trading case study that I did recently where I looked to try and stay in the market as close to kick off as possible. Many newbies will see profit and get out which is the wrong way. In fact you will find that novice traders get out when they should stay in but stay in when they should be getting out. “Race your winners and cut your losers short” is a trading cliché but it is so true and should be constantly in your thinking with Pre-match trading.

Expecting Huge moves

It always makes me laugh when I read some of the newbie traders saying that pre-match trading is pointless as you might only make 4-5 ticks on a trade. It is true that the average win will probably be 4-5 ticks but this can be quite significant if you have the bank to take advantage of it. A back stake of £1000 means you will make £10 per tick. Since this trading is done PRE-MATCH this means you do not need to worry about a goal going in and sending the price off drastically the wrong way. This means you can easily put your whole bank into the market if you wished since you will only be active in the market during the day and unless you are trading other sports then you do not actually need the money in the mean time do you. Every now and then you WILL get the huge moves that are 10 or even 20 ticks however they are not to be expected all the time. Pre-match trading often involves frequent small wins that add up over the month.

Not researching the markets

I usually only trade the matches in significant competitions since it is easier to keep track of what is going on. If I see Man Utd are drifting and I am looking to get involved in the market then I will try and find out the reason why. These days just typing “Man Utd” into Twitter will bring up tweets from the last few seconds which might give you a reason why they are drifting, for instance an injury rumour or confirmation. From there I can make my own mind up about getting involved. The same can be done for most Premier League or Champions League matches. If you frequently find yourself in a pre-match market which goes against you and you are scratching your head as to why then you are simply not doing enough research which is not even much work in this day and age anymore. I admit that every now and then there will be sudden moves against you which you simply can not account for however, I also frequently get them in my favour also which evens things out over the month. To sum up, before getting involved in a market try and find out the reason why a team might be steaming or drifting. This article on spotting a pre-match steamer in advance can be helpful in this aspect.

If you are interested in learning more about how to spot the market moves and how to trade football pre-match then there is no better time to get involved with Total Football Trading, click here!