How To Set REALISTIC Betfair Trading Goals

Last Updated on December 3, 2013 by Sports Trading Life

 Something I often see people do is set goals with their Betfair Trading. Do not get me wrong, setting goals and aspiring to new levels in life is a good thing however setting the wrong types of goals can actually do more damage then good.

 Here are some examples of the WRONG goals to be setting yourself and probably the most frequent goals I see people setting.

• Make XX profit per day/week/month/year

• Go full time by the end of the year/month/week/day (!)

• Double/Triple My Bank by the end of the day/week/month etc etc

These are the WRONG goals to be setting yourself. If anything these are not actually goals but “aims”.  Firstly, because they put yourself under pressure immediately. You do not need pressure when trying to perform well.

Secondly, because these are goals you can not actually control. Trading is not as simple as “work more, earn more”. There will be losing periods and also periods of time when no opportunities arise. If you are a football trader how can you expect to make your profit goal in the month of July when not much football is played? Same goes for a Tennis Trader during December and so on….

No trader has a strategy that can win 100% of the time. Your short term profits can largely be out of your own control. If you are silly enough to set a daily target then what do you do if it is 10pm and you are -£30 for the day. Do you go and double or bust on Roulette? Or just accept the fact you had a losing day and remind yourself that it is the long term that matters? Hopefully, the latter but having short term goals will probably tempt you into doing the former.

Setting a daily profit goal might also make you stop for the day once you hit your target which can make you miss great opportunities later on.

Here are some examples of the type of CORRECT goals to be setting yourself:

• To stop getting upset over losses by the end of the month/year etc

• To test at least xx strategies by the end of the week/month/year etc

• To trade at least 100 markets of your chose sport by 3 months/6 months/ 9 months etc

• To cut out (insert bad habit) completely by the end of the month/6 months/ year etc

 These are just a few ideas but I am sure you get the drift by now.

These are the correct goals to be setting yourself since these are things within your control. I guarantee that if you set yourself a goal of trading 100 different events within about 3-4 months then you will be a far better trader for it and so this is a good realistic goal to set. It also does not put you under pressure the way that a “Trade 100 events and make £10k” goal would!

 Lastly, I just want to remind everyone that there should be no rush to becoming proficient at sports trading. Setting goals is a good thing to do with anything in life but do not set unrealistic goals or ones that are out of your own control. You will only end up causing yourself frustration and pain in the long term.