Sometimes you win, sometimes you……
LEARN!!!!
I came across this phrase this year and I think it’s a neat one. It encapsulates the mental process you need to go through to be successful in pretty much anything in life.
What is talent?
It’s nice to think we are talented or some how ‘special’ but in fact a lot of talent comes through good old fashioned hard work. We have discussed it often in the psychology section of the forum. Generally there are no short cuts, if you can find one you’ve been pretty lucky.
Starting out
When I first started out I didn’t know how to trade. I knew something about my core sports and put that to use, but Horse racing was dangling a massive carrot for me. I had no knowledge of racing so had to work from the bottom. Bit by bit, I put the puzzle together. I now have a host of strategies and my decision making mainly revolves around which one shall I deploy.
When I tried to solve the puzzle of trading Tennis it was a similar pattern. Put something to use, learn from it, refine, improve. Eventually I discovered something that worked really well and it wasn’t what most people would guess. In fact, sometimes the most obscure or unusual strategies can be uncovered. Sometimes my greatest blunders, worst assumptions or least intuitive efforts have produced the most promising insights.
When I discover something then I start applying it and discovering is characteristics and then I try to improve it or find similar markets. That’s how I’ve ended up being able to turn my hand to many, very different, types of markets.
My view is that for every market there is a strategy and every strategy a market. You just have to match them up!
Summary
So I would summarise that If you are prepared to put the work in, using trial and error it is possible to unpick even the most complex puzzle. But you have to put in the effort in and learn to understand the lessons that errors, losses in the case, can bring. Work religiously to stamp them out.
I use Bet Angel’s automation or Spreadsheet capabilities to constantly prod and examine many different markets all the time in the background on top of my normal trading. If I don’t discover anything I haven’t really cost myself much but very often a new characteristic pops out which I can carefully examine and take forward.
So for me, whatever the market throws at me, or however it evolves, there is always an opportunity, I just have to find it. It’s like wondering through a maze. In real maze, if you reach a dead end you don’t stop. That is because you know, even if it takes a bit of, time you will find your goal; because you know it exists. So if you reach a dead end in the markets, don’t stop. Learn from it!
Category: Trading strategies, Using Bet Angel
