Post your worst trading habit

[jimrobo]

I have 2 trading vices that I seem to do regularly!

1, In Play horse racing!! I am a pure pre race trader so in play is off limits to me really but I always do it. The amount of times I see the last horse going in out of the corner of my eye and have about 10 open orders all over the place and think oh shit before the suspended comes into view is unbelievable!! The fast pics boys have had me soooo many times!

2, Skype! Another one of my bad habits is opening up a trade and talking on skype completely forgetting about my open order or sometimes I get an order filled and have no idea! Then sometimes it go's inplay as well!

[Knight Rider]

Being drawn into forum debates in the afters when the English racing is on is definetly my worst. Seriously need to curb it:cool:

[Scumbag trader]

for me it's over confidence. When i'm having a good day, i get waaay too over confident and start assuming i'll profit everyrace. Like today i layed a horse in running at 20.00 for £20, and i ended up shitting myself when it only just lost by a neck. Looking back at the replay it was way too reckless for my liking.

[rjmcgee]

My worst habit is not paying enough attention to charts, S&R points etc when I'm not 100% focused on trading.

Another bad habit is underconfidence in markets without a lot of volume and with lots of spoof bets appearing and cancel on both sides of the book. Haven't yet figured out how to cope and really do much (other than lose money!) in that situation.

[The Geek]

For me, it was having sex. If I didn't have the kids to distratct me every now & again, I'd be much richer. :D

[The Joker]

for me, it was having sex. If i didn't have the kids to distratct me every now & again, i'd be much richer. :d

agreed !! Nail head on the:d

[The Joker]

However wouldn't be without the little buggers now!!! :)

[jimrobo]

I managed to get in the habit of keeping out of the forums until 6 pm! If I had added that one to my bad habits earlier I would have really been in trouble!!!

[refer80]

worst habit for me is getting a bad entry point, having a red figure and having to spend the rest of the trade trying to reduce this.happens to much for my liking. still chip chip away:D

[PaulyJ]

Working out my potential winnings before deciding weather to hedge or not. I always convince myself, hedging now just doesn't reward me enough.

[Timstertoo]

Working out my potential winnings before deciding weather to hedge or not. I always convince myself, hedging now just doesn't reward me enough.

I know exactly what you mean!

My profit jumps everytime I make myself stick to my pre thought up exit strategy.

Every so often I tell myself I'm a real badass trader now and I'm fine with deciding what it's best to exit on the spot and the hurt begins again.:D

[kawasaki]

yea, worst my habit too, not closing fast enough red ones :mad:

[Temujin]

For me, it was having sex. If I didn't have the kids to distratct me every now & again, I'd be much richer. :D

Is it just me or does that sound really really wrong... :O

As for my bad habits, I think most are covered. Trading too close to the off is a bad one for me, as most of our races aren't in play, so is just a straight liability as soon as it is suspended.
MSN. Bad idea that, yet it is always turned on, still.
Doing favours. People assume that since we are at home, that we are not really working. And sometimes that rubs off on me. Lost 1500 when somebody asked me to make a playlist to throw on their mp3 player. Completely forgot I was halfway through a trade.
Also guilty of locking in profits in my head. I seem to reset the profit as if it were locked in, then wait for it to get back there. Hmm..
Worst of all, is smoking. Will be gone from my arsenal very shortly.

[The Geek]

Now you mention it, it does. I suppose it should have been having kids, but that could sound just as wrong. :eek:

[Leonthefixer]

Mine is relying on Betfair to manage their markets correctly and then come up with some bullsh*t reason for why I just lost money thanks to them :mad:

[ribofilio]

letting a red position go in running because " this cannot possibly win " , you'll get away with it for a while , but eventually.........aaaaarrrggghhhh , but I am getting better.

[taxbreaks]

Letting a trade go in play - done it quite a few times - always stupid but never learn - but never again

[Public Enemy]

For me, it's simply concentration.

Unlike the horses, tennis start times are unpredictable, I don't mean a couple of minutes late, I mean two hours later than scheduled, or twenty minutes earlier than scheduled.

This is, of course, most often because of the length of previous matches, but it is hard to sit and wait around, and there's been plenty of times that I've missed the start of a match because of it.

[Temujin]

Is it just me or does that sound really really wrong... :O

As for my bad habits, I think most are covered. Trading too close to the off is a bad one for me, as most of our races aren't in play, so is just a straight liability as soon as it is suspended.
MSN. Bad idea that, yet it is always turned on, still.
Doing favours. People assume that since we are at home, that we are not really working. And sometimes that rubs off on me. Lost 1500 when somebody asked me to make a playlist to throw on their mp3 player. Completely forgot I was halfway through a trade.
Also guilty of locking in profits in my head. I seem to reset the profit as if it were locked in, then wait for it to get back there. Hmm..
Worst of all, is smoking. Will be gone from my arsenal very shortly.

Pretty much covered all of these yesterday, except the playlist.
What a crazy day. You would think after 4 years I would be better at this.... :O

[Chippy]

Pretty much covered all of these yesterday, except the playlist.
What a crazy day. You would think after 4 years I would be better at this.... :O
I've realy just started this trading game and I can see I've a great deal to go through because I have made some of these mistakes already especially going into play I have already told myself I will never do that again and two mins later I 'm in the brown stuff again layed the fav and it leads from start to finish and every body can see it's going to walk home, job done. Never again. I wish.

[Leonthefixer]

Never again. I wish.

You may want to consider using "Take SP" to exit your trades, that way you are automatically out at the off. There are some shortfalls of this process, but it does ensure your exit trade gets taken at the off and removes the emotion. Might be worth using it until you can discipline yourself not to do it anymore.

I did a short post on my blog the other day about Take SP:

http://dontgiveupyourjob.blogspot.com/2009/10/take-sp.html

[Lewy]

For me it's over staking on high odds after losing on the previous race to try and claw back my losses. It works sometimes but when i enter a back trade and it suddenly goes against me i just sit there hoping for it to come back because the losses when over staking take so much longer to get back compared to equal back and lay staking and i'm always reluctant to take the loss just in case it does come back, so i usually end up going in play. It usually results in much worse losses then if i had just took the initial loss on the chin. I'm working on it though :o

[The Joker]

Getting too drunk to trade then not feeling well enough/confident enough to the next day ! slows your progress down no end LOL :D

Shergar