During my time as owner of this very site it has given me the great opportunity to meet and speak with successful traders in both Sports Trading but also those who do Forex also. It hit me the other day that I noticed nearly all of them often display many of the same qualities.

That was the inspiration for this article and I hope you find it interesting.

They Manage Money Well

If you have done any reading into what it takes to become a professional sports trader then you will know that money management, or “bank management” is crucial. If you are a person who is good at managing money well in your everyday life then you should be able to bring this habit over into your trading. For example, are you the type of person that checks their bank balance every morning in order to keep an eye on every penny that is coming in and going out, or do you check it every now and then and are often surprised at how much/little you have in there? To do well at sports trading you have to adopt the habit of the former in this case…

They Are Positive

It really is no coincidence that successful traders I have met are usually positive people. When I have met up for coffee with people who are successful they usually omit this positive vibe about every single thing they do. Some might argue that its because they are successful which makes it easier to be positive but you will actually find that the two go hand in hand. A positive person would look at sports trading and have the mindset of “Ok, I will succeed and do well at this” whilst the average person might look at sports trading and have the mindset of “I bet this is all a scam, none of these systems work and no one is really making money with this”. Are you a positive person? For example, would you say your glass is “half full” or “half empty”? Being positive wont just help you with sports trading but will help you in any field or aspect of life you go into..

They Are Organised

To be successful at something like sports trading you simply have to be organised. You have to plan your trades and strategies out ahead of time, rather then on a whim. I know of many that will just log on to Betfair in the evening, look at the in-play coupon, look at the odds and see what fits which system, all with about 10 minutes to go till kick off. These are usually the same people that complain when they dont make money. Ideally, you should have done your research way ahead of the match and planned out how you would trade that event so that when it begins you are already organised in your mind about what you are going to do. This also applies to things like record-keeping and note-keeping. Do you keep records of all your trades and bets? Do you often make notes about things you have observed when trading for future reference? Well, a successful trader does!

They Are Punctual

This might not seem like it can actively apply to Sports Trading but it should not be ignored. This is because every meeting I have ever had with a successful trader has seen them arrive either right on time or ahead of schedule. This is not a coincidence. I strongly believe that if you want to be successful in anything then you have to be punctual. If you are not punctual it leads me to believe you are not very organised as mentioned in the last point but this can also translate into your trading. Those who are not good with time keeping are probably those who are likely to miss the start of a football match with money still in the market, or those who will be late to starting their trading day and end up spending most of the day playing catch up to the markets. Being punctual is not just about arriving on time, it is about arriving ahead of timeand being prepared for what lies ahead.

They Are Focused

Becoming successful at Sports Trading is NOT easy no matter what any sales blurb will try and tell you. I feel one of the most important qualities to have that will enable you to do well at this is the ability to focus. This business takes time to well and truly “click”. It took me about 2 years of using Betfair before I began to see how I should be trading the markets.. These days you should be able to get it all much quicker since there are many excellent online courses that will teach you the basics but that depends on your ability to focus. I see some newbies jump from trading football to horses to tennis and back to football again. I also see some newbies jump from following one strategy to trying another and then another before retrying the original one. You should really focus on one single sport and strategy until you have mastered it before moving on.

 They Are Patient

This quality actually goes hand in hand with being focuses. A person who is generally quite patient in life will usually have a better ability to focus. Being patient in sports trading is definitely a virtue. You will need an incredible amount of patience just to learn how to do it all in the first place. Then you will also need to be patient in looking for good value opportunities to exploit. You might be in the mood for trading and see there is a round of matches in-play that day. You look around and none of them offer any opportunities, are you the type of person to keep looking in order to “find” a trade or will you just close the Betfair screen and wait for a better opportunity the next day? If you are a patient person you will have no problem in simply not trading that day and you will be able to comfortably wait and see what the next day will bring. Those who aren’t patient will probably end up trading when they shouldn’t and blowing their bank in the process!

They Do Not Get Angry Easily

I have been in situations with successful people where the average person might be tearing their hear out. A successful person wont get angry as they will always feel there is a solution and getting angry is just as bad as admitting you do not know how to handle the situation you are in. When you have a bad trade do you actually get angry at yourself or at people around you? A successful trader will not actually let it get to him since he believes in what he is doing. If you find yourself getting angry often after trading perhaps you should ask yourself if trading really is for you and also have a look at the rest of this list to see if there is anything you can change about yourself in order to curb your anger in future. I guarantee that if you possess all the above qualities in this list then the anger management side of things will take care of itself!

 

It is important to remember that these habits wont just help you in sports trading but will usually help you in any field you decide to get into. If you want to further yourself as a person you should look to correct the weaknesses you might have in your personality, then you might be surprised at just how far you go in life.