Boredom - The Road to Ruin!

I had planned an afternoon of trading tennis today and was all ready to go when the rain started in Gstaad so all the matches were delayed - hence no tennis now this afternoon.

This normally leads to me having a look around the Betfair markets for football or horse racing to trade but often because I hadn't planned to trade these markets I trade matches or races that I haven't really done the necessary amount of research on or even if I do my research the matches don't fit my criteria but I trade them anyway out of boredom or a misplaced sense of duty that I 'should' be trading. More often than not this leads to poor trading and losses and you are left with that horrible sensation of thinking you would have been better off doing nothing.

So I suppose the moral of this story is don't trade for the sake of trading, only trade markets that you are experienced in and that you have a good understanding of. So for example, don't trade a Japanese football match (unless you have a good understanding of the league and the teams involved) or a tennis match between 2 players you have never even heard of because ultimately, this is just gambling and you have no more than a 50% chance of getting it right.

As with most things in life its quality rather than quantity of trading that really counts so if you find yourself in this situation - scouring Betfair for something to trade - imagine how you will feel if you trade for 4 hours and end up losing money compared to how you would feel switching off your PC and going to play golf and then trading the matches you want to trade later or tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm just off to trade Croatia v Italy in the 2011 Water Polo Championships!!

For more information on trading the sports markets, visit www.interactivesportsinvestor.com