The financial meltdown continues today. As I've written before, it's somehow much easier for me to deal with a £5,000 loss in the stock market than it is to deal with a £1,000 loss on a sporting investment. Probably several reasons, foremost among them being that losses in stocks are usually 'paper' losses which have a good chance of recovering at some point in the future, whereas an investment on Accrington Stanley to beat Aldershot Town is money lost for ever if the result goes the wrong way.
The stockmarket has proven to be a long-term winner over many years, just so long as you don't try to beat the market by trying to find the peaks and the troughs. An approach of investing a set amount every month in an index fund will return approximately 8% a year in the long-term. It's important not to react to short-term moves, either by panicking or by getting greedy, since reacting in this way will only reduce profits or increase losses.
And it's the same way with trading sports. As with the stock market, the two driving forces are fear and greed. Anyone who has spent a lot of time on Betfair or BETDAQ will have noticed that the best opportunities are available when people are acting based on one of these emotions.
As Warren Buffett says "Be greedy when others are fearful. Be fearful when others are greedy". And he's worth a few bob, so he should know what he is talking about.
About Me
- Cassini
- I have had a life-long interest in sports and after studying Pure Mathematics with Statistics at secondary school, have been fascinated by odds and probability. The first system I came up with was a simple one - back the favourite and double up after a loss until a winner. Simple enough in theory, and I told my Dad about it. Not being a betting man himself, he ran it by some of his colleagues, and came home to tell me that it wouldn’t work because a long losing run would mean that the bank would be empty. Then there was always the possibility that the winner would be returned at odds-on, meaning that the total returns would not match the outlay. Not what a ten year old wants to hear! Only slightly daunted, I then went on a search for the Holy Grail, the secret to riches that I knew was out there somewhere. Finally in 2004 I stumbled across an article about Betting Exchanges and four years later I was able to make a steady profit.
The BETDAQ Forum has arrived at least we can now post without being censored every 2 minutes!
ReplyDelete