Can you make a decent wage on 1 good trade per day?

[Derek27]

I've looked back on my trades and think a single good opportunity per day can return a healthy profit if using the right stakes to do so.

What are your thoughts thinking more pre-race trading...

If you trade 20 markets a day your best market could well return a wage, in fact, sometimes, it might even be more profitable then the 20 markets in total. The problem is..... you won't know, and there is no way of knowing what your best market is until the end of the day!

[brimson25]

I have thought about this a lot. I keep returning in my mind to an old saying about eggs and baskets.

But - this is probably because I have a need to feel like I'm doing something - so i would prefer to be working, trading, doing more. (And preparation doesn't quite feel the same)

I acknowledge that this feeling is both irrational and unhelpful, but I bet I'm not alone.

The consequence of this is if I could trade 100 markets and make £100 or 1 and make £100, I'd probably feel easier in my mind with the first option. Daft, obviously!

[stueytrader]

However selectivity seems double-edged to me. It means a smaller sample over which to prove profitable, and I think would therefore bring in potentially higher variance in results?

A manual trader trading 500 strategies, how do we measure this trader?

1. "The person"
2. Strategy 1
3. Streatgy 2
4. Strategy 3....

Therefore, I'd argue, it actually lowers the variance

I don't understand why someone would just stop after discovering something minor - because from what I've seen, sometimes it'll blatantly be connected to something else.

Therefore, requiring a "new strategy" in order to exploit both opportunities.

If we try & capture both opportunities under the same umbrella, it simply doesn't work (blunts the edge)

I think I partly get what you mean - that it's possible to see traders using many strategies (and therefore selections) in smaller packets of selective strategies.

But, I think what the OP was meaning was still only using a very small total number of selections.

The original question reminds me of my thinking and discussions many years ago when purely punting - is it better to try to find many 'value' selections (and average a profit long run), or to sit and wait for only those 'golden' opportunities and then pounce big time with staking.

Problem was back then (and maybe still now) it seems tricky to know exactly which are those 'golden' selections (as I think Derek pointed out similar above). They only become apparent after the race is run often, and those that seemed like the perfect setups often fail to actually deliver, with your massive stake riding on them!

[ShaunWhite]

The answer to your question (and to paraphrase the wise words above) is that it depends on:
1. how good you are at spotting an opportunity,
2. how much money you can turn over on that opportunity, and
3. are your pockets deep enough to cope with your strike rate(ie #1).

It's pretty much the same 3 things as all win/lose jobs, like buying and selling used cars. How sweet are your cherries and how sour are your lemons?

[stueytrader]

with the right market along with the correct staking I would say it’s possible with 2 or 3 trades a week

This was a neglected reply on this post. Interested that you think it could be from such a small subset. Not sure I could imagine a decent wage from such a small amount of trades - do you mean some element of 'betting' within that?

[soccersaint]

I think Shaun’s on the right track here....

I wonder if we can get a thread going by traders who actually are making a living trading football ?
Assuming that they are interested in sharing their thoughts.

Not suggesting they give away their strategies but we see lots and lots of posts on the “how do I do this” from new traders and very little from full time traders or seasoned pros making it pay !

A repost of useful conversations or articles from the past that might help to point one in the right direction or a new post by the living perhaps ?

Anyone have any suggestions that might encourage the disillusioned amongst us ?

Please keep it clean and green

[Kai]

I wonder if we can get a thread going by traders who actually are making a living trading football ?
Assuming that they are interested in sharing their thoughts.

Unfortunately there aren't many football traders here since horse racing is such a predominant trading sport in these parts, although quite a few people still dabble with it. I found that most top football traders actually come from Portugal, so providing you can get past the language barrier, like I had to when I was starting out a few years ago, you can potentially learn a lot from them. There are some UK-based football trading communities around but it's best to avoid them to be honest.

[soccersaint]

I never knew that, I thought there was a good number football traders using the software. Maybe that explains why that part of the software is not ideally suited to football trading.

Perhaps the software developers feel it is not that popular and as such the market loading, coupon views etc, etc look like they have come out of the ark

We haven’t seen any significant updates in that direction for football traders so maybe we have that to come in 2019...

If there’s any soccer traders lurking in the depths I would like to hear your take on things....I know there’s a few Saints fans out there and the odd Leeds fan