Stupid mistakes that we make

[darkpunter]

What's the stupidest mistake you've made whilst trading?

I made a classic today. I'd been looking at two joint favs in a race, trying to decide which one to trade on. Normally to do this I look at the available charts (Betfair and Candlestick) to establish trends.

I made my decision and settled down to trade. Trend and activity on the charts indicated a drift, so in went my lay trade, which was quickly taken. But then the price started to come in. Looked at my charts - still showing a general drift trend, so left the order as thought would turn around and follow trend.

Then, price moved massively against me. Panic! Looked at charts - still showing drifting trend, no indication of price move at all!

Took a couple of seconds to realise that I had the wrong charts open, and was looking at the second horse I had considered, not the one I should have been trading on!!!

What a div!

[jimrobo]

done that one plenty of times!!!

Another one that I seem to do regularly is when switching from a very low odds market to a 5-6 one not changing my stake and dumping 600-1000 and realising half way matched!!

[andyfuller]

Done that one as well! Realising just as the market goes against you

[Squirtle]

My favourite is thinking I have loads of time as they haven't loaded all the horses yet, then, as the market suspends, realising I am watching the wrong channel!

[to75ne]

infrared mouse few years back on some poxy 6f banded race at southall. backed largish amount batteries went flat. could not work out what had happend, by the time i twigged race in play, my horse's price had shoot right out, no way could i lay off. so these days i change the batteries every week whether they are still good or not.
also dont buy them from a pound shop. i did shortly after my flat batt fiasco, and nearly ended up in the same mess.

[andyfuller]

could you not invest in a nice wired mouse?

[to75ne]

Post by andyfuller » Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:07 pm
could you not invest in a nice wired mouse?

andy that as never occured to me. how stupid. i will tomorrow (later this morning sat). many thanks.

[andyfuller]

I use the wired Logitech G9 gaming mouse which is very comfortable and has some nice features:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-910-00 ... 359&sr=8-1

But if you want the flexibility of a wireless mouse I would recommend looking at the Razor Mamba mouse which can be switched from wired to wirless in the blink of an eye.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-RZ01-0012 ... 19&sr=8-12

Full review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Z1dWlp4AA

If you want a wired/wireless mouse the Razor is probably best but the Logitech I think is the best overall mouse as it has interchangable grips so you can get one that fits your hand and also it has a weight draw so you can alter the weight of it to what suits also it has a click/freewheel scroll wheel which is very handy. Also it is half the price.

Investing in a good mouse, keyboard, chair etc is definately money well spent, just think how much you use it and what you want from it!

[Brent]

Stupid mistakes?
Well.
I do a little bit of arb trading now and again. On a few occassions, have backed the wrong horse due to similar odds. Usually they are next to each other. But for some reason, one time, I accidentally backed the 1 instead of the 9. Hmm. Not even close.

Copying some music to a new Ipod, I forgot I had a 1500 dollar trade in the market. Well, by the time I remembered, it wasn't there any more. :S My 1500 I mean.

In play, forgot to look for similar colors. Done it three times now, fired in a bet based on the colors, only to realise why the odds were so good.
In fact, one of them, I picked out the favourite, noticed it was coming home pretty strong, backed it for plenty. It started to die in the ass, and finished about 8th. Luckily for me, the one I was watching wasn't the favourite. Fav was the one storming through to take out the win. Yay me.

The biggest stupid mistake though, is the one that I know I shouldn't be doing. Yesterday, I picked out a nice arb trade. Was 10k available at 3.9 at the last second, 4.8 still on the books.
Problem was, after backing it on the books, it was that well backed, that when I clicked on it, it centred on the lay offers, which were way back in the 2s now since all of it was matched. Took me a few seconds to work out what was going on, by which time the race had jumped. An expensive little punt that didn't come off. If you think you are pushing the time a bit close, it probably means you are.

[andyfuller]

Just done one of my classic mistakes - the itchy mouse finger.

Hoovering over a price but then my finger decides to click the mouse not once but twice and as ever the price goes against you. I thought these things were supposed to even out over time - I must be on for a hell of a good luck run

[hgodden]

My favourite is thinking I have loads of time as they haven't loaded all the horses yet, then, as the market suspends, realising I am watching the wrong channel!

Haha I thought it was only me who was stupid enough to do that! Once when there was a photo finish I used sky plus to rewind the finish to view it instantly before others could watch the replay, but forgot to fast forward back to the live pictures afterwards and of course went in play on the next race as I was 20 seconds behind the live pics

[nigelk]

Getting Married?

[finnbarr99]

Ouch! Not met your mrs but a bit harsh, no? Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

[silvermark]

Trading past the scheduled off time for me (I don't trade with pictures).

[andyfuller]

Did another of my classics yesterday, not once but twice. It went something like this:

Finish trading the previous race and hit ctrl+shift+n to jump to the next race, start trading it and then all of a sudden the race suspends. Look at the TV and they are only halfway through loading, sky isn't on live rewind, ah there must be a late withdrawal I missed, then it goes inplay.... doh! the Irisih race was scheduled at the same time as the UK race and as Betfair list the Irisih races before the UK races when they are due off at the same time I didn't realise I had been trading the Irish race and not the UK race I wondered why the liquidity wasn't very good and the market seemed to behaving not like I would have expected.

Luckily no open positions and actually a nice profit, just goes to show that as traders we could be trading two flies running up a wall as we don't need to look at the horses names, let alone the course name!