GAMBLING DISCIPLINE: Keeping your discipline whilst gambling tests even the best professionals. The reality is that there is no magic fix if someone has poor discipline, indeed it takes years to build up the mental strength not to chase on the last few markets after a bad afternoon. With that being said, we have asked five Professional gamblers/traders how do they keep their discipline, and what advice would they give? Hopefully there are one or two pointers in the answers that can help you!

CAAN BERRY – Professional Trader, author of caanberry.com

“On a bad day discipline is vital. Over the year’s I’ve learnt that the hard way, most who succeed have. Everyone probably deals with this differently so it’s important to find your own particular coping mechanisms.

For me it was a bit of a turning point when I realised I was better off physically removing myself from the situation. If ever there is a freak accident or bad situation now it doesn’t tend to send me into emotional over-drive like it used to, but the way I respond is always the same. I get up out of the chair and leave the room, make a cup of tea (or crack open a beer, it’s one of the best job perks I know) and make sure I don’t return until I am fully detached from the loss. If it’s exceptionally bad I may even go for a walk.

It took me quite some time to realise that was the best thing to do. It breaks the behavioural cycle in such a literal sense it’s impossible to go on ’tilt’. But of course, that requires enough control to stay out of the room! Which some others can’t manage.”

MARK IVERSON – Professional Trader, author of http://www.markiverson.com/blog/blog/

“If my concentration levels aren’t 100% then I generally take fewer positions and attempt to be more patient before getting involved. Just sitting back and waiting for a clear opportunity can do wonders, instead of chasing 50/50 trades because I’m overly keen.

I’ve also created a tool which monitors my net position as I trade. This creates a safety net as it plots a real time graph that I can review at anytime. If it starts to resemble a roller-coaster I know immediately I’m not in control of my trading.

Advice? If things go bad, I try to look at the big picture and focus on any positives I can. Small losses are easy to recover from but big ones aren’t, and they can erode an awful lot of confidence very quickly. To avoid this, I’d suggest building a road-map of where you want to go. What are your expectations? What are your goals?

I’m not talking about daily targets, that timescale is too short, but understanding where you want to be in 1, 6 & 12 months time will help you build a plan on how to get there.”

WAYNE BAILEY – Professional Trader, author of www.waynebaileyracing.com/book

“If you are worried about discipline, consider closing down the computer for the day after a big loss as you won’t be in a good frame of mind. Start afresh the next day. These things happen and losing days will come. If you do want to continue, consider using reduced stakes rather than larger ones to chase the loss. Remember, you must try to do the opposite to what most people will do in the situation. Keep in mind that most people lose money in this game and you don’t want to be like them.

Pause after a big loss. You may feel an urge to do something (like chase your loss, move your stop loss, or increase your stakes) but you must resist it. It sounds absolutely ridiculous – but I stuck a note on the top of my PC which read “Resist the urge!” After a loss, I’d take a moment out and stare at it. Little things like this can help mentally. Whatever helps.

These days, I like to keep a notepad on my desk and take a few notes about each race I trade. If I let my discipline slip, I force myself to write it down and give a reason why. If you were working for a financial trading firm, you’d have to justify your trades to your boss. While you are your own boss when it comes to sports trading, it shouldn’t be any different. Write down the occasions when you let your discipline slip and force yourself to justify it. When I review my notes at the end of the week, I know if I’m losing the plot if I see lots of indiscipline. I’ll even consider taking a day or a week off if I’ve been particularly undisciplined for a period. It’s just a little time to recalibrate really.

The main thing to remember is that you need to protect your capital and stay in the game. Treat it like a business – all businesses have losing days but they don’t throw their toys out of the pram and spend all their capital when it happens! Staying in the game is far more important than making a profit in a given day, week or month. Without your capital, you have no business.”

STEPHEN MAHER – Professional Gambler, author of http://www.gamblerfalls.com/

“I’m a huge record keeper in Excel, I probably spend about an hour or so each day looking at my figures – you might say that’s obsessed with the numbers but the key thing for me is I don’t worry when I’m having a bad month, I’m more likely to look back through the other months and years, and that gives me confidence to 1) Not change what I’m doing and 2) Have faith that the recent bad results will turn around.

I would encourage anyone to keep detailed records – it will point out to you where your strengths lie, and more importantly where you weaknesses lie, and then it’s just about having the mental strength to stay away from the things you are bad on. There’s no such thing as a ‘last race’ or ‘last day’ it’s always about the over all picture.

Obviously not chasing is the hardest part to do though and staying away from what you may be bad at, even though you love watching that particular sport will always be tough – you have to try have your outlook so that every bet/trade matters, one chasing day that blow your whole month. I like to write down, in Excel, why I had each bet I had, and a brief reason afterwards what I thought about it – this helps me stay away from “stupid” bets because I can’t find a reason to write in Excel. There is nothing worse than having three good bets ruined by ill discipline, let that annoy you so much that you don’t do it anymore!”

DAN WESTON – Professional Trader, author of http://www.tennisratings.co.uk/

“Keeping my discipline on a bad day is helped by having a trading script that I stick to religiously, and on the very rare occasions that I have any concerns in this area, I’ll just switch the computers off and walk the dog. I’d advise other traders to stick to a plan for the markets and as soon as you are tempted to deviate from this, just quit your session.”