Centre Court Trading

I recently spoke with a professional gambler regarding my Tennis Trading Guide. He claimed to be very successful, earning hundreds of thousands a year from a simple football strategy he devised but wanted to diversify more and learn how to trade. What he couldn't understand, was the mentoring aspect that I was offering as part of my Academy. As a straight gambler, he didn't see what else needed to be learnt other than how to use the strategies. Of course, trading is not as simple and straightforward as straight betting. I've often said to myself that I wish I had a betting strategy instead of a trading one because it would make life so much easier!

The difference between making money straight betting and trading (particularly in-play trading) is like night and day. I'm sure every trader who has read this blog at some point has wished the same. Imagine how great it would be if all you had to do was a bit of research before placing a bet and then just walking away to go and do whatever you like for the rest of the day - job done. That's basically what this successful gambler says he does and what a life that must be! When I was struggling and learning to trade, every single time I went through a bad period, I would start to devise some sort of straight betting strategy (which always failed miserably). Why? Because I knew it would make my life far less stressful than what I had to go through when attempting to trade in-play.

The hardest part of trading to conquer is the psychological element. Having to make split second decisions, react to fluctuating market prices and stay disciplined when your losing position deteriorates or when your winning position reverses before your very eyes, is what makes or breaks a trader. None of that comes into the equation with straight betting. You just bet and leave. I don't think there is a single trader out there who doesn't wish they could make the same money straight betting as they do trading.

The skills that need to be acquired to successfully trade in-play, do not come naturally to us humans, and that is the main issue. A member of my Academy sent me the following link to a great programme aired on the BBC this week "Traders: Millions by the Minute", which is an insight into people who trade financial markets in London, New York, Chicago and Amsterdam. Within the show, there is also a section showing complete novices being taught how to trade, something I can relate very well to! But for those who don't understand why trading requires a lot more in terms of skill-sets and is far harder to learn that straight gambling, this programme will show exactly why.

Caroline Wozniacki & Serena Williams

Putting all the many extra technical aspects that you need to learn aside (such as learning about market price movements) it all boils down to one thing - human emotions. That is what makes it so difficult to be successful at trading and that is why my mentor service is such an important part of my Academy. Following a set of entry and exit points might seem simple and therefore does not warrant a great deal of learning but when those entry and exit points involve fear, greed, impatience, anxiety, over-confidence, stress and a variety of other emotions in a fast-paced, decision-making environment, plus the vital ingredient of money and it becomes obvious why so many fail to do what on paper might appear relatively simple.

Whilst it would be great to have a simple straight betting strategy to make big bucks, I will always maintain that trading is the way to go. Particularly with the tennis markets, in-play is where the liquidity is and in-play is where you'll find the ability to make thousands with just one relatively quick trade. The options for strategies are almost limitless, whereas with straight betting, things become far more restricted. On the one hand, that is part of the problem with trading; there are so many options available, that traders end up veering away from the planned route and end up like a deer in the headlights. But those extra options are also what enable a greater variety of techniques for making money - you just have to learn how to take the correct route and stay on it. Plus, I really wouldn't fancy stressing over the result of a match for 2+ hours, when I can be in and out of a trade in a few minutes and able to reduce my liabilities to far less scary amounts. So in theory, although it sounds as though betting would be better (and certainly easier to learn) I would take trading any day of the week.

Although my Academy is now full, I still offer plenty of advice and guidance in my Sultan Tennis Trading Guide (including help with dealing with the psychology of trading) which you can buy simply by emailing me via the contact form on this blog. The second episode of "Traders: Millions by the Minute" is aired on 22nd September, 9pm BBC 2.

The second episode of "Traders: Millions by the Minute" aired last night on BBC 2. Another interesting show allowing us to look at a few ordinary, every-day financial traders from a variety of backgrounds, who trade from home with varying degrees of success - from a millionaire through to a guy who was trading with zero profit for SEVEN years! Do not watch this show expecting to get any valuable hints and tips about trading, it really isn't about that (though some important messages do shine through). I personally found it interesting because, as a professional trader working alone from home, I rarely get the opportunity to see other people in my position doing our job. For those of you who aspire to be traders, I think you'll find it quite motivational, seeing how other ordinary people go about their business.

As I've said before on this blog, there are two types of trader; the negative ones who will tell you all day long that it can't be done and you shouldn't bother (the failed traders) and the positive ones, who understand the odds are stacked against them but know that with hard work, anything is possible. Two quotes from the show stuck out for me. The first was from the self-made trading millionaire who said "Most traders who do give up, probably don't give it as much (hard work) as those that don't (give up)" - which is what I've maintained for a long time. The biggest difference between the successes and the failures, is that one wants it more than the other and will not give up until he gets it.

Another great quote was from the sister of the trader who had been trading for seven years with no profit to show for it (throwing away a decent career elsewhere to continue, although he was much happier as a trader). She said "Either you're absolutely crazy or it's admirable". And I think that can be applied to most traders. The millionaire trader had lost many thousands before he turned it around to earn six figures. If you've followed this blog from the early days, you'll know I nearly sent myself round the twist before I got anywhere. This tends to be how it works! It's admirable that successful traders have pushed on through tough times to earn their rewards but at the same time, for many of us, there have been moments where we've done crazy things or continued when the sane option would have been to give up. It's a fine line.

One little bit of trivia: the pro footballer in the programme who invests in a pair of traders (Leon Best currently of Blackburn Rovers on loan at Derby and apparently, the Imelda Marcos of the trainers world) comes from the same place as me and was actually taught in school by my uncle! Wonder if there's any chance of him investing another £100,000 in me............

Iveta Melzer

I also came across another show I missed on the BBC from 2012 "Million Dollar Traders". I'm surprised I missed this first time around (or maybe I didn't and just can't remember because I was going through my cocaine and strippers phase?) but I certainly enjoyed watching this 3 part series on YouTube over the weekend. This programme is purely about training complete novices on how to trade the financial markets. It's an insight into what professional trading day to day is like and how it can affect people psychologically. It's interesting to see how different personalities react to the ups and downs and also shows that it doesn't matter what their background is, you never how someone will react to the pressure.

Someone recently wrote to me and said he had previously been trading financial markets and wanted to learn about sports trading. He said that he felt the sports markets would be more difficult because financial markets are moved by people and sports markets aren't. I assume he meant that sports market prices are moved by the players (what happens in the match). This of course, is completely wrong. Both financials and sports markets are all about information and how people react emotionally to that information. In the financials, the latest news indirectly affects the markets but it is traders who directly move the prices. In sport, the players indirectly affect the market but it is traders who directly move the prices. In my time running the Trading Academy, I've come to realise more and more that many traders don't actually understand this and that makes it impossible for them to succeed. These programmes might help give a greater understanding of this.

We read about it all the time as traders but it's rare to get an actual look at people going through the stresses and strains of trading and how it affects their decision making. I'm in quite a unique position in that I read about trader's first-hand emotions and experiences on how they are coping with learning to trade, as part of my Academy and has enabled me to tailor my Trading Guide based on what I've learnt. But I don't get to actually see those traders in the flesh........though that may all be about to change........

The trading documentaries I've recently been watching have really got me thinking about the possibilities of doing some live, one to one or group trading. When I began the Academy, I decided against this kind of training as I was worried about the impact it would have on my own personal trading. The added pressure to perform, negative affect on concentration plus the added work required to set it up and run it smoothly, meant that it wasn't really worth the risk as far as I was concerned. But as 2014 has been such a great year for me, I'm now in a position where I can take a bit more time off when I want to, rather than seriously trade every match that I can. I think it could be a fascinating new challenge and something to really get my teeth into for my final year of trading. So for the first time, I'm going to be offering the chance to see me trade live via Skype.

I'm going to be testing during the ATP World Tour Finals in London which run from November 9th - 16th. If all goes well during this week, I will then decide to go live in 2015 (wow, is it mid-decade already?!), most likely with one session per week. I've decided that as it is only a test period and I can't guarantee everything will run 100% perfectly, I am offering traders a FREE place in one of these sessions if you buy the Sultan Tennis Trading Guide. I will only be able to accept a small number of traders into these sessions and anyone who is currently an Academy member or who has already bought the guide, is also able to take up this offer. This is probably the same way I will operate in 2015 - by offering spaces to those who have my Trading Guide first. It will make it much easier for everyone in the session, if all traders have knowledge of my own style of trading beforehand.

Sloane Stephens

I have not yet decided which matches during the Tour Finals I am going to be setting up for live trading. I won't know until the order of play is decided and last year, they often were not confirmed until the day before (I bought a ticket last year but didn't know who I was watching till the day before I attended). So if you are interested, let me know and I will put your name into a random draw for places (I figure that's the fairest way). I will contact anyone whose name is drawn and if they are not available for that session, I will then go to the next person drawn, till all spaces are filled. The draw will take place on November 8th and I will contact traders as soon as I know the order of play for each day. I will probably have to limit each person to one free session, depending on how much interest I get.

I hope to set it up so you can hear me talking through my thought processes as I trade (same as in the videos in my Trading Guide, which I've received great feedback about and really were the catalyst for me to set this up) and also so you can ask me questions via Skype. If all goes well, my plan is to do 6 months of Live Trading from January next year, with at least one session per week, before I bow out from trading altogether. As this is all completely new to me (plus, I'm not well versed on Skype) I'm not sure whether this is something I will take to and I only get into new ventures if I enjoy them. So nothing is 100% set in stone yet but certainly, I will be doing some sessions during the ATP Tour Finals. Just message me via the Contact Form if interested.

I'd totally forgotten about the brand new event that is soon to take place in the tennis world - the International Premier Tennis League. Loosely based on cricket's Indian Premier League with its Indian-based franchises, the IPTL begins its first ever season during the tennis off-season in December. A couple of weeks ago, Roger Federer changed his mind about competing in the IPTL and as you would expect, this has made everyone sit up and take notice. All of a sudden, the IPTL is looking a lot sexier. Although for this inaugural tournament, it might have more of an exhibition feel than any serious event such as cricket's IPL. Hard to say at this stage but I think it will be more competitive than many fans think. If you were part of an 8 player team, playing in front of real home support, with the eyes of the sporting world on you for 4 weeks, being paid the huge sums that you are, wouldn't you want to win? Certainly, you would not want to embarrass yourself or let your team members or the sport down and this is a great chance to showcase tennis to an emerging market.

The fact that it is being played during the traditional tennis down-time (a period which has recently been extended due to the demands of players) means it will be unlikely to ever reach the same prestige as a normal tour event. In fact, you would be well within your rights to ask why on earth players who were complaining about the season being too long and tiring, are doing extending that season by an extra 4 weeks! As always, money is the answer - there's some serious dollars on offer for those who are competing. As some of these top players end up playing exhibition matches in December anyway, asking them to play a few extra sets probably won't make much difference. The format is set up so that no player will play more than one set of tennis a day (although the men's singles players might have to play a deciding set), so it shouldn't be too taxing, although they will be playing most days for a 4 week period.

The 4 franchises are all based in Asia and this is primarily because the ATP and WTA see this continent as the burgeoning one for tennis. With China just beginning to really jump onto the tennis bandwagon (3 new WTA tournaments started this year alone in China and Hong Kong), the WTA Tour Championships being hosted in Singapore for the first of 4 years and a huge untapped market in India in-particular, Asia is going to be the next big market to explode into life. Because of this, I can definitely see the IPTL growing into something far more serious, though I doubt this short-form version of tennis will change to the full version - not during the off-season anyway. If it does take off though, who knows what will happen and where it might be shifted to in the schedules. Tennis is a business at the end of the day and just like cricket's IPL, if the demand is there, that's where the players, TV companies and sponsors will gravitate to.

Eugenie Bouchard - first draft for IPTL (obviously)

It's certainly a hugely exciting prospect and the biggest innovation in the sport for a long, long time. Purists will no doubt hate it (just as they do with 20/20 cricket) but I think it promises to be a lot of fun. When you watch as much tennis as I do, anything fresh is welcomed with open arms. I'm pretty sure Betfair will produce markets for this, with a total of 24 "matches" over 4 weeks, there's plenty of action to trade. We could well be at a stage where there is almost a full year of tennis to trade - making tennis surely THE sport for any trader to get into. It will be fascinating to see how the markets react to this new form of tennis. As it's a one set shoot-out, including innovations such as "power-play" points (where the next point counts double), a shot clock between points (pity Nadal has withdrawn because that would have been very interesting!) and tie-break deciders at 5-5, there will be some big swings in price in most matches. Should work very nicely for my strategies in the Sultan Tennis Trading Guide.

Also, the "outright" markets will be intriguing. It is a team event with 5 sets played in total for each "match" (one each for men's singles, women's singles, doubles, mixed doubles and retired/legends singles), so the outright match market as well as league markets should throw up a lot of betting potential. So from a trader's perspective, this is excellent news. Well, it would be for some traders but not for me - I'll be taking a well earned holiday during December! But definitely keeping a close eye on proceedings, as the whole tennis world will be. This could be the start of something very special indeed...........

Interest in the live Skype sessions has been overwhelming! So much so that I've decided to bring forward the date for the free test sessions. They will now take place during the WTA Championships which begin on Friday 17th October. This does mean that there will be a lot of disappointed people as I cannot fit everyone who has shown an interest into a session. Spaces remain only available for people who have my Strategy Guide or are members of my Academy. However, anyone will be able to book on once the paid sessions begin.

I should stress that only the first session is guaranteed to be free. If all goes well, there are no teething problems and I am comfortable and have fun in the session, I will not be offering any further free sessions. If there were any problems or I feel that I need to run through another session to get the service as good quality as I would want it, then I will offer more free sessions in order to fine tune things.

When the paid service begins, priority will be given to Academy members and people who have bought the guide. Further details will be on the blog as soon as they are finalised. Please note that the Academy is now closed to new members. I am full for the whole of 2015 and will not be offering any new spaces. The Strategy Guide is still available however.

Jarmila Gajdosova

If you have emailed me to ask to go into the draw for the free sessions, please check your email inbox next week, as I will be making the draw as soon as I know the order of play for next Friday's matches. If you don't hear from me, it means you did not win a free spot but please keep checking right up to the start time of each match because if someone drops out, I will draw a new name to take their place (and yes, I am actually doing a draw, World Cup stylee, with balls and velvet and glass bowls and everything!)

I'm really excited about this now. It will be the first time I've ever traded in front of anyone else, so it will be a daunting experience. But if all goes well, I will be looking to start the Sultan Skype Sessions properly during the ATP World Tour Finals and also to cover the Davis Cup Final and possibly some of the inaugural International Premier Tennis League (for any days I'm not away on holiday) which I wrote about in my last post. There's even a chance I may start as early as the Paris Masters 1000 and WTA Tournament of Champions. So keep a close eye on the blog for details.

Last night saw my first foray into live Skype trading and I swiftly followed it up this morning and afternoon with a second and third test session. Unfortunately, I was unable to trade the first few WTA Championship matches as planned originally, due to personal commitments, so I apologise once again to those traders I had to cancel who couldn't make the ATP sessions which I scheduled instead.

I would like to thank all those who took part and for the feedback you gave me, which has really helped me decide on what my next move will be. As you can see from the screenshots below, the ATP sessions turned out to be profitable and I'm sure everyone will be very happy with the results if they did as I did. Being test sessions, I did not want to use my usual stake sizes in case there were any technical (or mental!) issues. I did feel that there were too many people in the first session and I found it difficult to answer all questions and stay focused enough. I think this will work better with less people in the session and so invited only a very small number (less than 5) to the second and third free sessions. I also feel that this will allow a more personal service and will put less strain on my computer and avoid any future issues with slow-down.

Kukushkin v Wawrinka (all-green on both players)

What you see in the screenshots is exactly what you'll see in one of my Sultan Skype Sessions, although I have hidden the full conversation in the Skype screen to protect trader's identities and also hidden where it shows the trades I did on Geeks Toy for obvious reasons!

After the first two sessions, I was still undecided on whether to go ahead with this new venture. Trading with lower stake sizes will potentially lose me money (as it did in both the first two sessions), so I must be able to do this with my usual stakes. The problem could be that trading with my usual liabilities might affect me mentally. I've never traded in front of other people before, so this is a new experience for me. I have to admit, I found each session very nerve-wracking, to an extent that I haven't felt for years. Having to think about other traders, multi-task and talk throughout the session, was not easy and potentially could have a detrimental effect on my trading. The first session was also very draining (lasted far longer than the others) and I was losing my voice towards the end!

Andujar v Berdych (Andujar won, netting me the £475 you see on-screen)

The third session session felt far more comfortable than the other two, despite the fact I was using my usual stakes. A combination of less traders and a better idea of how everything was going to pan out, meant that I actually enjoyed this session far more. I did trade with my usual stakes here and the big worry was that this would affect me mentally but I think the fact it was a small group and I had less to concentrate on other than my own trading, made it no issue. Even though it ended up a loss, it was a very small one (I would class it as a scratch trade for the kind of liabilities I use) and it was a good experience for me to show traders how to manage things when trades don't work out.

Bouchard v Ivanovic (a relatively small loss)

I've decided to go ahead with the paid service very soon. From a personal standpoint, I think this will add a bit more focus to my trading for one day a week and also give me some much desired interaction with other traders. So it should be really beneficial to me, as well as giving some added variety to my week. Once more, I would like to thank everyone who took part in these sessions, your feedback was much appreciated. Keep an eye on the blog for details of the new Sultan Skype Sessions or check out the Sultan Tennis Trading Guide to find out before they begin, exactly what I do.

One of the things I've written about lots of times on the blog is that my biggest trading issue is a struggle to remain 100% focused. I don't think most people actually believe me when I say this. If I'm doing so well, how can my focus be that bad? It appears contradictory but I can tell you with absolute certainty that I would be doing even better if I could control my often appalling lack of focus! If I told you about some of the things I've done purely because of my complete inability to focus on the match I'm trading, I'm sure you would be shocked. I've done some unforgivably slack things when I've had thousands of pounds on the line, purely because I've been so desperate for mental stimulation that doesn't involve flashing numbers and yellow balls. These include preparing dinner, chatting on Twitter, reading online articles, buying stuff on Ebay, replying to emails, getting dressed for a night out, watching TV and many other things when I should be watching the ladders.

This isn't something I've always struggled with. Back in the early years of this blog, I had no problem whatsoever keeping focused. Just look at the number of posts I made in the first 2 years. I was totally immersed in trading. When I wasn't trading I was blogging about trading, when I wasn't blogging, I was reading other blogs, when I wasn't reading blogs, I was reading trading books, when I wasn't reading books, I was reading my own trading notes and when I wasn't reading notes, I was on Betfair trying to come up with new strategies. There was always something for me to do and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge because I was always learning something new. When I went to bed at night, I often dreamed about trading and when I woke in the morning, I was always raring to get into the action and was excited about when the first match was starting.

But the more successful I became, the more this changed. It was almost a direct correlation: the more profit I made, the more unfocused I became. Successful traders will always tell you that they are constantly learning but you will never learn as much as you did in those formative years when you struggled to make money. Also, the motivation naturally drops. Trading becomes monotonous and more boring, as you essentially just repeat the same things over and over once you have found what works. This makes it much harder to enjoy what you are doing, especially when your personality is one that thrives on variety, new challenges and less routine.

Vitalia Diatchenko

Watching Serena Williams over recent years and this year in particular, I've come to the conclusion that she struggles to find focus in a very similar way. Those who don't watch her regularly might be surprised by that. Looking purely at the stats, she has a phenomenal record which suggests the last thing she has a problem with is focus or concentration but having watched her week in, week out, first round to final for a number of years now, I can tell you that Williams is extremely vulnerable in the early rounds of tournaments and regularly struggles to find her game in the early stages of matches. Just look at the WTA Finals this week. She should have been knocked out in the round robin phase after being bageled by Simona Halep and ironically, only reached the semi final because Halep took a set off Ana Ivanovic in what was a dead rubber for the Romanian (a naive move on her part because it came back to bite her in the final when Serena got revenge). Once in the final, there was never any doubt that the experienced and vengeful Williams was going to be at her best and I backed the world number one to win the tournament as soon as Halep won that set against Ivanovic, sealing her qualification (and I haven't placed a straight bet in years, that's how confident I was!).

I believe this is mostly a question of a lack of focus. I think she finds it harder to get fully motivated and revved up for some matches these days and you can see the frustration this gives her, manifest itself in some frankly frightening outbursts! Her body language often suggests a complete bemusement with why she can't seem to find her game and this is always followed by primeval roars once she eventually does, letting out all that frustration. I can tell you that I do exactly the same when I trade! There are days when no matter how hard I try, I just cannot find the discipline required to focus on the tennis. I will do any minor chore that requires doing (polishing, hoovering, washing-up) with much gusto, yet cannot muster the same enthusiasm for trading. I will literally start daydreaming or even nodding off during matches, yet as soon as I have something vaguely interesting to do (such as check my email, read through my Twitter timeline or help one of my Academy members) I'm wide awake!

This was in fact the principle reason that I began the Academy in the first place. I was struggling so much to find regular focus, that I needed something to give my days more variety and purpose. It has definitely worked, although it did bring up a new problem, which was that the Academy became TOO distracting! In the same way that being on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and the Internet were such a distraction that I needed to ban them whilst trading, I would spend so much time helping out members that I was doing it mid-trade, as a consequence ruining many a session on the ladders. These days, I have managed to strike a better balance on when to trade and when to add some variety but it's still a daily battle. This is one of the reasons why I've decided to do the Sultan Skype Sessions. They will add at least one day a week of extra challenge and variety and I'm looking forward to getting started. The first paid session is scheduled for next week and you can read full details by clicking above.

Like Serena Williams, once I do have full focus, I always do well. When she's 100% dialed in, there's no player in the world who is going to beat her. Once I am fully concentrated I don't make errors and so I inevitably tend to have better results. But like the world number one, it is simply not possible to be 100% focused, 100% of the time. I understand this and so have action plans in place for when I am not quite there mentally. These range from not trading at all for the day, to taking time-outs to do something mentally stimulating, to 20 minute power-naps - a relatively new revelation in my trading routine! I also warm up for 20-30 mins before each session - a combination of stretching, music and clearing the mind so I'm mentally on it. So as you can see, there are still things I struggle with and still things I have to work very hard on to maintain my consistency and profitability. Lack of focus remains the biggest issue for me - though it's a much nicer issue to have than throwing down my entire bank on one angry chase bet!

10 minutes - I thought that was pretty quick for coming up with that title! I'm probably more impressed with that than I am with what it actually refers to! Friday was my first official Sultan Skype Session and what a way to get things started. A marathon session of almost 11 hours, starting with a great win on the Berdych-Anderson match and ending with the result of the day, an enormous profit on the final match as Kei Nishikori came through against David Ferrer in Paris after a 2 and three quarter hour thriller. Every trader managed to tough it out for the full session and I'm sure they are all very glad they did because not only was the Nishikori win the highlight, it was one of my biggest ever wins. I managed to do a quick screen-recording of the end of the session, which you can see below. There were also a couple of losses during the day but these were engulfed by the moolah from the final match, which ended at close to midnight. All-in-all, a very satisfactory first session, which covered most bases and one I thoroughly enjoyed - a big thank you to all who participated.

After that, I'll be taking a well earned rest for a week, as the tennis world takes a break till next weekend before rounding off a fine season with the ATP World Tour Finals from London. I've yet to decide on when my next Skype Session will be. Keep an eye on the blog for details if interested but be warned: the first session sold out within 2 days of me advertising it. So you may need to be quick off the mark, especially as this could be my last session of the year. You do not need to have my Trading Guide to book on but it will help. I'm currently toying with Sunday 9th November, as this will enable me to cover the first two ATP Finals matches and also day 2 of the Federation Cup Final between Germany and the Czech Republic. The only problem is, that's a Sunday and it's highly likely to displease the (soon-to-be) wife! I'll let you know how that conversation goes but I'm hoping the promise that this will be the final week of tennis trading for 2014 and following it will be several weeks of fun-in-the-sun holidaying action (paid for by me, most likely) will allow me to get away with visiting the (soon-to-be) in-laws and spend one final Sunday on the ladders. It won't be the final Sunday on the ladders of course, because the final of the ATP World Tour Finals is the following Sunday. Plus the Davis Cup Final the Sunday after. But she doesn't need to know that..............

Commentary by Robbie Koenig!

Seeing as it's a relatively short post (for me) today, I thought I'd add in a couple of interesting things I picked up on Twitter. Firstly, it seems as though traders of women's tennis are going to be in for a treat in a couple of years time. The WTA is putting together an in-house television deal that would ensure all WTA-level singles matches could be broadcast by 2017. The WTA's current distribution partner, Perform, produced about 700 in 2014, or roughly a third of all matches. That means we are likely to be able to watch over 2000 WTA matches in 2 years time! On paper, that sounds like it can only be a good thing for traders. Having access to a live stream is always an advantage, though it won't make any difference to me as I'll be long finished as a trader by then. It's welcome news for anyone looking to get into tennis trading though. The only issue might be that liquidity becomes a little sparser as the money is spread over a wider selection of in-play matches, though this would only be an issue in earlier rounds and only if Betfair put all the televised matches in-play.

Finally, a quick congratulations to @hotdog6969, better known as Jimmy Soixante Neuf, for this week acheiving what all of us tennis nerds dream of; a shout-out from legendary commentator Robbie Koenig live on air! Not just for being the first to answer the quick-quiz question correctly but also for having one of the best Twitter handles and completing the tri-fector (as Koenig himself would say) by being singled out as one of the world's biggest tennis geeks. As the man himself said (actually I think it was co-commentator Nick Lester but still) "No one watches more tennis than Jimmy Soixante Neuf". And they are right. Jimmy was the first person to give me the link to access the old TennisMatchStat website (orig.matchstat.com), which is infinitely better than the "new and improved" version - a slow, cluttered and inferior tennis stat site. For that, I salute him, as I was very upset for about an hour!

For those who don't watch tennis, getting this sort of recognition from Robbie Koenig is the equivalent of, I don't know, Gary Lineker reading out your Tweet on Match of the Day whilst Alan Hansen compliments you on your footballing knowledge. Only better, because Koenig is far more entertaining than Lineker and far more likeable than Hansen. I recently had the following message re-tweeted by Robbie during a live match and that was enough to make my day!

"Lost all interest in this Simon match now, utterly consumed by Dan Bilzerian.com.....thanks @RobKoenigTennis"

For those who don't know, Dan Bilzerian is an American poker player who Mr.Koenig mentioned when comparing his beard to that of Feliciano Lopez. He then went on to provide viewers with his website address and let's just say, my eyes were opened wide.............very wide! On the one hand, this man's life is one big cocaine and strippers phase and part of me envies that. But on the other hand, Bilzerian comes across (particularly in interviews) like a complete frat-boy tosser, sticking photos of his money, disturbing obsession with guns and his name written on women's butt cheeks, up on Instagram. The comments from other blokes on his photos, most of whom idolise him, are hilarious. My biggest question is, where on earth do these girls come from? Are they paid to just hang around? Do they have jobs? What must their parents think? Decide for yourself!

www.danbilzerian.com

Yesterday was my second Sultan Skype Session and I took the liberty of once again recording the end of the most successful trade of the day. Not as big as last week's profit but still an excellent ROI for anyone who followed my actions in the market and a good day's profit overall.

In the interest of balance, I've also included a quick clip below of the Nishikori-Murray match, which ended a loss, albeit a very small one. The interesting thing about this trade was that a couple of the traders in the session actually made a good profit from it. That's because they decided to bail out earlier (some might say "bottled it"!!) for a win, whereas I decided to hang in there and go for a much bigger green. It didn't come off this time but if it had, you'd have been looking at a profit to match the one from my previous Sultan Skype Session. In the end, the extra risk I took meant I had to settle for a relatively small red as I tried to scratch the trade but overall, my "lucky" streak on these Skype Sessions continues, as they have produced some of my best days trading in recent weeks.

Unfortunately, that is likely to be the last session I do this year and possibly till February, though I may decide to do a session or two during the Australian Open if I feel I can sufficiently stay wide awake to be focused for a full session! Usually I'm fine by the time this slam starts as I've gotten used to the time difference for 2 weeks prior. However, I like to go to bed as early as possible and sometimes finish early if I've got good profit, something I can't do if I'm holding a full session. So I'm as yet unsure about doing any sessions during the Australian swing.

As the tennis draws into its final 2 weeks, my thoughts start to turn towards a welcome break, holidays, reflections of 2014 and plans for 2015. As it is almost certain to be my final year of tennis trading (final 6 months of tennis trading in fact) I have decided to make sure I continue blogging as much as I can. There will be updates on how I'm doing personally in my quest to hit the super premium charge. I also hope to have updates on my weekly Sultan Skype Sessions.

Federation Cup Final

ATP World Tour Finals

For the next season, starting January 2015, the price of my Tennis Trading Guide will be increasing. So if you want to get hold of it at its cheapest price, you've only got a few weeks left. I also don't plan on selling it once I've finished trading as I will not be able to do the admin required for the guide whilst I'm away travelling. So if you are at all interested in getting my guide, the clock is ticking - it won't be around forever!

The great news about this season, is that it is the first one where there will actually be some tennis to trade in early December. So buying a guide in the off-season is no longer a pointless exercise, as you will be able to practice on the inaugural International Premier Tennis League up till December 13th before the new season begins on January 1st. There's still the rest of the ATP Finals this week, next weekend's Davis Cup Final (which promises some cracking best of 5 set matches involving Federer and Wawrinka against the French talent of Tsonga, Monfils, Simon or Gasquet) plus a full week of Challenger Tour events including the annual Challenger Tour Finals. I've kept my eye on the Challenger events lately and the liquidity for these lower tier tournaments has been excellent since the WTA and ATP main tours wound down. They are definitely worth a look now, something which I've not been able to say in the past, so effectively, we are getting an extra couple of weeks with a full programme of tennis to trade. So still plenty for us traders to get our teeth into.

Enjoy the ATP World Tour Finals this week and make sure you get down to watch it live if you can. Next year is almost certain to be the last year it's held in London and it might be the best chance you ever get to see the event if you live in the UK.

And so the tennis season finally comes to a close with a new world record crowd for an official tennis match (27,432) in Lille for an exciting Davis Cup Final. This in some respects made up for the previous week in London. My sincerest apologies to anyone who bought an ATP World Tour Finals ticket off the back of my recommendation! What the hell was all that about?! A disaster of a tournament with a host of completely one-sided matches, meant semi finals day was the only one truly worth buying a ticket for. And if you got a ticket for the final, well, I feel sorry for you! The men were roundly criticised but not even close to what we'd have seen if the WTA Finals (which were fantastic entertainment) had been that bad. I can guarantee you Twitter would have been in meltdown from all the negative comments and sexism. But as Alex MacPherson tweeted:

"If nothing else, this tournament will be useful to wave in the faces of anyone who starts whinging about equal pay."

I'll be back in January ready to begin my final 6 months of sports trading. It's been an incredible year for me - the year when I feel as though I finally reached the level that I was trying to attain. When I began learning to trade, I always wanted it to become my sole source of income but I never wanted riches; just an amount equal to what I was earning in my "normal" job. But that goal changed when I started to have greater belief in what I could achieve. Seeing the amounts that certain other well-known traders were making, made me think that I was being too modest aiming for a standard wage. As I improved, I could see the potential was there for me to scale up to far bigger amounts than I'd previously imagined and over the last 18 months, I have been hitting those amounts - and in 2015, I aim to go even higher.

Whether I hit the super premium charge or not doesn't particularly bother me. The sadistic part of me would love nothing more than to stop trading a penny before the charge kicks in, so Betfair don't get their grubby mitts on any more than 20%. In fact, as I write this it is suddenly dawning on me - that would be the perfect way to bow out from trading! So my aim for 2015 is this: to stop trading just before the super premium charge is about to be taken. OK, it's kind of cutting off my nose to spite my face but the fact is, it's probably going to be a close call as to whether I hit the charge before I go away travelling anyway. But I actually exceeded my projections for 2014, so who knows. There is a possibility I might finish trading as soon as May or April.

Jovana Jaksic

That's the thing about trading. You can plan all you like but you never know what the markets have in store for you and you never know just what life has in store for you. If you'd told me last January that I would be getting married at the end of the year, I would have laughed in your face - I didn't even have a girlfriend back then! But in December, that is exactly what will be happening. So whilst I will be aiming to go full steam ahead with my trading till July, I have a lot more on my plate in 2015 than I did in 2014; 6 months of backpacking to organise, a move to a new house with my new wife and most importantly (and scarily!) a new career to plan for! So I will have very little time to spare and maybe that will mean I can't trade as much as in previous years, but that's just how I like it. When I go back a couple of years and think about how my life was utterly consumed by trading and trading alone and how that almost sent me insane, this kind of all-consuming life is far superior; busy for the right reasons. It's what I have worked so hard for and what I'll continue to work hard to maintain in 2015.

Some traders have asked me why I would want to give up the life I have as a trader and the income stream it generates. The answer is simple - there are more important things in life than money and those things motivate me far more than the green stuff. I guess that's much easier to say when you have it already. However, when the main focus of your day is trying your hardest to stay focused, then surely something is not right. I need to make that change for my own personal fulfillment. I can also see now that even trading part-time would be a struggle. When I finish for the day in whatever new career I've chosen, why would I want to then spend my precious free time staring at a screen, trying to stay focused, when I could be enjoying time with my wife and getting on with the life I'd worked so hard to build? Which is exactly what I'm going to do for the next few weeks.

Enjoy the Christmas period, don't forget to check in on the International Premier Tennis League which starts in a few days and I'll leave you with my favourite moment from the 2014 tennis season; Victoria Azarenka making a complete tit of herself as she sings Happy Birthday to "best friend" Gael Monfils. The best thing about it is not the hilariously bad singing but the desperation which seeps from her every pore as she literally begs the crowd to join in. A cringeworthy and transparent attempt to try and gain some of the popularity she lacks compared to other top players. Enjoy!

This is what I've been saying inside my head for the past few days. Outwardly, it's a different story. I've shown nothing but pure joy and happiness. Which is exactly how I feel, for the most part. But there is definitely a side of me (a side that I'm keeping under wraps to everyone apart from you honoured readers of this blog), that has gone all Clay Davis.

"What Goose?""The one that lays them golden eggs!" (Trader Clay Davis)

The reason? I'm going to be a father. My hands are getting clammy as I type the words out. FATHER! ME! It doesn't seem real but it's true. I wrote a few months ago about proposing to my girlfriend and how my future would be highly likely to turn me into a family man but I guess I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon! I am delighted of course. I've mentioned before how I had been having paternal feelings in recent times and I do want kids. But this now makes what I am doing in terms of ending my trading career, an even bigger decision. Whilst trading has given me enough money to provide for a family for years to come, it won't last forever. I knew that before and am already investing my winnings in projects away from trading, as well as working towards a new career. But knowing that I have an extra mouth to feed, an extra life that is dependent on me, means that I can no longer make financial decisions (or any decision) based purely on what I want.

I want to finish trading. I'd already made my mind up on that. But it was a decision made purely because I want a change, for my own personal satisfaction. In financial terms, I now have to consider whether that is the right move for my family. With some talk that the global economy might be set for a second potential crash, trading might well be the best option for me. This is something I'm going to have to think over for a while. There is the option of trading part-time, bringing in two wages but I get the feeling that is easier said than done. Does it leave enough time to actually see my child as he/she grows up? My priorities have suddenly changed instantaneously, over-night. I can say bye-bye to my 6 months of backpacking around the Americas, for starters! I'll be at home changing nappies (SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!) and cleaning up vomit instead of climbing Machu Pichu and drinking Pisco Sours!

Funny though, when I was told that I was going to be a Dad, one of the first things that ran through my mind was "I have to make sure my child grows up to support Nottingham Forest!". I don't know if that's something other fans of sports teams think but it was right there at the forefront of my mind literally minutes after my girlfriend told me she was pregnant. Boy or girl, there is no way I will accept them supporting any other side. Pity we are making such a hash of getting back into the Premier League - I was practically in nappies the last time Forest were there (OK that's not even remotely close to being true but it sure feels like it!). Even when we were top of the league and unbeaten a couple of months ago, I said that we had been fortunate in several games, had a relatively easy start and were just riding on the wave of optimism of one of our greatest ever players becoming the manager - I knew it wouldn't last. If we were in amongst the Chelseas and Manchester Citys, it would certainly help to stop my kid latching onto them as impressionable, young, glory-hunters do. Anyway, I digress. Where was I. Ah yes, fatherhood. Probably means I'll have to grow up and stop posting pictures like this one now..........

Bouchard to the left, SIR!!

So it looks like I might well be on the ladders for a while longer - maybe even indefinitely. In a recent post I said "You never know just what life has in store for you" - how prophetic. 2015 is now set to be an even more tumultuous year for me. Another thing I've also started to think is, would I want my son/daughter to one day learn about sports trading? When you think about it, there is a generation of Betfair traders now who will have kids that will one day be old enough to trade. If they were successful traders, teaching them the skills to be a good trader could be very useful. Not only so they have the tools to make money independently at any time but also the life skills that can be learnt, such as money management, patience, planning, discipline, research, maths, buying and selling etc. But then there is the worry that they might fall into the same traps that many traders do and end up in trouble. And as I've written about a lot over the past few months, it's not the most fulfilling, varied or exciting way of making money in the world - not to mention the stress!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I've got 18 years till I have to worry about that! In all honesty, even if betting exchanges were still around in 18 years, I seriously doubt I would still be involved. But a couple more years could bring in the kind of money that can pay school, university, mortgage, medical fees and keep a family comfortable for a long time. Yet there is also that added pressure of making money with other people in mind and if there is one thing that you don't need as a trader, it's pressure. It might actually now be more imperative that I stop trading and find a stable career, with a guaranteed income. Would that be the more responsible thing to do? Or would the really responsible thing be to try and maintain the status-quo? I've got a lot of thinking to do because there's going to be a mini Sultan crawling around by this time next year - I can barely get my head around it! Happy Christmas everyone!

Happy New Year!! The tennis season officially begins next week but there's already tennis available to trade, courtesy of the Mubadala Exhibition which starts today with Andy Murray kicking things off. It's a time of New Year's Resolutions of course and for many of you that will no doubt involve some trading goals. Mine are simple this year: to (almost) hit the Super Premium Charge. After that, I really am not sure what I will do. Since my last post, I have gained a ball, some chain, an oven and a bun! My whole world has been turned upside down, so any previous life goals I had, have needed to be re-assessed. Nothing is black and white for me anymore.

This time last year, I knew what my immediate future held. I was a single guy with no responsibilities. I had enough disposable income to do pretty much what I wanted to within reason, no one to answer to, no debt and a plan to just keep doing what I was doing. Now, I have a mortgage, other people to think about, fiscal responsibilities, a joint bank account, DIY to perform (though I'll probably pay someone else to do it!), in-laws to placate and a whole raft of future plans that need to be set in motion.

Reading all that back, I know it may seem as though I'd like my old life back but I can assure you, nothing is further from the truth. I would rather be there for the birth of my first child than backpacking across Peru - there's no contest! My single days are done and I'm happier than I've ever been in my entire life. Much of that is down to the success I've had with trading. Without the money I have from trading, I would never have been able to afford to get married or to have supported a family. But now I have to weigh up what the best move is going to be for me as well as my family - and that's a huge weight on my shoulders, I don't mind admitting.

I can't tell you the amount of respect I have for people who trade for a living who have a family too. I always knew I was lucky getting into trading whilst I was still single and had no responsibilities but now I truly understand the added pressures involved. My advice for you singletons out there is this: start learning how to trade NOW - don't leave it till you have REAL responsibilities!

Paula Kania

I have to say that one thing I will not miss if I retire from trading is the Australian swing. Four weeks on Antipodean time means two weeks struggling to stay awake from midnight through to around 8am (sometimes longer) and another two weeks after the swing struggling to get my body-clock back on European time. But for those two weeks in the middle, encompassing the Australian Open itself, I actually find them a very enjoyable experience. It's probably my favourite Grand Slam, despite being the most low-profile of the 4. This is because it never gets rained off like the other 3 (2 of which don't even have roofs on any court), the crowds are the most vocal, colourful and "footballesque" by a long way, with most nationalities represented and the tennis itself I find tends to be of a higher quality because it's at the start of the season and players tend to be fitter and more eager. Also, it's the Slam that history shows tends to throw up more surprise finalists and semi-finalists than any other. So it really is well worth trading despite the obvious inconvenience of the time difference. I also find working in the peaceful calm of the early morning, very therapeutic.

I'm always quite surprised at how strong liquidity is even around the 4-5am mark, when you might think it would tail off dramatically. I'm always well acclimatised to those hours after two weeks of trading Australian tournaments, so this also helps to make the tournament enjoyable. That is the biggest advice I can give if you want to trade the first slam of the year: try to stay awake till the very early hours for at least a couple of days before the tournament starts, so your body gets used to it. If you dive in and try to trade past your usual bed-time on day one, you will struggle for the first few days and the worst thing you can do is trade when tired - never, ever fails to destroy your decision making skills and in turn, your bank!

From Wikipedia:

"Last Chance Saloon was a popular name of a type of bar in the United States that began to appear in the 19th century as an early expression of border economics. Saloons situated near areas where alcohol was not easily obtainable frequently took the name as a literal indication to customers that this was their final opportunity to imbibe before progressing to an area where obtaining, selling or drinking alcoholic drinks was prohibited. The phrase "last chance saloon" also has common British metaphorical use, based upon this historical context."

I always wondered where that phrase came from. In this case, the metaphorical use refers to the Sultan Tennis Trading Guide, which will only be available at the current low price up to the end of the Australian Open on February 1st. After this date, the price will increase by 25%, so if you are looking to start your tennis trading journey or have a New Year's Resolution to get stuck into tennis trading in 2015, getting the guide this month will save you a substantial amount.

Good luck with your Antipodean trading and I'll see you bleary eyed on the other side in a few weeks. I'll leave you with a great tennis joke I heard recently (even though it's 18 months old) from one of my favourite stand up comedians, Scotland's Kevin Bridges. It's right at the end of the video, from 6:13 (begin from 5.11 for a football joke too!). Start the year as you mean to go on - with a laugh!

Happy Birthday to me! It's 4 years to the month since Centre Court Trading began, so I'm treating myself to (extra) Ben and Jerry's today. I've not posted for a while. With a pregnant wife (who I'm praying won't start doing something weird like dipping gherkins into my precious icecream), house move about to take place and planning for a potential career change, I have had pretty much zero time for anything which doesn't involve my family. I'm still trading and still keeping an eye on all things in the trading and tennis world - I'm just more of a lurker these days.

Unfortunately, my Skype Sessions have had to take a back seat, as I've been working the graveyard shift on the Australian swing which ends today with the Australian Open final (which I feel Murray is under-priced, as he could definitely win today. If Djokovic plays as he did against Wawrinka in the semi, I'm 100% certain Murray WILL win!). They may well return again but if you are waiting for the next session, I'm unsure when it will be as I'm very short of time to plan them. My Trading Guide does contain live recorded trading sessions if you're interested, so that might be a good alternative. Today was to be the final day that you can buy it at the current price but as it's the blog's birthday, I'm feeling generous and have decided to extend that by a few more days. So you now have until February 4th (the exact birthday of Centre Court Trading) till the price is increased.

As this is an unusually quick post from me, I thought I'd show you something that couldn't be more apt for my trading journey, over the past 4 years in-particular (Thanks to Mark Iverson for tweeting this originally, have been waiting for the right time to use it!):

Plus probably my favourite tennis-related YouTube clip of all time (call it my gift to you for reading over the last 4 years!): Indian Wells tournament owner Larry Ellison left completely dumbfounded by the whooping Andy Murray is getting at his own tournament (and as one of the world's richest men, it must take something special to dumbfound him like this!)

I finally managed to find a relatively quiet day to write a blog post! It's the calm before the storm this week, with just a couple of lower tier WTA events taking place, so I've got a bit of time to reflect before the two biggest events outside of the Grand Slams (Indian Wells and Miami) begin. They are followed by the start of the clay court season and a run up to Roland Garros, swiftly followed by a newly extended grass-court swing (as new ATP and WTA events come to my home town of Nottingham, woo-hoo!), just before Wimbledon. So I'm very excited about the next few months of trading as this is the meat of the tennis calendar but also still possibly the last trading I will ever do. I'm still mulling over my options and one of them includes what will be for me, a second look at financial trading.

I did take my first baby steps onto the financial markets a couple of years ago. I'm sure like most sports traders, it's just a natural curiosity to see whether we can apply what we've learnt on the betting exchanges, to the limitless pot of money sloshing around there. At the time, I wasn't yet successful as a sports trader and so didn't really have enough of the fully-formed trading skills which I have now; the ability to remain focused for long periods, discipline, patience, money management etc. Now that I am strong in those departments, I have started to wonder if maybe I could give it another shot.

My main issue back then, was that I found it all a bit dull. It was a bit too "suit n tie" for my liking, especially when compared to the fun and drama of tennis. But there is plenty to choose from in terms of markets you can specialise in and I felt that perhaps I just needed to delve deeper and find something that genuinely interested me. In recent years, I have found myself becoming much more interested in politics and whilst I rarely paid any attention to the news when I was younger, these days I am an avid watcher of 24 hour news channels and find it fascinating to catch up regularly on world news developments. This includes financial, political and business news and I've started to see more the links between them and how that could be used to make the required analysis to trade the markets. A video I posted a link to a few months back "Million Dollar Traders" also piqued my interest and made me think that perhaps I could be successful in this area.

Caroline Wozniacki

Currency pairings on the FOREX markets are something I'm finding particularly interesting. It has the added advantage of being a popular, highly liquid market which can be traded at all hours, with very few obstacles to entry - and of course, no one is going to greedily snaffle 50% of your earnings! It's also a new challenge and that is something I sorely miss with my tennis trading. That excitement of starting a new day and learning something new; the optimism that you feel at the start of a new adventure. That is something I would love to feel again.

I do have other irons in the fire, the potential to move away from trading, but nothing at the moment which allows me the freedom that trading does. So foreign exchange trading is a very tempting proposition right now. It actually could be quite interesting, to see just how easy it is to translate sports trading skills into the financial markets and who knows, maybe something that would be good to blog about. I'll be looking into it this week, before the tennis hurricane hits!

I just want to finish with some news about my Tennis Trading Guide. When I first put it on sale 6 months ago, I always had in mind an amount that I was willing to sell. It was always my intention to stop selling as soon as this figure was hit and I am now approaching that figure. I never planned to sell large amounts, just a small number to a select few so that it has some exclusivity and value as a product and that is something I still feel strongly about. So I will allow only 10 more people to buy access to the guide. Once those 10 are gone, I will take it off sale. You can check to see how many are remaining by clicking on the "Sultan Tennis Trading Guide" tab. I will update the message on there every time a sale is made, so you will see the amount left. Last chance to jump on board folks!

Australians Couldn't Give a FOREX

Today marks the 3rd birthday of Centre Court Trading. It's been 3 years of massive highs and terrifying lows; arguments, debate, insults, compliments, hard knocks and a hell of a lot of fun too. When I use the line "It's been emotional" - I really mean it! So I've come to the conclusion that this is the perfect moment to end my blogging. I know it's not the first time I've said this but I'm certain this time! I had planned to continue through 2014. I felt I might still have a bit left to contribute because my tennis trading academy had given me a new lease of life in terms of material to blog about. But recent events have finalised in my mind that the online trading world is a place I no longer wish to be part of.

I don't have a betting background so for me, trading has only ever been about one thing - making money. Some traders see this as a hobby, a fun pastime that they would participate in regardless of how successful they are at it. Not me. To me, it's always been a job, a means to an end, with that end goal being to have more freedom, both financially and socially. When I finish trading, I don't want to talk about betting, be around a computer screen or think about trading. I want to be spending my winnings and being more social - real world social! Writing this blog therefore, is just more time being part of something I am trying to spend less time being part of.

I feel that the whole trading blogosphere is in a rut and has been for a while. When I think back to when I started, the first 1-2 years, sports trading blogs were thriving. There was a buzz about trading and far more blogs about. True, there were a whole lot more really poor quality "P&L" blogs but there was also far more decent ones around that enabled some genuinely interesting debate and a real sense of community. That is pretty much dead now. Almost all the blogs I used to read avidly have stopped or barely post anything of interest. I can't remember the last time a new, interesting, well-written blog started up. A couple of decent ones but none that have fascinated me. When you don't have that vibrant community to feed off, it's harder to come up with ideas for blog posts.

But I've had a good run - 3 years is far longer than your average blog lasts and a total of 321 posts during that time and over 320,000 hits is more than I ever expected. Considering I was almost gone after the first month, with my bank close to busting and my head a complete wreck, that's quite an achievement! When I began Centre Court Trading, it was for 3 reasons: to record my mistakes and develop as a trader, to give me a creative outlet that I would find fun and if I'm perfectly honest, to show that I'm a bloody good trader (even though I obviously wasn't when I started!). I think I've proved to myself that I'm a good trader and to my readers that it is possible to improve from a consistent loser into a consistent winner. So the only reason now that I would keep the blog running, is as a creative outlet. Unfortunately, I am no longer really finding it fun.

Caroline Wozniacki

I would like to thank everyone who has followed the blog over the past 3 years and especially those who have posted comments, given me advice and boosted my confidence when I was down. It's easy to forget just how low I was during that first year and how I nearly gave up on several occasions. Quite often, it was reader's comments that helped to pick me back up and even set me on the right path. I'd also like to thank those traders who took the time to tell me how much they enjoyed Centre Court Trading. Those messages really meant a lot to me and I always had them in mind when writing my posts because I always wanted the content to be of a high quality to keep those people satisfied.

Finally, I want to end with one message to any traders out there who are struggling to make this pay - stick at it! You can choose to go with the negativity shown by the many pessimists in this game or you can choose to be positive and strive to become one of the 5%. If I can do it successfully (a guy who began this journey with little knowledge or interest in maths, stats, money management, betting or tennis, plus zero patience and mental discipline) then anyone can. There's a lot of bitter, cynical people out there, especially in the gambling industry. They are easy to spot; the ones quick to snipe on Twitter, make nasty comments on blogs and forums or blame anyone but themselves for failure. Just remember that they are nearly always the ones who are struggling.

I have mentioned before that reading other blogs from start to finish was a real inspiration and I got a lot of information doing so. I hope that Centre Court Trading will also provide that same value for aspiring traders.
Feel free to get in touch with me via my email or Twitter if you have any questions about any aspect of my blog. I'll still be around for a good while yet on the ladders but my exploits will remain private or for the ears of academy members only.

Good luck with your trading and from The Sultan, this is game, set and match.

This seems to be what most people are thinking this past couple of days. You can say that these are strange times in which we are living but in my opinion, there has never been anything but strange times! The whole world has been messed up for a very long time, certainly since humans have had the ability to record history, going back 5,000 years and who knows beyond that. It would be nice to think there was a time when the human race lived in complete utopia (and some believe there was) but to think that this was any time in living memory or in recorded history, is a total fallacy.

Trump was elected with the slogan "Let's Make America Great Again" but when exactly was America great? Certainly not for the first 100 years, as no nation that allows slavery can be considered "great". The African-American Civil Rights movement didn't bring equal rights to all citizens until the late 1960s. So when was America truly great? The 1970s, when they destroyed Vietnam? Perhaps the 1980s when de-industrialisation took hold that was to eventually become probably the deciding factor (with the white working class in key swing "rust-belt" states demanding change) in Trump's "shocking" victory? It certainly is too recent to be the 2000s, though further destruction of Middle Eastern nations beginning in this period would make that a moot point anyway. And with mass shootings and police brutality and murder highlighted every passing month, it sure as hell ain't great now. But Trump would agree on that.

The United States has never been truly great. Only in theory and ideals. Even its claim to be the leading example of a democracy can only really be laughed at when you consider that more people voted for Hillary Clinton (winning the "popular vote") than the racist, homophobic, misogynist - yet here we are, with a man who once bragged about grabbing women by the "pussy" and who thinks it's fine to ban an entire sub-section of society from entering a country, as leader of the "free" world.
This is courtesy of an archaic electoral college voting system that makes absolutely no sense in the modern day. Even the phrase "the popular vote" is farcical. What does it even mean? Surely the whole point of true democracy is that the most popular vote should be taken as the true representation of what the nation wants? As it was with Brexit. Yet isn't with the UK's own ridiculous election system!

Not that I don't get why people voted for Trump. Of course, Trump's rhetoric will have attracted all the racist, homophobic, xenophobic scum, of that there's no doubt. But they didn't swing this election. It was that white working-class from the rust-belt that were decisive in the key swing states turning red when they had been blue for decades. When you have been neglected for decades and feel as though you have nothing to lose by going for something radical, why wouldn't you go for something that promised to shake up the status quo?

Clinton wouldn't have been my choice as leader, far from it. It's pretty obvious she's a very shady character and in my opinion, The Democrats lost this election as much as Trump won it. If I was an American citizen (and thank god I'm not after all this!) I would have wanted Bernie Sanders in the hot seat but that was never going to happen because of the (also undemocratic) delegate voting system within the Democrat nomination process. And Sanders would have appealed to those disenfranchised rust-belt voters far more than Clinton and possibly Trump too. I saw an interview with a young woman who was asked who she was going to vote for. Her response was "I don't like Trump's comments about women but I love guns, so................" that just about says it all about Clinton's popularity! She is part of the problem, not only in the USA but all over Europe and the world: a rich, political elite who couldn't care less about the ordinary folks.

So it may seem as though I've turned into a cynical dooms-merchant in my time away from blogging. No sir, far from it! Quite the opposite. What I've come to realise is that this whole planet needs to take a step back and a deep breathe. We need to come together rather than divide ourselves over what are mostly superficial constructs, such as race, religion, nationality and political affiliation. At the end of the day, the vast majority of us, if not all of us, want the same thing - to be happy. And at its core essence than requires one thing: to love and be loved. Those who realise this, know that the changes required for this to manifest cannot come from a political party, or the economy, or even from the mass protesting we are now seeing from disgruntled Democrat voters. It can only come from within.

Every individual needs to look inside and seriously dissect themselves to find out what the hell they are thinking and doing and why! Real global change will only happen when enough people start to wake up to this fact and wake up to the reality of the world. Me? I've already done that. I used to be one of those angry political types, obsessed with the latest news to the point where it became entertainment to row over the latest disaster. Politics tends to bring out the worst in people in my opinion and those who let it dictate their mood, actions and ability to empathise with anyone of a different viewpoint, are as bad as the most myopic, tribal football fan.

So I refuse to feel downhearted about Trump's presidency. He's in: deal with it. Brexit has been voted for: deal with it. How do I do that? I control the only thing I know that I can definitely control in my favour - my own reaction. My own thoughts. My own actions. So even though I don't particularly like what's happened politically this year, it doesn't bother or affect me because I choose not to let it. It's that simple! Getting angry and fearful or hateful isn't going to change anything and it certainly isn't going to do me any good personally. The only thing to fear, is fear itself. It's a powerful force and once it takes hold, well, you get pretty much all the problems we now face globally.

Ultimately, I have the power to create the life I want, regardless of who makes the political decisions. That's why I chose to work my socks off until I became successful at trading. I made the choice to never give up and to keep trying no matter what obstacles were thrown in my path. Because I had the power within me to make it happen. Just as everyone else who has a broadband connection can do. No excuses. And you can make that same choice when you are actually trading. It's your choice to get angry when the trade turns against you. It's your choice to react negatively when a player doesn't do what you want them to. It's your choice to give up and say it's rigged or impossible to win long term or blame others for your failure.There's only one surefire way to be successful in life as well as trading - to take responsibility for your thoughts and actions, search deep within and react positively. Works every time.

So I wish Trump good luck. I hope he does make America great. Not great again, just great. That means for everyone, not just those of a certain race or background. But it won't happen through pedaling more fear, scapegoating sections of society and stirring up hatred. He's already showing signs of being conciliatory. But it'll take a lot more than that to heal the wounds of division which he is in part responsible for.

Fear is the most destructive force on the planet. Fear creates war: fear of other nations, other governments, other races, other religions. Fear separates and divides humans: fear of something different, fear of the unknown. Fear prevents people from achieving their dreams: fear of failure, fear of not being good enough, fear of moving out of their comfort zone. Fear prevents people from trying new things and taking on new opportunities, being spontaneous: fear of rejection, fear of embarrassment, fear of losing face. Fear prevents people from becoming a good trader: fear of red screens, fear of being wrong, fear of not making enough to satisfy friends (or forumites!), fear of the market. It all boils down to this one emotion. Think what could be achieved without it. You see, most of what people are fearful of is nowhere near as scary in reality. There's nothing to fear but fear itself.

These days, so many people (particularly in the west) live in fear of Muslim extremists. But in reality, how many people have been killed by Muslim extremists outside of the Middle East? Obviously any number is bad but some act as if it's happening every week or month in their country, when it clearly isn't. Some people fear Muslims to such an extent that they would like to see a total ban on them entering their country! In the United States, more American civilians have been killed by gun-toting US nationals on mass killing sprees than by Muslim extremists on the whole planet put together! Many thousands more Muslims have been killed by Islamic extremists than any other group by race, religion or nationality. If anything, it's other Muslims who have most to be fearful of! So why are people in the western world so fearful?

Of course it's only natural to have some fear: these people can strike unexpectedly at any time. But the levels of fear have been ramped up to obscene levels by the media and governments. It's our job to stop and think more rationally about things. The chances of any of us being killed in such an attack are tiny. But what the fear does is more than just make us worry, it makes us behave negatively towards others. Now that's the real issue here: people building up hatred and division, demonising entire sections of society for often tenuous links to a tiny minority of nasty people. This is what is happening to the Muslim community. Yet it's so absurd when you just stop and think about it.

If Muslims were all so evil and wanted to destroy western civilisation, trust me, we'd all be dead by now! There are over 2 billion Muslims. If they really wanted us erased from existence, they could do it easily. People tend to forget about the millions of Muslims living outside of the Middle East. Indonesia, for example, which has the largest Muslim majority population in the world - all living relatively peacefully. When's the last time you heard Indonesia or Indonesians mentioned in regards to Islamic terrorism? India, China, Indonesia and Bangladesh have 4 of the 5 largest Muslim populations in the world, yet of that top 5, most people would only associate the other nation (Pakistan, 3rd largest) with being Islamic or having obvious links with terrorism. None of these countries are even in the Middle East!

But I believe this fear begins from a personal perspective. So many of us are living our lives in fear because we are afraid to go for what we really want. The dream job, the perfect partner, the life-changing trip abroad, the move to another town, the activity or hobby that fulfills us. So many of us are stuck in a rut, often disguised as a "comfort zone", which we want to get out of but fear of losing that relative comfort prevents us from doing so. So we are doomed to a life of mediocrity and regret because we won't take a risk. And pretty much all good things that happen in life, come from taking some sort of risk.

The same can be applied to trading. That fear of taking a risk, which is the only real way to be successful at trading, means that the vast majority will fail. I saw it time and time again with students in my academy. People want to make vast sums of money but aren't willing to invest the necessary time or take on large enough positions or prices, in order for that to happen. Instead, they try to scratch around for pennies, dipping their toe into the market for a matter of seconds before jumping out in fright and expect to be a millionaire in a matter of months. Or they wait to see which way the wind is blowing before jumping onto a steam-train which has already left the station and is about to judder to a halt, too late to earn anything significant. Or they won't put the hours in, thinking a couple of trades a week will give them the experience required. No successful trader ever got there without taking a risk: in deciding to give trading a try, giving up their free time, not giving up till they achieved it and in doing things differently to the majority of the market.

The best traders understand that risk is a necessary evil and that to take on risk, you can't be fearful. In fact, if you take on risk in the correct manner (with a strong risk-reward ratio in your favour and a clear exit strategy) then you have very little to fear in the first place. Nothing at all if you've made the crucial step of trading with money that you can afford to and ACCEPT that you might lose. It's only when you start to see losses as a fearful situation, rather than a necessary and unavoidable part of trading, that traders start to behave irrationally and make errors. It's not the situation that causes the problem - it's the fear that an individual ASSIGNS to the situation. And that is a choice that every individual makes. You choose to assign fear or you can choose to assign something more neutral or even positive to the situation. It's ALWAYS a choice. Just as it's a choice to fear another race or religion or culture or nationality.

Once you understand that the power is totally within you to decide, you will be in an almost unstoppable position. Many people don't understand this though. They believe that external factors (such as someone shouting at them or the market flipping the other way) are responsible for their emotional response. That they have no control over that response because something or someone else was to blame. "They made me angry". But the truth is only YOU can make yourself angry or fearful. Many don't want to be told this truth because it means they can't blame anyone else and they want to have excuses for why they can't do this or that. No one is at fault, the blame game helps no one. But there are no legitimate excuses. If you want to be a successful trader, others out there are already doing it and they are no different than you. If you're not a successful trader, that is your choice (or you're on the way to becoming successful). Hearing that will upset some people but actually, it's the most positive thing you could discover because it means the power to get what you want is entirely in your own hands. It's just how much do you want it?

Two years ago I wrote a post called "Guilty", where I explained how making large sums of money had triggered a guilty conscience within me. I began to ask myself the question "Is it morally OK for me to earn such huge amounts of money, when millions of people across the globe are living in poverty or working long, back-breaking hours whilst often contributing far more to society than I am?". It seemed at the time that I was pretty much answering my own question. There was no way I could justify what I was doing in the context of how valuable it was to society as a whole. I was struggling to find any kind of personal solace from my work as a trader. It bugged me enough to consider giving up trading altogether.

Since then, I've had a complete u-turn on this belief. In fact, I now realise that this was a limiting belief that was stopping me from being even more successful financially. I went through a period of deep introspection, where I basically pulled apart all of my views about the world: from perceptions of myself and other individuals and groups of society, to my views on major topics such as religion, race, science, politics and history to deeper views about the very nature of humans and our role in the universe. You see, I thought I pretty much had it all sussed. I considered myself to be well educated and had a staunch view on almost every subject that was fairly unlikely to shift without very strong evidence to the contrary. Yet at the same time considered myself to be extremely open-minded and non-judgmental. But once I started to dive deep into my thought processes and belief systems, I soon discovered that I was not as open-minded or non-judgmental as I thought. In fact, I found out that I had dozens and dozens of beliefs that were not totally my own but appropriated from other people and were often totally misguided, downright wrong or worse still, limiting my capacity for growth i.e. they were screwing up my life!

Most of what we believe doesn't come from any objective research, where we actively study both sides of an argument and come to an unbiased conclusion. It comes from snippets of info here and there, often from biased or misinformed sources or from the same people (friends, family, work-colleagues, media outlets) who often have the exact same outlook as we do. Or they were forced upon us as impressionable children and become "fact" because that's all we know or because we automatically trust those closest to us. This is how religion is passed down from generation to generation. Very little to do with choice. Religion is almost always an unchallenged belief passed down automatically from parent to child. Pull apart all your beliefs that you have about the world and yourself and you'll no doubt discover most of them began in your childhood. You'll also discover that many of them have little reasoning or logic behind them and are actually damaging you.

One of my biggest limiting beliefs was around money. As an adult, I saw that occasionally I was getting labelled as stingy (usually by women!) and whilst I would always deny it and go to great lengths to argue that I had to be careful with my money because I didn't have much, I knew that deep down, I was always very conscious about how much money I had. I would obsess over silly little things, such as searching around for hours online just to get a product a few extra pennies cheaper, or timing my round on a night out to make sure that I had bought at least the same number of drinks (or less!) as everyone else. I didn't want to be like this - it wasn't fun and any satisfaction I got from saving a couple of quid soon evaporated. And I never seemed to have much in my bank account no matter how much I scrimped and saved. But I now realise that I acted this way because I had a belief that I had to be cautious with money.

You think this money cares what you think?! Hell no!!

When I delved into where that came from, it didn't take long to settle at my father. He's one of those people who'd pick empty toothpaste tubes out of the bin that you'd thrown away because, if you struggled for 10 minutes squeezing the flattened tube with every fibre of your being till your fingers bled, you could probably still get out a pea-sized amount of paste for one last brush. But then, he is part of a generation that grew up believing that we live in a world of lack and that it is noble to save and not waste anything no matter how small. I was always acutely aware that my family didn't have much money growing up and so was super conscious not to ask for any expensive labels or demand much for birthdays. This stayed with me right up to the years when I began trading and I believe were a key reason that I struggled for so long accepting losses. But even more so, I believe that when I did start becoming successful, they placed a ceiling on what I could accrue because I started to feel guilty. Once my limiting self beliefs about money were eradicated, I no longer felt guilty and my trading hit new levels of prosperity after that.

You see, money doesn't care what you think of it! Too many of us are too heavily invested emotionally with money. We don't understand what money really is, which is a piece of paper with a number written on it that serves a function. That's it! But when most of us think about money, we think about what we can buy with it: a house, a car, a smartphone, a holiday, a month's rent, pay off debt etc. So we are invested emotionally in the money. When you see that trading bank decreasing, that red figure getting larger on your screen, you are more than likely thinking about the things you wanted (or worse, NEEDED) to spend that money on. You have too much emotion invested in it. But it stems from a limiting belief about money, which is that money is more than just a piece of paper serving a function (to eliminate the need for a barter system).

Many people see money as the be all and end all of life. They treat it as a commodity, which it isn't; it's a tool which can help you to get commodities. They see it as the answer to all their problems, the one thing that will make them happy (which it definitely won't on it's own, although it can help get you closer towards happiness). Then there's the opposite end of the spectrum: those who see money as negative. They see it as something which you have to be ultra careful with because it's scarce, finite and tough to get (none of which is true). They may think they don't deserve to earn large sums or even fear having the responsibility of looking after it. They use sayings which are ubiquitous in society such as "Money is the root of all evil" and "Money doesn't grow on trees" and what they build is a self-limiting mindset which becomes stuck in their subconscious. And that controls +95% of what you do, so you are pretty much screwed! The sooner you realise money doesn't care what you think about it, the sooner you'll acquire more of it.

Once I realised that money isn't scarce (in fact, it's abundant), I started to change my beliefs. Once I realised that being stingy and scrimping and saving were not as necessary as I was making it out to be, my habits started to slowly evolve. Once I realised that rich people are not all morally bankrupt scammers and being wealthy is a blessing, I began to believe that I could make large sums of money. Once I realised that the more money you have, the more you can help others by giving to charity, being more generous with friends or building a business based on philanthropy (which is what I'm going to be doing in future) it got rid of all my guilt and opened up the flood-gates in terms of the amount of money I was making. Without those limiting beliefs, my subconscious was no longer holding me back and so my trading actually improved. And without that, I couldn't now be working towards something that is truly rewarding and gives me greater pleasure than any material thing I can buy.

Perhaps the biggest turning point for me as a trader was when I read the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. For those not familiar, this book was written way back in the 1930s following the American depression and was really one of the world's first "self help" books, going on to sell millions of copies worldwide. Originally intended to help Americans find a way out of the appalling economic mess caused by the Wall Street crash, which left millions of Americans homeless, penniless or in dire straights, it has become the grand-daddy of all self development books and is touted by all the big names in the self development field today as one of the key aids in their success. I know it was in turning me from a good trader into a wealthy trader.

The over-riding principle of this book is that the power lies within any person, no matter what their circumstances, to build the life that they want and achieve absolutely anything they put their mind too. In essence, by thinking in the right manner, you can become rich. Rich doesn't necessarily mean in monetary terms (although that is possible and a top reason why people are attracted to the book) but also rich in terms of every aspect in life: relationships, health, work etc. Most people attempt to find success by looking outwardly: to external factors such as other people and circumstances.Or they believe that they cannot change their own circumstances and use this is an excuse not to. I've written about this in recent posts but I believe that the main factor in how successful someone is as a trader has nothing to do with talent. It's about how much the person is willing to do to become successful. "Think and Grow Rich" really backs this up with a series of anecdotes about famous as well as ordinary, unknown people, who found success using the basic principles outlined by Napoleon Hill. Every one of them, whether consciously or unconsciously, adhere to the 4 main principles of success: Desire, Faith, Action and Persistence.

Hill states that you must possess not just desire for what you want to achieve but a BURNING desire. That might seem like a trivial difference but in reality there is a crucial difference. I think almost everyone who gets into trading has a desire to make a lot of money, be successful and/or do it professionally. But I can guarantee you that it is only the ones who have a BURNING desire who actually succeed. We all know the success rate in trading. The 5%. If we go by this figure, 95% of traders have desire to succeed. Which means the desire isn't strong enough. If it was, they WOULD be successful. No ifs, ands or buts. Well, that's not quite true actually. Because you also need to believe you can be successful.

I know traders who have that burning desire, usually because they are driven by their current circumstances not being good and really want to improve their life but deep down, they don't really believe they will succeed. They have a negative mindset. When that is the case, it usually means that the first sign of failure (and in trading, that is a 100% certainty to happen at some point) they give up. "Well, I didn't think I would be successful anyway and this loss just reinforces that, so why bother?". Every successful trader at first had to have faith that they would succeed. Not "might" or "maybe" but "definitely". It's OK to have doubts, perfectly natural that you will but you still have to believe for the majority of the time, that you will ride through the rough times and definitely get there eventually. I always knew I would be a successful trader. I didn't know at what point it would happen, I knew there would be setbacks and tough moments but I always had faith in myself and that it would all work out in the end.

This faith, twinned with desire, then makes it almost a certainty that you will be driven to action. This is the real meat of it all, where you make plans and get to work on them to produce the results you want. In trading terms, this is where you'll do your research, test strategies, analyse the market, read about psychology and dive deep into learning trading inside out. This can actually be a lot of fun and most of you reading this will have got to this stage. But unfortunately, most of you will be beaten by the 4th and final stage: persistence. In other words, you will give up.

Ladyboys (yes, they are!) - absolutely nothing to do with sexual transmutation.

Once the first bank is busted, most people never go back, too burnt by the experience. A sizeable proportion will refill the bank and give it a second shot but will eventually lose it again and give up. The number of returning traders gradually decreases until only a small band are left grinding it out. They might not lose any money but the majority of them will also give up, fed up of treading water or not getting the huge returns they desire. That just leaves a small but hardy band - the 5%. The ones who refuse to give up. The ones who always find a way to build that bank again for another shot, no matter how long it takes. The ones who never blame the market, or the software, or the players or other people in the industry. The ones who only say "How can I improve? How can I learn from my mistakes?". The ones who tweak their plans till they get the desired outcome. The ones who have absolute faith in themselves. The ones who have a burning desire to succeed. The ones who understand that they control their own destiny.

Of course, it's not as simple as just applying those 4 rules. Most of us have limiting beliefs in our subconscious (which I delved into in my previous post) which make it very tough to make headway with trading. Napoleon Hill talks about how this can be overcome and uses concepts which at the time were revolutionary but that today are widely used yet still often frowned upon as being "new age" or "woo-woo". I'm talking primarily about hypnosis and meditation (which he refers to as "auto-suggestion"). I consider the two inter-changeable and that it's actually visualisation that is the most important aspect of both. It's something I do every day and I can only speak from personal experience (although if you read about pretty much every well known successful person in the modern era, they almost all meditate/visualise regularly) but it does work. Hill even talks about sexual transmutation, which does seem at first a bit out-there but really makes sense when you break it down: stop wasting your time jacking off to porn/chasing women on Tinder and use that time and energy to achieve something meaningful! Nicola Tesla remained a virgin his entire life and look what he achieved! Might be a bit too extreme for most men, granted!

I was initially put onto this book by Mark Iverson, who mentioned on his blog what an important factor this was in his success. Unfortunately, I only skimmed through it, believing I was doing fine and some of the concepts inside were a bit too weird for my liking. A few years later, I came back to it, read it thoroughly and crucially with an open-mind and applied the concepts with absolute faith. My profits sky-rocketed. That's all you really need to know.

I've spoken to hundreds of aspiring traders in my career as a tennis trader. These are the top reasons that most people tend to think cause traders to bomb-out:

1. Poor strategy
2. Market is too tough/against them/rigged
3. Don't have the right trading skills/natural talent/aptitude

I've come to realise that these reasons are merely symptoms of the underlying causes of failure. The reality of why most people fail at trading is this:

1. Negative mindset
2. Motivation/desire not strong enough
3. Don't work on themselves

What do all these things have in common? They are all MENTAL issues. The first 3 reasons I listed are all specific to trading itself. The second 3 not only apply to trading but ANYTHING in life. So sort out those 3 mental issues and the 3 that are specific to trading will automatically resolve themselves.

Let's look at number 1: negative mindset. This is a mental issue which has its roots in low self-esteem. If you deep down don't think you will succeed at anything, you are guaranteed to fail. You can have a bank as big as Warren Buffet and every one of his strategies and you will still end up a loser because you already view YOURSELF as a loser. In my experience, although it may seem on the surface that most people are the opposite and get into trading believing that they are going to become a millionaire in 6 months, I see far more people who aim much lower than this. It's not because they are being "realistic" or "humble", it's because they don't think they are going to succeed. My advice is always to aim high but set a goal that is believable. If you aim low, you'll never get more than low and you probably won't even get that because there's a reason you aim low - you don't have the confidence or belief in yourself to be a winner.

I've never met anyone successful in any field who isn't positive. It's that simple. People who are naturally more negative in their general outlook on life are that way for a reason. Life has knocked them around a bit. We aren't born negative. It's something drilled into us either by bad parents or by bad experiences. I should know, I used to be negative. At the time, I would've said I was just very sarcastic or just being realistic. But as I got older and was able to examine myself objectively (and with a good talking to from a friend!) I realised that I was actually cynical, depressed, morose, pessimistic and downright negative! And guess what? I was also highly unsuccessful. What I didn't realise at the time was that I was highly unsuccessful largely BECAUSE I was negative. Once I worked this out, a light-switch flicked on and everything started to change in my life. Almost instantly.

Many traders with a negative mindset will also try to learn trading entirely through trial and error and inevitably crash n burn. It's because they refuse to get help from others. Buying a book or a guide is often the last thing they do. They are more likely to scream "SCAMMER!" than to conceive of the idea that someone who has achieved what they are trying to might actually want to charge something in return for the hard graft they put in learning the ropes the hard way, and sharing that knowledge so that others don't have to. You've got no chance of making money in the trading game if you are negative because only a positive person has the willpower to keep going once the inevitable losses, bust banks and endless grind start to wear you down. Pessimists give up easily: optimists keep going for longer.

Onto number 2. I wrote in my previous post about having desire or more specifically a burning desire that will motivate you to get off your fat arse and start taking action. OK, you're still sitting on that fat arse when you trade but mentally, you are going to have to work those brain cells and fire up those neurons! Because in my honest opinion, most people fail at trading purely because they don't want it enough. Not enough to cancel that night out down the pub watching the match with the lads, to instead stay indoors and trade it alone. Not enough to cancel that date with that girl you don't even really fancy that much but think there might be a chance of getting some tonight, rather than spend quality time watching round 1, 250 level tennis, in front of 10 spectators. Not enough to bother firing up the laptop to stare at a bunch of flashing numbers looking for patterns for three hours instead of firing up the laptop to binge watch another pointless Netflix show or jerking off to MILFs whilst shovelling Cheetos down your gullet because you're "too tired" after a hard day's graft. Not enough to sit and write down goals and plans and create strategies and tweak them and analyse graphs and read books (heaven forbid, reading!!) rather than just turn up at match time after drinking six pints and hope it all just "happens". Not enough to get out of that comfort zone of repetitive habits which control their life and mean that whilst they will probably always have a standard income, live in a standard house, with a standard 9-5 job, with a standard life, it will never amount to anything exciting or adventurous or abundant or wealthy or deep down, truly happy.

Too much time staring at this and not putting the hours in. STOP LOOKING!!

What I usually see in most traders is too much focus on strategy. It's all about finding a strategy. Gotta get a good strategy! If I can just get a strategy that makes money, I'll be rich! What they don't realise is, it's not the strategy that will make you profit, it's the IMPLEMENTATION of the strategy. And most traders cannot implement a strategy properly, not matter how easy or tried and tested it is. Why? This brings us to number 3: because they do not work on themselves. I know of traders who will work ridiculously long hours day in, day out, trying to find or improve strategies. You cannot fault them for desire and effort. But they do little to no work on the one thing that might just make one of those strategies work - THEMSELVES!!

What do I mean by this? I mean deeply analysing their own thoughts, behaviours, habits and mentality. Trading is a mental game. Yes, you need a good strategy, the numbers have to add up but it's not as tough as most people seem to think to find a workable strategy. Mine is very simple. Buy low, sell high, basically. It's not hard to craft something from that. What IS hard is getting through all the crap stuck in our subconscious mind: all the limiting beliefs, the fear, the gambling mentality, the ego, the bad habits, repeating patterns. Most people try to ignore it and hope it goes away - IT WON'T!! Nothing will change unless you actively work on it. You could be sitting on a goldmine of a strategy but you'll never be able to get to the gold because you don't do any work on the thing that operates the digger - your mind!

Strategies or ideas for creating strategies are easy to find once you have the desire and the belief. Having the right trading skills (patience, discipline, numeracy, value spotting etc) are things that can be learnt. It's not about this myth of "natural talent". Some have a better aptitude for trading than others but it's nothing that can't be learnt, especially if you're willing to put the hours in and let others teach you. Work on yourself and you can be as good as the very best traders. As for blaming the market or other traders, that's a result of a negative mindset. There's always ways of making money in any liquid market. If you haven't found it, it's just because you've not persevered long enough. And that's all about mindset.

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Too much time staring at this and not putting the hours in. STOP LOOKING!!