Edges

I got a comment yesterday that got me thinking. I had talked about a football match I had traded on and how it had been a bit hectic and the commenter (sorry, you didn't leave a name) pointed out how I had no edge with my football trade. He was spot on and it was a reawakening. I had just been playing around, thinking I knew best, with nothing to base it on. I had been lucky and making a few profits there but if I carried on that way I was due a fall, so many thanks there.

So I have been thinking about the idea of an edge and how you need to have a plan or method or some rules to work to in order to avoid taking a big hit. On horse racing, I feel pretty happy, in that I have a few different methods I use, depending on the state of the market, i.e. the time till the off, the volatility, trending, etc. Sometimes I will just try and scalp ticks, using the price momentum as a guide, which can work quite well (although, as I mentioned in a previous post, I have been caught out a couple of times, usually when trying to take one trade too many. Hopefully, lesson learnt). On the football side of things, I need to do more research. I feel I'm going to have to also just try some ideas out, with small stakes, as paper trading really doesn't give you a good indication of when/if your back/lay will be matched, which is important.

Your edge then is what potential advantage you have over the other punters out there. That could be a knowledge of how the market moves in relation to certain events (e.g. WOM) or it could be based on an analysis of the fundamentals (form, determining price value) or the psychology of the "crowd" (e.g. over/under response to news of events) and also the discipline/rules you trade with (stop losses, when to get in, when to get out). Having no edge=drifting on the tides of chance.

Any comments, as always, are welcome (even if they are pointing out what I have done wrong!).