I’ve been lucky enough to meet two professionals both at the top of their respective ‘game’. For the purposes of confidentiality, we will call them Rob the Tipster and Mark the Betfair trader. Both excel at what they do and both make a fortune every year but they couldn’t be more different.
In this blog I look at the characteristics of a Gambler versus a Trader. There is no ‘right or wrong’ path in making money online, but the sooner you can recognise your mindset and mental leaning the sooner you can harness the most suitable system for you.
It actually doesn’t matter whether you want to make money as a gambler or as a trader, but If you have the mindset of a trader and try gambling, or are a gambler and try trading you will quickly be disappointed at best and stressed out and broke at worst.
Let’s start by looking at Mark. Mark is the protected identity for a cap I’ve known for many years who hoovers a fortune out of Betfair as a trader. What will be quickly apparent when you meet mark face to face is that he is quite shy. He’s very matter of fact, methodical to the point of boring, Mark regularly makes a 6-figure sum form trading Betfair but lives in a very normal house (with no mortgage), drives a sensible but nice car and goes on great holidays and adventures out of the sight of social media and prying eyes. Mark is also semi-retired even though he is not yet 50.
Mark has the classic trader mindset. He is unemotional and treats every trade as a professional business action. It is frankly astonishing how unexcited he sometimes gets when he makes trades that are very profitable. I’ve seen him bag over a thousand pounds in less than a few minutes and treat it like he found 10p on the floor.
On the flipside mark also has no emotional response to losing either. He takes losses as part of his business expenses. As I spent time with Mark it became obvious that this lifestyle suits his temperament and attitude to risk.
Mark is typical of successful traders, I’ve seen similar in Forex traders too. They use large amounts of money, in very low risk environments to made small profits with a high win rate.
Let me just dwell on this and emphasize this. Traders usually have high win rates, that is most of their trades are winning trades. Their profits on a typical trade are modest, but their consistent methodical nature means their repeat small modest profits soon stack up, and with compounding they get rich very quickly.
Traders get no ‘thrill’ from being a trader, they feel no need to be at the sports events they trade, and often have no interest in the sports they trade. They never drink alcohol when trading, never trade tired or in a poor mood. They treat what they do with the utmost respect. They have very strict rules for trading and never break them.
Traders are boring. They make slow steady profits and amass a fortune through discipline and a fundamental understanding that the weak point in any system is the human brain and the finger pushing the button NOT the system itself. If you think about it if you only had the smallest edge on whether a coin would land heads or tails you could amass a vast wealth over time by betting on each coin toss but only if you are consistent.
Traders take small regular frequent nibbles out of the market, rarely get it wrong, rarely lose heavily and rarely take any pleasure from what they do. Their trading is their job and they treat it as such They enjoy themselves outside their job in other ways, in marks case it was visiting curry houses (he takes a huge pleasure in trying the same curry in various places).
If you find yourself agreeing with Mark’s ethos you may well be better suited to a trader mindset and thus a trading system.
So, let’s talk about Robert. He is the antithesis of Mark. Robert is superb fun and lives it LARGE. He lives in an extravagant property he owns in an affluent part of the suburbs of London, drives a Bentley (yes, he actually does!) and enjoys long boozy sociable lunches and champagne fuelled Race meets.
Robert is fun, great to be around and has some jaw dropping stories of some of the wins he has had. Robert also has down days. Robert can have weeks on end where he does nothing but lose. Robert sometimes has to take a week holiday to calm down and relax after a large run of losses which can easily get to 14 or 15 losses in a row before his luck changes. Unlike Mark, Robert can lose large amounts of money trying to win large amounts of money.
Gambling is Roberts life, and he takes a huge thrill from every win. He sees his enjoyment in life intricately entwined with his winnings and gambling. Robert is still disciplined. He doesn’t chase losses, revenge gamble or martingale bet his way out of trouble. He also trusts his system and is disciplined to know not to lose his nerve on that 13th losing horse in a row when he needs to gamble another £500 bet on the next race the next day.
Robert bets small-ish amounts in an attempt to win large amounts of money when he gets it right. His win rate is about 1 in 3 so on any given week he will lose more bets than he wins but he is counting on the big profits on these wins to keep him on an even keel.
Roberts earnings can be sporadic at best and a short-term disaster sometimes. This is not the lifestyle to need to make monthly mortgage payments, but on the flipside, this is the lifestyle to buy houses outright in one go.
So, there you are. Two successful people who both make excellent profits over the course of a whole year. Two totally different mindsets, attitudes to risk and expectations.
When looking at online systems to make you an additional income its good to understand where you are mentally…are you a Robert or a Mark and adjust your system choices accordingly.
If you are ‘Team Mark’ then Buncejar would be a system for you. In fact, some of the tinkering in the past from Mark led to the creation of the product.
If you find yourself more towards being ‘Team Robert’ then we think a betting tipster service with credible publicly published would suit you. We’ve rarely seen anything better than a methodical betting system from a company called ‘Bet Intellect’ who feel like ‘our kind of people’ and who’ve even had results that impressed Robert.
Remember the weakness in all good systems is the squishy finger to press the button and the emotional brain controlling it. The key is to not kid yourself, once you are honest about your mindset and leaning you can enjoy the profits from any system that is suited to you.
You can learn more about joining the regular high win rate Buncejar here.