The importance of a journal

“Greetings Paulo, I would like to know if you keep a journal of your work? I’m new in trading as I mentioned before, even though I’ve been a Punter in Bwin for already 6 years and I have been reading English books, where traders talk about the need of a good trader having a work journal. I would like to know if you have one, and if yes, do you think that brings advantages to review your work?” [trick]

I wouldn’t call it a journal, but a place (in my case, an Excel sheet) where I justify my bets. The biggest advantage of that (I will talk about that in the Emotional Intelligence video) is that brings discipline.

How many of us, lost money in a bet because the 10 of the team failed a penalty and striker is tall and sloppy and missed a goal that he just had to push it inside and the free kick specialist sent the ball straight to the pole and adding to all this, we have a shameful refereeing.

What’s the instinct?

Grab the following game and recover quickly from this terrible injustice.

What is the excuse?

Recovering the money as quickly as possible.

Which is (usually) the result?

Major loss and rebellion against God.

I have been through that in the beginning, as all of you. I already mention here many times that I had to work hard my emotional intelligence. One of the ways to do that was creating a place where I was justifying the bets done and I promised myself that I wouldn’t make a bet that wasn’t justified.

This avoids falling in the mistake mentioned above.

“Recover quickly the money lost” is not a justification allowed in my Excel sheet.

A reasoned justification requires a deep knowledge of the teams where you’re placing your bet. This requires time. And having a lack of time, the number of bets won’t be high, but will be valuable.

My profitability just fired and in a very consistent way as soon as I erased the biggest losses caused by the anxiety of wanting to recover fast the value of the lost bets.

I prepared my mind in order to accept, that loss is part of the job and that the most important thing is to reach a long term positive profitability, however, loss is inevitable as it’s important to learn how to deal with it.

I believe that this method will be extremely important for the many users that have a high sports culture, that are able to predict and read the game, but however, have no success in the gambling world, because they lack the necessary discipline.

Note: Additionally, the Excel sheet with the results and justification will help to analyse the profitability of the various strategies (justification) and by that mean, help to select the best and help to eliminate the less profitable.

Comments made:

“I agree with that. I’ve always said and will keep saying. Wisdom and market/strategies knowledge equals 1%. The other 99% is discipline. The one 1% you study and get there. For the 99% some people spend years trying and never reach it. It really is the tricky thing. You might have good strategies and work everything well in a technical level. But if there is no psychological control, then everything is lost. This game revolves around discipline.” [Daniel 83]

Two opposite traders, the same opinion.

There are no doubts about this issue (special caution for the beginners!).

“I couldn’t agree more. Every day new gamblers arrive to this world, every day many others abandon it and only stay the ones that have the capability to handle pressure.

It’s almost like high competition in sports, many can have the talent, but few will have the mental level.

Great topic, SirPauloR.” [AEZK]

“Whenever I have something red, I won’t stair at it to see if it’s going to be green again. (…) If it’s red, then it’s red, and there are only two options: will stay even redder, or you’ll be staring at the screen like idiots waiting for a miracle that once in a while happens, but when it doesn’t happen, you’ll need 20 or 30 more miracles to take you off the hook.” [Daniel 83]

“I keep mention a tip for the ones that just started: In trading you get richer every day, even if it’s not in the case.” [AEZK]

“Absolute truth for beginners. Whoever keeps that in mind, will start to face each loss as an investment in knowledge, which instead of leading to frustration, will lead to apprenticeship. In the beginning it’s not worth to look at the money that was lost, as for a while will fail to learn

Great topic, it is rare to have the opportunity to read reports from a professional’s point of view of such delicate situations through its evolution.” [eddie 1187]