"Gambling is difficult.
In
some respects, it's the most difficult of all endeavors.
To
succeed takes enormous conviction and commitment.
Most
individuals don't succeed because of the inability
to know themselves and/or the inability to control
their own actions.
In
gambling, the only asset you have is yourself. ...the
self-developed habits or traits that undermine the
very structure you're dependent on....
In
gambling, you set the guidelines and make the rules.
In
effect, you become God. When you're God, it's easy
to change the rules. You simply say: well they don't
really apply to me."
The above lines come
from the book "Trading, Sex & Dying"
by Joel Anderson. The subtitle of the book is The
Heart Of The Gambler
and if you can get a hold of it, you may learn quite
a bit about yourself.
It rightly points out that your mind
will play tricks on you if you do not have in place
a systematic process for entry, exit and money management.
When are you going to bet? Sounds a redundant question
but if you have a systematic approach in mind, can
you stick to it? If you only want to bet on the higher
class of races (e.g. 0-72 and better), do you have
the strength of mind to sit out the early maiden races
and 0 -68 and 0-58 races without regret?
Do you know in advance when you are
going to walk away - either in a daily winning or
losing position? Or is it just one long and endless
downhill slide to either oblivion or riches? (Trust
me, it will most likely be oblivion if you think it
is one progression without end!)
Is your money management plan sound
and "do-able"? Are you content with small
and regular rises in your "bank" or do you
crave the big hit? The huge win? The massive payout?
If it is the latter, you are odds on to be disappointed
- LITERALLY odds on!
The 95% of Australian punters who
lose in the long term, are, in fact, doing nothing
more than creating opportunities for the 5% who regularly
win.
Here are a few personality gambling
types mentioned in "Trading, Sex & Dying"
. You may recognise yourself in this list - or "someone
you know"
1) The Adventurer: Always looking
for action and adventure, when at times it might be
wise to wait. Adventurers need to be in the game,
and are prone to over gambling. Adventurers do not
fear much, but this can also lead to a lack of discipline.
2) The Aggressive: Ego is a powerful
factor for Aggressives, who value winning very highly.
Discipline is a strength, though Aggressives may overreact
in the heat of battle. (position exposure) is a likely
problem, as The Aggressive wants to win big now, and
this impatience can prove costly.
3) The Emotional: Here the strong
feelings can prove to be barriers in the Emotional
mind. Internal self-talk may prove to be excessively
critical as Emotional feel even small situations more
intensely. Emotionals may feed off the excitement
or lack thereof in a market, which may cause them
to jump on (firmers) too late.
4) The Reflective: They may get tense
and nervous in a new situation. Reflectives are more
at risk of not pulling the trigger due to too much
introspection.
All in all, "Trading,
Sex & Dying" is a pretty good read.
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