Gary, I'm a Betfair trader also..
I have to disagree with some of the comments out there, I think they are based from people who haven't much experience betting.
Betting and Financial trading are very very similar..
e.g. Instead of backing and laying in betting ,in trading you buy and sell
In both betting and trading you need,
* a strategy or an 'edge' - a statistically proven method of winning more than you lose consistenly
* staking plan or position sizing plan
* betting you bet on odds, trading you bet on price i.e. in betting you buy value, in trading you buy/sell a price that you believ is value at that moment intime because in the future you believe the price will change in your favour
* betting is mostly fixed returns and trading tends to be variable, but with products like binaries the line is blurring..also in betting you can also 'trade' odds, ie buy them (back) and then sell them (lay) to someone else..
* The psychology in betting and trading, especially short term, is very similar..if you speak to pro-betters who bet in-running ie during sports games whilst game is playing, its just the same kind of emotions, fear/greed etc as day trading..
I'd disagree with shadowninja (unless I misinterrepreted his comment);
I definately don't think any trader should get on his high-horse when judging pro-gamblers. Betting and trading is a game where 95% of player consistently lose money and 5% consistently make money (some people say these figures are more or less, but the point is the same; most people lose money consistently)
I would class a gambler , or MUG, as anyone who consistently loses money, and a real trader as anyone who consistently makes money over a long period of time..
The betting world and trading world are 95% (approx) full of MUGS (gamblers). Just the difference from someone who bets and someone who trades, is the betting people, tend to drink pints, smoke fags and read the Sun.. the trading people tend to read financial time, have degrees..they may look more intelligent, but they are mostly still more mugs by my definition of losing money.
Everyone starts out as a mug, you have to transform yourself