When there are several tennis tournaments taking place at the same time, it’s not unusual to have dozens of matches available to trade in the early part of the tournaments.

You might identify two or three matches that look promising, only to discover they’re all starting at roughly the same time.

So, should you trade more than one match at once?

You can, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

And if you’re new to tennis trading, I’d suggest concentrating on one match at a time until you’ve gained some experience.

More Matches Doesn’t Automatically Mean More Profit

It’s easy to assume that trading two matches at once will give you twice as many opportunities to make money.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

Every additional match requires some of your attention. You need to follow what’s happening, watch the prices and decide when to enter or exit your trades.

If you’re concentrating on one match, that’s relatively straightforward.

When you’re trying to follow three or four matches, things can become considerably more complicated.

You might find more opportunities, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make more profit.

In fact, spreading your attention too thinly can have the opposite effect.

Tennis Markets Can Change Very Quickly

One of the things I like about tennis trading is that you usually have multiple decent sized price movements during a match.

But those movements can also happen very quickly.

A break point, a service break or a sudden change in momentum can create an opportunity to enter or exit a trade.

If you’re watching another match when that happens, you might miss it.

Worse still, you might already have an open position that needs your attention.

Imagine you’re trading two matches.

In one match, the player you’ve backed suddenly faces break points.

At exactly the same time, an opportunity you’ve been waiting for appears in the other match.

Which one gets your attention?

You can’t give both your full concentration simultaneously.

And sometimes a few seconds can make a considerable difference.

Two Matches Means Two Sets Of Decisions

It’s not just a question of watching two scoreboards.

Every trade requires decisions.

Is the entry price right?

Has something changed that affects the original reason for entering?

Should you close the position?

Should you wait?

When you’re following several matches, those decisions can start overlapping.

Obviously, a factor is how you’re actually trading the matches. For example, if you are simply waiting for your target entry price before backing your player and plan to exit if your player gets a break, the match doesn’t need detailed attention. However, if you’re monitoring the in-play stats as the match isn’t going quite how you expected, that match can, and should, take up most of your attention.

If you have one high attention match and one low attention match and you’re trading both at the same time, you might get away with it. Until your low attention match suddenly turns around or a player calls for the trainer. Your stress levels are about to climb.

It’s surprisingly easy to lose track of why you entered a particular trade in the first place.

And if you start making hurried decisions because something is happening in another match, you’re increasing the chances of making mistakes.

What About Experienced Traders?

There’s no reason an experienced trader can’t follow more than one match.

With experience, many of the things that initially require a lot of concentration become more familiar.

You become better at recognising situations, understanding price movements and knowing when a trade needs your attention.

You might also have one match that you’re actively trading while keeping an eye on another for a possible opportunity.

That’s very different from having several open positions that all need managing at the same time.

The important thing is recognising your own limits.

Just because you can have six markets open on your screen doesn’t mean you can manage six trades effectively.

Don’t Forget The Risk

There’s another consideration that can easily be overlooked.

If you’re trading several matches simultaneously, you may also have several positions exposed to risk.

A £20 potential loss on one match might be perfectly acceptable within your trading plan.

But if you’ve got four similar positions open, your total potential loss could be considerably higher.

A more experienced trader using £500 stakes can easily get out of their liability comfort zone if they are trading 2 or 3 matches simultaneously.

Those positions need to be considered together, not simply as separate trades.

You don’t want to discover that you’ve taken on more risk than you’re comfortable with simply because the opportunities appeared in different matches.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Missing A Match

This is probably the most important point for beginners.

You don’t have to trade every match that looks promising.

If two good opportunities appear at the same time, you can choose one.

You might even decide to leave both alone if you can’t give them the attention they deserve.

Missing a profitable opportunity isn’t the same as losing money.

There will be other matches.

One of the advantages of tennis is that there are opportunities throughout most of the year.

You don’t need to squeeze everything into one afternoon.

Start With One And Build From There

If you’re learning tennis trading, I’d concentrate on becoming comfortable managing one match before trying to follow several.

Learn to recognise your entry opportunities.

Get used to how quickly prices can change.

Become comfortable managing an open position and knowing when to exit.

Once you’re confident doing those things, you can experiment with following another match.

But don’t assume that trading more matches is a sign of progress.

Making better decisions is progress. Making more decisions isn’t necessarily.

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing inherently wrong with trading more than one tennis match at a time.

Experienced traders can do it successfully, particularly when they have a clear plan for each match.

But trading more matches doesn’t guarantee more profit.

It increases the amount of information you need to process, the number of decisions you need to make and potentially the amount of money you have at risk.

If you’re new to tennis trading, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with concentrating on one match.

You can always expand as your experience and confidence grow.

The aim isn’t to trade as many matches as possible.

It’s to trade the opportunities you can manage properly.

I’ve been trading tennis since 2008 and have traded professionally full-time since July 2010. My TradeShark Tennis Trading Course teaches the strategies and approach I’ve developed during that time, with an emphasis on selecting suitable opportunities and managing risk.

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How To Manage Risk When Trading Tennis

What Makes A Good Tennis Trading Opportunity?

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When There Are Lots Of Matches, How Do I Choose Which One To Trade?

I’m Not A Great Fan Of Tennis. Is That A Problem?

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Can You Really Make Money Trading Tennis?

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Why I Prefer Consistency Over Big Wins

Everybody likes a big winning trade.

I certainly do.

If a match develops perfectly and gives me the opportunity to make a bigger than average profit, I’m not going to complain about it.

But I don’t go looking for those trades.

If you’re hoping to make a second income from tennis trading, or perhaps eventually trade full time, you don’t want drama.

You don’t want excitement.

You want consistency.

Big Wins Look Great

It’s easy to be impressed when somebody posts a screenshot showing a huge profit from a single trade.

What you don’t usually see is what happened before or afterwards.

Did they make that profit because they found an excellent trading opportunity?

Or did they make it because they took a huge risk?

Those are two very different things.

If somebody made a profit of £500 and their Return on Investment (ROI) was 100%, then at some point they exposed themselves to a potential loss of £500.

The route they took could vary greatly. If they got a good price on their favoured player, backed for £500, and then hoped for the win they really were risking a £500 loss.

If a trader used a £500 stake for a couple of solid trades, they had no intention of staying in the trade if they didn’t get the price movement that they wanted.

They could build up some profit in the first set and then use that profit to place zero risk lays in the second set. Do the same in the third set and you can easily get the same profit as the punter but with a fraction of the stress.

The punter’s screen shot looks just as impressive.

I would much rather know what their results looked like over the previous 100 matches.

One big win proves very little.

Income Needs To Be Repeatable

If you’re trading for a bit of fun, perhaps consistency isn’t particularly important to you.

If you’re trying to create an income, it matters a lot.

You need an approach that you can use today, tomorrow and next month.

That doesn’t mean you’ll make the same amount every day. Trading doesn’t work like that.

Some days will be better than others.

Some days you’ll make very little.

There will be losing days too.

What matters is that you’re using an approach that gives you the opportunity to produce a profit over the longer term without constantly putting your trading bank at unnecessary risk.

I Don’t Want An Exciting Day

People often associate trading with excitement.

Personally, excitement is one of the last things I want.

If I’m feeling excited because I’ve got a large amount of money riding on what happens next, I’ve probably taken too much risk.

I’ve said before that a dull trading day is very often a good one.

I mean it.

I want to be calm enough to make sensible decisions.

I want to know why I’ve entered a trade, what I’m looking for and what I’m going to do if it moves against me.

That’s not particularly exciting.

Perfect.

The Occasional Big Win Is Great

Consistency doesn’t mean deliberately limiting every winning trade to the same amount.

Sometimes a match gives you more than you expected.

Perhaps you enter at an excellent price and the match moves strongly in your favour.

There may be an opportunity to stay in the trade longer than usual without taking unnecessary risk.

Take advantage of it.

There’s obviously nothing wrong with making a large profit when the opportunity naturally develops.

The important difference is that you didn’t enter the trade thinking:

“I need to make a big profit from this match.”

The opportunity created the larger profit.

You didn’t create additional risk because you wanted a larger profit.

Gambling Isn’t An Option

This becomes particularly important if you’re hoping to rely on trading for part of your income.

You can’t afford to gamble with your trading bank.

Increasing your stakes because you want to hit a particular profit target isn’t trading.

Staying in a bad position because you hope it will turn around isn’t trading.

Taking a poor opportunity because you haven’t made enough money today isn’t trading.

You’re gambling on something happening because you need it to happen.

That’s a very different mindset.

You Can’t Demand A Wage From The Market

One of the dangers of trying to make an income from trading is deciding how much money you need to make.

Perhaps you’d like to make £100 today.

There’s nothing wrong with having an idea of what a normal day’s profit might look like.

The problem starts when you’ve made £20 and decide the market owes you another £80.

It doesn’t.

You can’t create good trading opportunities simply because you need the money.

If today’s matches don’t give you the opportunities, you have to accept that.

You can have days where you made good decisions but things just didn’t go your way.

You might have had 4 losses, but they were controlled losses. It’s frustrating when that happens but your confidence is intact.

Trying to force the market to pay you a daily wage is one of the quickest ways to start making poor decisions.

Small Profits Matter

New traders sometimes underestimate the value of smaller winning trades.

They don’t look exciting.

Nobody is going to be particularly impressed by a screenshot showing a modest profit.

But those trades matter.

If you’re consistently taking sensible opportunities, controlling your losses and allowing the occasional larger profit to come when the market offers it, those smaller wins can build over time.

You don’t need every trade to be memorable.

In fact, I’d rather most of mine weren’t.

Consistency Protects Your Confidence Too

I’ve talked before about protecting your trading bank.

I mentioned confidence earlier. Protecting your confidence is just as important as protecting your bank.

If you’re constantly taking large risks, your emotions are going to move around with your results.

A big win makes you feel unbeatable.

A big loss makes you question everything you’re doing.

Neither is particularly useful.

Trading with sensible stakes and accepting normal wins and losses helps keep you on a much more even level.

That makes it easier to make good decisions.

Full-Time Trading Changed What Mattered

When trading becomes part of how you earn your living, your priorities change.

A spectacular trade isn’t particularly useful if the way you achieved it isn’t repeatable.

What matters is whether you can come back tomorrow and do the same job again.

I don’t need every day to be profitable.

I don’t need every trade to win.

And I certainly don’t need every trade to be exciting.

I need to make sensible decisions often enough that, over time, the profitable trades outweigh the losing ones.

That’s a much less glamorous way of looking at trading.

It’s also much closer to reality.

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a bigger than average win.

I’ll take them whenever the market gives them to me.

But I don’t build my trading around trying to find them.

If your aim is to make a second income or eventually trade full time, consistency is far more useful than excitement.

Control your stakes.

Protect your bank.

Take the opportunities the market gives you.

Accept that some days won’t give you very much at all.

And when a bigger win comes along naturally, enjoy it.

Just don’t start gambling in an attempt to create one.

I’ve been trading tennis since 2008 and have traded professionally full-time since July 2010. My TradeShark Tennis Trading Course teaches the strategies and approach I’ve developed during that time, with an emphasis on controlling risk and building the consistency needed for long-term trading.

FAQ articles

Can beginners learn Tennis Trading?

Why tennis trading is lower risk than betting

Why Trading Isn’t The Same As Betting

How To Manage Risk When Trading Tennis

What Makes A Good Tennis Trading Opportunity?

How Do I Know When To Exit A Trade?

When There Are Lots Of Matches, How Do I Choose Which One To Trade?

I’m Not A Great Fan Of Tennis. Is That A Problem?

Tennis Matches Can Last For Hours. Do I Have To Sit At The PC All Day?

How Much Profit Can I Make With A £2,000 Trading Bank?

Can You Really Make Money Trading Tennis?

Why I Prefer Tennis Trading Over Football Trading

The Biggest Mistake New Tennis Traders Make