General

A common question I receive is:

“Can beginners really learn tennis trading?”

The short answer is yes.

In fact, many of the members who join my course have little or no previous trading experience.

Something I also hear a lot is:

“I don’t really like watching tennis”.

However, there are a few things that every beginner should understand before getting started.

Nobody Starts As An Expert

When I first started trading tennis, I made plenty of mistakes.

I started trading the pre race horse markets. I have zero interest in horse racing but the trading part really grabbed my attention.

I was working full time so I needed something to trade in the evenings.

After a bit of research, tennis stood out as a better option.

• Only 2 possible outcomes.
• I had played a bit of tennis when I was younger so I DID like watching it.
• It was also one of the top sports for liquidity on Betfair.

The good news is that every successful trader started as a beginner.

Nobody opens their first trading software and instantly knows what they are doing.

Like most beginners, I was probably more interested in finding winning trades than managing risk.

No one really wanted to help you back then.

With experience, I learned that protecting your trading bank is far more important than chasing big profits.

I had no real idea of what value was but I found ways of making money.

I still remember what it was like. Nothing really made sense at first.

Trading is a skill that develops over time.

Tennis Is Easier To Understand Than Many People Think

One of the reasons I like tennis as a trading sport is its relatively simple.

• There are only two players.

• There are no draws.

• There are no team selections to worry about.

• There are no complicated league tables or qualification scenarios. (Well, there can be at the year end finals!)

• The market reacts to what is happening on court, such as breaks of serve, set wins and momentum shifts.

This makes it easier for beginners to understand why prices are moving.

You Do Not Need To Be A Tennis Expert

This is another question I hear regularly.

Many people assume they need to be tennis fanatics before they can trade the sport successfully.

In reality, that is not necessarily the case. I love sport in general but I love it for the sport itself.

I’m not really too interested in the team members or who has been transferred etc.

Of course, understanding the sport helps.

However, many successful traders start with only a basic knowledge of tennis.

Once you see what can be achieved with trading you will naturally take more interest in the players
and their strengths and weaknesses. Just by following the daily scores, you get a good insight into who
is in hot form and who is struggling.

The important thing is understanding how the market reacts to events during a match.

Focus On Learning Before Profits

One mistake many beginners make is focusing entirely on how much money they can make.

“If I have a 2k bank, how much can I make in a week?”. If I had a penny….

However, in the early stages your goal should be learning how not to lose, rather than earning.

You need to understand:

• How prices move and why
• How to enter a trade
• How to exit a trade
• How to manage losses
• How to identify suitable opportunities

Once these skills become second nature, we can look at making the most of those opportunities.

Start Small

Another common mistake is staking too much money too soon.

When learning any new skill, mistakes are inevitable.

It just doesn’t make sense to allow those mistakes to cost you too much.

The sensible approach is to start with small stakes while you build confidence and experience.

This removes much of the pressure and allows you to focus on making good decisions rather than worrying about every market movement

The Learning Curve

Like any worthwhile skill, tennis trading takes time to learn.

Some people pick it up quickly.

Others take longer.

The key is consistency.

Small improvements made week after week can make a huge difference over time.

Many beginners become frustrated because they expect instant results.

In my experience, the traders who succeed are usually the ones who remain patient and focus on gradual improvement.

Take the time to learn good habits. That will improve your confidence and when your confidence is high, you make better decisions.

Learn From Experienced Traders

One of the biggest advantages beginners have today is access to experienced traders.

When I started, there were far fewer resources available.

Today it is possible to learn proven strategies, watch real trades being placed and dramatically speed up the learning process.

This allows beginners to avoid many of the mistakes that cost traders both time and money.

Final Thoughts

Can beginners learn tennis trading?

Absolutely.

You do not need previous trading experience and you do not need to be a tennis expert.

What you do need is a willingness to learn, realistic expectations and a focus on risk management.

Like any skill, it takes time and practice.

However, with the right approach, beginners can learn the fundamentals and gradually build the confidence needed to trade tennis successfully.

If you would like to learn more, take a look at my Tennis Trading Course where I explain the strategies and techniques I use when trading ATP and WTA matches. You can also follow my daily Trading Tips service to see how I analyse matches and identify potential trading opportunities.

Why tennis trading is lower risk than betting

 

One of the questions I get asked most often is:

“Why do you describe tennis trading as lower risk than betting?”

After all, both involve putting money into the market and both involve sporting events with uncertain outcomes.

Having traded tennis professionally since 2010, I believe there is a significant difference between the two.

The Problem With Traditional Betting

A traditional bet is usually very simple.

You back a player to win a match and then hope your prediction is correct.

Once the bet is placed, you have very little control over what happens next.

If your player starts badly, gets injured or simply has an off day, there is very little you can do.

Your stake is effectively committed until the match ends.

While most bookmakers now offer cash out options, these are often poor value
and don’t provide the same flexibility as a trading approach.

Trading Gives You More Control

When trading, my aim is not necessarily to predict the winner of the match. In the pre match assessment I am really looking for 2 things:
– Who do I think is likely to win?
– How competitive will the other player be?

For a trade, I am looking to profit from price movements. That clearly means correctly predicting those price moves.

That’s now always as difficult as you might think.

What this means is that I can often make money without needing to correctly predict the final result.

More importantly, I can manage my risk throughout the trade.

If the market moves against me, I can exit the trade and accept a small loss.

If the market moves in my favour, I can secure a profit before the match has finished.

This flexibility is one of the biggest reasons I prefer trading to betting.

Tennis Creates Excellent Trading Opportunities

Tennis is particularly well suited to trading because prices can move dramatically during a match.

A single break of serve can create a large price movement.

Momentum can swing quickly and even strong favourites regularly lose sets.

This creates opportunities that simply don’t exist in many other sports.

Rather than sitting on a bet and hoping for the best, traders can react to what is happening and manage their position accordingly.

Losses Can Be Controlled

No trading strategy wins every time.

That is simply unrealistic.

However, one of the biggest advantages of trading is that losses can often be limited before they become large.

I get asked so many times, “If I am in a trade and it doesn’t go as expected, what should I do to limit the damage?”

The first thing to point out is that, if you take a bad value entry, there is no magic strategy to control the loss.

I concentrate on making sure that my initial entry is at a strong price. That way, even if I am wrong about where the price will go, my initial trade limits how far it can go against me in the current set.

A good, simple way to limit loss is that if the trade does not quickly start to move in our favour, we can close the position while the loss / red is small and wait for the next opportunity.

There is no limit on how many times we can enter and exit.

This ability to control risk is one of the key advantages of trading.

Many new traders focus almost entirely on profits.

There is a common phrase that most people have heard. “You must protect your bank”. This is of course very true, but we also need to protect our confidence. A large loss can wreck that confidence, especially while we are learning.

Why I Focus On Low Risk Trading

If you’ve spent any time reading my website, you’ll know I talk about risk management and removing liability a lot.

That’s because surviving the bad days is just as important as profiting from the good ones.

Over the years I have seen many traders fail because they focus on finding the biggest wins rather than managing their downside.

My approach has always been different.

There is a huge difference between trading as a hobby and trading for a living.

The quality of the decisions we make can be affected by the amount of stress that we are under.

I aim to keep stress levels as low as possible.

I would rather make steady profits over a long period than chase one huge result.

This mindset has allowed me to make my living from tennis trading for many years.

Is Tennis Trading Risk Free?

Absolutely not.

Every trade involves risk.

Markets can move unexpectedly and losses are part of trading.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is being unrealistic.

The goal is not to eliminate risk completely. In fact, I believe that being prepared to lose can significantly improve your results overall.

The goal is to manage the risk sensibly and put yourself in situations where the potential reward justifies the risk being taken.

Final Thoughts

For me, the biggest difference between trading and betting is control.

When you place a traditional bet, your options are limited.

When you trade, you can react to events, manage your position and control your risk.

That doesn’t mean every trade will be successful.

However, it does mean you have far more influence over the outcome than you do with a conventional bet.

That is one of the main reasons I have always preferred trading tennis to traditional betting.

If you would like to learn more about my approach to tennis trading, take a look at the TradeShark Tennis Course. I also provide daily ATP and WTA Trading Tips, including the research and match analysis I use when identifying potential trading opportunities.

Can beginners learn Tennis Trading?