Forex Trading vs Sport Betting: Similarities and Differences

Before I traded the forex markets, I first tried the stock market. Although I learned a lot over a period of about two years, I eventually just about broke even. I felt that longer term trading was not for me so I started looking at other markets.

Quite by chance, I came across some horse racing systems and got interested in betting exchanges such as Betfair and Betdaq. I even created my own racing system and started a service with moderate success.

In the end, I had quite a large portfolio of sports betting systems and I learned a lot about money management, equity curves, probability and having a market edge, and spreads. The one major thing that was lacking in the sports betting world was liquidity.

I was looking for a long-term plan of using compound interest to grow a bank, and the betting exchanges are limited with regards to liquidity. I wasn’t making much money from the sports betting, and I again decided to look at other markets.

I had been thinking about getting involved in the forex market for some time but had found it all too daunting. I followed a couple of forex signals providers for a while and while they were not too successful, it did help me come to the conclusion that it was possible to make money in the forex markets and it was probably best to use your own system or methodology.

After reading many books and online material, I came up with a methodology that seemed right for me – price action trading on daily, 4-hour, and 1-hour charts. These trades general last for between a few hours and a few days at the most. This suits my personality, as I don’t like letting trades run for longer than that.

However, there are many similarities with sports betting in trading forex; such as money management, having a market edge, sticking to your methodology or system rules at all times, and risk-reward scenarios.

So if you currently have any knowledge of sports betting, then it is not a giant leap to delve into the forex market. Why not give it a go on a demo account? You really have nothing to lose…