Posts Tagged ‘Players’

Forex Trading – Blackjack and Poker Players Make Great Forex Traders Why?

July 11th, 2010

There are numerous poker and blackjack players who have made the transition from professional card playing to forex trading and made millions. Why are they so successful? Because the skills needed are very similar.

There is an old gamblers saying:

“There’s a time to hold them a time to fold them and there’s a time to get out of town fast”

If you think about this saying, it’s the perfect introduction to succeeding in card playing and forex trading.

Forget the gurus and the mentors (most who have never traded in their lives) who tell you that you can predict forex prices in advance or that they move to a scientific theory – they don’t.

Just like card playing forex is a game of odds not certainties – but just like the professional card player, you can play the odds and win.

“A time to hold them”

By studying the cards that come out of the deck the successful card player knows the odds of the cards coming next, he’s not certain but by counting the cards he knows the probability and this is true with forex.

In card playing you hold and play in forex trading when the odds are in your favour you execute you’re trading signal.

“A time to fold them”

If a card player has junk hands, he folds and passes the hand by.

Compare this to forex traders – many of them want to trade low odds scenario’s because they think they will miss a move if their not in the market, while others trade when the odds are never in their favour i.e. day traders and they lose.

The card player knows his winnings are not based upon how many hands he plays – but how good the hands are and how he bets only then and it’s the same in forex trading.

In forex trading you get paid for being right not how often you trade.

When you feel you have a high odds hand – bet and bet big.

You will see poker players back high odds hands with a cool head and large amounts of cash and you must do the same.

Forget about the myth of betting small 2% per trade which is a common accepted figure – this is ridiculous!

On 2% on a $10,000 account that’s risking just $200.00!

You won’t win much doing that- bet 10 – 20% if you have the odds on your side and have the courage of your conviction.

“A time to get out of town fast”

This applied to the old west and when your life was in danger – get out quickly!

In forex trading to preserve your equity you need to cut and run.

I heard a trader once say that if you want to win:

“You need to bet but you can’t, if you’re not at the table”

To stay at the table or trading, you have to preserve your equity.

That means rigid stops preferably placed before you enter the trade – no hoping a trade will turn around – if you life or position are in danger get out!

DISCIPLINE

All card players have this and you must to, as a forex trader.

Even the greatest card players have to lose hands to win longer term.

However if they can stay at the table and keep betting and play the odds, they can bet big on the high odds hands and win.

Of course you can do this to as a forex trader.

If you want to read an excellent interview with blackjack player come multi millionaire trader Blair Hull which expands on the above points get the excellent book “Market Wizards” By Jack Schwager which interviews Blair and a whole host of top traders – its essential reading for all forex traders.

Finally! Remember:

Play the odds with discipline in forex trading and you can enjoy currency trading success.

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Peter Griffin – The Babe Ruth of Blackjack Players

May 2nd, 2010

Every sport or game of skill and chance has their legends and most were known for their charisma as well as their skills and this is how they were remembered, but in pure mathematical games such as blackjack who remembers the players who brought it to where its at today? Not many, because most of them were more on the steel cold statistical side then others. One of the ambassadors that helped bring recognition to the game was Peter Griffin. Griffin was one of the half dozen of original players to be voted into the hall of fame of Blackjack.

It is no coincidence that Griffin was among the first to develop a mathematical system to break down a blackjack players advantage and disadvantage of winning depending on his skill level as he was a math genius whose grandfather was also a math genius. His theory showed that the house had a slight 2% winning advantage over the regular blackjack player. While this seemed small to most people but if you look at it in a purely business sense over a volume of millions of hands played you will see that this small percentage brings in massive profit to the casinos. The whole premise of his card counting theory is relationship between betting correlation and the playing efficiency. Suffice to say that he probably wasn’t liked by too many of the gambling casino owners. He then went on to write many books on how to play the game and among his best books were titles such as Complete Card Counter’s Guide to the Casino Game of 21 which eventually became a classic that every potential fan or player of the game has read. It is probably the bible on blackjack.

Before playing and studying the game Griffin was a math and statistics teacher at the Cal State . He spent many years saving and compiling many statistics on the game and though he passed away in the late 1990’s he had transformed the game. What was once known as a game of chance and luck is now known as a game made specifically for the mathematical mind. So next time your at a casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City and sitting down at the blackjack table remember Griffins name and you will always see this game as a game of skill and of the mind.

Author loves to write articles about the differences between the blackjack strategy of land based casinos and Online Blackjack .