Trading a profit - 2012

Scorecards... and a sunday challenge

2012-02-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Been a little while since i updated the blog... scorecards... so what was the thinking behind that?! well its something i picked up on whilst reading warren buffets book, obviously he felt the need to mention it and it links in nicely with my thoughts on us as individuals and how it can effect the outcome of our results!

It's quite interesting that so many of us, myself included see ourselves as outer scorecards.... and probably would be more interesting to know who was an 'inner' scorecard from the voters.

So for traders is having an 'outer scorecard' attitude a bit of a personality problem for us? I think it could be in some respects.... in which case, is this blog slowing my productivity in the sense that when i come to post im reinforcing that behaviour and or harming myself subcontiously? possibly could be true i suppose.
Either way our friend Warren is an 'inner scorecard' through and through as he says, can't really disagree with him either from what i've read. This leaves me with a bit of a problem in a way, as others have said before 'some people will never succeed trading because of who they are' maybe this is what they meant?
So being an outter scorecard probably isn't helping me massively... something to think about for sure.

Sunday's Challenge!

Today i embarked on a sunday in-running smashup challenge! I looked through the cards before hand to give myself more a chance with a few selections to trade as shown here...

Unfortunately my sister called half way through the day which meant i had to go out rather sharpish, one of her boys had decided to swallow something he shouldn't!

Bit of a shame really as the results wern't too bad all in all, had one hash up that cost me £9 ... i couldn't work out why the price was so high so i backed it for the correction but it never happened, maybe something i missed but hey ho not too bad all in all for the few that i did!

Think im gonna take the opportunity to have a break from it for a week or so as the markets this month are quite litterally dead pre race which makes it feel a bit like a waste of time all in all!

Good luck if your playing!!

Challenge...

2012-02-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Day 2

Not alot to say really, got in from work and managed to catch the last few, got a little greedy on the run in on the last and gave away a tenner... just about the highlight of the 4 races. More opportunities tomorrow :)

Update:-

As far as the challenge goes i've changed my mind, various reasons, main ones listed here...

Bonkers Challenge!

2012-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, the polls still running so i'll do the follow up post to that at the end of the week.

Until then im gonna partisipate in the geeks charity challenge, he's vowed to donate £1 of his own money for every £2 raised up to £2000.... so what harm could it do to partisipate?...

I started a thread on the geeks toy forum as have others but ill update here daily for a more detailed explanation, as most are aware i work full time so it'll be evenings and what i can salvage at the end of the day when i get in from work.

The details...

*Monday to Friday Challenge
*Starting with £50
*In running trading only
*50% of all profits go to the chosen charity (if their are any)

I've been trading inplay more and more lately so will be interesting to see if i can make alot off the initial £50, trouble is when i trade PR and IR its hard to seperate the results aswell as Pre race if im trading i cant watch the runners prior to the start and look at other things as i have less time to familiarise myself with their colours aswell as im scared if i go click happy IR i could outlay too much and get stung, for the duration of the challenge i've removed the rest of my bank to stop this happening....

The only other rules are...... their are no rules!!!!

__________________________________________________________________

Day 1 -

Started off ok although was trying to get off to a flyer too hard, was alot of fog at wolves and i pushed a bit too hard on the run in, a nice profit turned into a bit of a sod.

Will reload and start again tomorrow if i get in to catch any, these things happen, at least it was only £50, im sure ill have it back and some more by the end of the week!

Wish me luck!

Scorecards.....

2012-02-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

If an inner scorecard kind of individual was :-

The best lover in the world although to the ouside world was not viewed a such and people thought you was a poor lover

If an outer scorecard kind of individual was :-

The worst lover in the world but to the outside world was renouned for being the ultimate lover..

Then which are you?.... please vote on the poll and ill explain in my next post :)

Reflection, focusing on the bright spots....

2012-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

Looking at the last couple of weeks trading coupled with the comment from 'peter' on the previous post i've taken some time to reflect deeply on the way i am and how i have been in the past, a constant theme would be my addictive personality which can be found to be responsible for quite a few things when i think about it.

I can't really pinpoint where it comes from or why but as i know from past learning sometimes just being aware of something and being brutally honest about it with youself can help quite alot. Thankfully i don't struggle with being honest to myself as i know some people do particularly with gambling! after all thats how so many people get themselves in a mess right?!

Anyhow, im sure ill ponder on my own behaviour a little more although as i've said before its also destructive to focus on the negative aspects of our lives..... much the reverse of that saying - "fake it untill you make it" So as advised in the book i read and mentioned some time back 'switch' im going to focus on my bright spots, my methods that work regardless of the profit they yeild.

I really enjoy pre race trading and its something im not too bad at although as i mentioned before chrtistmas the in-play trading was taking off nicely for me. So as the markets fluidity is rather poor at the moment im going to spend a little time opting out of the pre race markets all together (maybe ill bend the rules on saturdays) and just constantly apply the methods i have for in running as its far more difficult for the in running markets to be skewed by manipulation, something i feel this time of year thrives in the pre race markets. Also it should free up some time for me to watch the runner prior to the start, i have already tried this since my last post on thursday and friday evening meetings.... guess what, couple of the better days ive had over the past couple of weeks!

Im moving into a new place this week coming so a little break should help too!, the pain of moving eh pfffft.... on the bright side though i have my boy this weekend which is good.... hope those that have traded had a good one!

Behaviour

2012-01-19T16:28:00.000-08:00

So its been just over a year since i started this blog and one of the first topics i started to delve into initially was mindset after reading mark douglas trading in the zone a couple of times... a year later on and i think its something i need to evolve and develop a little more.

As almost anyone with some trading experience will realise, and if they don't they really should! having the correct frame of mind and behavoural traits and impulses is the difference between winning and loosing aswell as winning and winning big!
It's so easy to be in a good position and still loose aswell as being in a loosing position and still break even or even profit. The one thing it comes down to ultimately is US and how we behave, which is obviously driven by how we feel and react to a certain set of circumstances. When you look at it like that its no wonder the guys that have been doing this years are far better than those who have just started out, chances are some of their methods may be the same and they may not even have far superiour knowledge but the difference is they just 'do the right thing' in any set of circumstances through tireless hours of screen time and making those mistakes again and again.

The good news is its not just a case of making lots of mistakes before you can get better, however i do think its important to make a conscious effort to spot what your doing in your own behavioural traits whilst trading aswell as the effect the enviroment is having on you at that point in time. From there onwards its just a case of picking out the counter productive issues and replacing them with the more productive... this reminds me of a quote 'jimrobo' pointed out to me very early on when i started on the geekstoy forum when he said something like the full time traders are creatures of habbit that like to do things often each day in a certain sequence before they trade etc, i know of one that likes to meditate.... suppose the point he was making is its important to have the correct enviroment to operate in and make sure your in a mindset condusive to trading success!.... only took me 18 months to get what he meant fully haha.

Thinking about it along my journey so far many wise 'pro' traders have offered words of wisdom and advise on their way and the one thing they have in common is they all come from a similar attitude which in turn obviously feeds their mindset and behavioural patterns towards trading... hope they don't mind if any are reading but here are a few that always rattle through my head from various individuals, (as i remember them but you should get the idea).....

"it only takes seconds to make money, theirs no need to chase it" - Jack Birkhead

"you've got to look at the bigger picture and go more long term, short term results are not important" - Millionaire Fund

"making small money is not boring to me, when has making money ever been boring?" - Leonthefixer

"take your time, being patient often works out better" - bazbaz

This sort of attitude is all part of the success in my opinion, i have pondered on it alot and its not just these comments but also what the successful individuals tend to say. Its always an positive, optamisitic grateful attitude they seem to have.
I was left thinking about this and the way these people are after a conversation with my father not so long ago on the phone, he is in the last stages of studying phsycology and its often good to bounce ideas about the way i feel trading off him even if he dosent get it fully!
It's just like successful people in all walks of life, the ones that are often most successful are the ones that do it for the right reasons, perhaps not purely to make money but because they enjoy what their doing? a good example might be Warren Buffet worth $59 billion but still he doesn't live in a rediculous mansion and drive about in a ferrari.... i've just ordered his biography so ill let you know how that goes.

I think the cycle i talk of in previous post is linked into a distinct lack of gratitude, a trait within me, its almost like i switch between states. I can relate it to playing computer games as a youngster... at first i would take a period of time to learn and understand everything and the best ways to get around problems and win, then once i reached a level of winning all the time the ego would come out! in trading though this don't work particularly and is counter productive, a stumbling block to say the least. The difference being with a computer game you can always turn it off and start again so it has no effect on you, however with trading its not quite the same when you've just blown £130 in one race... so for now i know of a couple of little areas i can start to work on! mid last year i was working on some techniques to get me into the right place mentally before and whilst i traded, i think it will be a good idea to revisit them and possibly build on them as they worked for me before.... i just stopped doing them when i was making good cash...... typical!!

The other thing to remember is the markets are constantly changing month on month and to not accept and remember that at certain points in the year can be unhealthy for your trading mindset, particularly this month and next. Simply their is not as much flow in the markets so it can be a little more tricky.... if your having a hard time of late give yourself a little bit of leway as Cheltenham is on the not too distant horizon!

Vicious Circle....

2012-01-15T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, hope the new year is proving prosperous for all already! ... for myself its not been such a good start, im in profit.... just.. i've had a few moments of turmoil this last week or two, its the usual repetative cycle that seems to have caught up with me... i struggle to explain why it happens but ive mentioned it before if your a regular reader, i really could do with finding the way of taking myself of this 'vicious circle' as it would seem.

Just before new year and towards the start of this year i've had some really good results at times and my trading has improved a fair bit, i've had a few £300+ days and im not sure if its almost subcontiously getting to my head?! As i have mentioned before, once i start to reach a level where i start to do well i try to crack on that little bit more, its often once i start having £20 - £30+ markets i try to push that little harder for some better results and it ends in disaster, this week alone im barely up although if i work it out ive made a good few hundred but lost the majority through these blips, its purely a mental thing as you will see below as when im on key mentally its pretty easy going.... really confuse myself at times.

So i think im going to drop my bank down to the bare minimum i need and start to build it back up again before i end in a bit of a low stage and it really goes pants! ... does anyone else find this happens to them? its really quite frustrating! I remember Chris Cringle on his christmas blog saying he drops his bank at stages to stop him getting in too deep... suppose its similar to that but i want bigger results ?!

All opinions welcome :)

Hope your all having a good one!

New year, resolutions, changing tracks and playing ball!...

2012-01-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, hope you all had a gread christmas and a good new year!

I had a bit of a quiet one myself although it was good as i had my boy for a good few days which made a change and cheered me up no end. I've had plenty of time to contemplate and think of how things have gone for me this year and in particular the last 6 months and its been a bit of a rollercoaster all in all thinking about it, a good one though as i've learnt a hell of a lot on the way about myself in particular and a fair bit about the markets too.

Ok so if i didn't have a resolution then it just wouldn't be new year would it? ... so for me i've thought about it long and hard and its a reall cracker, this year im going to attempt giving up women, no i dont mean swinging the other way or anthing but this year is 'the year' as far as im concerned, the year i change my life and to do that im going to need to be very focused, spending alot of time pouring over the markets adapting angles and upping my game and quite frankly i havn't got time for them.

It may seem a bit odd resolution to have but since i split with my long term mrs ive been bouncing about from one chick to another and the whole putting in groundwork, going out, spending time with them yarda yarda yarda has taken up some serious evening trading hours and study time. Its not really healthy and simply thier on hold for now, its make or break time.

This track simply sums up what i like doing and me in general, the new year is going to see alot more exercise as its enjoyable and also healthy for the mind, a sharp trader is a winning trader ;) ... changing track...........................................

I got that good feeling.... simply this year is 'the year'.

Ok so i've read some interesting threads and post over on the geekstoy forum this week, particularly from a chap called CanaryDwarf, i met him in fact a couple of weeks back when i went for a few drinks with Jack Birkhead and some the guys from STJ. I'm looking forward to his updates and progress.... its true what he says and like him i intend to up my game this year, in a pretty drastic way... im not as experienced but im ticking over nicely now and this year i hope to make a hefty sum and possibly go full time once more when the season permits it and im making redonculous money....

The skys the limit.... so lets 'ave it!'

It's all about the in-play!!

2011-12-11T01:22:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! .... Is Chirstmas nearly here?! .... a scary thought! Hey ho, suppose we cant all be as organised as our good friend Chris Cringle can we! I'd just like to wish him luck with the last part of his challenge!

As for me im a bit more of a grinch like charachter im afraid! Not prepared and not particularly looking forward to it a great deal this year what with the fun filled year i've had personally. All is not lost though! in fact on the trading front its going from strength to strength! Particularly on the inplay.... as ray winston would say on my new favorite add between races...... 'It's all about the In-Play!' unfortunately for a well known bookie... not with them!

It's getting to the point where the inplay markets are a little more profitable for me than the pre race, im toying with the idea of upping stakes a little more although its a bit like if its not broke don't fix it! ... comes down to greed really i suppose. Im using £5 - £20 stakes at the moment although even with them its quite possible to make £3 to £10 comfortably in most races and the occasional spike delivers a nice treat well above that range.

Having a job now is restricting the amount of time i have spare to devote to trading which is a bit of a shame, i wonder now with all this success if i may be better off trading full time but ill ponder on that a while longer, untill the security of Cheltenham and the gold cup comes prior to the flat at least.

Until next time........

The penny has dropped!......

2011-12-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Just a quick update.... as i thought previously the other week.... the penny has dropped!!!?! another eureka moment maybe? or maybe this is just the real one?! i don't know?! its 'just happened' even more so than ever before... and its really not the time of year for it...... im just struggling to loose so it would seem?! - sounds terrible and awfully big headed but its not how i feel about it although from the results and how im feeling when trading (not bothered) its all going crazy!! Finally the fruits of my labour seem ripe to pick! I'm just trying not to get too excited about it....judged on these last 50 though im thinking i should be FT again :S

But its pretty difficult not too when its this good!!! I didn't even realise how well i was going till i went back through the last weeks results, some are from saturday granted but look at that consistency woooo!

Betfair crashes again and Big Bucks....

2011-11-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

Hey all, wasn't planning on updating for some time but due to today i have some unexpected spare time.....

The usual stuff... Betunfair crashes on a staturday afternoon, once, twice, three times..... im not touching it again for the rest of the day anyway! I called the help desk half way through the henessy in a state of shock and panic having had a sizable stake in the market when it locked up on me and a load of unmatched bets close by.... the operator to her credit was nice considering i was pretty cheesed... anyhow i managed to get out with a fraction of my green so no great shakes, im just thankful it wasn't a lot worse! Seriously though they need to do something about it, or at least refund all the premium charges on the day for the inconveinience!?! ... if i know betfair that won't be happening.

If you haven't already tell them your not happy - info@betfair.com

All that aside, today i thought was pretty smart, ive started my new job which seems to be a decent deal and now trading is purely evenings and weekends for a few extra quid today Big Bucks provided me with one the biggest wins ive had in a while, after the first crash i decided to stick to pre race trading only, a bit of a shame as inrunning is probably just as profitable for me right now!! not bad for a saturday afternoons work eh ;)

Does the geeks kindness knows no bounds?! Betdaq.....

2011-11-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Its that time of the year again! The geek has once again started a Charity Fundraiser via the geekstoy forums. Hats off to the geek for being such a sincere genuine bloke, it amazes me how he finds time to hold down a job, family monitor the forums and still bang in charity fundraisers throughout the year! Not to mention him donating £2000 of his own cash recently in the infamous Blagger charity challenge. .....and yes you might not believe what your about to hear but on top of all that he is now going to be launching a BETDAQ version of AGT Pro.... how good is that? something ill be looking forward to as i cant trade without the toy, hopefully this will increase liquidity on the purple side and we can all stop paying so much Premium Charge! wooohoo!

What more could you possibly want ?! Not alot i suppose! .....as you all may know of late i took a job and will continue to trade the markets as id be a fool not to, im starting to fire on all cylinders again although i dont have as much time to document anything or update the blog anymore, its funny how when you don't feel your doing so well you feel obliged to talk about it more. Trading is starting to become less of a feature in my day now and more of a thing i do for extra cash, being less excited and just getting on with it when you can seems to be helping me, which of course is going to have strong links to my mindset and attitude as i have discussed so many times throughout the blog!! Eggman posted this up on the geekstoy forum, it really does explain it well i feel:

I've since learned that if one can outlast the ravages of the war...one really does go "full circle". I believe one eventually "runs out" of emotions and gets tired enough to "not care anymore"; but you just can't stop now because you've come too far to quit. Eventually you're too tired to fight; so you don't..and that's the "edge"; the "key"; the "holy grail"...your 'emotional input' has stopped; an exhausted yet peaceful kind of "boredom" has begun to set in; you are no long "searching"; and you just begin to trade a methodology that has now become "comfortable" for you in a 'mechanical' fashion almost without thinking. Now you're back at the beginning - trading without emotion, but more informed, better prepared, and a seasoned ‘veteran’.

.... it really is a big proportion of the key for me i feel as its impossible in certain situations if 1. You dont know what your edge is and 2. You cant cope with the stakes your playing. its that simple! no really... it is!

When i first started out this blog i felt as though i knew what i was doing although still felt a little lost, while it was a learning experience for me this year i hoped i could help some others on the way going through similar things, also i can sympathise with all those that are learning and just feel theirs not enough info out their... its a lonely old game. To that end im probably going to stop updating frequently, maybe the odd post but i thought i'd add a visual aid for the learners, it don't give away alot and isn't the biggest winning race but should be an asset to those learning both Pre race and In Running, the latter is becoming a bit of a higher earner for me of late.

I've chose this one from today as i think it shows some of the biggest factors its important to accept.... loosing, winning, reacting in your own best interests, optamism etc etc......

Enjoy and Take Care!!!!!

Oh and how could i forget - The recently released 1.2 Beta now has Dutching, Bookmaking, stop loss, a multibet tool, support for Betfair video, and a new kick ass in play interface being released on Monday.

Probably the best Betfair Trading Software in the world!

Crazy days....

2011-11-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates! .... been a bit of a crazy time of late for me although its coming good once again finally! ... had a week or so off trading having had my boy which probably helped plus ive learnt a little more about the markets and what im looking at, in fact i feel alot more confident when trading and its starting to do the trick it would seem! confidence is key! .... also inplay im really starting to feel my feet now so im thinking of upping the stakes a little, i rarely loose inplay even allthough its only small staking at the moment.

Today....

Well for a tuesday it was really quite eventful in more ways than one, first off i got a whoping bill from my mobile phone company which after a few phone calls and some hardcore blagging they managed to take my bill down from £286 to £140 - good job i tried my luck calling them instead of paying it really although that little victory seemed short lived when i got fined for not wearing my seat belt on the way home.... £60 - pretty sure it used to be £30, jobsworth copper was well chuffed with himself, really couldn't do that job..... after all how have i made anyone else less safe or caused any problems by not wearing my seatbelt? Anyhow rules are rules i suppose....

And then from the first race of the day trading on what looked a rather bleak tuesday with all the races on ATR everything changed.... it all kicked into life when the mystery 'bomber' previously mentioned a couple of posts ago turned up with his £25k bets, for much of the afternoon i could of done with reigning myself in a little getting overexcited having found myself looking at some big reds only to pull it back to an acceptable level, very much a 1 step forward and another back kind of afternoon although that said i come out on top :)

Was very fun and educational if nothing else to say the least!!

"Mini challenge"

2011-11-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well, just a quick update, been really busy of late and am a little late to put this up, as i mentioned previously i had a little mini challenge for myself this week to try and go 7 days with only £100 in settled losses, i started on wednesday last week and managed to last all the way to friday lol. Absolute failure there then, struggling a little of late with the lower liquidity, hopefully tomorrow will bring in some coin!

Old Territory New Angle

2011-10-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Been a bit of a mixed week lately and ive been doing alot of thinking.....

I've been trading for a while now and i feel like im definately not trading in the dark anymore, my understanding of the markets has only really started to blossom a bit just lately. I know how i can make money in the summer for sure although its not going to work all year round and i need to be a bit more versatile and adapt to survive as mr wilson would say... having spoken to some other too lately a couple of things hit me square in the face, chist knows why its took so long to think about this angle more seriously.... let me try and explain what im getting at....
When i very first discovered trading with the geeks toy i did a challenge on the forum where i got alot of good feedback along with some abuse, at that point in time when i think about it i was probably onto something quite good although i really didn't have a clue, through various problems mainly going inplay etc i managed to go off course and persue other parts of the markets. The thing is then i was applying myself in such a manor i would enter the market within certain time periods and around a certain price range and stick to it, although it was only £5 stakes it worked but due to the price and getting caught overstaking and going inplay it really hurt when i cocked it up but it was a good approach, but i probably didn't see that as i was to busy worrying what everyone else was doing... and so for a long time now i've left that part of the market alone and been playing without many rules at all just going with what i think (maybe this is why i struggle so much mentally?). Anyway im trying not to ramble here so ill keep it short, basically after a bit of thinking and talking to others ive decided to go back and try to trade how i was before obviously with more than £5 but with a better understanding too i think it could be a good direction to go in, over the last couple of days it definately seems alot more stable P/L wise even though the totals are not as big as they could be in some cases, suppose if all else fails it will be another string to my bow!

Below is a shot of my individual race by race P/L over a month, it really highlights what i was saying in an earlier post, without all those big balls ups i would of been £100's better off!

So for a better month next time round ill probably be decreasing the amount i make each race but the aim is to make my P/L really stable with very little losses applying myself in the manor i spoke of previously! if nothing else it will be better my mindset and i may resume a new high of confidence...... as someone once said to me before 'get your kicks spending the money chuck, not making it' - oh how wise those words are...

So here's a fresh little mini-challenge. From now untill this time next week (Wed 2nd) im going to see if i can go a whole week not incuring any more than £100 in losses! ... ill update then! wish me luck!!

BOMB!!!!!!

2011-10-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hey all.... mental week for me this week, been a real rollercoaster after a really solid week or so last to a hectic time of it of late. The markets are starting to feel really empty to me now, its not something im enjoying to be honest. Maybe that will change over time should i find some new edge to combat it, its highlighted for me lately how in the summer and the peak of the flat im probably quite capable of making good money but i need to adapt alot more and find my feet for other situations.

So... the bomber eh? as many refer to him, if you trade the horses alot you'll already know what im on about but the mystical punter with far far to much cash to throw up the wall gambling that likes to use betfair has made a guest appearance of late, its becoming increasingly tricky to deal with im finding as his tactics change so often and when they do it can either make it or break it for you! I think im probably about evens on him in all, mainly due to going in for near enough my whole bank earlier in the week just for him to withdraw his money and leave me up shit creek without a paddle... fun times! lol.

Anyway all in all its coming b ack to the same things again and again im finding, having been recording my results and biggest loss or total losses accumilated each day theirs a obvious pattern occuring... a big loss, usually followed buy a few small ones leads me down the garden path to disaster.... here's what i mean - for the period of 10th Oct - 16th Oct my Total profit was £418.82 after losses, however i accumilated £304.61 worth of losses. For the period of 17th Oct - 23rd Oct My total profit was only £120.33 but my total losses were £632.28 ..... just says it all really dosent it, amongst that there was a -£140 -£93 and a -£52 which all started an enevitable loosing spell...... i think this is what needs working on if any, i mean unlike a new edge its something i can change right now if im careful.... Its worth noting though the -£93 was the bomber taking his money out and leaving he high and dry!

Drinks, Ascot & Frankel

2011-10-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

First off, thanks to all the wise and sensible comments on my last post. I've decided to take the position although its something i don't really want to do deep down... although its probably a good thing given my current circumstances even if it turns out to be just for the winter. All in all its not a bad deal as far as jobs go anyway i know most my age would be happy with it and i can still trade evenings and weekends as someone said previously. Thanks again!

Drinks.....

Friday started the ball rolling for the weekend this week with cheltenham and i was thoroughly looking forward to it till i spilt near on a pint and half ove the keyboard at 2pm..... what a great start, now ive got a few keys that constantly stick and dont always depress so appologies if certain letters are missing and i havent noticed.... wouldn't be the first time ive done this although hopefully it'll be the last. From here on its bottles only!

Ascot......

Well, what can i say?! i wasn't prepared for this at all!! i need to start taking note of when the massive events like this are and the implications it has on the markets. Reason being although i expected the liquidity to be above average i didn't expect it to be on the scale it was, coming into these things knowing how its likely to be can be an advantage in itself, the first couple of ascot races i could of been hitting it harder than i was for sure. That said it was a nice warm up for the big one where the one and only was to strut his stuff......

Frankel....

Firstly what an amazing performance, it did cross my mind to leave my profit on it but at them odds was just rediculous so no matter what the outcome was no point in doing it... as everyone expected though he had the goods. Trading Frankel appealed to me just because the sheer volume of money on it, even the big boys would be taking some risks trying to influence its price in any way. Well that was my thinking, it was noticable at points their were other playing on frankel with far bigger stakes than me... no need to guess really who.... i did enjoy trading frankel as it was a bit like cheltenham as i remember it at times although uterly frustrating that i didnt have a bigger bank at points i was shouting at the screen come on come on just to i could get some more cash back in on the other side, all in all not a bad result... about a half of my daily turnover for a usual day on that one race alone!

PREDICAMENT

2011-10-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

What a mad few days its been?! .... I've been trading totally different and really took a look at myself and shook myself down, and its been great although its left me in a bit of a predicament at the moment..... what to do?!

Last month or so after splitting up with my wife etc as you will know ive had some rather poor perormances and its really got to me worst case throwing away just over a grand in one go... during that period i applied for a few jobs, one working offshore which i havent heard off but they did say would be a few months till a slot for me and the other with BT... the moneys not bad but not life changing either... well today they called me and offered me the job asking me to start a couple weeks into next month. To make matters worse here's my last 70 races....

Now i know their only small results but their consistent and this is how the beautiful results start to blossom and results improve quickly..... what to do?! ... lots to weigh up but at the moment i get to get up late go to the gym in the morning and work a afternoon, i dont get taxed (only PC) and if i got a job id get paid about the same.... but then again i got just about whole family telling me to get a job.... dont think theyd support it unless i start making loads.... what to do ?? mmmm

The flame reignites!

2011-10-10T01:15:00.000-07:00

Hellloo readers, well after alot of thinking over past progress this week i have come to the conclusion its time to take a step back a bit, deflate my ego and start doing what i know works without any uncalculated crazyness... plodding as i said in my last post. Friday i got myself in a bit of a pickle and lost just over a ton in one race due to being silly, this was the straw that broke the camels back for me.... it made me think back to how i was recording some results when it started to go well for me, reason being i was recording my lone biggest loss of the day which highlighted how silly it seemed in relation to the days profits which quite possibly had an effect on my actions.

So saturday was a decent day and sunday shown below highlights just how good it feels to be back on the right path! even if it wasnt a jaw dropping result. This if i remember correctly is how it all starts to come together nicely, and i feel it could be coming my way soon..

Plodding

2011-10-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Its been a bit of a mixed week just passed, it seems my life at the moment has an unlimited supply of agro in many different forms. After last weeks end i was on a bit of a high having had a decent friday thanks to the mad stakes punter and a half decent saturday.. from there i had my son for a few days which was exhausting but nice and good to get away from the trading.
Having come back today it highlighted once again how i need to get other things in order to trade at times... it happens again and again yet i still struggle with it, sometimes i dont think theirs alot i can do about it which is rather worrying. If your successful how do you deal with such issues id be keen to know?! .. for example today i got up and went out to find my car had been keyed badly because of where i had parked, a long standing problem between neighbours apparently although i wouldnt know as ive only been here a short time.. have a good idea who it was but cant prove it, further more my insurance excess means the cars going to be staying looking like a sack of s***, first bad start to the day... then i get preped and start trading all good and im in check, think i managed a clean sheet for the first 16 or so races just plodding along but the totals were small but consistent, then the ex mrs starts being an arsehole. Low and behold i manage to put myself in the red just about for the day on the last couple of evening races... absolute madness, back to plodding along again tomorrow i guess.

Havent done it for a little while but tonight i had a look through the cards and stats to see if i can identify some back to lays in running, here's what i come up with:

All 50% price reduction or bust moves from BSP

4.05 - Den Machine *** - DOBed
8.00 - Narra Datta ** - DOBed
8.15 - Flurry of hands **** - Only 25% Reduction
9.15 - Key breeze * (ask for a bigger price IR than SP) - DOBed

*Result of Selections*

FRUSTRATION!!!!! AGHHHH

2011-09-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Another frustrating day.... i took this screenshot as it just about sums up my trading this last week, i think its most definately confidence related and more to do with my execution of trades than anything else, the red above was through getting an exit taken that i didn't want before getting my entry in which then led to me jumping in to try and get some back making it a bit worse! ... thinking about it now its just as one of the major problems with trading mark douglas mentions in his book - feeling like you missed out and being wrong initially.

I dont think its my decision making a such that is gone up the kilter but more the way in which im implementing it. To that end im going to go back through this blog to previous posts as this seems to be a previous problem that is mearly rearing its head again! I know i can get through this but its becoming very frustrating as the image above shows, these sort of situations seem to be happening alot lately and its often the type of thing that entices me to make a stupid move denting confidence.

Also as usual befair managed to make a complete hash of saturday, i stopped after a few as my nerves were shot to bits after previous outages and didnt want to risk it going down again.... all round one of the most frustrating weekends of a long time.

Hard times...

2011-09-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, been a bit of a week of mixed sorts after last tuesdays money flush! today yet again i let myself down clicking too much in-running and so im having to re-think my position.. this time i havent done anywhere near the same amount of money but it was more than a days money for me, worse still its the mental scare it leaves.
I think at the moment i've got a hell of a lot on my plate and considering applying for some jobs as its not panning out too well at the moment and the pressure of it all is making me do iratic things, again leading to counter productivity. Im not going to give up the In Running angles as some of them are very good but more a case of having to have a look at how im behaving and stopping myself from breaking my own rules! why do we do it?!
Also ive decided to ban myself from going out on the pop - something i've been doing lately which possibly isn't helping matters, todays session i was still heavily hung over when i started (not a good idea). It seems i need to go back a few steps and revise my own preachings about shaping my enviroment and making sure im in the right frame of mind at all times trading, their simply is no other way as i see it at the moment.

Think im gonna take a bit of a break tomorrow and only do the evening card, hopefully that way ill be a bit fresher for saturday too!!

It seems 'sink or swim' time is on its way.... and theirs not a chance im sinking!

In play..... whoops that would of been a K

2011-09-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well well well..... i must have tempted fate previously as this week i completely lost my cool while trading in-play whilst in a bad mood and the heat of a frustrating afternoon sesh...... what more can i say? -£1030 straight down the pan.

Even worse then that its dented my confidence a little and things seem tough. I know ill come out the other side of this but its one of those rather anoying blunders which shouldnt really happen..... i lasted a whole 8 1/2 months... which is a record for me but i really cant afford to do it ever again, spent the last two days beating myself up for it but its no good... get up, dust off, start again.

Over the last couple of weeks ive seen liquidity drop a fair bit pre race and it feels like trading against un-genuine money alot of the time, most frustrating but i suppose its the winter well and truly on its way!

On reflection i think it highlights just how important it can be to have a sound state of mind before even attempting to trade, why did i do that? i really dont know.... a culmination of stress and a whole variety of problems so it would seem, not good when its your income as its serious stuff!

In running... back to lay!

2011-09-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hellloooo all, in running trading hey? the devil?? well yes for most its the absolute devil, myself included in the past although ive found myself getting a little bored filling the gaps of late with liquidity being a bit lower and its not always safe to enter in my opinion, so i've found its a little helpful if i dabble in running with minimum stakes on the previous race to keep me occupied!!
Well it started like that, although im still using no more than £2 at a time or maybe my PR green if im confident. It does seem rather addictive though, the best race ive had i managed a whoping £7 profit extra in running off a £2 stake although as you can imagine i must of put it through a good 4 or 5 times and been a little lucky.

Its safe to say i've got a bit of a taste for it now and although only adding a couple of quid to my daily totals its a double bonus as it stops me getting stuck in too early pre race. Over the winter its gonna be something i focus on along with a little footie trading to keep me topped up.... the one thing i have noticed though is over the net theirs not really any advice on inplay trading which seems a shame, its a bit crazy but if i keep the stakes small i cant go far wrong backing first anyway!
Its quite nice to not be on the 'oh shit' side of those frantic moves with ya bank riding on it at times!! seems like so long ago now although i feel im well over it and safe to be playing in running! open to advice if any inrunning players reading! I find the 7f and less races hardest at the moment.

Having just read Mets blog i seen a link to a christmas blog.... even though its months away, looking forward to see how that pans out. Havent a clue whos behind it... santa apparently, first set of results look promising though!

Elephants, Riders and Paths.....

2011-09-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!... first off, what an eventful week i've had... not trading but its just been one of those weeks where everything ya dont want to happen, happens but hey at least im still here to tell the tale. Anyway thats the reason for the delayed update, as promised i wanted to explain about this book i've been reading about change "Switch by Chip and Dan Heath" reason being its really quite interesting if your thinking about making changes on any level but it can be applied to trading too!

So whats the image above all about?! ... its the concept they work on in the book, what your looking at is your own self control and how it fits with goals..... the rider is your Rational Decision making side, the Elephant your Emotional Decision making side and of course the Path is where your going be it through choice or not!
The idea is that we all make good rational decisions whatever they may be most of the time 'assuming the riders role' for example when your lookin at a market objectively with no trades open...... but it can change fast and go nasty when your emotional side kicks in and takes over, quite simply the rider gets tired and struggles to control this 'assuming the elephants role' ya know like that time a big bet come in and took you a few ticks into the red, consequently you lost your cool and went inplay! ha.... sounds familiar don't it, then theirs the bit where if your hoping to constructing change is important. The Path of course! ... if you dont know what the path looks like how do you expect to get their? Its quite important that the path is well mapped out and shaped preferable by your inner rider, having a path where by you say well i want to earn £300 a day is great but its a bit broad isn't it? so a good question to ask yourself is what will that path look like and feel etc when im on it?... for example i'll be using stakes that alow me to operate at £5 a tick consistently, ill have ample time to trade, i still won't win all the time but will more often than not.... might seem daunting but if you want to get their you'll need to be doing this, how else did you expect it? even top traders rarely take 100's of ticks each day, i remember one high earner saying to me i recon i take around 30 ticks a day..... now obviously he's on some serious stakage their but i think you get the point!

So its something i've started to think about and hopefully the more i manage to shape my path adjusting all sorts of things stopping the elephant getting a look in the easier it should be setting off into the sunset with the rider firmly in control..... with a suitcase of cash intact!

Light at the end of the tunnel!

2011-08-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

So, its been pretty hard of late although i've managed to get some trading in where possible having connected up to what i thought was a WiFi spot for access. It provided around 0.5 Mbps pretty stable for the last few days so i thought thats cool while i await the engineer to turn up and jump me onto the local stree cabinet, and then rather luckily today when i wasnt trading the connection died completely.... after phoning BT having sused it wasnt my problem they explained to me the BT FON is more like BF CON. Reason being its different to BT Openzone in the sense it is WiFi through someone else's router!! within range of my terminal, thats great as you pay for access... untill either whoever owns the router turns it off or decides to use the whole bandwith for a download etc in which case they get preference and you locked out untill they cease such activity..... cheers!!, assuming its probably because it was a bank holiday evening ill let it go as i only have a few days till the lines sorted here thank god!

And then its going to be like a dream come true having had to put up with no more than 0.7 Mbps for the last 2 years.....

Woooooooooo!! not that ill suddenly make more cash although it will be nice to have a crisp reliable connection for a change with no lag from time to time!

As you can imagine its been difficult for me logistically of late but im getting their now, also i've been checking out some new meditation and reading a really interesting book about change... it relates to trading in alot of ways so ill get a bit of a more interetsing post up later in the week!

Extreme measures

2011-08-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Oh dear... when it was looking to look so good.... unfortunately life has a habbit of throwing up these situations and has done so for me just lately in the form of breaking up with my wife. It's not that much of a shock to me really but it highlights this video below which i feel has a distinct link to the way we think and more importantly 'the' way to think particularly whilst trading!

Live th 'now' moment! sound advice, also felt i had to stick this post up as to explain why i wont be updating the P/L publically... for obvious reasons. Although i can say up to thursday when trading ceased i was on for a good month in the green to the tune of £1180.70... far better than previous months particularly with the long break at the begining of the month. I just hope people dont stop reading as im not so keen to advertise my P/L, i think its unlikely i'll reach the target of 28k for the year although its realisitic i can get half way their. Wont be some updates for a while obviously, although its definately not the end of the blog! Good luck if your trading this week..... and have a think about what he says in the video, particularly the first half. Live the now and remin optamistic!!

Tradings biggest problem....... Traders

2011-08-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

OK... so what am i getting at?..... It's quite the opposite to the video above, let me explain....

Recently you may have watched dragons den yes? i know i do.. far better than all the soaps and drivel you see on the TV right? Now im guessing the vast majority of people reading this are agreeing if not all but anyway.... their was a young woman who gave a pitch to the dragons and fell appart completely... a proper poor pitch, the idea was 'not bad' and half way though the pitch you could almost feel where this was going.... down the shitter, and then Theo asked her "so what did you do for work before this" the woman replied simply "i was a future's trader in the city for 15 years"..... at this point all of the dragons seemed to wake up and be a little more interested, my understanding of this is was not because they were interested in buying futures contracts themselves but more because of the type of person they could be potentially investing in, traders mentality are in the same bracket of entrepreneurs... fact. Her idea was ok and she recieved an investment, personally had Theo not asked that question i dont think they would have been as interested.

So, why do i feel the need to mention this? The type of people that trade are much like entrepreneurs, much like the people at Honda..... they are WHAT IF people! Now this is great in most respects but is it not also the reason most people struggle to trade?! Not only does it attract the WHAT IF people but it attracts successful WHAT IF people, a real recipie for disaster!
Trading and how it effects your mind is full of endless contradictions like this but i think the bottom line to building most of the successful attributes is just to keep plodding along OK! ...... Hence the cip in reverse, just something to think about.....

Hold up performer....

2011-08-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

Only 11 days into the month and although it was a bit of a slow start it's done me a few favours i think!

I took a long weekend off trading as it was my sons birthday and skipped last tuesdays day cards as it looked more like a waste of time than anything else. The enforced break seems to have done me some favours though, as it has in the past... seem to have returned to form this week though as if a 'hold up performer'.

Monday - thurs this week, monday was pretty poor too i thought... but then the lower grade racing is on its way!! nooooo!

Forex fun is picking up nicely and i've had a few trades now, some winners some loosers. Suppose the beauty of it is i can afford to be really selective with what i put in... after much reading and studying of trends, charts and indicators i think im a little more the wiser.... im going to embark on a bit of a longer term aproach for now so..... what happens next?.......

Technical Analysis....

2011-08-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

A common debate among forums is often are charts any use on betfair? and to an extent i agree with some of the dobters as their is alot of false information that flows throught the betfair markets as a result of people trying to force others into a corner for an extra tick or two....

However, not always but often in certain situations technical analysis of markets and charts can be put to good use, like the example above, theirs plenty of market noise in their although if you looked away from the unmatched money stacked in huge piles all over the show to what was actually happening you would see their was some usefull information, granted it's not always going to be like this although through technical analysis alone i think i may have stumbled on a minor edge today that will help me daily although not in every market. That said i'd rather have an extra string to my bow for a few races a day than not.

Ok, so what we looking at? 3 minutes before post time on the favorite mid afternoon. Obviousy 3 minutes is not alot of time to plot in your head the support and resistance but if you take time to learn the basics then it won't be long before you see it coming. The most interesting bit for me watching this was the first 'break through' as it took some time for the price to break out but once it did their was a high level of resistance where the support once resided... an indication of people being caught out possibly... so, in summary... basic technical analysis does work on the sports exchanges obviously bearing in mind sentiment if you study it carefully! Beware though.... its just a guide.

Over the last week or so i've had a hard time of it trading, maybe down to using too bigger stakes and the less liquidity since the PC3 release... which has made it difficult for me mentally at times so i've took a step back and started to work on my mind a little more, today was the first day since the begining of the month it started to get better again so woohoo!! long may it continue.... 'trading depression' cycle broke as i like to put it.

Forex....

2011-08-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all, thought it's about time i took some time out to broaden my knowledge a bit, the way its all going with Betunfair at the moment it dosen't look particularly good for the future. Obviously it's not going to just disapear and theirs a good chance we might see a complete move to Betdaq over time but thought it wouldn't hurt to start looking into other avenue's even if its for a bit of part time interest providing it don't prove costly!

So why forex? well having looked around a little it appears the better option because theirs less commission costs than other area's. Only time will tell but it looks interesting to say the least! and i love a challenge! Ha....
Now all i need is to find the back and lay buttons and begin my accent apon this mamoth task!!

If only it was going to be as small at the Fan...... fond memories!

Better to burn out than fade away.... July

2011-07-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well.... what a way to end the month! ......A very perculiar week for me, Goodwood.... kind of expected their to be alot of money and it felt like a bit of a let down to be honest.

Just like the clip above it's how i ended the month.... i traded 6 days this week, 5 out of them 6 days every day i had a 'blowout' resulting in not making alot to be honest for the week which was rather disapointing, admitedly all of them were my fault in one sense or another... and so after having tomorrow and maybe monday off im gonna go back to basics a little while with regards to how i aproach the situation mentally, to be honest thats pretty much the only reason i've had these teething problems this week... getting above my station and being greedy, it's mad how my trading can spiral downhill when i start to get a bit complacent and i dont treat my mental approach with the respect it deserves.

So.... the grand total for July.... £1551.14, to be honest i feel i let myself down quite a bit this week but its still a respectable amount given the fact the first 2 weeks of the month i was only doing a couple of hours an evening. It'll be interesting to see what next months results yeild as it'll be my first month of trading full time without any distractions or problems!....... providing my connection don't start playing up again!

What a joke

2011-07-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

So what we looking at? my connection status from speedtest.net for the first half of the day.... fuming, one of the best days this week and this happens, started at about 3.45 and still managed to pull some money but either way i wasnt a happy bunny!

Having called Zen my ISP which i must add's customer service is second to none and tried all the usual stuff, different filter/router and going off the master socket they told me unfortunately i live a long way from the exchange (already knew this) and their had been reported line problems over the last 14 days of which BT had already said they dont really care as they have qoted this post code area 'up to 1mbps' which is fair enough i suppose but when its already a poor quality line and their are obvious issues as the operator said to me.... their is some extra loss 3dB's ...... im assuming he thought i didn't have a clue and was a little shocked when i corrected him as 3dB's = 50% attenuation in power, the image above dosn't really do it justice as that was one of the better score's i got, either way i was running at about 1/3 of the usual speed with eratic spikes. And then as if by magic it went back to normal at 3.45.... after all the good races of course. Can't wait till i've moved to an area with a better quality connection. Fingers crossed it don't happen tomorrow...... pffffft, won't hold my breath.

Not so glorious goodwood

2011-07-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hi all, nearing the end of the month now but thought i'd pop in a short post prior to the months overview......

Not so Glorious Goodwood for me

Well of all people i should be aware of how dangerous expectations can be although coming into this week i expected goodwood to be a little like Ascot, but quite simply i dont think it is.... all the hype but the fill rate considering its supposed to one of the 'big weeks' so far i've found it appaling? Maybe its me trying to be a little bit big for my boots and playing with oversized stakes... but im not really sure it could be to do with the 60% debarcle and Betfair seeding the markets i dont know, either way i cant say im enjoying it yet. Today was middle of the road but yesterday it was a case of 3 steps forward and 2 back.... quite amazingly i managed to put almost 60k thought the markets and only emerged with £17 profit, it leaves me thinking im not quite sure how the likes of Peter Webb, Adam Heathcote etc can make such massive amounts in a single race, i mean they must be using stakes similar to i have attempted over the last couple of days on usual races where the flow and liquidity are far far smaller, surely they must find themselves in some positions where it goes wrong and their stake is nearly impossible to get out? On a brighter note though I must say though frankel's performance today was rather impressive, i shouldn't moan as it beats grafting for a living i suppose.

I'd be interested to hear what others have thought of the markets over the course of the week, don't seem quite right to me.

Betdaq liquidity continues to grow!

2011-07-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all, been a funny week this week... i've used betfair at times although am starting to like betdaq more and more!, with a bit more liquidity it will be good enough to make similar figures.... and some decent software... only other gripe would be response time for betdaq's API although i suppose everyones at the same disadvantage..... a screenshot from one i did today on Betdaq, using the basic version of Betangel obviously as theirs not Geeks Toy as yet... just shows it cant be done!! I've seen on some the forums some of the bigger traders have been making some nice totals too!! 2.5% commission aswell wooo!

Will be interesting to see how glorious goodwood goes next week, hopefully the momentum continues and we see a near on total transformation to betaq over the next few months!

Green and purple.... a nice combination

2011-07-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hi all! So after a little bit of small stakes playing about on betdaq (£2) i realised i had an email in my inbox from them telling me my first bet of £30 should it now win i would recieve a complimentary £30 bet.... rookie stuff really overlooking that so i called them this morning to see if i could get it back as most of my P/L's on betdaq didnt exceed 26p.... gotta try your luck right? the nice woman on the phone assured me if i called them after my first bet lost as a gesture of good will they would credit me the suplementing free bet.......

Never had to call them back to get the free bet as it didnt loose.... happy day's, nice little bonus in the bag! long may the good stuff and betdaq continue!!

Hopefully i can get some trading in tomorrow and saturday as theirs some bigger meetings, not done alot lately which is rather naughty as could do with the cash!! couldn't we all ha!

Finally its arrived, although circumstances could of been better....

2011-07-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well after a rather hectic last month of trying juggle family life, trading and a trainning course in with leaving my previous job the 'moment' has arrived im now free to spend my days trading full time without the half-hearted sessions!! Although this should have been a good moment that i have been looking forward to for a long time its just typical it should come as the new 'Premium Charge 2' debarkle unfolds, long term im not sure nor nieve enough to think it could be all ok. It wont effect me directly as im not over the threshold although its most definately concerning as Betfairs future looks to be rather bleak.... that said although i havent traded for about 4 days i had a look at the markets today and while betfairs markets looked pretty shakey Betdaq liquidity had increased somewhat, at this stage its too early to tell but the future could be over at Betdaq. I'm going to join all who have decided to go to betdaq in protest for as long as i can tomorrow although feel a little daunted by it as its new, hopefully the Geek will release a betdaq version soon!

One thing i have noticed though over previous weeks with this deliberate 'pushing' about of the markets by large sums is that it is possible to work out at times where their is liability that needs to be closed, and if you time it right in the last 30 seconds say it is possible to make a nice little earner on their 'closing' of a very large position. Obviously its a bit of a difficult one but i think should the thin markets continue its something that can be a great help, especially if its the same on Betdaq!

35 of 38..... Happy days!

2011-07-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hellooo all, well hows everyone been finding the markets since the new PC plans have been anounced?? Personally i think their has been a bit of a change although im really not sure why, today in particular the markets seemed particularly difficult to wangle out any decent trades. On the whole it seemed rather thin and choppy with alot of pushing and pulling, the only real solid races were the ones on channel 4 i thought... is it just me?

That said if you've seen above the result wasnt so bad, i was rather consistent although them results don't really show how my day trading went. So many times i was on a decent amount for the race to only reduce it to a couple of quid in the dieing stages, although i shouldnt complain as a total of 35 out of 38 is rather respectable, at time's i sat back and watched alot and avoided getting in trouble using smaller stakes due to the nature of the markets flying about all over the place!

It just goes to show though you dont need to be using huge amounts to have a half decent day, i might try and have a dabble on Betdaq soon and see if it can be much more difficult over their.... after all in theory it shouldnt be too much different as with less liquidity sometimes you can achieve similar results to a more fluid market with larger stakes. Might be a little more challenging mentally mind....

Whooooaaa!!

2011-07-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

Evening all!! Just a quick post, check this pup out!!! One of the biggest moves i've seen ever i think, was mental... someone had some serious money on that beast, i counted at least 3 3k lumps come crashing in on the way down although im sure their was far more at the top to create such a reaction, maybe someone took on some rather large liability at the top which helped the move out? either way whoever the punter was lost out on a few quid as the horse come second! ....maybe someone who is due to pay 60% in a couple of weeks thought what the hell and had their balance on it? lol

June.....

2011-06-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Good evening all, well, June's been a bit of a month of mixed sorts for me mainly due to relocating to the other end of the country to complete a course for a month prior to leaving my previous position. As your probably well aware i've had all sorts of dramas with getting connected to the exchange and managed to miss over a weeks worth of evenings to trade which was a shame to say the least! on top of that my plans to go full time have been cast into dobt with the recent betfair situation stating they want 60% PC for users who have earnt 250k over the lifetime of their account! although it will only effect 500 odd users initially i dobt its going to do betfair any favours on the whole, it wont effect me for a long time yet although something to think about as they could always bring the threshold down should they get even greedier!.. mind they'd probably have significantly less customers then.

Anyway on to my antics! lol... Started the month much like last month rather well and its been very consistent, started to up the stakes a little and that paid off well too at times, had the 8 or 9 days off due to the connection stuff and felt a little unconfident coming back to it aswell as not having any live pictures! ... started off a cracker had a great day.... to go and blow about 60% of the days profit in the last two markets, a psycological wounder! ... left me feeling like shit even though i knew why it was ... to bigger stakes again! ... left me trading a couple of days where i felt like i'd lost my touch, that said this week it picked up again nicely and its back to business. Havent really noticed any massive changes yet since the betfair announcement 2 days ago but sure the markets might change a little!

June's result - £1,440.21

Not so bad considering i didn't trade at all over a week and most days i only have a couple of hours in the evening. I've started reading some interesting material on Neuro Linguistic Programming too which looks like it could be productive even though im familiar with most the techniques previously just didnt realise its particular name.... Thanks for all the comments on the previous post too guys, its good to know some enjoy the read.

oh and if your wondering what the picture's about..... its 'Mrs June' :)

Self worth.....

2011-06-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Good evening all, thought it was about time i did a proper post as its been hectic lately particularly with this course and the connection issues ive had i posted about previously! .... so... i hadnt traded for a week untill today, which is alot for me and i'd been rather anxious having gone so long not touching the markets, in a way i felt as though i might have lost my touch and not be able to produce?! That said it was quite the opposite at first, im not sure if i was drawing some confidence from the fact i have a faster connection than usual athough im certain that could not be the connection that made me started so well.
Now i say "started" because it went rather wrong later on, had i not made 2 mistakes todays labour would have produced me with a return just shy of £200... that said i made one mistake after a couple of hours being rather aggressive and overconfident, and the 2nd was daft as i see a big bet being dragged down, once i jumped infront at £14 a tick it got swallowed up with a massive lay leaving me high and dry.. these things happen i suppose!

So your probably thinking by now why's this post called self worth?

So we know our beliefs and values drive us as individuals into making certain decisions that shape us. So is it possible that some of us don't succeed because we dont value ourselves enough?? for me i feel this could be quite possible... when im in a trade more often than not once the trade reaches £10+ profit im in a bit of a scramble to close out and if i dont its a real struggle! Why is this?... these trades are often the best trades of the day when im on a good swing, i guess it all comes down to 'why am i getting out' is it because conditions dictate or is it because i value myself at £10+?? also once i meet this target in a market i tend to take my foot off the gas, could my self worth belief be restricting me? i think its quite possible.

Were back in business...

2011-06-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

Woop Woop, just a quick one to say were back in business!! after much messing about im not connected up through BT Openzone.... and its a hell alot faster than my usual connection, will be interesting to see if it effects results at all, fun begins again tommorrow!

Disaster strikes!!!!

2011-06-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! what a nightmare i've had this week! As i previously said i've gone away for a month on a course to become qualified in other areas i really dont intend on using such things althoguh its always good to have a safety net to fall back on i suppose. That said i tipped up at the hotel i would be staying in for the course and having previously checked the hotels download speed was not 12mbps as they said but even worse their upload speed is 0.06mbps.... is that even classed as a connection?!?! And so the panic began! i rushed down to the local ASDA after a conversation on the phone to vodaphone they claimed i'd get between 3 - 6mbps on a 3G dongle... as suspected it wasnt as much and wasnt going to be tradable, at this point i noticed a flyer in the room advertising Orange WiFi hot-spots, duly paid the £4.50 for 24 hours of usage.... not alot if it was going to alow me to trade and sweeet bliss in and booming to the tune of 6Mbps download and 2mbps upload... faster than my home connection.... it was all great untill i hit the enter button after putting in my betfair details... "betfair has detected you are accessing betfair from a destination in a country where its use is not permited: France" .... GUTTED!! phoned them up and yes their servers supplying the WiFi run from France...... back to square one 2 connections that are pants that i can use and one that is rapid that i cannot access the exchange on! after much fiddeling about i've discovered if i hang the dongle out the window on an extension cable and get it just right i have enough speed to trade ... just about.... its reliability im not so sure of though, i may attempt to trade a little from time to time with small stakes but it's gonna have to be just the weekends untill half way thoguh next month i suppose.... a shame as my results were going well of late, i havent traded since the 18th but at that point i'd already reached £1084.44 ... almost the same for the entire last month! Hey ho onwards and upwards i suppose..... Next month ill be going 'Pro' so suppose its when the real fireworks can start woo hoo lol can't wait!

EDGES are ten-a-penny.......

2011-06-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

.................but execution is EVERYTHING!

Evening chaps, well what a week its been! finish work tomorrow for good and start a course for a month monday to get me qualified in cable & fibre installation, but if the truth be known im really not interested! reason being trading is booming in my opinion! although i've not really had much chance this week apart from the evenings and maybe catching the last race at Ascot each day its been a hell of ride!!! had a few screenshots of late i know but please excuse me as im particularly happy with my results today as i've been back and forth trying to catch as much as i can in-between looking after the nipper, was unlucky in the only ascot race i caught as i was going well and managed to go from +43 to -4 in a matter of seconds before the off with almost 2k in the market! madness... but hey gotta push the boundries right ?!?!

Stakes

........before now as im sure almost all of us have including myself gone back through Mr Heathcotes blog and read just about every post, and one always stuck out in my head with his results.. it was along the lines of average per day: Jan - £30, Feb - £55, March - £329, April £500, May £900. Aproximately what he had so please dont quote me but ya get the point... after seeing this i thought is this guy talking crap? is that possible? and for quite a while i thought it was exagerated... but now im certain it's not he was obviously just increasing his stakes, rather rapidly too i might add!
Now im not saying im the same as i most certainly am not but he could obviously cope with them sort of stakes without it altering his perception somewhat, which takes us nicely back to the title. EDGES are ten-a-penny.... their is any number of ways to approach a market and still be right but the ultimate edge is knowing yourself and understanding your boundries and more importantly your mind, and so execution of your move becomes EVERYTHING! ............... take the 19.05 above, i was wrong with quite alot of my decisions in that race but the execution was good!! Hopefully i'll finish early enough tomorrow to get nearly all the Ascot card! untill the next time folks....

Hayfever & today..

2011-06-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Evening all, today i started the day with a spot of gardening mowing the lawn etc (really didnt want to but it was getting bad) which started off a rather nasty bout of hayfever.
Hate it with a passion... anyhow onto this afternoon, apart from spending the afternoon sniffeling and eyes streaming it wasn't too bad, it didn't seem to have an impact on my trading anyway.

In comparison to previous weeks i seem to know where im at now and although i sat in my comfort zone for pretty much all of today i could have been far worse. The one thing i did seem to enjoy today that i dont usually as much was a spot of scalping in some of the more high quality meetings, i felt almost like id not made the most of some situations available afterwards but i suppose its always easier after!

All in all a decent result, but if one things clear its absolutely all in your head this game.....

Swing trading....

2011-06-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Evening all, been a bit of a crazy spell of late.. and just the last few days i've found the markets a little more tricky... maybe thats because its the begining of the week? who knows found yesterday particularly difficult with 2 cards that were quite frankly naff in quality.

Anyhow i should be being grateful and not getting above my station... on to the topic in hand - Swing trading! everyones favorite haha! when it goes right that is. So where do i start?.... swing trading much like trading in general is a bit of strange one as its potentially one of the most difficult things to master in the sense that you have to resist the urge of getting out of a good position in order to see what happens next! i mean after all the market can do anything whenever it wants and you have to play along with that as there are so many variables that effect each situation making it unique and different, even the best traders i believe dont know whats going to happen next but more a case of they are open minded enough to let it run when they think their in a good position and get out when they think theirs a chance they could be wrong! far easier said than done and i assure you im no big shot (yet lol) although im getting better.
Above is a rather good example from a swing i caught at ripon last week when i was thinking of posting up on this topic! I remember this trade vividly as for a start thats a really good result for me out of one race aswell as i was burning to get out for an age it seemed although it was more like a minute... i had not used a huge stake either but i managed to sit on my hand long enough to let it run... in the end i got out and it continued, sod's law but i think i did the right thing at that point in time although i think a little "market noise" scared me into thinking i'd loose a chunk of it! The main stake i've underlined entry/exit and you'll see at times theirs a little scaling in/out and the odd cheeky scalp in their too.

Ok so by now your probably burning to know why i waited?!... lol first off i'd had a look at the market for a minute or so, checked the bookies odds etc just to see if there was any stand out moves... a couple in the race looked pretty weak as they'd drifted and this runner had closed but only slightly, along with that there was a bit of a difference in price as it looked a little to big on betfair... again i thought on it a little and watched entered for half my stake and didn't really look like was gonna move then a little flury of cash appeared as the market started to 'form' so i went in for another £75 catching the last few quid at that price, almost instantly i was a tick or 2 in hand, at that point i was thinking of taking some out the market to move my green/red crossover and had it not moved a little more i probably would of although it then seemed to be the only real runner attracting some support so quite simply i waited constantly re-assesing the situation! sounds so simple eh? it is lol... the biggest hurdle is getting your mind straight and seeing what is happening and believing in it without feeling attatched to the outcome or loosing out if it dosn't quite go as expected. All in all you can see from the BF graph there was a few quid for that one as id didnt really go back out!

STJ Overview...

2011-06-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all, as promised for those who are interested i thought i'd embark on bit of a quick review of Jack Birkheads Sports Trading Journey... so here goes!

Who's it aimed at?

Ok so one of the first questions a few have asked me is who is this course aimed at?... obviously in fear of being thrown in the deep end early on. When i first started the journey i didnt think it would start as basic as it does, the first few weeks jack starts off with all the settings he uses and more importantly why he has things set as he does before progressing onto other things i think most under rate when starting out such as understanding liquidity in the markets, the different types and how to view them on initial inspection. For someone starting out this can be quite important in my opinion!

What's it like?, how does it work? what does it include?

Ok so originally the journey started structured so nobody could view the next video untill a week had passed and this is still an option as i understand it although those who pay up front can jump forward now on request, i liked the idea of having to wait as it kinda gives the user time to digest what they've learnt that week and put it into practice a few times before moving on the following week trying to progress too quick, although understandably not everybody is just starting out.
Each week there is new videos to watch as i mentioned previously under a new heading, with a different situation.. sometimes there's a few videos and others there's a couple although Jack ensures he'll be adding to it over time.
Here's a few title's for the kind of stuff you can expect... Setup, Analysing a market, turning analysis into practice, american racing, going with the trend, reversal in the trend, resistance points, scalping etc etc.
A few of those titles there really helped me as although i was already trading like this it helped me to see the oportunities more effectively.
Further to all the videos of Jack trading and comentating on what he's doing and why he's doing it their's an articles section and a forum for all the members to share their thoughts on the days events aswell as a Q & A Section for the video's Jack answers regularly.

My personal take on it all....

Ok so i started the journey with alot of optamism having seen one of jacks promotional videos about a year ago for Bet72.com, theirs alot of cons out there with ebooks and the like but i've found the whole STJ experience to be extremely helpful... if you've been following the blog you'll of noticed my profits have started to take off nicely now and i've gotta give some of the credit to Jacks site although as he says having the right mentality is a huge part of being successful too, a regular topic on the forum also it's worth bearing in mind i've been trading almost a year now so if your thinking about starting its unlikely your going to be massive profits straight away.

So in a nutshell is it worth it? absolutely yes! in my opinion its well worth its price and more.

Obviously i cant show you any content from 'inside' so i'll leave you with the 'guided tour' video on the site;

Guided Tour

May...

2011-05-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hi all sorry for the lack of posts lately, all the time i've had spare i've either been trading or doing other things getting ready to leave at work, i've got a busy few months ahead of me so thought its best to start getting organised now! to that end a bit of a double-post for yesterday and the month.

Saturday -

Spent more or less all day trading yesterday as i had the day to myself, with races more or less every 5 minutes was barely time to breathe, got off to a good start followed by my usual trademark of doing something stupid followed by a bit more stupidity and finally getting a grip to come back for a mediocre return. Below show's the race by race results... I've circled the mistakes and its obvious after a couple of blowout races my mind wasnt right, had a bread for an hour or so and come back with a fresh head. Something thats important should i plan to do this full time.

May -

This months been a bit of a roller coaster ride towards the end mainly because i've started to push myself out of the comfort zone after a slow build up of confidence in what im doing, and as above its evident at times using larger stakes theirs a fine line between a big green and a big red. All in all though i couldnt be happier with progress!! I've started keeping track in excel of my efforts... Running total of profit shown below;

As you can see its quite obvious i've started to hit the sweet spot this last couple of weeks, the next one show's Daily P/L, Time traded to nearest 15 mins, and the biggest red of the day... i did this to highlight to myself its not always about making lots of money but more the case of not loosing so much, as you can imagine on saturday had i not them blowouts my overal total profit could of been trebble what i ended at! A definate area for focus although i do except having the occasional big red is all part of it, maybe i'll just focus a little more on when i can turn the pressure on with the stakes etc. Should add seeing the graph dosn't do it justice and the excel spreadsheets not in view i traded 60 hours this month.

So where does that leave me now? we'll im quite happy with that and hope to continue as i am, its been a little difficult lately as theirs less to blog about other than 'im doing well, i made a mistake but its ok' ... ill try to make future posts as interesting as possible although their likely to be more weekly than every other day, i'll do a review of the STJ as i said in my previous post as i think thats helped me greatly and maybe a post on swing trading as its my favorable way of trading but other than that im open to suggestions.

Finished well today with only 2 losses in the couple of hours i did, amazing how when ya have the right attitude it makes such a difference.

Crazy times!!

2011-05-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ola all, where do i start?? what a week its been!

Probably one of the strangest changes i have experienced in my life seems to have taken place in the last 2 weeks? probably more so in the last week... and being very contious of it means its more likely to be here for the long haul hopefully. So what's new? as i said in my previous post not alot really in terms of what i actually 'do' in the market but more a case of how im feeling about it all, that it turn has an effect on my actions in terms of responding quickly and of course not getting envolved when im not confident.

Not loosing is probably more important than winning alot of the time and its suprising how if you 'feel' a certain way towards trading it will in-turn iron out some of the creases if you already have a good edge on the market. This evening i did just under 2 hours trading and was'nt all that far off matching my daily wage (after deductions obviously) in such a small amount of time, its a great feeling although im aware i need to keep a level head on it as at points it feels like a bit of a dream!!

So what brought on such a change? Bit of a lucky mixture of things i think... firstly the enforced break i took right of the beginning of the month when i went to see some family, starting some relaxation techniques again, not pressuring myself quite as much in general and to be honest i probably owe a bit to the members of the Sports Trading Journey for the continual posative debate and feedback on the forum. It can be very difficult when your trying to progress with trading and outside influence towards it is constantly negative purely because the people you talk to about it simply dont understand, thanks guys! I've had a few people get in touch lately asking about the STJ course... maybe with jacks permission once its over ill do a bit of an overview on it if anyones interested as i know starting out its hard to sift the bollox ebooks and advice from the good stuff. Anyhow its a school night and past my bedtime! as Cilla would say..........

Tiredness can kill.... the bank

2011-05-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

Evening all, been a bit of a hectic week this week with one thing and another although i've managed to catch the tail end of most the york meetings, of which i've found the markets to be rather rewarding. Having said that i dont really think the markets have been any different to usual, maybe a little more cash but not different enough to make such a drastic change there seems to have been in my results! I think i've changed while trading more than anything, im using slightly larger stakes again although feel somewhat more comfortable with them at the moment.. the only problem being using larger stakes if your not careful it can hurt... that said its not always a reflection of ability. Yesterday about 30 seconds before post i got caught when a whoping 6k bet come in altering the market significantly, a while back it would of effected me badly although yesterday didnt suprisingly... i think there's been a shift in attitude, also i'd just like to say im ever grateful for the comments people post up as 'Anons' last comment sat with me and has helped a little i feel, thanks! Today there was a blip as you can see below although i put it down to being tired, had happened in the races previous too as you can see... bit of a shame as it would of been a nice result without it, that said i did the right thing having a break, something i might plan out before i start more particularly if i've been at work.

As you can see the P/L is a little jumpy although thats me being greedy at times, maybe i'd do well to keep my green instead of trying to double it up in some races once i have a buffer to play with. Seems strange how a shift in attitude can make such drastic differences, just need to be aware of where im at now and keep it going a few weeks just to keep my mind solid and believe i can make good money consistently.

Take it on the chin....

2011-05-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

My least favorite saying, probably because i hear it at least 5 times a week at work when i've been screwed over for no apparent reason.... usually so someone seniour dosen't look stupid despite their mistake. Similarly its something i seem to struggle with trading at times, and as Anon kindly pointed out at the end of my last post if i just 'take it on the chin' without it getting to me ill get where i want to be alot faster. That rang true today as i took the approach to trade to the best of my ability just taking what the market gave me, regardless of win/loose and it worked out rather well as i also broke my single race total since cheltenham... a small milestone although a posative one none the less!

Saturday... spoke too soon?

2011-05-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

Spoke too soon? So the plan today was to start nice and steady building up into it, if you look at the graph above thats the days results over 40 markets, started steady and consistent taking up to £5 out of each race, its fair to say i got a little bored... caught a nice swing on one race believe it or not with that £14 win early on i only put £150 through the market, from there onwards maybe i was a little over confident and also looking for bigger greens... all good stuff although i massively overstaked on a fav laying it for £600... double what i usually alow myself to put in, you guessed it from there it got smashed so hard i couldnt get my stake out until litterally 8 ticks later loosing me £53 in one hit. Guess when you break ya own rules this is what happens, took a quick breather and cracked on. It played on my mind for some time afterwards but i eventually managed to find my flow towards the end as you can see finishing with £38 more than i started, it could of been worse i suppose!! Towards the end i started to up my stakes marginally although across the board not just erratically, that said trading was better too.

I think i let it get to me a little today too at points where i was right but either got in too early or out too late, i got out on one drifter at 1.85 to watch it continue to 2.12... its always easier said afterwards but as soon i got out i knew it was too soon, need to work on being patient at times as this sort of thing happens quite a bit to me. Bit of Churchill downs action with the Kentucky Derby tonight, i think i can bend my no US races rule a little for this one.

Less talk more action......

2011-05-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Evening chaps, well its been a rather eventful start to the month with regards to many things for me although trading hasn't been one of them thus far! and as boring as it is im beginning to see that side of the coin that all the 'pro' traders i've spoken to harp on about. I've banged on in the past about how all this behaviour, emotion and perseption malarky really has a drastic effect on our trading and decisions... much the case of i know and have read how to deal with it and what to do etc, but have not actually managed it (hence the title) for any longer than a day really and the next daft mistake's always just been around the corner.

So whats new? nothing, its all the same but it would appear after a bit of an unplanned enforced 'no trading' period due to different things and the bitter taste left in my mouth from the mistakes at the end of last month something's changed... my outlook on it all maybe, i cant really put my finger on it to be honest.
This last week i've missed many races i might of been able to trade but due to knowing it wasnt the best idea be it through stress or not being prepared etc a bitter pill i've not managed to take before, not only that when im trading my attitudes been rather laxed too. I've not been highly strung or eager to get on lumping in all the time, i suppose to sum it up i've only been putting trades on 'objectively' and acting in my own interests overal, less risk taking has been envolved and yes this really does take the fun out of the trading, in fact its really quite boring and dull!! although the returns are not massive i've had no sizable losses either, thinking about it my strike rates improved alot.

I really do hope this is a long term change for me, as one of the full timers said to me a long time back... and at the time i didn't really quite believe it.... "trading really is boring, thats the best way, just get your kicks spending the cash rather than making it". Obviously to not understand that fully i was doing something wrong, its one of those realisations i suppose where i knew it all along but just wasnt doing it!

April... a waste of time? maybe

2011-05-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well thats it for April, the results are in... -£15.34 ....

So how did this happen after last month success?? ....Although i know im not really too sure how i let it happen. A bit of a strange month all in all, think it was mainly a case of a few 'blips' that shouldnt of made any real difference although i dwelt on them a bit much and managed to pull myself down mentally getting stuck in a rut. And then i broke the vicious circle! in record time as shown in a previous post... only to go and break my own methodology a few times reaping more mental termoil that wasn't welcome, the result being a waste of time in april. Or was it? i mean mistakes are just little bits of the puzzle when learning right?, unfortunately i've done this puzzle before!
Looking at my calendar next to my desktop that i still score off every day i don't go IR through ill discipline i've started to make small note's, i only started to do this in the 3rd week of this month but it highlights just how wasteful and daft i've been.... here's the notes for 18th - 21st, format being time traded, profit made, any stupid mistakes....

Monday - 2 hrs (time traded) Profit £27.24, 1 stupid mistake -£15
Tuesday - 1 hr Profit £22.70, Good
Wednesday - 2 1/2 hrs Profit -£1.17, stupidity staking what a nob -£52
Thursday - Few evening races, Profit £11.43, overstaked -£21

As you can see thats pretty rediculous £60 odd profit for the 4 days and £85 worth of stupid mistakes, im glad i started to make a note of that as i wouldnt of realised quite how wasteful i've been beeing! and all that was before the LTD and the suspension on the US races problems.... really quite wasteful, this month ill be focusing on not making so many mistakes rather than making more per race. I've been away this weekend so missed all the newmarket action and its the mrs birthday tomorrow so wont be making use of the bank holiday unfortunately, although that said the flat really starts to heat up now so im still grateful theirs no shortfall of opportunities to be had!!

Testing the water....

2011-04-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

The last week or so i've been thinking about IR trading and although its completely against my code of trading i was thinking picking a few Back to lay selections each day could be worth the while, particularly if i can DOB (Double or Bust) them... Now first things first, this is something that needs to be kept sensible! so for now im going to record all results and use £5 stake, one entry one exit for the selections... Im focusing solely on front runners i can identify the evening before using timeform and the like, so far i've had a look at this and picked some massive moves yet not had any cash in there, sod's law. How's it going to work? First ill pick the selections being rather selective, ill have a look at my selection pre-race... just to check its on its toes etc raring to go as front runners are usually the jittery type, then i'll either get my back in pre race or imidiately after the stalls break (ill be doing flat racing only) with the view of leaving my exit at half the price i entered unless their are complications. If i dont think theirs value, the horse isnt up for it or misses the break if i leave it that late ill simply not place the back. Worst case it dosent hit the front and i try to exit for smallest loss, worst case £5. I'll update how it goes at some point in the future! Wish me luck!

Tomorrow i have 2 choices;

(18:30) Independant Girl
(16.10) Pertemps Networks

Also thanks for all the feedback and comments, it's reasuring to know others have similar issues and problems. Feedback's always appreciated.

What a plonker....

2011-04-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, just to say im sick of being a plonker! The other night i was trading away with ATR on in the background (US nags) and foolishly wasnt watching but listening to the commentary, lay spike come in took all my orders and the market went suspended... £100 down the drain, im not gonna bother with the US nags for a while as mistakes like that have put me back about 200 US races as on average i only clear about 50p a race... maybe ill do tuesday nights as it seems the only night of week where theirs money for them. All in all my new goal for this month is just to finish on £0 and not at a loss, a bit of a shock after last months success but it just shows theirs such a fine line between profit and loss.... a few stupid errors and a bad attitude and the results are turned on their head! only got 2 days to do it as im away for the weekend, good luck all, keep it green!

This weekends rant.....

2011-04-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

well, well, well............ what can i say? What a crap weekends but it really didnt have to be....

Saturday - This saturday was one of the two trading saturdays i do each month (agreement with the mrs) something thats becoming a reocuring issue, and so the mrs and the nipper poped out for the day early doors while i stayed to get stuck into the cards and prep for the day, come 1.30 i'd done all my preperation and the like and was raring to go, the only runner for the day i decided to back to lay ran in this race... i'd identified it as a strong front runner at a nice price (17.0) and so planned to back it at the best possible price pre-race and lay inrunning for some extra reddies, it was well backed prior to the start and missed the entry so decided to leave it... sods law front run all the way and won, no real drama their... after about 3 or 4 races i was starting to get my funk on and was in the 'opportunity flow' and fully aware of this, think i went for 8 or so without a loss and some nice profits. And so the problems began, 8 sodding text messages and a phone call in less than 5 mins later i was rather pissed off and had blown £20 up the wall in one race, well and truly out of the flow!! come around 4 o'clock i was back in the groove and some £60 up for my efforts. You guessed it too good to be true? again the mrs gets home along with some family and states you can carry on... along with that look of, 'can you stop now' ...dropping in i have been out all day so you can trade.... (i know what your thinking and yes she does know their are no horse races before around 2 o'clock). At this point i really should of just stopped, instead i got rather wound up by it all and carried on... loss followed by loss followed by loss, 3 races later and half the profit i decided to sack it well and truly pissed off.

Sunday - Today although i wasnt trading the horses i had identified one football match earlier in the week which was an absolute stand out to me and had been uming and arring all week as to if i should lay the draw. The match - Celtic v Rangers........ these two teams absolutely hate eachother bookings are rife, last 23 meetings had never ended in a 0 - 0 draw etc.... so i layed the draw 50% stake 32 mins in and 50% just before half time and did a little half time scalping, what could go wrong? it was end to end stuff and surely a goal was soon to be.... well... at around 70 mins into play there had been no goal and i was looking at around a -£45 position, the game was really heating up and it most definately looked like there was to be a goal soon, at this point the mrs pipes up you promised to take us out to bla bla at 2 o'clock...... what a position to be in given the previous days tensions.... do i trade out for a bit of a loss with a goal surely soon or let it run and line up a hedge should their be a goal? again one seriously unhappy bunny i let it run.... believe their was a penalty but they fluffed it... final result -£169.64

This leave's me back at evens for the month almost, the LTD probably shouldnt of let it run and probably should of just left it as it was and stuck to the horses, something i will do in future now. Been a really naff month so far and its been daft mistake after daft mistake, the difference between last month and this month... one week left hopefully i can pull a few quid out the bag... bit of a rant their chaps but had to get it off my chest and hopefully some can sympatise with my situation... it leads me to the question does my lifestyle alow me to get in the state of mind and trade as and when, all too often these sort of things happen and its starting to get to me a bit. That said i suppose ultimately im responsible! wish me luck for the last week of the month!

Out of the tunnel and into the light!!

2011-04-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

Only a few races and some pretty mediocre results but its far far more than that! I'm really quite happy with myself because I seem to have broken the 'vicious circle' quicker than i have ever managed before, hopefully this is going to be a long term thing as it can really become quite a hard slog against yourself when you get it in your head you cant make any money from the markets anymore.. if you've been a reader for a while you probably have realised in the past its took me at least a week and far far more the majority of the time. It can be a real pain in the arse.

The solution is really quite simple, time out re-adjust a little bit of work on the mind and start again nice and steady (as above) and maintain it for a few days. It might seem boring but is making money really boring? or just what we all seek when trading, arguably at times its not why we trade?! probably a rather big difference that exists between the professionals and the learners. I've found a few different methods to help me focus, and get in the right enviroment mentally for trading, something else i'd stopped prior to my little problems last week or so. Also its evident if some things arent right in day to day life then they need sorting first... see Maslows Theory

Rather deep i know, but im learning fast this sort of stuff is really important to consistency and progression, and so i feel as though i've walked out of the tunnel of paranoia and into the light of posativity. And the result speaks for itself.

Better days....

2011-04-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Finally it seems the better weather is here to stay (hopefully) today i barely had the chance to trade and was busy with some other stuff but i noticed a massive amount of bikers appearning on the roads now the weather has changed... and it made me feel rather sick as i sold my pride and joy (as above) at the end of last summer, wounder!
This lead me to thinking how everything i ever seem interested in is classed as risky to a certain degree, a flaw in my charachter perhaps? my job, motorbikes, adrenaline sports oh and of course trading! LOL ....and it would seem it is a flaw as far as trading is concerned at least as to make money in this game quite simply all you have to do is be consistent and manage risk accordingly.. the one thing i let myself down with time and time again, but why do i do it? I go on long stints of consistency playing the game as it should before a sharp blow, and 99% of the time its due to not managing my stakes correctly and getting over excited with the clicking. Its really starting to get to me after today i spent an hour trading and finished a measly £3 up... had i not made 2 mistakes in that hour overstaking and getting click happy i would have been £34 up, this happens almost daily at the moment and seems the only difference between when im having a good streak and my results this month... this week alone i have made around £230 but lost £200 due to this kind of behaviour. The worst thing its starting to effect my state of mind towards trading again, something that definately needs adressing, any suggestions welcome :)

Vicious circle

2011-04-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Not a great deal to report lately, found the markets a little of a struggle again... hence the vicious circle, it would seem i consistently build on my confidence and my profits grow trending steadily to be shortly followed by a sharp blow (like last saturday - previous post) this then has a knock on effect with my mental state and performance and as 'sods law' goes each and every time this happens it would seem other distractions appear in day to day life that take trading time off me.... the result being confidence blow followed by frustration and lack of time, its really quite dificult to break the cycle at times im sure much like last month ill get my act together again sooner or later but its really quite frustrating... im just wondering how many times it will take before this sequence of events will begin to fade?!?! But it wont beat me... as Thomas Edison once said;

"Many of lifes failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up"

Absolutely distraught

2011-04-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Barney curley runner had my pants down, around 5.6 it would seem some cash was mounting up for it.... I duly backed for £400 .... all money vanished heaps on the lay column... i got out by about 7.0 ..... absolutely gutted, what a mug.... pfft gonna have a few days off after a frustrating week and a really tiering day. At least i managed to stop myself from going IR with it, by far the toughest test yet (-£72).

Today on the whole was really tiering for me i found and it shew in the results, up until the national i was having a good day, in fact the best i've had in a while... after the national i suffered a -£43 race which pissed me off, i was starting to loose focus and managed to loose in 5 markets consecutively afterwards putting me from about £75 up prior to the national back into -£20 for the day some 5 or 6 races later. Stopped had a break, shook myself out and come back with a better attitude to get myself back in the green by £10 before the last at wolves.... And then that on the curley runner above.... pffft all in all 41 markets later and im down by £62....worn out, wound up... distraught pffffft such is life, suppose if theirs a posative to be had inbetween my bouts of loosing my mindset and getting caught out not predefining risk properly i did make something like £105 today... just a shame i lost £167 through being a twat. (that's not including all the +/- races inbetween, just an overview)

Little fish, big pond...

2011-04-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Not alot to report of late.. in fact not as much time to trade as usual but hopefully ill catch a bit of aintree this week if i can and put my new found cheltenham experience to use. So i've been thinking how i could improve and adapt a little.... now i know alot of traders view trading the favorite as 'feeding the sharks' as the big influences in the market control the favorite and can provide some sporadic moves at times leaving ya thinking how the hell did that happen but i sometimes trade the favorite... and seeing it has the superiour fill rate and most price movement in almost every race im going to attempt to trade the favorite more and more, if not all of the time!! and so the little fish (me) ventures deeper into the bigger pond (fav's) in the hope i dont get swallowed by the bigger fish instantaniously!! There were points particularly earlier in the year where i thought its almost impossible to trade the favorite with consistent success but im feeling a little braver now, i think possibly the favorite requires a rather specific mental aproach.... of which i think im more equiped now, hopefully ill crack it as the favorites definately where the money is!! wish me luck!!

March, not bad for a part time effort!

2011-03-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

Well after some depressing antics in Jan and a long hard slog in Feb its all coming together... rather impressively i must say!! the last few days all by a few blips have been an utter joy to trade, long may it continue!!

Be warned... this may turn into a bit of a ramble!....

So... £737.81 for the month, I must say im definately happy with that!! 509 markets is quite a few though and the overall average would seem poor although alot of markets there are US races of an evening in which i make far far less than the UK, anyway at this point im not so worried about averages.

So what changed so much to bring on such a flurry of cash?? particularly so in the last couple of weeks??

Nothing really, my edge has remained the same.. i still see the markets the same as is my analysis, however this month there has been a profound change in me, my mind, as i've been banging on about in previous posts. As you can see from the last 20 races my P/L is alot more consistent... infact i think its far more important to learn to take less per race and build on your confidence in yourself and your edge building a rock steady belief in what your doing works.... the funny thing is once you start to get to this stage you actually start making more per market anyway without trying!!! Take the last race there i probably put alot of cash through the grinder but the most i had in at any one time was no more than £100, and by doing that i was far less worried about getting caught out meaning i entered and exited the market a hell of alot more. The power of being posative and a belief in what your doing should not be underestimated in all walks of life but particularly in trading... let me tell you a short story...
During my time in the military i passed through a period of trainning and a set of arduous tests to become 'para-trained' and work along side the parachute regiment, on completion i was sent away to take part in a basic parachuting course with many others of which the young trainnees that would go on to join the parachute regiment joined us... these young lads had done the same as I although straight after 26 weeks of basic trainning for the para's, during them 26 weeks they are basically taught day in day out early morning to late at night that everyone and everything is crap except them, they are aswome in every way, hard as nails etc.... as you can imagine after 26 weeks of this every day each individuals belief system has changed significantly.... i witnessed this whilst on the course one day in the cookhouse (cafeteria if you like) where two of them decided to fall out with eachother over something rather trivial..... a fight ensued for about 10 whole minutes, you can imagine tables turned, plates smashed bloodied faces etc, nightmare!! the RAF police arrived and attempted to stop it although they had not been subjected to such belief systems.. despite their being more of them they still come out worse off!!

Now thats a rather extreme example of how belief systems can effect us but its exactly the same in trading, if you dont believe your consistent and profitable in the long term you wont be, just like the RAF police, (weak as p*ss!) why because your actions mirror your beliefs and you'll do things and get yourself in situations where and unconsistent outcome will occur. Now its a bit of a funny one because if you believe you are to profit from a particular trade you may not, but there's an unconsistent variable there.. the market, the only way to deal with that is to set your 'edge' and incorporate a firm set of rules regarding it.

So in summary, what changed? my belief in myself being consistent, which meant keeping to my own rules... its alot more boring this way trading but alot more profitable too!! Are you consistent?!

Disobeying rule six

2011-03-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors

I am progressing at a rapid rate of knots... simple. However in realising this today i struggled to keep to my own set of rules, my 'edge' .....this is purely a mental problem, we've all experienced it wether it be after success or failure... failure to abide by our own rules, the key to consistency. Tomorrow is another day and i am getting better and better after all so shouldn't complain!!

Just goes to show even as we increase in ability were still susceptable to stupid mistakes, ultimately its the difference between a £54 afternoon and a £8 afternoon.

Finish what you started!

2011-03-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hey all, been a busy few days and havent had alot of time to trade. Thankfully though i have been bored sensless at work which triggered me to do something i'd almost forgot about..... to finally read the last chapter of trading in the zone! last time i read the book it was the only chapter i didnt read, so today after drinking so many brews and not really having alot to do i thought as ill finish that book in my bag.... thank god i did!! the last chapter is the best of all!!!!! by far! had a massive 'aha' moment, partly linked to previous trading methods....

In the last chapter mark douglas describes to us its a good idea to go about completing a little trading exercise... I can see how over time it can have a direct impact on confidence and having a winning attitude, so this evening i thought i'd give it a crack. I recorded my results over a sample of 20 trades i placed in the market in 4 races... the results were as follows;

(P = profit, L = loss, S = scratch)

L, S, P, P, P, P, L, P, P, P ,P, P, P, L, P, P, P, S, P, P.

Its safe to say i was pretty shocked at the results on reflection... maybe trading mechanically like this is the way forward for a little while, my profit's wern't as up and down as they may usually be.. Total netted me £31.70...... a very healthy average for 4 races for myself, although i do have a belief evening races are a little easier.

This month is turning out to be a real turning point for me mentally.... long may it continue woohooo!!!!!

Greyhounds!

2011-03-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

Had a few days off after cheltenham, been busy with other stuff and didnt want to go blowing some cash over staking in weaker races. Tonight i had some time on my hands and realised the dogs were on the sports channels, not exactly the biggest gold rush ever but turned a fair amount for the 6 tv races unfortunately blowing half of it on the less liquid markets... never really liked the dogs anyway! lol

First day back at work today in just over a week off... hated it, cant wait to leave.. hopefully i can continue the consistency this month has produced and up the market average a little and it'll be enough to get me considering going full time properly!

Cheltenham - All is not lost

2011-03-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

Its been a week of mixed sorts, but after all week i would of not expected today to pan out quite how it did. A very parculiar day... and today i really was bang on form, making 2 mistakes of which both were very very costly unfortunately, firstly the big event of the day was the gold cup at 3.20 as you'll see below i managed a measely £25 ... rather dispointing seeing at one point i was almost £83 up only to get too emotionally attatched to my exit as it was half filled... should of scratched the remainder and took £60 or so that was on offer. Hey ho, these things happen.... well thats what i said to myself untill i did similar in the last 30 seconds of the 4.00 race going from a moderate green to -£65 ... there goes most the days profit.. strike rate was good though.

The main thing though i felt was the learning process today in particular provided me with, although it does not directly relate to the usual day in day out markets i have learnt a hell of alot scalping wise particularly. And its given me some good experience. Im not so scared of using slightly larger stakes in normal markets now so it would seem... hopefully this does not die out!.. that said it all depends on how much money is in 'flow' of the market, done a couple at wolves with small stakes as i had the spare time, the best result of which was a bit of a gamble so i left it on the nose (never usually do this) you guessed it should of took the £15 instead left me with 66p.

All is not lost, it could have been alot worse!!

Cheltenham - Could do with a lie down

2011-03-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

Slightly better today, but not by much... totalled just over £60 but more importantly had a few good positions and more importantly still learnt a few things with regards to big meetings.

Well, what can i say? that was scary!! A funny old day, again i made some daft mistakes but i feel as though i am learning!! ha! ....the 3.20 i scared the granny out of myself getting myself in a position where i was at £50 a tick... thankfully i managed to scratch that one... lesson learned i calmed down after that, was dead chuffed with the 4.00 as the max stake i used was £200 and cleared a whoping £38.34 ... thats good for me btw!! More of that and ill be happy tomorrow, could do with a few more quid in the bank though as it was frustrating again at times............ right im off for a lie down!

Cheltenham - Treading water

2011-03-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Day two of the festival and for myself it started quite well but soon ended up being rather poor yet again.... 2 steps forward and 2 back! very frustrating.... you'll see below in a few of the cheltenham races i had pathetic small profits, i cant help but feel i could do with a bigger bank! reason being at the prices they constantly are i just cant get the cue positions i want on the lay side.... often i end up with say £500 on the back side and a pathetic £100 on the lay... by the time my £500 gets gobbled up my lay has been matched but the way the market has changed have to to scratch the remaining £400... on the races i didnt really suffer with this you can see i did a bit better, also a few times i found myself franticallly clicking and scratching because of the liability problem meaning a few times i started to do stupid stuff and only just dug myself out of a big hole.

Hey ho, who knows what tomorrow will bring!!

Cheltenham - A steep learning curve!

2011-03-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Today the Cheltenham festival started!!! It was my first ever cheltenham trading so i proceeded with caution at first... something that went out the window a bit a few races down the line... but once i had a feel i felt rather confident! What i didnt think about before starting was how i needed to remember to adapt back to normal for the inbetween low grade events... this was to be my downfall today unforunately.

As you can see in particular southwell caught me out... i was probably using stakes a little too large, and thinking about it cheltenham was the race after so it was bound to be even less fluid... lesson learned.

Also i found it a litte frustrating at times today as i was scratching positions to find someone was taking the same decisions at the same time... all be it a little faster... if its down to my ping i dont know but it happened about 4 - 5 times, rather frustrating!!

The 3.20 was my best result which i was rather happy with... if i can bag a few of those tomorrow minus the stupid mistakes ill be happy..... a quick breakdown of that race... managed to get my whole bank through 3 1/2 times!!

Chelt 15th Mar : 3m7f Hcap Chs

Showing 1 - 4 of 4 Selections

Selection		Odds	Stake(£)	Bid type	Placed	Profit/loss(£)
Garde Champetre	*	7.03	1,267.36	Back		-1,267.36
Garde Champetre	*	6.91	1,288.08	Lay		1,288.08
Sizing Australia	*	8.72	600.00	Back		4,632.00
Sizing Australia	*	8.68	602.79	Lay		-4,629.19
*Average odds: On Off					Back subtotal:	3,364.64
					Lay subtotal:	-3,341.11
					Market subtotal:	23.53
					Commission @ 4.89%:	1.15
					Net Market Total:	22.38

A subtle change... and poll result

2011-03-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Ok so after all my mind-set changing antics it occured to me that i might have some emotional attatchment to the colours on the ladder... mainly on the lay side from being shafted in the past, so a subtle change from that evil pink was on the cards in the hope that anything i might have sub-contiously ingrained in me telling me its dangerous may be toned down, along with a nice purple finish to calm me down and stop me doing anything agressive when trading, cant say its worked as this week i've had a few £30 blips.. a right pain in the arse bringing the average down.... who knows if it'll help in the long run!

Poll results!

Ok so the most recent poll i put up is over and the results are in.... thanks alot to all who took the time to vote!!

Ok so given the circumstances and the question the results look about right if were to believe that a small percentage of traders are successful due to their perception and mindset of trading... further more its the minority.

So what is the right answer?? Given all that i've learnt if the question was read properly then the correct answer is in fact 'i dont know' this is probably confusing to about 17 people that voted right now so i'll explain.....
Given the question and the picture there really is a small amount of information on offer, i mean for a start you havent a clue what the favorite is doing which is often influential and just because there's 5.6k sat on the lay side above a price band it means sod all.... there's 3 minutes to the off so the live coverage might not even be talking about the race were trading, whats more 3 minutes is a long time for the price to be held! Whats more the LTP is still near the top of its traded volume range.... this is probably the reason some voted 'Good' and while i can see why they did, i wouldnt really go as far as feeling good about the situation, i mean anything can happen in the markets. Depending on the liquidity it really dosent take alot to move a price. I think the point im trying to make here is its quite important to accept you dont really know what will happen next and shouldnt really 'feel' about anything. I would be keen to know if the other 4 that voted 'I dont know' were either FT on betfair or fairly successful!!

Returning to form....

2011-03-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

After my recent post it's been pretty much all i've done whilst trading targeting myself and my emotional connection scrutinising every reaction.... and it seems to be paying off, this last week i seem to have returned to form as it were! Saturday was fun... while i didnt do a huge amount for the day alone everthing started to click into place, it made me think of previous days trading, not sure if its the same for everyone but often i might trade from say 2pm - 5pm .... from 2 - 4 its a bit of a grind and then suddenly the last hour i make the most i have for the whole day?! i mean the later races are not exactly better from a liquidity perspective... and all i can think is its a mental thing.. to show you what i mean here's my diary entry for last saturday;

Sat 5th March
Today trading started as normal.. the usual grind of making mistakes trying to get too involved to early etc, after a while i decided to tame the stakes down a fair bit and ask myself frequently how i was feeling about what i was doing along with trying a few different things... and then came a point where i realised i was actually trading really well, at this point i stopped and said to myself euphoria is not good just carry on ignore the stakes or how many times i click but carry on... and i did.... and it worked out really quite well, come the end i felt completely different. Using smaller stakes (£40 per mouse click) probably helped but i actually started to 'act' in probablilities rather than just thinking about them... WOM was not phasing me, in fact i was making money from the markets not really expecting to know what was going to happen next... and i'd say it didnt even matter, i simply wasnt bothered.. i felt quite at ease almost ignoring the p/l column, in fact i think i actually started to believe in the thinking in probablilities... not being expectant of winning every trade and accepting the outcome, reading the market for what it is.. not what i wanted to see.... this all sounds great.. and it was i would say i was immersed completely in the 'opportunity flow' ...come the end of my trading session i actually didnt want to stop at all i was enjoying myself!! whats more of 24 markets i only lost in 2 to the total of £2.43!! nothing like the slightly aprehensive start of the day... most bizzare, but really good at the same time... i look forward to it again!

Hopefully next week will be just as eventful on my build up to cheltenham, i've booked the week off to trade purely... something im also very aware about going into cheltenham is not to have any expectations as Sam Wilson posted about on his last blog post, doing this would just end in tears.. in the mean time im just gonna carry on slogging away doing as many US races as possible aswell, the extra cash from them is starting to help aswell!

Opportunity flow

2011-03-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

Opportunity flow

Ok so after a fair bit of reading and learning about myself even more this week its been a bit of an eye opener... it would appear as i suspected in an earlier post i dont really need to know much more about the markets but more about myself and how i behave when in them.

So, as traders we all have an 'edge' or a collection of things we know be it from past experience or just common sense where by one outcome is more probable than the other, as trade can only go one way or the other it would make sense to enter the market every time this opportunity presents itself... yes?
However im sure this is not the case for the vast majority of us.. myself included (but im working on it)... now i have experienced points when trading where by i am happy and feel comfortable completely engrosed in the market, not anxious, scared or euphoric watching the information presented to me seemingly effortlessly entering and closing positions with little 'feeling' taking just about every opportunity on offer without dobting myself.... sounds too good to be true? almost but i'd say i've experience this on a few occasions, as you might expect these occasions have produced good results.

What i have just described is the 'Opportunity flow' ....its something incredibly difficult to master so it would seem as the natural reactions of being human seem to get in the way time and time again, with small stakes it seems far easier to encounter at the moment although i believe this is because it is reliant on many other things.. possibly even deeper than i realise, to be in this 'moment' or 'flow' i have to fully accept the outcome of the next trade good or bad as my edge is perfect, also at the same time i cannot expect anything from the market... as soon as i expect to win or dont accept the fact that the next or previous trade is ok to be a looser i am taken out of the flow and emotion creeps in. I think this is something that is going to take some time to master.

...but on a good day

2011-02-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

February

Ok... so february has been a rather parculiar month although a very important one, this month started off well with 2 good days for me to only go and p*ss it all up the wall throughout the week after being completely negative, paranoid, frustrated etc... previous posts obviously show this. Its only really been the last week or so that i've 'got a grip' of myself with my mentality and its shown in my results.

Also this week i have now got ATR which is a great asset particularly trading the evening US races, without them i'd say its not worth it as post times often fluctuate massively. Im sure it will pay for itself month in month out.

So your probably thinking what relevance has all this to the video above? well i like the advert and make sure i have my berocca before i start for the day! lol because trading i need to be "me.... but on a really good day!"

February Result;

Result for last week (after focusing on mindset)

Poll results

2011-02-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

The results are in....

Just a fun poll after reading about accepting responsibility truly... in the subcontious too. It occured to me that quite often when i encounter a red figure trading i automatically tend to change runners, why? I'd probably say its part of not accepting the responability even if i think i am contiously.. almost like saying X runner did that to me. I thought maybe the results of the poll would have been a little more biased but it would seem that others act in a similar fashion with 57% of the vote. Maybe i should of added more options.. all that said sometimes i stay on the same runner.

The table turns....

2011-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

Hi all, well its been almost a week since i vowed not to look at my balance.... and today i failed all be it by a day ;) only traded 2 days this week and a couple of evening races due to work restraints which was a shame although im on cloud nine at the moment.... nope im not rolling in cash... yet although this week has been a hell of an expereince and i've learnt some invaluable stuff about myself, keeping my mind on track really is key.. and staying confident plays a big part too, this week i have witnessed my edge has not disapeared as i expected but the problems ive had over the last couple of months were purely in execution! Today i did 22 races... and only lost in 6, thats a rather high strike rate as far as im concerned.

While the profit was not exactly amazing it bodes well considering im still using smaller stakes, this week im gonna up if just a little on the stakes side and providing all goes well i will continue each week hopefully getting the bank a bit bigger for cheltenham! Woop woop.

I cant quite believe how much bringing my mind 'on track' has turned things around, would seem im almost on the other side of the table. At points today i really felt like i could start playing with bigger stakes again although am keen i don't harm my mentality again and work up gradually... other than that not alot to say.. pretty boring really!

Getting in the zone....

2011-02-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hey all..... since my last post things seem to be ticking over nicely, a few minor blips but im seeing it all in a different light now! I can see this is a multi-layered problem and is going to take a long time to get to the bottom of, although should i get there i believe its going to be well worth it.

So what have i learnt about myself?

I am deluded and have been for some time, the reason im not knocking out impressive days is not because i cant read the market, not because i dont know whats going on, not my analysis but purely in my execution and mindset. I fully believe i dont even need to know any more about the markets and how they work and so im going to stop trying to learn... im just going to focus wholely on how im feeling and why im thinking what i am.

Getting out too early, getting in too late, not cutting losses fast enough, leaving money in the market and not being fast enough, entering correctly and not following through all seem to be problems of mine. I was wrong to assume that these were down to analysis of the market and that more research would set me in better stead in fact that in itself was adding more pressure to my mindset as i 'should' of not been making these mistakes!!
For the last few months definately i have been trading far to defensively.. full of fear for what might happen as it may seem. So here are my area's to work on...

The Edge - On forums there is much talk of edges and how people hide them, in my experience there is no 'holy grail' no 'hidden edge' just the ability to read a market and how it behaves (usually) I firmly believe i am quite good at this and am often right.... and so i dont feel the need to work on this area, but more a case of needing to trust my edge.

Fear & Euphoria - This is a particular problem for me... it would seem starting out trading i was rather successful as i was 'carefree' the majority of the time, trading was a fun little game... it became more obsessive as i started to make money.. and so the driving force shifted changing my perception and attitude towards it all from 'a bit of fun' to 'i need to make money' this was the start of the downfall as i have developed a fear from the markets where by i often sit and watch only entereing a position once or twice in a race. On the other hand when i have very good results its often followed by a loss.. why is this? Euphoria.. the oposite of the fear and in my opinion can be even more dangerous!! after a big win i have many times upped a stake resulting in a bigger loss... and more fear. From now on i am going to be contiously aware when trading and do my upmost to remind myself not to be fearful or over excited (probably easier said than done).
How am i going to combat the Fear/Euphoria? A difficult one to approach im sure although as yet the only real way i can see myself doing this as suggested by mark douglas in his books is to truly accept the outcome of each and every trade before i even enter it, this then in turn should also stop my perception of the market becoming warped while i have a postition open (again probably easier said than done).

Consistency = Attitude - Seems so obvious dosent it? If you have a bad attitude you will have poor money management and erratic entries/exits as you are negatively driven.... where as a good attitude produces optamism and the ability to stick to your metholodlgy (maybe not completely, but more so)... it reminds me of Eckhart tolle's book 'the power of now' posative thinking produces posative results in anything we do.
Have you ever felt paradoid or like the market is against you ? i have many times.... the reality of it is your just fighting yourself as the market is a blank canvas... 'the market owes you nothing' i'd say this comment is inexplicably linked with attitude.

So for me i cant stop looking at my total balance market in and out as i trade... a rather poor habit as im putting more pressure on myself etc etc as i go... as part of a mini challenge if you like, this week as of today i am going to set myself the challenge to not look at my balance for a whole 7 days!! my god thats going to be tough, will be interesting to see if it has any kind of impact on my performance... so this week trading is purely about ticks alone viewable balance disabled and no loggin into betfair!

I've added a poll on the side bar.... please join in!

Unlock yourself!!

2011-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

This week i've come full circle so it would seem... having seen an article on a forum it triggered something in me, i started to think back to not long after when i started to learn to trade betfair... when i started to make cash basically. After seeing the article i dug out some old recordings of me trading and to my horror i found myself using stakes 3 and 4 times the amount i am currently (dont feel as though i could do that right now) not only was i using them but i was using them with little worry it would seem!! I even found myself say on one market 'chucking in £200 there so not really a great deal' now to some it may not be but at this point in time it most definately is to me... its safe to say i was stunned a little.

So what was different then? why? how? and more importantly what now?!

Well im glad to say i know what the difference is... then i had just finished reading a very good book 'trading in the zone' and had been employing a particular mindset whilst trading... (its really not as simple as it sounds) but i was far more confident and 'fearless' trading which alowed me to use biggerstakes with more ease frequently... however upping the stakes so fast resulted in the inevitable eventually going IR costing me 4 figures, the rest i've aluded to in previous posts.... these problems going IR and blowing banks etc had a knock on effect and have really brought my confidence down since instiling fear in me... as for trading in the zone i almost forgot about it! (until recently) And so thats how i seem to have gone backwards since then.

So what now? Firstly im reading trading in the zone again and after two days of starting to read it its already had a posative effect on the way im operating in the markets, this time i intend to up the stakes more gradually and keep the consistency cutting out the IR issues that i seem to have already addressed.

I find this topic utterely facinating considering the mind blowing changes it can have in such a short space of time and intend to dedicate my next post into going in depth as to what i really think about it all!

As mark douglas says in his book:

"The irony is that, when you have the appropriate attitude, when you have acquired a "traders mind-set" and can remain confident in the face of constant uncertainty, trading will be as easy and simple as you probably thought it was when you first started out."

So go on.... unlock yourself!

I've added a poll on the side bar, please join in!

Turn of luck....

2011-02-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

A rather well timed turn of fate today at Navan... this is my market overview shot just before the start, unfortunately i didnt see this little move untill it hit around 7.2.... but im glad i did! If only i'd of been a little bolder with the stake but its always easy to say that afterwards!

Before now i'd not really made much use of the market overview chart provided by the geeks toy and its kick ass charting (thankyou mr geek!) but its definately something to keep an eye on as shown above. Recently it was brought to my attention after starting the 'sports trading journey' run by Jack Birkhead... cheers jack as i had cut it out of my set up for a period of time!!

Having seen some of the videos run by jack i've been playing with my styles and techniques of trading and although i dont seem to have changed a huge amount mixed with misfortune and frustrating circumstances lately i actually feel like im becoming more 'adaptable' to a wider range of markets... before now i often target the swing markets and go heavier on the stakes with them as i can seem to get somewhere, where as scalping and working resistance points i was hopeless at previously. Its just a shame Newbury didnt happen yesterday as it would have given me a clearer view of if i really have improved much given the nature of the meeting.

I've seen a few posts on the geeks toy forum asking if the course is worth it and although i've not seen all the content yet i'd say its gonna be worth far more than he asks... the way i see it some people spend more on cigaretts in a week than he charges a month (i dont) and all their gonna get is an early grave!!

All time low....

2011-02-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the delay in posting but i've been so busy this week its been hard to find time for anything let alone trading or blogging. Mainly due to my crap job... cant wait till im out.

So, this week i've tried to trade the US nags or an evening with little success mainly because of the poor liquidity the market provides... its still new to me so im using very small stakes.
I was keen to crack on today being a saturday after last week become untradable with the betfair crash... unfortunately it was to be another one of those days with the day starting with one of the most bizzare incidents known to racing at newbury. None the less i cracked on to later find i would not recieve the profit made in the 2nd at newbury with the card cancelled, a shame as it was my best market of the day... sods law i suppose! The rest of the afternoon i thought was rather poor with regards to liquidity in the markets, probably because channel 4 had very little races to show live with the newbury card canceled... im begining to think possibly its just this time of year with other traders telling me jan/feb are always the worst months, begining to hope rather as this poor speight is starting to grate on me... at times i feel like i cant trade at all, which im sure is having a knock on effect on my abilities, a rather hard knock at that. Sounding rather negative i realise i need to pull myself out of it.... just before writing this i decided to catch the last at wolves... was going great until i got caught in-play because i had the speakers off!! can you believe it?! rookie or what!! ... today marked a month of absolutely no in-play then i leave the speakers off and get caught... daily total return £10 ....just gonna have to take that one on the chin!

Those of you who read the behavioural awareness post previously will probably be giggling now.... yes by god did i give myself a few lashings, wont do that again (i hope) while im on the subject it seems as though the behavioural stuff has worked as i dont have the urge any more and feel as though i have made the erratic behavioural traits extinct, that said im still putting it in practice as much as i can as its all to easy to forget why i need to do it.

Oh well hopefully next week will be rather better... all in all i think im down this week but ill leave that till the end of the month.

Frustration, frustration and a side serving of frustration....

2011-02-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

What a week its been!! a frustrating and bizzare one at that, started the week on a flyer doing monday and tues... averaging £4.32 a race... a nice little earner and happy with that, wednesday had a drama at work resulting in me getting back alot later than i expected meaning it was unlikely that i'd meet my expectations, i know what your thinking... been here before! why i couldnt chill out and except it wasnt gonna be a high earner i dont know... finished on a small loss and felt as though i was being manipulated a little in the markets, thurs evening done a couple, again felt i was being pushed about (a bit of a phsycological block) tiny loss and finally friday.... by this point i was feeling a little paranoid and couldnt work out why some of the markets didnt seem to be conforming to their usual behaviour... again a loss 3 days on the bounce, started to question my ability seeing i was back down to £0 for my efforts this week. And finally today woohoo!!! saturday the best day of the week 7 races on channel 4... all over it like a tramp on chips race 3 betfair goes down.... luckily i didnt get caught out but it just wrecked the day and once it was back up i didnt really trust it, last market -£29.... and so i walk away with a whoping total of £9 for the week, hey ho maybe next week ill hit double figures! Absolute frustration after possibly the most time i've had to trade in one week in a long time.

Oh well cheltenham and the flat will be here soon i suppose. On the plus side still not even close to going in-play so i guess im a winner this week.... the behvioural changes really seem to be doing the trick.

Graphs & Analysis..

2011-01-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

As i said before i thought i'd do a post on graphs and their analysis.... often i see people on forums etc say graphs are of no use, and at times they are no use although i'd say more often than not they are a great asset if used correctly.

Personally i think the way to look at it is not at each graph differently but more of an overview of how the whole market is working together overall and how each runner fits into the picture... below is a pic of the top 4 heading the betting in i did rather well in recently purely because i interpreted the graphs correctly.

Ok so i took the screenshot of the graphs with 15 seconds left to go just for full effect, the blue lines show where the graph was when i first opened the market with about 8 minutes left to go... to the left of the line is of little relevance IMO although runner 3 caught my eye as it was already steadily steaming up until the live show and runner 2 was of a little interest as it already had some volume to it prior. After a minute or so of watching it was obvious to me this was going to be a scalp market mainly unless anything major cropped up with big orders coming in.
Obviously there was alot of trader's on runner 2 as their was alot matched on this runner without a great amount of movement... the market was 'ranging' asuch so i left that one alone.
Runner 4 was of no interest to me as the fill rate was going to be poor leaving a bit of a predicament if i was to get caught on the wrong side of things.... so that leaves 1 & 3.
Runner 1 was the fav according to all the bookies although clearly had attracted little support... low and behold around shortly before the off when volume increased it started to drift at a reasonable rate, so as soon as that happened i was sat their waiting with only one thing to do really.... back runner 3 and wait.... sounds all very easy dosent it, not always a case of seeing what is going to happen but more of seeing what 'can happen' and if it dosent? scratch at the entry! think i rode it from 7.8 to 7.2 taking a scalp or two on the way ... only a few ticks but at 0.2 a tick it don't take lot to make money, reading the graphs seems to work alot better for swing markets rather than the scalpers i find. But ultimately its all up to knowing whats happening as a bigger picture in my opinion.

Sunday 30th... fortunately i had time to trade seeing it was a slightly better sunday than usual with more betting activity, i decided to adopt the slow and steady attitude rather than the 'bigshot' attitude... its rather strange as often the steady produces better results for me... i think its purely down to confidence but over time i guess it' soon become more obvious.
On a day where i have the 'bigshot' attitude typically P/L will be +/- £5 to £30 in a race... although its rather less consistent unlike the 'slow and steady' yesterday i took the slow and steady attitude and it was ok overall for a sunday i'd say, max stake was £60 so i was never out of my comfort zone at any point. P/L shows what i mean by slow and steady... lost in 5 of 20 markets...

January..

2011-01-28T15:22:00.000-08:00

January.... well at least thats out the way! After the obvious disaster in the second week i suppose it could have been worse, again i caught a decent chunk of todays card but managed to cock it all up leaving me £25 down... im not too worried though as i know why, a mixture of obvious problems.. no time to prep, jumping in feeling as though i'd missed out and trying to seal the deal for some fast money... all the fast way to the poor house.

Overall the result was ok given the fact i blew nearly a grand on the 11th, looking on the posative side of things i haven't had the urge to even go close to going IR since and have had far bigger losses in a single race... as long as that continues there'll be some money to collect at the end of feb!

Looking forward....

Febuary's a fresh start in my mind and the banks just about at a workable size as far as im concerned, just really hoping i get the time this month to put in some full days and have time prior to get ready chill out etc.... this is a constant problem i face as often days will be like today, i finished work early (1pm) rushed home... shattered from work (physical trainning instructor) and sit down and get stuck in before i've even stopped sweating. Its madness i know but when its a couple of hours to trade of which i may only get 2 or 3 opportunities in the week i suppose im pressurising myself, but what can i do? if i dont have time to trade i'll never make any money!!

I was thinking earlier today also trading and state of mind are all linked to physical wellbeing, my problem when i trade if i have a bit of a loss i get angry which is probably to be honest the worst reaction. That in-mind im going to start febuary with a new fitness regime fitting in as many weights sessions as i can 1. to shape up and 2. to see if i can take the sting out of this anger/aggression. Worth a try i suppose!

Also thanks to anon for taking time to post a comment, i think i've been putting off having pics far too long. The feeds online are no use to me as it slows my connection to the point where it slows the API unfortunately, the joys of living in the arse end of the world.

Hopefully the next post will be alot more posative!

Greed...

2011-01-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

It seems there's so much to keep in mind in this game, and today i well and truly slipped up. It was good as it really tested my resistance to keep to pre race only of which im proud i did although thinking about what happened was born out of pure stupidity and greed more importantly....

A plesant suprise today when i finished work early and had the whole afternoon to get stuck in, started off out working up to speed... before long i was flying, in fact i was doing so well i remember thinking to myself 'im on fire today' and i was, taking swings here and there possibly getting out too early but none the less i pulled off some crackers scalping was good scratching fast etc etc.... half way through the afternoon i noticed i was considerably up and happy as my bankrole was starting to become more workable in my eye's... so what did i do?? i went from using £50, £75, £150 stakes to £100, £200, £300 ... and to start it was going down nicely, untill i got caught by a massive spike with over half my bank in the market that just pushed harder and harder... had my pants well and truly down! Its worth saying at this point i wasnt chuffed but i felt i dealt with it rather well emotionally (although i should have took a break) i carried on after the minor interuption of a new bed being delivered with the same stakes... again it turned the wrong way, i probably wasn't 100% focused with the thought of the mrs wants us to put it together in the back of my mind but hey ho.... again and again i got rinsed before giving up at a loss for the day!

A minor blip in overall progress, but it wont forget it for a while. Probably wont get the chance to go at it again untill monday but hey ho might do me a favor.

Live Pics - Currently i dont have them although its been on my to-do list for a while now, just wondering how much people rate them? is it really a must? ....get the feeling im being a little tight here :s

Graphs, graphs and more graphs..

After a little reading around i've noticed maybe my trading style has changed a little in the last month or two (probably for the worse) and i've not been paying half as much attention to the graphs on offer as i used to... in future i intend to as i think this is important, i'll try and make the next post a rather imformative one on what i think with some examples.. Have a good weekend all! ..until next week

An old lesson re-learnt....

2011-01-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

Sums up today for me, caught just under 2 hours of the markets.. was in fine form, increased stakes a little shortly followed by being caught on the wrong side of a trend... foolishly instead of feeding my stake out and being patient i shew my position and got smashed for £50 leaving me £5 up for the day... moral of the story dont show your position!

However on the positive side of things it was the first real test for my behavioural changes... as i wasn't happy at first, i had to go out shortly after anyway which made it even harder to take on the chin. I did though and am really chuffed i did now as its another step in my quest to 'resist doing stupid things' i.e. having a lay.

In the past i've been partial to the odd over-night trade (smaller stakes) ...last night i spotted a good potential overnighter so i had a pop, just should have been more confident with it but cant always get it right... its down below.

Video

And finally i thought i'd just add i checked out Jack Birkheads Sports trading journey site last night... looks like there's plenty of good advice on offer there, check it out here

Were half way there....

2011-01-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

I wasn't expecting to fit any trading in today so it was all good when i managed to squeeze most of the afternoon into a rather hectic day, further more it got even better when i managed to clear a cool 5% of my bank in one race!!

At a few points today i started to feel as though i was really at one with the market and understood what was going on and was really quite acurate in my predictions, a good sign.. it would seem confidence is on the return.
Its been a while since i started to feel how i did today when i was trading, although i'd do well to trust myself a little more seeing i only really made full use of it on one of the occasions mentioned above although even then it could have been better! Its difficult as i feel its a fine line in these situations as i need to be able to let go and trust myself for maximum return yet alternatively i cant get trigger happy when im not so sure. Once again i allowed myself to be bullied a little which cost me once or twice but it wasnt bad result in the end, as anon said previously if i can just maintain and build on what im doing it should work out ok! providing i dont have any more mad moments like last week, its been rather frustrating only having one or two chances to trade this week knowing i blew all that cash but the behaviour changes i've implemented seem to be keeping on top of that... in fact i could say they have improved my trading at times as im far less hesitant to scratch a position now, a useful by-product i'd say!

Hopefully i'll have more time on my hands next week but its not looking brill again at the moment, i was hoping to finish the month level although unless i get the time it don't seem likely as currently the P/L since new years eve shows im only half way there...

Where's all the money?

2011-01-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so after dusting myself off from the recent disaster and reloading with my overdraft its been one nightmare after another... due to expenses i've had to fork out for i've had to slowly remove chunks of my trading bank... hard times! currently im down to a pesky little bank merely a fraction of what i'd usually operate with, its really quite deperessing constantly trying to snatch a few ticks at a 50p a pop and i cant help but feel today in particular i've been bullied and violated by bigger traders with their dirty great banks ripping away my dosh and refusing to give it back any closer than 2 ticks away, at one point today i sat back and just had to laugh as i knew what was happening but could do sod all about it... much like playing streetifighter as a kid, no matter what you do or how you do it, its simply not good enough and cruely your openents dont give a s***, if you can imagine thats me their below in red about to give one of the 'bigger boys' a couple more quid..... hadoken, hadoken, hadoken..... if we'd been in the same room id most definately ripped the controller from their hands and twated them in the head with it, hope the api went down when they were half way through some of their bully tactics!!

On the plus side the behavioural changes i've implemented seem to be going down a treat, without them i feel today especially i would have not come out on top... maybe it was just a dificult day because their was little 'real' money. Hey Ho start again next week as i wont have the chance to trade again this week.

Behaviour awareness...

2011-01-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Ok so today was good on the whole, profit wasn't exactly spectacular but it all adds up! ill just put P/L shots up monthly from now as its not so important in the short term... today was off to a flying start with alot of strange dutching going on it would seem, i kept stakes small because of this as its better to be safe rather than sorry... i completely misjudged the main event and lost a couple of quid but its not the end of the word... the teqhniques im using to change my behaviour seem to be paying off thus far, i'll share them with you below... could it be the answer on the path to making money from the markets? i hope so!

Behaviour changes....

Ok, so the problem i have is occasionally once a month i get the arse when i loose a large amount in one race... usually over £50 does the trick, im capable of making that in one race but have only done so a handful of times in my time trading..... a good average result for me in one race is usually £25 - £30, i may manage this once a day typically.. that considered £50's not so much is it? seems so!! Ok so this is a massive problem for me as stated previous in 'crash and burn' so after a lot of help this is what i've been putting in practice to force my behaviour to change....
Being self aware - to start off i am focusing on how im feeling when trading, just by being self aware it seems to stop some mistakes.... but its not enough alone! Seeing a trigger coming is the strongest tool i have to stop this madness.
Alternative behaviour - so when i take a loss that bothers me (£10 plus) i stop praise myself up sit back take a deep breath and have a minute to myself while telling myself outloud why it was a good thing to do... if the loss is much bigger and the impulse to be angry is stronger i remove myself from the room to get a drink.
Posative Reinforcement - I will be reinforcing my behaviour each time i take a loss, by praising myself up for it etc. also a pot of sweets on the side which im only aloud when i've taken a loss. (most people have had a winning bet at some point, this is what causes the repeat behaviour... a way of reinforcement. by not doing it the urge is weaker) Also im planning on taking a screen shot of a sizable loss so i can sit and look at it each day trying to associate good feelings with taking that loss. And finally i've invested in a rather nice Hollyoaks calendar to tick off each day that theirs a success :) carley is helping me through january.. (above)
Negative Reinforcement - I have a screenshot of my previous blowout that i look at each day while telling myself thats what happens when i've had a lay in the past etc.
Avoidance - (my favorite lol) this one i wouldnt advise for everyone although im happy to do it if it means i can get this sorted.... every time when im trading and i think even for a mili second 'maybe i should go inplay' or 'maybe i should hedge inplay' or anything along those lines i have a piece of bungee to the side of my desk... crack across the legs (stings like hell) but it soon makes me reject those thoughts, also it highlights how many times i think it even if i wasnt planning on acting on it!! my legs pretty sore as i type lol
Vunerability awareness - something to bear in mind when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tiered the chance of these problems are alot more likely, due to being vunerable.. obvious but i thought id add it :)

Reload...

2011-01-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

Ok so after a day or so off i've managed to stop sulking and crack on, reloading my bank from my overdraft for the time being might seem a bit crazy but if i dont have the right size bank my heart simply wont be in it due to my style.. Generally i like to try and catch a swing with a half decent stake and ride it for a couple of ticks at least, sometimes i only put in one trade a market if im happy with it.

Also i've been looking at what causes me to behave like this... with a little help from the community on the geekstoy forum and a hell of alot of reading i've learnt rather alot, there's still more to learn but sofar the advice seems invaluable.... lets just hope it works as its make or break for me now with these eratic bank blowing moments!!
It seems it stems from that gambling/addictive behaviour coupled with emotional overload thats causing me to behave like this.... starting today i have implemented a whole load of different processes to stop this madness, depending on how well it works maybe ill go into it in depth on another post.

Today i managed to catch an hour after work and a few evening races, results were ok (£40.88) but really it was just a warm up in my mind for tommorrow. I've been looking forward to tomorrow all week and am trying not to pressurise myself a such too much because of it, will Kauto win again??... more to the point will his odds tumble or drift prior? i would have thought the former is likely with Long Runs odd's likely to drift fairly hard... but i'd take that with a pinch of salt, the other of interest... Riverside Theatre over priced in my opinion, either way looks like a cracking day to trade.

I'll update again tommorow with the outcome... Good Luck untill then!

Crash and burn...

2011-01-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

Ok so this weeks been a nightmare so far...

Monday morning i walk into work to hear 'you've got a whole load of weekends to work' .... the joys of the military, more long hours and extra work for sod all praise and no overtime (cant wait till im out).

The first thing that went through my mind wrongly or rightly 'noooooo king george on saturday' after alot of squirming and blagging i managed to make sure i wasn't to work this weekend (better than nothing i suppose) however i've had no time to trade until today... had a couple of hours to squeeze in today which were likely to be my biggest oportunity all week, started off ok +£3, +£5, -£5, +£12 etc... then half hour before the end i got caught in the wrong place with too bigger stake -£63 ouch!! wiped out my profit and left me about £15 down. The next market being in a poor mood i finished -£28... again pissed off, oh how i wish i'd stopped there... no i decided to have a lay, well... two... -£922.34 oh why oh why do i do these things? prior to starting this blog i did similar things in Nov last year. Now as it stands i have 69p in my account and have deposited £700 more than i have withdrawn, what a mess

To make matters worse...

I then finished up and rushed out to an appointment i had, near where i live there is a rather poor country road just big enough to accomodate two cars passing eachother (just) mind completely on another planet after the loss i come round the corner to see a new BMW coming the other way at pace... did it move over? no... leaving me nowhere near enough room causing damage to my car grrreeat! after catching the other driver up several miles down the road and forcing them to pull over i was greeted by some 70+ toffee nosed old git telling me to sod off, just glad im not spending the night in the cell had he been younger it might of been a different story.

Anyhow, what to do now?? I've had lots of time to think it all over and its either make or break time as theirs no point in spending a couple month making a few k to have days like today and piss it up the wall in a bad mood, clearly i can trade a profit.. just need to learn not to be eratic at these times all in all it was only 43 quid odd.

Think im gonna give it a break for a couple days and start again on saturday, any more bank busters like this before i 'make it' and i think it'll be the end of trading for me.

Its time to relax

2011-01-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

Firstly i had a few questions after my first post so thought i'd just give a little more background info on the trading, i trade pre race to make my money as i've only ever had disasters in play... the only exception being if i've had a strong tip that i get occasionally i may trade the price before and leave the hedge for inplay. Generally i keep my stake range from £50 - £200 although its something i may increase as time goes on but to be honest £100 stakes is enough to make a few quid.

So the first week of results are in... and its not too bad considering the time i've had, although time isn't everything in this game as today proved, money can be made and lost in a matter of seconds so whats the rush right?!! Something i've struggled with in the past, although today i got in from work having spent the best part of the morning doing alot of running and the card had already started.

I was fully aware from past experience its not good to rush in and get stuck in so i took some time out to chill initially with the mrs before jumping in the bath, i think this could of been my best move yet! Reason being by the time i was ready to start trading i was completely relaxed from both the exercise (worth noting i was well hydrated) and a good soak, the first couple of markets i took my time and took a little here and there working into it..... before i knew it was 4pm i'd been trading a little over an hour and was £54 up, a good return in my eyes. Shortly after i knocked it on the head to spend some time with the family.... felt rather smug not so much for the money taken but more because i felt i'd practiced a valuable lesson i've had in mind for a while but never seem to be able to execute! Trading is extremely mentally grueling and today it would seem its better to spend hour and half trading relaxed, happy and in a good mood than 10 hours when your uptight and frustrated with whatever else is happening in your day.

First week: Total P&L: £273.90

Off to a decent start overall, not had any spectacular days as yet although i find it pays for me not to try to hard and take what the market offers me!

The start.....

2011-01-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

Hi all, so i finally decided to get a blog started. Something that i've thought of for a while now, i'll do my best to update and post once or twice a week if possible as it can be difficult fiting everthing in with a rather hectic life.

So the bad weather seems to have passed for good (fingers crossed) and the races seem to be ticking over nicely for the start of the year i've only had time to trade a few half days so far so its a small start to the year but there's no need to be over keen as it seems to be more of a hinderance in my book to be excited about trading jumping into positions withought due diligance first. Over time im sure the money will come, particularly over cheltenham/ascot/goodwood etc so for now im just gonna start to wind up with a little here and there to grow the bank a little. Started the year with a £600 bank after a rather good christmas! Here's where were at since new year...

Horse racing - £192.07 Greyhounds - £16.03

Total - £208.10

Look forward to recording and sharing my progress along with my thoughts on the markets!