The last couple of weeks I have been completely off the traders mindset and am not sure why.
I think my targets for this month has be the cause of that, there were not any specific targets set, but I wanted to double May's profit of £75.75.
As it stands at the moment, June's profit is +£3.50 after being up +£45 within the first few days of June.
In the last couple of weeks, I have used mad stakes and have used over £100 on a couple of occasions. I have seen losses of -£14 in one race yesterday which I was absolutely gutted about but having said that it is another experience to add to my list and one that I think has made me more relaxed using smaller stakes of £20 for example.
Today I traded 17 markets and the last 3 races I managed to get £8.08 using £20 stakes. The day ended +£3.96 but the last few races I felf very comfortable to use £20 stakes and just go with my feelings and not just WoM, money matched etc.
Hopefully it is not just a fluke but a sign of good things to come!
I want to get my bank back to £200 and just have a very small goal from there on instead of anything spectacularly rediculous!
It is better to have small targets and match them than big targets and fail to meet them, as in my case I have ended up trying to chase the target.
Hope your all profiting more than me!
Monday 20 June 2011
Monday 13 June 2011
Red all Over
Last 5 days: -£29.00
The last week I have been completely off the ball. I have not been trading, I have been more on the verge of gambling.
I have recently got frustrated trying to make pennies each race and feel that I should now be making substantially more and have tried doing all sorts with larger stakes ranging from £40-£70 with a few still at £12-£16.
I have been impatient and wanted just to see some large green hedge figures basically so was looking at ambitious entry points that I was looking for and not waiting for the right opportunity.
So basically due to my being impatient I have lost out almost £30, of which yesterday I made just under £19 profit so without yesterday I would have been down -£49.
No excuse for it, just stupidity and lack of enthusiasm with small stakes.
I am off tomorrow and will see what I can do as long as I can get my head together.
This really is a mind game!
The last week I have been completely off the ball. I have not been trading, I have been more on the verge of gambling.
I have recently got frustrated trying to make pennies each race and feel that I should now be making substantially more and have tried doing all sorts with larger stakes ranging from £40-£70 with a few still at £12-£16.
I have been impatient and wanted just to see some large green hedge figures basically so was looking at ambitious entry points that I was looking for and not waiting for the right opportunity.
So basically due to my being impatient I have lost out almost £30, of which yesterday I made just under £19 profit so without yesterday I would have been down -£49.
No excuse for it, just stupidity and lack of enthusiasm with small stakes.
I am off tomorrow and will see what I can do as long as I can get my head together.
This really is a mind game!
Thursday 9 June 2011
Oh Crap!!
Yesterday's profit/loss: -£5.76
Today's profit/loss: -£12.81
OK, so that was a complete cock up!
First of all yesterday I had an easy morning, went for a 6 mile run in the rainy north west of England got back home, had some lunch and sat down to trade.
The first couple of races were quite steady which is rare, as I usually mess them up and improve as the day goes on - but I wasn't complaining. As the day went on and around 8 races traded I was already getting frustrated with not meeting anywhere near my target and having a continuous cycle of winning a race, losing the next, then winning, then losing. With my daily ambitious target of £32.50 (or thereabouts), my mindset was completely lost and I ended up frustrated with my performance and ended the day accepting I was not ready for my challenge at -£5.76 after 24 markets traded.
Today was a similar storey soon on as again my frustration kicked in and my enthusiasm to try and win pennies each race deteriorated and again my mindset was lost.
Instead I just started accepting I would lose money and tried trading for the first time with large stakes of up to £70 - Yeah my mindset had gone!!
I am very nervous when entering a market and am afraid to see the market move in the other direction and I will get out quickly; only to see a few moments later the market has come back past my initial entry point and I could have actually made a profit instead of being too hasty.
So I decided I have £100 of profit so far made from trading and it would be a good experience to try trading with larger stakes, picking my entry points and just to try and relax and go with my instinct on which way the market is trending.
It worked quite well despite two occasions where the hedge amount got too much for me and I didn't want to see my profits get eaten up any more, so I closed those two out for -£9.20 and -£8.67.
So on that bombshell I am thankfully taking tomorrow off and maybe even Saturday so I can have time to get my head together and think of what the best step is, possibly back to basics or I could try larger stakes, maybe up to £40 and see how they go.
Not so sure but the last couple of days are experiences that have been worth the loss, to learn about my decisions and realise my weaknesses.
See you next week!
Tuesday 7 June 2011
Tomorrow's trading plan
Tonight's profit/loss: +£9.65
I am off tomorrow and really want to see what I can get out of the day.
So far I have been trading evenings and the odd full day with interuptions but tomorrow I should be around to trade as much as I take!
Something I have not really done before is set a goal for a trading session, other than to break even, so tomorrow my aim is to trade over 35 horse races aiming to make 3 ticks from each race.
I usually like to trade between odds of 3.0 and 7.0 so I am basing my target on the average odds I trade of 5.0.
Tick sizes are increments of 0.1 from there so 3 ticks profit hedged will be 90p a race using £12 stakes.
With my aim to trade 35 races that would mean a profit of £31.50. It is a massive target really for the results I have produced so far and to keep the standard throughout tomorrow but I want to see how I can cope with setting personal goals.
Looking at how I have worked out this goal, it seems very possible and I can not see why I can't do this, but its easier said than done and I know there are many factors that can change the outcome of a race such as big stakers, lack of concentration and carelessness so all these will have to be minimised.
Wish me luck!
I am off tomorrow and really want to see what I can get out of the day.
So far I have been trading evenings and the odd full day with interuptions but tomorrow I should be around to trade as much as I take!
Something I have not really done before is set a goal for a trading session, other than to break even, so tomorrow my aim is to trade over 35 horse races aiming to make 3 ticks from each race.
I usually like to trade between odds of 3.0 and 7.0 so I am basing my target on the average odds I trade of 5.0.
Tick sizes are increments of 0.1 from there so 3 ticks profit hedged will be 90p a race using £12 stakes.
With my aim to trade 35 races that would mean a profit of £31.50. It is a massive target really for the results I have produced so far and to keep the standard throughout tomorrow but I want to see how I can cope with setting personal goals.
Looking at how I have worked out this goal, it seems very possible and I can not see why I can't do this, but its easier said than done and I know there are many factors that can change the outcome of a race such as big stakers, lack of concentration and carelessness so all these will have to be minimised.
Wish me luck!
Sunday 5 June 2011
Doubled the bank
This evening's profit/loss: +£6.93
Yesterday's profit/loss: +£11.36
My trading journey started on the 5th of May and a month to the day I have managed to double my bank from £100 to as it stands, £201.11.
Over that period I have traded almost 500 markets and have not taken a trade in-play (which I am very pleased about).
My mindset to trading has changed since I first starting having a flutter and I lost £30 sometimes and thought nothing of it. This time I have managed to sit down trading to make just £5 a day. Its amazing how my view on money has changed - for the better.
I have to confess I did actually use a £2 stake to lay the Queen's horse, Carlton House during the race as there was so much hype on the race and over £5m traded on Betfair alone.
Yesterday I did not trade many (if any) of the Epsom meeting as there was just too much money getting matched and I did not feel up to it, but I wanted to make something off the derby so decided to watch it through BBC1 online and had a £2 lay bet on Carlton House (that I hedged for +89p!)
Over the last month I have not really been keeping tight grips on the losses I have incurred and just tried to go for an overall profit instead of taking each race by race.
From now on I am trying to batten down the hatch and minimise every loss. I would have had a much bigger profit if I just took my time and placed half as many trades if I did not throw away some money trading.
Tonight I did just that from 10 markets and managed a respectable +£6.93 profit with a couple of small losses.
I am tempted to set a goal for myself to meet at the end of June but I am just going to take it as I say race-by-race and see what happens. I am still learning something new each race and I do not want to set any target that is unrealistic or possibly too easy that could damage my mindset and performance.
I will catch some of the races next on Tuesday evening and hoping to trade all day Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Good luck what ever you are doing!!
Yesterday's profit/loss: +£11.36
My trading journey started on the 5th of May and a month to the day I have managed to double my bank from £100 to as it stands, £201.11.
Over that period I have traded almost 500 markets and have not taken a trade in-play (which I am very pleased about).
My mindset to trading has changed since I first starting having a flutter and I lost £30 sometimes and thought nothing of it. This time I have managed to sit down trading to make just £5 a day. Its amazing how my view on money has changed - for the better.
I have to confess I did actually use a £2 stake to lay the Queen's horse, Carlton House during the race as there was so much hype on the race and over £5m traded on Betfair alone.
Yesterday I did not trade many (if any) of the Epsom meeting as there was just too much money getting matched and I did not feel up to it, but I wanted to make something off the derby so decided to watch it through BBC1 online and had a £2 lay bet on Carlton House (that I hedged for +89p!)
Over the last month I have not really been keeping tight grips on the losses I have incurred and just tried to go for an overall profit instead of taking each race by race.
From now on I am trying to batten down the hatch and minimise every loss. I would have had a much bigger profit if I just took my time and placed half as many trades if I did not throw away some money trading.
Tonight I did just that from 10 markets and managed a respectable +£6.93 profit with a couple of small losses.
I am tempted to set a goal for myself to meet at the end of June but I am just going to take it as I say race-by-race and see what happens. I am still learning something new each race and I do not want to set any target that is unrealistic or possibly too easy that could damage my mindset and performance.
I will catch some of the races next on Tuesday evening and hoping to trade all day Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Good luck what ever you are doing!!
Thursday 2 June 2011
Contingency plan needed
Today's profit/loss: +£13.07
Yesterday's profit/loss: -£2.14
Today it happened as I predicted it would at some stage.
I was looking after my brother today (5) and showed him how to use the house phone in the morning, and use speed dial to ring people.
Later on when I was trading I could hear a few mobiles going off down stairs (caused by my brother!) and a bit later the internet connection was shut down which sometimes happens when a phone is left off the hook. This happened when I had a lay bet in of £16 on odds around 6.0 . With 2 minutes until the race was due to start, I had to disconnect my laptop from upstairs, run down with it, try and sort out the wireless router that could have been the problem and thanfully I got it back online just before the race began.
As soon as I saw the Geeks Toy connection go haywire I placed a scratch trade in the market hoping it would be taken - thankfully it did at some point and no damage was done this time!!
The day over all started poorly and in the last 15 markets I traded I racked in £12.81 after wasting the first 16 markets of the day.
Anyway a decent result but I want to start seeing more improvements from myself.
There are quite a few times where I 'feel' there is a good opportunity the market will swing but instead I end up trying to scalp all the way instead of place a trade and let it run. This way would reduce my workload and produce a larger hedge figure. It would also allow me to add more to the swing trade if its looking good - so I will be looking out for these a lot more in the future.
Finally I got a message last night from a well known Betfair trader with some good advice that was to use stakes I feel comfortable with. So I was experimenting with £16 stakes which I have to say went well today. Maybe a fluke but only time will tell.
Can't trade tomorrow unfortunately as I have to go to my 'real' job selling petrol to motorists but may catch a few markets on Saturday.
I also need to investigate having a backup plan if my internet connection cuts out again. Anyone got any suggestions - leave a comment!
Graph below: Shows the 31 races traded and a running profit/loss.
Yesterday's profit/loss: -£2.14
Today it happened as I predicted it would at some stage.
I was looking after my brother today (5) and showed him how to use the house phone in the morning, and use speed dial to ring people.
Later on when I was trading I could hear a few mobiles going off down stairs (caused by my brother!) and a bit later the internet connection was shut down which sometimes happens when a phone is left off the hook. This happened when I had a lay bet in of £16 on odds around 6.0 . With 2 minutes until the race was due to start, I had to disconnect my laptop from upstairs, run down with it, try and sort out the wireless router that could have been the problem and thanfully I got it back online just before the race began.
As soon as I saw the Geeks Toy connection go haywire I placed a scratch trade in the market hoping it would be taken - thankfully it did at some point and no damage was done this time!!
The day over all started poorly and in the last 15 markets I traded I racked in £12.81 after wasting the first 16 markets of the day.
Anyway a decent result but I want to start seeing more improvements from myself.
There are quite a few times where I 'feel' there is a good opportunity the market will swing but instead I end up trying to scalp all the way instead of place a trade and let it run. This way would reduce my workload and produce a larger hedge figure. It would also allow me to add more to the swing trade if its looking good - so I will be looking out for these a lot more in the future.
Finally I got a message last night from a well known Betfair trader with some good advice that was to use stakes I feel comfortable with. So I was experimenting with £16 stakes which I have to say went well today. Maybe a fluke but only time will tell.
Can't trade tomorrow unfortunately as I have to go to my 'real' job selling petrol to motorists but may catch a few markets on Saturday.
I also need to investigate having a backup plan if my internet connection cuts out again. Anyone got any suggestions - leave a comment!
Graph below: Shows the 31 races traded and a running profit/loss.
Monday 30 May 2011
The month of May
May's profit/loss: +£74.74
This first month of trading has produced a great result for me to work on. It has taken a long time to get there (384 horse races to be precise) but I have profit in the bank and am happy with the learning process I have made so far.
Since 5th May when I started and deposited £100 in to the Betfair bank, I have won on 240 races with a grand total of +£211.89 and lost on 144 races equating to -£148.63.
My monthly strike rate has been 62.50% overall and if it had been 50% I would have made a loss as the average losing trade has been -£1.03 against the average winning trade +£0.88.
The big plan of mine is to increase my balance up to £200 and will probably start withdrawing any profit out of betfair either weekly or monthly! This is basically so that I will keep the stakes low and minimise the risk of blowing everything I have made.
I have gone from £50 to £1100 before using Betfair's holdem game in 2008/9 and then lost it all, I was not happy but that's another storey! Lesson learned there and although it was expensive I have learnt that lesson well and truly so doubt I will be doing that again soon!
If you have any suggestions for topics to post up here, let me know ;)
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