A quick profit

Trading time is now diminishing. I'll need to make the best of what's left.

Not bad

No system bets again.

Fair day

No system bets today.

Back in the swing

The system bet was placed with a bookie today and was 2nd again.

Trading profit and gambling loss.

It looks like a loss, but it's actually a £7.67 trading profit. The screenshot includes two £50 win bets on horses, both of which finished 2nd! I intend to do more of these bets which follow a system. I could have done them on my Betdaq account, but my Betfair account has a more favourable commission rate. So although it messes up my trading figures, it makes financial sense to do it this way.

I'm also considering trading football matches pre play. When that happens, I'll include the profit and loss figures here.

Maybe not!

Of course I can trade, what are you talking about, Allan?

Want to know a secret?

I just read an excellent post on "The Scalper" blog about Adam Heathcote's involvement in "Exchange Secrets". It pretty much sums up my view on the subject.

I consider Adam to be a bit of a hero and an inspiration to all traders. Who wouldn't want to be making the money he makes trading? There are many people who are in complete denial about his profits who say that he is just pretending, but that's just negativity. "If I can't do it, then it can't be done!".

Although he is earning far more than he otherwise would, Adam does miss out on having a "normal" career. It's possible that Adam sees Exchange Secrets as a step towards "normality". However, I think he has been ill advised, and that it harms his reputation, and it is a venture which is based almost entirely on that reputation.

My understanding was that Adam does what I do, making split second decisions based on price movements, not on what we think twenty minutes before the race begins. At that time we are making decisions on the race before the previous one.

Having said that, if any of my readers would like to send me £55 every month, I'd be happy to send them my vague, ambiguous guess as to where the prices are likely to be just before the off.
In fact, I'll do it for £50.

Starting to doubt if I can trade at all.

I won't know for sure unless I stop myself going in play. Luck is playing too big a factor in my results. I could have been £3000 down or £3000 up last night. I've been lucky in the past with horses that would have cost me dearly trading at 1.01, but losing. Last night some went below 1.10 that I could have greened up on, but they lost.

If this was my only source of income, I couldn't allow it to happen. I need to have a serious word with myself.

Lesson still not learned!

It had to happen...

Big loss today. Will I learn from it, I wonder?

In answer to a comment, I blank out my non trading activities. I might begin an "Allan the Exchange Gambler" blog later, but I doubt it. :)

Very lucky today

Profit, but not pretty

.

A satisfying evening

I jokingly compared my result last night with those of Adam Heathcote, who along with Peter Webb, Adam Todd and other unsung profesional traders who make extraordinary profits, has to be an inspiration to all of us wannabee pros. Of course, the difference between me and them is that they can do this just about every day. With me, it's an occasional event, and as leonthefixer rightly said, I could hit trouble any time due to the fact that I have problems taking my reds on the chin.


Thanks to those followers who have congratulated me on last night's profit. In answer to a question I was asked, I have changed my style to a degree. I did significantly increase my stakes. This has caused me to be more cautious pre play, and so far it is working. I'm still going in play a few times, but not as often as before. The big difference, although it has happened before, is that I enter markets strongly believing that I am going to profit. That's not intended to sound arrogant. I just think it demonstrates that I'm in the groove. I'm not normally a confident person, but there's a chance that could change if I started making as much as Adam on a regular
basis.


Sorry to hear about the death of horse Something Inside tonight. Subconsciously I had been singing the Labi Siffre song all evening having seen the name, It is sad that this happens to racehorses.

I wonder how much Adam Heathcote made today? :)

A multitude of sins

That's what this daily total hides. I'm thinking of doubling my stakes in the hope that it will stop me going in play.

My first loss

I lost £13.03 yesterday, but that doesn't even begin to describe how badly I traded. It was so bad that I'm too embarrassed to post my P+L listing. The only positive thing I can take from it was that I took a £10.69 loss in a race before it went in play. I need to do that every time in that situation.

As suggested to me, I'm going to forget about targets. I'm looking forward to being "in the zone" for tonight's racing, and taking my reds like a man (not that I'll have any!) :)

That's more like it!

A great day, not only for my confidence, but also financially. There was a wobbly period though, and I lost a lot through going in play without closing off my bets. I've often thought that part of the reason I let bets go in play is because I think I gain from it. Often I turn reds into greens, and it feels good to do that obviously. Today I'm pretty sure I lost because of it. I managed to turn tiny reds into very big reds. I'm sure it's partly down to stupid pride.

Someone commented on this subject and advised me to reduce my stakes as a solution to going in play. I'm grateful for any advice, but I actually think that would have the opposite effect on me. It would just reduce the worst risk, so I'd just let it go because the risk is lower. My stakes are relatively low compared with many traders who make as much as me. The reason I don't increase them is because I fear the outcome of me letting them go in play. That is why I think I really need to red up every time, because if I'm to improve, then I need to increase my stakes. Although I know that I should avoid big losses by redding up, when it comes time to do it, I can't. It defies all logic.

On a more positive note, I'm ahead of target. However, maybe Saturdays should count as two days?

Not the start I was looking for.

Mixed feelings about my first blog result. It's positive in that I made a profit, but I can't be too pleased by the way it was achieved. It was a night to knock my confidence. I struggled to get any sort of direction in the prices at all, and ended up going in play far too many times. After a very good start, it all began to go wrong. Many of the markets suffered from poor liquidity too. It's not often you get four evening meetings.

So I'm behind on target already, but should hopefully make that up tomorrow. I'm hoping for some smooth trading tomorrow to help me regain my confidence.

Day one - 7th August 2009

It's a special day to start a blog; the 7th of the 8th of the 9th.


I plan to publish my Profit and Loss listing from Betfair each day. This will hopefully encourage me to do well in my trading. That seems an odd thing to say because you would think that the financial rewards of doing well would be sufficient encouragement, but somehow it doesn't quite work that way with me. I've come to trading fairly recently having spent many years gambling, and like many traders who began as gamblers, I have a problem with discipline.


At the moment I trade on horses pre race, but I hope to move into other sports sometime. I have a 9 to 5 job, so that means that I can only trade evenings, weekends and days off work.


I feel that I should be setting myself a target from the beginning, but I'm not sure what that would be. One thing for sure, I don't want many losing days. 6th August was a bad losing day, hence the creation of this blog. Surprisingly I've noticed that some traders use a target as a ceiling for their earnings. They reach their target for the day, or a race and so they stop trading. I don't see the point of that. If you are a profitable trader, why stop? Not only are they limiting their earnings, they are limiting the amount of experience they gain, and therefore their improvement is hindered. Being part time, I try to get as much experience as possible.


The target I'm going to set is £200 as a daily average for those days that I trade. I' d like to see that figure grow too as time goes on. So lets see what happens...