For a couple of quid this thing is the biz. I've finally got an idea of how I'm doing on other events besides the horse racing and the answer is...rubbish!
I'm pleased that I haven't got too much to claw back on the football and golf, as I'm intending on becoming consistently profitable in these sports within 12 months.
What did surprise me was how much I typically lose on the horse racing every month in order to make an overall profit. Take my total so far for August and you'll see that £3,270.26 of positive trades were eaten into by -£1,078.00 of negative ones
August to-date
with my strike rate averaging around 60%
last 4 days
It'd be interesting to hear from other pro traders re their typical losses across the month as a percentage of their overall profit, as I think I'm letting too much of my hard earned slip through the net.
It's always hard to strike the right balance between your maximum profitablity and loss rate. I wouldn't worry too much about the losses unless you're having large ones you can knock out.
ReplyDeleteHaven't got any software to check mine but a while back I was losing a lot more than I was winning and still managed £8-10k per month net. I did a bit of jiggling around to knock out some of my bigger losses/wins and it didn't change the bottom line much. Probably saved me from having an early heart attack though :)
Thanks Anon, it's good to put these things into perspective. As for £8-10k per month net....I'll just pick my jaw up off the floor!
ReplyDeleteHi Mets, great to see you making use of the spreadsheet. I actually think that a percentage of 200% wins over losses in a month is very good indeed! Just keep up the good work. I found that by looking at specific parts of my results on the spreadsheet that there were certain markets killing my bottom line, so now I know not to trade them. I'm all for doing the minimum possible!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be making the spreadsheet for converting betfair lifetime results available on my blog soon, thanks for your feedback on that.
Your blog is a cracking read, keep going with that too. Cheers,
Mind Games
One thing you might want to look at is your overall pnl for lays and backs separately. Obviously a traders edge comes from buying at a value price and selling back at a value price.
ReplyDeleteA perfect trader should be obtaining value from each side of his trades and therefore show an overall profit when the backs/lays are seen in isolation. Unfortunately most of us aren't that perfect and will be giving value away usually on the closing bet. So if you generally lay or back first you can get an idea of where you lose value if there's a large difference between your backs or lays when seen in isolation.
I probably haven't explained that too well but if you do have a large discrepancy between the backs and lays it'd be worth looking at to see if you're giving value away too readily when closing trades.
@MG - cheers mate!
ReplyDelete@Anon - yeah, I'm not sure the spreadsheet goes down to that level of detail but I take your point. With me doing a mix of pre-race and in-running trading, it wouldn't be easy to separate the two though. Anyway, I'm far too lazy for that kind of depth of analysis :D
I've dipped into and read my share of all the 'classic' blogs, but for some reason I never came across yours until today. What a fantastic read! You have told the story, with considerable humour,of your eventful journey from redundancy to pro trader in a year. I started at the beginning and I'm up to August 2010 and my eyes are sore from staring at the screen. I want to log on to Amazon and get my copy of The Diary of a Sports Trader by Mets so I can sit back and savour it. It would be the first of its kind and it would not only be those who have attempted to trade who would love this. It's inpirational, human and humourous. You should get this published. Until that time, I'll carry on logging on.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations,
Peter
Cheers for the feedback, Peter. Those were humble beginnings back in October 2009, and humour was the only way to sweeten the bitter pill of amateur trading!
ReplyDeleteSo you've read upto August 2010? Ah the best is yet to come old fruit, including my 2010 Christmas single :D
PS Amazon said they wouldn't touch this crap with a 20' barge pole! ;)
Hiya Mets,
ReplyDeletelong time follower and admirer of your work. Would you mind adding my blog to your list? It's only til Xmas so if it does'nt meet your taste you can delete it ;)
Many thanks.
Ahem, a link would help wouldn't it,
ReplyDeletehttp://5kbychristmas.blogspot.com/
TA!
Season's Greetings lol !
ReplyDeleteA Christmas-themed blog? Bring it on!! My favourite time of the year. Is it really just over a 100 days away?!
£10 to £5k is some challenge - I take it you've got previous on the exchange then?
I used to subscribe to another Christmas challenge blog in Nov/Dec 2009 by some calling themselves "Coldy Rednose" and I was hooked, not least because he could make £70-£80 on the horses in a single session...it had me mesmerised!!
Look forward to reading your progress :)
Cheers Mets. I'll have a word with the big man to see if he can bring you something nice in his sack, ooo matron ;)
ReplyDelete