Early bath

Time to call time early on this month's trading and reset my approach for October. The larger stakes are killing my game, as I find I'm chasing losses a lot more and expending a lot of energy and cash in doing so.

I started today's session with a clear mind and good intentions but after getting a tenner up, I began to get complacent and got caught out a few times, including one -£23 loss. Total loss nearly 60 quid :(



I feel I'm being braver, playing the favourite a lot more and getting involved in the fast money, but I'd hoped I would be suitably battle-hardened by now. I'm not.

When I came downstairs yesterday after sustaining a similar loss, I went into the garage and beat the crap out of my punchbag. Proper UFC-style ground-and-pound hammerfists too. The bag didn't stand a chance!


My wife reminded me of similar behaviour the last time I upped my stakes and went downhill. Indeed, my overall profit graph shows a few battle scars.


It was a disappointing end to September after a strong start but on the other hand, nothing-ventured-nothing-gained as they say. I have a better idea of what level I'm at and what works and what doesn't. I need to build up some momentum again by drawing a line under September and taking a less gung-ho approach in October.

Tug of war

Things are getting ugly. The total profit line nearly touched -£70 after another series of mishaps. There must be some psychological term for this lose-lots-then-claw-it-back-painfully approach.

Happy to end where I did to be honest as I'm being quite ambitious with my trades at the moment. Suddenly, earning £3 a race is not enough for me anymore, I want £10-£20 a race.

I've managed to make another reasonable profit over the course of this month so I think this week will see more boundary pushing as the month draws to an end...hopefully without too much hurt!

Then it will be a case of battening down the hatches for the Autumn and Winter to try and grind out some steady profit. £30 a day is still a nice target, and I was happy to achieve in excess of that for August. I just have to remind myself that, although £30 doesn't seem much profit for a session, it does all add up quite nicely by the end of the month.

Throwing it away

Scraped in just over £100 this week. The bigger staking is having a neutralising effect on my profit once again. This happened the last time I ramped up the stakes. I mean we're only talking £5 tick sizes here - which to some is small fry - but it soon adds up when things go awry.

It has been a week littered with errors, in-play gaffes and lucky escapes...hardly the right recipe for profitable trading. My underpants drawer is completely empty...!


I'm sure things will settle down, including my jangled nerves. I've been forgetting to take the Kalms which hasn't helped.

On the plus side, I've been signing friends up left-right-and-centre to Betfair so the little £25 bonuses have been topping up my ailing bank. Been thinking about going door-to-door and signing people up en masse ;) Like one of those NPower salesman but more respectable!

There seems to be so much chatter about betting exchanges' contribution to the demise of the horse racing industry, with the BHA and bookies getting on their backs, that post-float, us Betfairers may find ourselves sailing some pretty stormy waters. Then again, maybe it's just scaremongering. But I do wonder if I'll still be sitting here trading on the ladders in year's time?? Having said that, I have got into a good habit of taking life a day at a time, which is probably something we should all be doing, given that none of us know what's around the corner.

Paranoid Android

I was shopping around for a new mobile phone this week cos I'm a bit bored of my ageing Sony Ericsson handset. Had a hold of the new iPhone while the guy at Tesco hovered around, probably making sure I wasn't going to nick it or drop it!

I like the idea of the dedicated Betfair app but I'm being careful not to be sucked into the Apple hype again as I did with the first iPhone (which I ended up flogging soon after cos it was a bit too much of a brick).



I did stumble upon this article about a new app for Android handsets which is good news as I'm rather a Google fan-boy and this adds weight to the "Android is catching up with iPhone" argument. In fact, I've more-or-less set my heart on getting the HTC Wildfire...


Poor man's iPhone

...but I've not seen a decent 12 month contract yet. Looked pretty sexy in the Tesco shop even though the assistant was trying to prise open my wallet for £349 for the iPhone whilst simultaneously dismissing the Wildfire in disgust!

Funnily enough, as I mucked out the hens today I suddenly realised where Google got their inspiration from for the Android robot thingy...



...my bar-b-que of course! ;)


It's been a hard week trading the horses this week not least because the missus is away and I had my little one with me in the afternoons. Nothing can beat shutting the door and trading in solitude for 3 hours as distractions can wreak havoc on my focus, but I'm happy that I more-or-less kept my mind on the job.

Lost -£27 on one race today after going chasing and, more worryingly, went in-play in a Listowel race because I didn't have the sound up on the telly. Could've potentially lost -£500 cos it went on to win :( Fortunately, I didn't panic and managed to get out in-running for a fiver loss. How many lives do traders have again?! The Irish races do go off very promptly so if you're trading close to the off you're more likely to get "done" in one of these.

The day


The week

I've been trying to increase my stakes upto £200 for prices <6 and it's not doing me too much harm. Obviously there is only so much I can lay at bigger prices with my £1000 bank but I don't intend to increase it this side of Christmas, and will continue to withdraw the difference after each session.

Hens: free to a good home

Well, my 24 day winning streak has come to a clucking end with a shambolic session that's messed up my PnL graph with an ugly minus!


BAKAAAWWWWWWWWWW!

My mindset going in was that of a crazed lunatic after my 6 hens decided to play up, 2 of them in particular were egging each other on; it was a poultry affair. My mood wasn't helped by my internet playing up again - it was dropping out every few minutes which is about as much use as a screen door on a submarine. After many trips up and down the stairs, rebooting routers and roosters, I was spitting feathers!

And there was me starting to think I was invincible.


And then there were 5....

Where do blogs go to die?

In my defunct folder of course!


And the list is getting loooooooong ;)


I won't say which are in my faves and which aren't, in case I offend anyone ;)

Sadly, another blog went on haitus today, as Didd stepped away from trading for the time being.

Fascinating things these trading blogs. People start them for various reasons - to help keep disciplined, to track a challenge or perhaps just to make some like-minded-cyber-trading-friends - and end them for lots more reasons - a return to full-time employment, a blown bank or maybe just sheer boredom.

Google Reader does an adequate job of keeping my reading material organised, although I could think of some improvements to make to its arduous labelling process.


Another pleasing weekend of trading the horses...


Sunday trading seems to be coming into its own as I'm getting a feel for them now. Not much doing on the tennis front as I'm either too knackered to watch it after a horsie session, or just too afraid to get involved after getting my fingers burnt a little recently. Only odd tenners here and there but they all add up.

At the end of the day, you only get out what you put in and with the consistency coming on the horses of late, that's my number one priority.