Never Trade When Tired

If ever there was an example of how situations can quickly and easily go against you then this was it. Over the course of 45 minutes and just 5 races  I had managed to lose £92.53. The reason? I was tired and not in the 'zone' thus making very bad decisions by guessing rather than reading the markets.

In the first race I lost £29.72. I was down £15 and decided to try to claw it back in running. This is never a good idea and there are countless warnings on many blogs to stay away. It is the correct advice but the temptation is very strong.  Anyway the market continued against me and I lost an additional £15. 

After this disappointment the natural desire is to get things on an even keel as quickly as possible. The best advice is to fight against this desire and either trade how you know you can or just switch off for the night! I know I shouldn't but the next couple of races I increased my stakes and dug an even deeper hole for myself. The one positive is that I didn't go in play but came away with losses of £14 and £20. I gained on the fourth race but that was obviously more luck than judgement. The last race went the same as the first. I was down, went in play and lost more!

Had another go at the snooker and managed to reduce the bad evening by 10%.

Having played this game for over 3 years I should know better. It is a concern that I still do it, even though it is to a lesser extent but writing this blog really is good therapy for me. During the losses I was thinking to myself of how embarrassing this is going to look on my page and that can only be a good thing.

Referring back to my spreadsheet. I have put up another two tabs. The first is my daily horse market and it keeps me up to date with my targets and projections the other is a bar chart. Please excuse the spelling in the yellow bubbles. I found out that they can't be amended once I have saved it. Stupid if you ask me!

There are four more tabs to show in due course.  The month summary, The month totals by sport, Horse Race line chart and the long term analysis.