Sunday 30 May 2010

A Steady Profit

After scrapping for a profit late last night thanks to the show, today was a more controlled performance. A little profit on the Grand Prix followed by a straight forward session on the horses.









Another popular blog was threatening to end. Betting For A Living is one of the more succesful stories out in the big bad trading world. His threat to finish brought many comments of support including from myself and I am glad to report that people power prevailed. Us bloggers must stick together!

Spreadsheet

For those that have requested the Trading spreadsheet, it will be emailed by 6.30pm tonight.

Additional post:  I forgot to say that 6.30pm was EST (Eastern USA) not GMT!

Saturday 29 May 2010

Viva Eurovision

Ugly Mug!

Well it was only a matter of time wasn't it?  True to form I accidentally went in play and almost immediately it all went against me. I was in such a mess that I thought the best thing to do was to just leave the large liability, get a drink and hope that it will all turn out okay. What a mug!













I would have had a good session if it weren't for the little lapse of discipline!

It's all down to the Eurovision to claw my way back into profit!  The nights not over yet!

Friday 28 May 2010

The Dream Is Still Alive......

.......for some!

One of the blogs that I have really enjoyed following is The Dream Is Still Alive. Here is a guy who has been very successful at trading the second half of football markets. He didn't win large amounts each day but the most important factor was that he was consistently profiting and had built up a large bank over the course of three months. So I was very surprised and sad to learn that he had blown his bank chasing losses after initially losing on exchange games. He has now ended his blog.

Keeping discipline may sound simple but it's one of the hardest things that you must overcome to be successful over the long term.  I admit that I am struggling to master it.......in fact I am not even close but I would never get involved with exchange games or any type of computer generated game. Some people do win big money on these games but for most it's loss after loss after loss. The majority can never win over the medium term and in my opinion it's like throwing money down the drain. He doesn't say how much he initially lost or what he did to chase the losses but as it happened on Monday evening I am drawn towards the possibility that he may have made a small loss on the exchanges and then put bets on the Portugal v Cape Verde game leaving large liabilities. Perhaps laying 0-0 in the second half. Portugal were such hot favourites playing a team ranked 114 in the world that the odds for 0-0 were high even in the closing stages. Nobody could have imagined that Portugal would go 90 minutes without scoring! 

I admire his honesty as he could have just not posted again but I would ask him not to throw in the towel just yet! My advice would be to take a few days off. Then read through his blog and focus on the positives like for example the consistant profits and if he still have the urge to dip in again then a big bank is not needed. Just stick in €100 and take it from there and really make a conscious effort to keep the discipline and stay off the computer games.

Anyway, enough of playing mother! I had a family gathering yesterday so trading was strictly prohibited. Tonight I had a reasonable result. I still occasionally go in play when I am in the red and I know I shouldn't do it but no harm done this time.








Tomorrow we have the greatest event of the year. The Eurovision Song Contest. 


Now before you all think I have gone insane, I must point out that it is not great because of the music, it's great because of the hour long scoring process which gives great opportunities to make some decent money in the market. I have always done very well and hopefully that will continue tomorrow.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Not Much Activity Since Monday

I didn't trade yesterday and only did a little tonight (half trade/half gamble) which was enough to get me above £1,000. I was working late so I caught the end of the racing but that wasn't enough to take me over my target so I just went into gambler mode and stuck an £11 lay of no next goal in the France game. There must have been about 15 minutes left to play.  No skill, just hit and hope and  I got lucky. 






Talking about footie, what about the Portugal game on Monday. I didn't realise that Cape Verde had a football team! I never got to see the trades but there must have been many punters with extreme emotions of exhilaration and depths of despair!

I can't believe the amount of requests I have had for my spreadsheet. I will be emailing it out on Sunday ready to use for Tuesday. I have had requests to have it available for download but I want to keep it simple so please let me have your email addresses. I won't publish them.

I have had a couple of requests to show all the tabs in one post, so I have made use of my spreadsheet page and put them all up in there.

Monday 24 May 2010

A Small Step Back

Not much seems to have gone right for me over the last couple of days as I have accumulated losses of £129 but having said that I didn't expect to be profitable every day. There were a couple of races where I lost about £45 in each and the rest of the time I just didn't gain any consistency.
 





That put's me just under my £1,000 target so will need to keep focus to ensure I don't fall even further behind.

Saturday 22 May 2010

A Monster Day

I am really getting to grips with the horse trading. If I take out my lucky escape I managed to sensibly build up £200. There were about 4 races where I purposely went in play and made some controlled trades. The Goodwood race really shook me up. Once the lay was taken and I realised what I had done, I just froze almost in disbelief. The price continued to shorten before it finally drifted out and I gave a huge sigh of relief. I was quite shaken up and it affected me over the next couple of races before I managed to regain my composure. Unfortunately I didn't do too well on the football but can't complain at £256.




How Not To Win £100

What a total Idiot!

I am currently up over £100 without this massive cock up! I almost had a heart attack seeing that massive red total. I was supposed to put a £10 lay in running but instead it was £100.

A very lucky escape. Had I lost £373 I would have published it too.

More of the day will follow later.

Friday 21 May 2010

Consecutive Tons

I am quite amazed that I have produced back to back centuries. Todays performance is particularly rewarding as it was all pre-race. I am just hoping that the bubble won't burst just yet.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Bedtime Reading

Firstly I would like to apologise for the lack of posts. It is difficult to find the time to sit down and type. I work full time so when I have the time to trade the evening horses and have made something to eat it's 10pm and I am shattered. However I really want to make the effort from now on to at least get something on my page each day and I appreciate all the readers that come back to my page day after day.

My trend continues. I either have a full session where I am reading the markets correctly 90% of the time or a complete session where everything I seem to predict goes the other way. There is never any middle ground. In the words of Watchdog, it must be some rogue traders shaking the markets!

I have had a very good couple of days but that doesn't mean I am not making the same careless mistakes. It just means that those mistakes have given me greens. The classic one tonight is putting in a lay of £100 with a potential liabilty of £350 and then completely forgetting about it as I answer the telephone.  How the hell can I forget about something like that? I don't have the answer except to say that I am tired. Anyway, suddenly the alarm in my brain (yes I do have a little one) starts ringing and after reciting every swear word imaginable I return to my laptop with the race well underway and thankfully the price was drifting so I traded out for a profit of £40.


 


 


I was reading my favourite blog. Green All Over (no Cassini is not paying me to plug it) and there are two very interesting recent posts worth reading.
 
Easily Said Not Easily Done.  For those that have read my entries from the start know that my objective is to profit at £33 per day (although I have today added it to 'about me'). It sounds pretty easy but in truth it is very hard. Firstly you can never trade every day unless you are a loner with no social life and secondly you cannot win every day and every losing day puts you further and further behind.

My results are a prime example to that post. I  have had some very good days since 10th May but within this period there has been four non trading days and one loss. It comes to £513 in 11 days but my daily average has only increased from £14 to £19. My original target is to reach £9,000 by the end of the year but at this rate it will be 8th July next year before I reach it! I am over £500 behind where I would like to be.

Cassini's other post is Twenty Questions. I am not going to reveal how many questions I answered yes to, other than to say that perhaps Gamblers Anonymous is just a phone call to away!

I was on the Bet Angel forum the other day and saw a very creative explanation as to the Five Fatal Flaws of Trading. I hope the member doesn't mind me copying it to my page. It is rather long but well worth reading. It is based on trading the financials but it is the same concept for sports.

Five Fatal Flaws of Trading

Close to ninety percent of all traders lose money. The remaining ten percent somehow manage to either break even or even turn a profit – and more importantly, do it consistently. How do they do that?

That's an age-old question. While there is no magic formula, Jeffrey Kennedy has identified five fundamental flaws that, in his opinion, stop most traders from being consistently successful. We don't claim to have found The Holy Grail of trading here, but sometimes a single idea can change a person's life.

Why Do Traders Lose?
If you’ve been trading for a long time, you no doubt have felt that a monstrous, invisible hand sometimes reaches into your trading account and takes out money. It doesn’t seem to matter how many books you buy, how many seminars you attend or how many hours you spend analyzing price charts, you just can’t seem to prevent that invisible hand from depleting your trading account funds.

Which brings us to the question: Why do traders lose? Or maybe we should ask, 'How do you stop the Hand?' Whether you are a seasoned professional or just thinking about opening your first trading account, the ability to stop the Hand is proportional to how well you understand and overcome the Five Fatal Flaws of trading. For each fatal flaw represents a finger on the invisible hand that wreaks havoc with your trading account.

Fatal Flaw No. 1 – Lack of Methodology
If you aim to be a consistently successful trader, then you must have a defined trading methodology, which is simply a clear and concise way of looking at markets. Guessing or going by gut instinct won’t work over the long run. If you don’t have a defined trading methodology, then you don’t have a way to know what constitutes a buy or sell signal. Moreover, you can’t even consistently correctly identify the trend.

How to overcome this fatal flaw? Answer: Write down your methodology. Define in writing what your analytical tools are and, more importantly, how you use them. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Wave Principle, Point and Figure charts, Stochastics, RSI or a combination of all of the above. What does matter is that you actually take the effort to define it (i.e., what constitutes a buy, a sell, your trailing stop and instructions on exiting a position). And the best hint I can give you regarding developing a defined trading methodology is this: If you can’t fit it on the back of a business card, it’s probably too complicated.

Fatal Flaw No. 2 – Lack of Discipline

When you have clearly outlined and identified your trading methodology, then you must have the discipline to follow your system. A Lack of Discipline in this regard is the second fatal flaw. If the way you view a price chart or evaluate a potential trade setup is different from how you did it a month ago, then you have either not identified your methodology or you lack the discipline to follow the methodology you have identified. The formula for success is to consistently apply a proven methodology. So the best advice I can give you to overcome a lack of discipline is to define a trading methodology that works best for you and follow it religiously.

Fatal Flaw No. 3 – Unrealistic Expectations
Between you and me, nothing makes me angrier than those commercials that say something like, "...$5,000 properly positioned in Natural Gas can give you returns of over $40,000..." Advertisements like this are a disservice to the financial industry as a whole and end up costing uneducated investors a lot more than $5,000. In addition, they help to create the third fatal flaw: Unrealistic Expectations.

Yes, it is possible to experience above-average returns trading your own account. However, it’s difficult to do it without taking on above-average risk. So what is a realistic return to shoot for in your first year as a trader – 50%, 100%, 200%? Whoa, let’s rein in those unrealistic expectations. In my opinion, the goal for every trader their first year out should be not to lose money. In other words, shoot for a 0% return your first year. If you can manage that, then in year two, try to beat the Dow or the S&P. These goals may not be flashy but they are realistic, and if you can learn to live with them – and achieve them – you will fend off the Hand.

Fatal Flaw No. 4 – Lack of Patience

The fourth finger of the invisible hand that robs your trading account is Lack of Patience. I forget where, but I once read that markets trend only 20% of the time, and, from my experience, I would say that this is an accurate statement. So think about it, the other 80% of the time the markets are not trending in one clear direction.

That may explain why I believe that for any given time frame, there are only two or three really good trading opportunities. For example, if you’re a long-term trader, there are typically only two or three compelling tradable moves in a market during any given year. Similarly, if you are a short-term trader, there are only two or three high-quality trade setups in a given week.

All too often, because trading is inherently exciting (and anything involving money usually is exciting), it’s easy to feel like you’re missing the party if you don’t trade a lot. As a result, you start taking trade setups of lesser and lesser quality and begin to over-trade.

How do you overcome this lack of patience? The advice I have found to be most valuable is to remind yourself that every week, there is another trade-of-the-year. In other words, don’t worry about missing an opportunity today, because there will be another one tomorrow, next week and next month ... I promise.

I remember a line from a movie (either Sergeant York with Gary Cooper or The Patriot with Mel Gibson) in which one character gives advice to another on how to shoot a rifle: 'Aim small, miss small.' I offer the same advice in this new context. To aim small requires patience. So be patient, and you’ll miss small."

Fatal Flaw No. 5 – Lack of Money Management
The final fatal flaw to overcome as a trader is a Lack of Money Management, and this topic deserves more than just a few paragraphs, because money management encompasses risk/reward analysis, probability of success and failure, protective stops and so much more. Even so, I would like to address the subject of money management with a focus on risk as a function of portfolio size.

Now the big boys (i.e., the professional traders) tend to limit their risk on any given position to 1% - 3% of their portfolio. If we apply this rule to ourselves, then for every $5,000 we have in our trading account, we can risk only $50-$150 on any given trade. Stocks might be a little different, but a $50 stop in Corn, which is one point, is simply too tight a stop, especially when the 10-day average trading range in Corn recently has been more than 10 points. A more plausible stop might be five points or 10, in which case, depending on what percentage of your total portfolio you want to risk, you would need an account size between $15,000 and $50,000.

Simply put, I believe that many traders begin to trade either under-funded or without sufficient capital in their trading account to trade the markets they choose to trade. And that doesn’t even address the size that they trade (i.e., multiple contracts).

To overcome this fatal flaw, let me expand on the logic from the 'aim small, miss small' movie line. If you have a small trading account, then trade small. You can accomplish this by trading fewer contracts, or trading e-mini contracts or even stocks. Bottom line, on your way to becoming a consistently successful trader, you must realize that one key is longevity. If your risk on any given position is relatively small, then you can weather the rough spots. Conversely, if you risk 25% of your portfolio on each trade, after four consecutive losers, you’re out all together.

Break the Hand’s Grip
Trading successfully is not easy. It’s hard work ... damn hard. And if anyone leads you to believe otherwise, run the other way, and fast. But this hard work can be rewarding, above-average gains are possible and the sense of satisfaction one feels after a few nice trades is absolutely priceless. To get to that point, though, you must first break the fingers of the Hand that is holding you back and stealing money from your trading account. I can guarantee that if you attend to the five fatal flaws I’ve outlined, you won’t be caught red-handed stealing from your own account.

I want to finish by confirming that I will have have the spreadsheet ready to use from June 1st. That way it will be a clean start and I can configure the first month. It is too complicated  for my little brain to configure a link to Google Docs on here so the best method is for anyone interested to contact me through the comments with your email address. You don't have to worry about your email address appearing on my page as it is moderated by me and I assure you that I won't publish it. I will then email the spreadsheet with full instructions as to how to maintain it. I am sure there are many of you who know more about excel than me so if you can improve it then please let me know.

Time for bed.

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Quick Post

Below is Sunday's results. I didn't trade yesterday.

Sunday 16 May 2010

Congratulations England - Twenty20 World Champs

Bad Habits

Bad habits continued as I received two bad losses of £48 & £96.  These were the only two markets when I went in play. That contributed to an overall loss of £59.94. I have lost count of how many times I say to myself that going in play is for mugs, but I still do it! Let's hope I have a better Sunday than last week.








I notice that Peter Webb has put up a post regarding maintaining discipline. Perhaps my blog has inspired him. Click here.

He demos Bet Angels spreadsheet option and shows how you can stop yourself from going in play. My subscription has recently run out and I will be renewing within the next couple of days. I use Geeks ladder for free but I don't mind paying for Bet Angel just to use their charting and the Guardian facility as it should be money well spent if you don't make my silly mistakes.

Saturday 15 May 2010

A Record Day

Having settled down on the sofa with a beer ready to add to my page, the next thing I know it's 8.30am in the morning. It's been a long hard week so perhaps yesterdays hard work and excitement was just too much for me to take!









This is the most I have won in a single day on the horse markets. I traded 33 races with the first race starting at 5.40pm. There were 3 or 4  that were scheduled go off at the same time but I managed to flick between them to get in some decent trades. I lost small amounts in only 3 of the races and £75 was gained by trading off in play in 4 races, 3 of which were accidentally put in play. The other 26 races were pure profit from trading.

How did I do it? 

I hope anyone reading this who traded the 5 evening meetings will agree with me when I say that the markets were acting different to normal. In my opinion most of the big traders didn't bother. Aintree, Hamilton, Newcastle were a dream to trade. The movements seemed natural with no sudden change of direction. When a horse drifted or steamed it seemed to continue in that direction for the duration of the pre race.  The two Irish meetings had reduced liquidity but not so low that you couldn't trade. At times the Irish markets were as volitile as an in play market but without the worry of suddenly hitting 1.01 or 1000. Whenever I saw the price start bouncing around I would immediately put up two prices amounting to about £150 liability 5or 6 ticks apart and the market would swallow them up within a few seconds. I did this many times without struggling to get filled. I could green out on all outcomes with £5 or over on one trade.

I am not doing anything special this afternoon so will be hoping to continue where I left off.

As I am not Superman, I couldn't watch the Cricket and trade the horses at the same time but I did keep an eye on the situation on Betfair's cricket page. I saw the price of Pakistan go down to 1.01 but when I looked at the score I thought that even a £100 lay was £1 wasted as there was no way that Australia could win the game but of course 1.01's are there to be broken and I was left with the usual gutting feeling of the missed opportunity!

 









Despite my strong performance yesterday, my consistent losses, especially my 2 biggies, are keeping the daily average below where I'd like to see it. You will notice from the Analysis Tab (below) my current average is £18.25 and I need to acheive a daily target of  £35.33 for the rest of the year to reach my £9,000 goal. I can't remember why I have set a target of £9,000 rather than a normal £10,000 but I am sure it will come back to me! You will also notice that if I maintain my current average then I will reach my target 8 months late.



Friday 14 May 2010

Well Rested

I have been in France on business since Tuesday and arrived back last night. It was not possible to do any trading but the rest obviously did me good as I had an amazing evening with the horses as I profited by over £200. I need to grab something to eat and then will be back with more details.

Monday 10 May 2010

Steady As She Goes

A calmer evening compared to yesterdays rollercoaster. A decent session on the horses which was cemented by the golf result which was applied to my account in the early hours of the morning.

 

Sunday 9 May 2010

I Can Sleep A Little Better Tonight

I wasn't intending to play this but needed to put in the extra. In the end all I did was lay Westwood at 2.72 when he was just one shot behind playing the 10th and luckily for me he kept on drifting for an easy £50. Don't know whether this will hit tonights total in time but at the very least I will have a good start to Monday.

Thank you fellow bloggers for your kind words. It certainly helps to share the lows!

Goodnight.

Small Consolation

Disaster Day

Over the last ten days I have received a couple of anonymous comments which I have never accepted onto the blog. They were stating that I am probably making the whole blog up and that I am most likely making a large loss as it is almost impossible to make a profit trading.

Do they really think that I am sad enough to spend a large chunk of my spare time adding to my page with pure fantasy. It's not as if I am showing off how wonderful I am.

Well I imagine that this post will cheer them up immensely! It is approaching 7pm and currently my days  P/L is £241 down. For the benefit of my anonymous friends I could have said I was out all day with no action but I keep on saying that the only reason I am doing this is to document and refer to help me improve. So why lie! I also appreciate the supportive comments I receive.

So what went wrong? I had a bad session generally and there were two major incidents which contributed to the disaster. There were no power cuts this time, it was purely my bad performance. I was a little bit down on the 3.10 at Plumpton and I decided to try to reduce it in play considering that it was a 3 mile race but before long Geography fell and I was left totally exposed to an £80 loss. The following race showed a loss pre race of £18. Then came the big cock up losing me £108. It was a little bit simlar to the Plumpton race as I was a little down and decided to go inplay and I had a green result so went onto the next race. What I didn't realise was that somehow I left a bet of £120 on Grey Soldier which eventually came third. You can imagine my horror when I noticed my bank was not what it should have been. Why couldn't it have won!!!

I am not going to amend the running total until the end of the day. I will have a go at the AUS v SL 20/20 and a couple of footie matches to try at the very least to be under £200.

There Really Was Free Money Yesterday

My ideal daily race schedule is to have three meetings in the afternoon and evening which are all ten minutes apart. That way you have plenty of time to assess the markets in their early stages right through to the off. Yesterday was ridiculous. Six meetings in the afternoon which were mainly five minutes apart with some races going off at the same time. Then in the evening there were only two meetings. It just doesn't make any sense. It is the perfect scenario of losing discipline and going in play.

I bet (excuse the pun) you are waiting for me to say blah blah blah and I lost £50, £100 on a couple of races inplay blah blah! but you are all going to be suprised to hear that it didn't happen! I did go in play about three times by accident as race after race came up so quickly but on each occasion I got out almost immediately with no harm done. In the end I managed to trade 41 out of 53 races netting me £103 only to lose £31 trading the Eng v SA game.

Did anyone see the 8.05 at Thirsk? If ever there was a term for 'free money' then this was it. Sunbow won a close race but soon after there was a stewards enquiry due to the jocket weighing in light. Now I have done a little research and couldn't find an example where a stewards enquiry resulted in the result standing in the case of a light weigh in.  With this in mind I was staggered to see the in running market only at 1.14 for the horse that was second past the post. Even the Racing Channel commentators stated that this really was free money. Personally I could not understand the price but didn't get involved because I was saying to myself that it was too good to be true! Perhaps that is what others were thinking too. In the end Sunbow was inevitably disqualified and the free money was a missed opportunity for us that have lesser balls!


Saturday 8 May 2010

I Can't Practice What I Preach

Friday felt like a very long day. It was too long on the laptop after being up all night. I did manage  to get three hours sleep on Friday morning but in hindsight it is obvious that my concentration levels were always going to be affected.

With so many races that were reasonably spaced out there was plenty of opportunity to accumulate a decent amount of cash. I managed to profit on the horses with £66 but it was the same old story.

I had a good start with the winnings steadily building up only to lose a large chunk on 17.55 Ripon. This was the race where the favourite was withdrawn at the start. I had built a decent amount on the favourite and was frustrated that it was all for nothing so I just decided to trade the new favourite in play. It was a stupid decision which I have put down to the fact that I was getting very tired. I lost £48. Then in the very next race I was down about £25 after the pre-race and went in play again. This time I got lucky and turned it around for a small profit of £13. This is not the thing to do.

As you know I use Geeks Toy for ladder trading and when the market turns in play Bart Simpson warns you by shouting SUCKER.  Bart is absolutely right!

I went on to lose four of the last five races which was definitely because I was tired.


So the advice is simple :
1. Never trade in play if you don't know what you are doing.
2. Never trade when tired
3. Don't spend 7.5 hours over 55 races on the computer for a meagre £49.
4. Never advise others to follow points 1 and 2 when you can't even follow it yourself!!!





Friday 7 May 2010

A Day at Home

I booked a day off today as I felt I would not be up to it after being up all night watching the election unfold. I managed a few hours sleep this morning and I feel ready to take on the 55 races that will be played out until well into the evening. As long as I keep focussed and don't fall into the 'in play' trap I should be able to acheive at least £100. We shall see!

I might even dabble in the two 20/20 games on today.

I start the day with £17.19 as Betfair has just paid out on the 'most seats' market. I am lucky I managed to trade out at a profit as I was certain that the Conservatives would drift to 1.50. I layed at 1.24 on 17/4 then saw the price drift to 1.32 before starting to come in. It was a good decision to take a profit on 23/4 at 1.27.

Making Good Progress

It was potentially a good Thursday evening's trading with unusually four evening race meetings to enjoy. It didn't disappoint as I collected £96. There were some nice swings that I managed to ride successfully. This is in addition to the previous day where I gained £53 which included a football game.

I can't understand why I can go days where I can't get any horse race decision right and then like the last few days I cannot do anything wrong. Is it because there are less pro traders during my profitable days?

I spoilt the day incurring a loss on the SA v NZ 20/20. Basically all I did was lay SA at 1.23 and just let it run. Not very creative! This reduced my winnings for the day to £81.


History in the Making

It's approaching two in the morning and there seems to be no idea of where this election is heading. It is fascinating watching the overall majority and number of Conservative seats markets surging  back and forth depending on what the politicians are saying. There are good profits to be had.

Tuesday 4 May 2010

This Just Isn't Cricket!

Just a very quick post. Trading was a total washout today. I only got involved in the cricket by laying England at 1.10 at the start and then exiting during the rain break at 1.53 only for the game to be voided.

Really sorry about the delays in updating the spreadsheet tab. Will get on with it this week.

Monday 3 May 2010

Ton Up

It's shortly before midnight and there's nothing better to get  you to sleep than a thoroughly boring Snooker final which will probably still be going when the kids get up for their breakfast! For those trading on the frames it must be heaven as both players are determined to miss as many shots as they can! I did get involved with a couple of frames but to be honest I can hardly keep my eyes open and I have been caught out many a time falling asleep before closing a trade!

As you know from my previous post I was pleased at my efforts at acheiving a tidy sum from one race on Sunday but this pales into insignificance compared to Mr Bet Angel's efforts in the 2000 Guineas on Saturday.

http://www.betangel.com/blog_wp/2010/05/01/1000-guineas.

Don't ask me how he does it. I guess he's one of those naturally gifted guys I was referring to last week.

Handy's stupid errors surfaced once again on Sunday night. Had I stopped at 11.00pm I would have shown a small green for the day......but oh no..... I have to have another couple of goes before the nights out! Firstly I get my knickers in a twist in a Snooker frame which lost me £30 and then followed that up trading a US horse race only for it to suspend a little quicker than it should have (and there is no inplay) leaving me with a liability that matured of £47.80. So I ended with a loss of £67 which wiped out Saturdays good start.










Today (Monday) was a different kettle of fish!  I traded 40 races and came out green in 34 of them netting me £96. I found it very easy to predict the market and I am wondering again whether there were less pros trading. Perhaps they have taken the day off.  Or is it because I decided to use smaller stakes which were swallowed up without being noticed. My individual race profits were much smaller than  they usually are but if I reach profit 85% of the time by doing it then I will be happy.  I finished the day with a satisfying profit of £129.31 thanks to a few other trades.










Before I finish I need to vent my anger at the Eng v WI 20/20 game. Someone needs to get hold of Mr Duckworth and Mr Lewis and let them know that their formula for revising targets does not work in the 20 over format! How can it be fair to give the WI a target of 60 runs in 6 overs when they can use all 10 wickets. All they need to to do is slog without a care about losing wickets. Surely what needs to be done is have the score revised every time a wicket is lost or allow more time before starting to deduct overs. The powers that be need to take a hard look at this because if the bad weather continues then this cricket tournament will be a total farce!