Still not perfect but a good day's trading

Got myself in trouble on the first race of the day, probably because I wasn't focused and escaped in play. The fact that I'm trading outsiders gives me a little more comfort in managing the position out in play, however, we all know any in play strategy is prone to disaster.

In general my trading was pretty good today, two races in particular.

Wincanton 2:30
Looking at the market it had a 1.17 favourite and the book was trading at around 100.4 and the favourite was steady and firming a little, I laid the outsider of the field Ringsend Rose @ 27.71 and closed out at 45. I also had a little play on the favourite scalping for a bit extra as well for an overall profit of £27.93

Kempton
As there was a bit of money around I decided to repeatedly scalp the favourite Satwa Gold and the second favourite The Dial House with very little risk for a profit of £23.95 after commission.

I'm certainly reading the graphs better and getting a better feel for the markets, however, I must start taking short term losses and starting again on a race. One race today I was £9.00 in the red with plenty of time left, my gut feel from the graph and the money was that the position I was in was going to term worse against me, however, I sat there just hoping I could get the ticks back. You guessed it all of a sudden I was £50 down. I saw it coming and did nothing.

The signs are better and there is an element of panic when I go in play now, even for a 3 mile chase.

No need for the swinging watch just yet!!

Oh on the poll I voted Fear/Nervousness, oh how I dream of it being just being another day at the office.

Not a perfect day but a massive improvement

In Plays there were today, however, 1 was because I had left a bet in that was taken near the off, it was closed out immediately after the off. Fortunately as I am trading more outsiders it gives me time to clean up any bits and pieces!!

There were 2 other in plays, however, these were again outsiders up against odds on favourites and tightly controlled, again these need to be eliminated.

I have clearly started to learn my lesson as I had redded up on the 1:50 Southwell having traded Fair Bunny. I had moved on to the next race and then heard the result. Previous days this would have been a let run in play.


1:50 - betdaq.co.uk Nursery

» Full result

6f, Class 6, £2,047.20



1 Fair Bunny 16/1

2 Clear Ice 15/8F

3 Taeping 5/1




There is hope after all. Hearing the result was very pleasing.

p.s. The hypnotism post was pretty tongue in cheek, however, if things don't go well perhaps I will get desperate enough  to seek out someone with a watch!

Hypnotism

Well from the 4th November there hasn't been a day where I haven't gone in play...multiple times. It seems to be something I just can't stop myself from doing. I know that unless I do there is no future in this and I have to go back to work. 

Neil from Fighting the Inner Demons suggested recording my own warnings for the Geeks Toy telling (or shouting) at me to green/red up. It's funny because Neil seems to be my twin when it comes to trading as his blog is a replica of what mine would be if I had updated it.

I had already given this some thought myself and was considering the Mr T quote to Murdoch from the A Team. I have this morning given the suggestion some more thought and coupled the voice recording idea from an epidode of New Tricks (wife watches it!!) where the Dennis Waterman character had been hypnotised and did something when he heard a Gerry Rafferty song. If this hypnotism lark worrks maybe I could have something put in my mind to make me green or red up on the 10 second warning without me actually knowing I was doing it.

It's pretty drastic action but at the moment my inner character is just not strong enough to fight the demons in my head!

On a trading note I had a good evening on the football trading the under/overs. I set my entry points well and had specific exit points with the key emphasis of meeting a profit target and getting in and out as some as possible. All my trades worked and the key factor was not being greedy and just taking the ticks I had set.

Perhaps if I can carry this discipline through to the Horse Racing where my trading is actually pretty good (outside of the favourites where I often get that wrong) then I may have a future in terms of covering what I need to live per day and then continuing my training to eventually having a good life out of this. I'm sure I can do it if I can instill the no inplay discipline.

At the moment the thought of going back to a day job is not something I want to do.

A New Dawn

Wednesday 4th November  2009 is the start of my attempt to be a successful sports odds trader.

I'm giving myself one month of trading and recording my results and progress.

My biggest issue to date is trading to a bad red position and then taking a chance and going in play. Starting Wednesday any in play will be punished with the computer being switched off for the rest of the day. I have to live or die by my pre race trading.


Trading Vices & Issues that need to be corrected

Going In Play - Inability to accept a red closing position

Lack of patience - Diving into markets too early before assessing the whole of the market

Letting red positions running out of control - Going against the crowd

Trading out of good positions too early - Probably due to lack of confidence in trading decision

Trading Style

Scalping favourites up to 5 minutes before off when markets are calmer to pick up a few ticks profit.

Switching to horses outside first 3 favourites as market activity picks up, this will be during the first month, I will still be making judgements on the favourites and seeing how my instinct pans out on them.

Also looking at Football Trading Systems and football odds trading. Logged into a good chat session with Pschoff last night. It made me think of my current strategy of playing the under/overs market before the market starts.

Trading Tool

Geeks Toy is configured and now in full use. Bet Angel still used for the charting it provides.



If I fail it's back to the city and all the daily nonsense that I had in that for 20 years.

Fingers crossed.