Business as usual

Business as usual, as usual as in the fact that since the last time I posted I have blown my bank all the way down to about £2.20. Since then I have backed a few short priced favs in the horses and worked my way back to about £7 odd last week, since then I have traded the horses making between 2p and 5p per race and my bank now is £11.56, I have stopped trading for today because I have already done 20 markets and I am not feeling like I am concentrating enough. Anyway I have looked through my records and my spreadsheet tells me I am     -£9 for the year and my bank at its highest was £264 and that was at then end of feb, fair to say that in a year I haven't learn't a great deal so it looks like I will have to stop going inlay and learn to accept losses and hopefully one day the good times will come.

Currently reading a book called 'Self discipline in ten days', lets see how I feel on 11th of Jan.

Good luck Happy new year and keep it green

straight lay?

Not much in the horses today, so I did a straight lay in the first race, there was an odds on fav and second fav was under 4's so I layed the third fav out of four horses, I was lucky really as I greened up inplay for £2 profit in the end the outsider won. I know what I did was totally wrong and not trading at all but pure gambling, but it came out of boredom, must try not to do it in future.

Little bit more

Today I traded what was left of the horse race meetings and made 5.5% of my bank, taking me up to the dizzy heights of £34.80

Boring but green

Nothing spectacular today for me but 6% added to my bank on betfair, its going to be a long road to get back to  where I was, but with no full-time job to go to its not like I haven't got the time to learn, today I made an average of £0.11 a race and finished the day with a rather tasty £1.85, taking my betfair balance to the new balance of £30.99, if only all days were that easy.

breaking the trend

Following a poor weekend, not thinking straight at all, a couple of in play trades later and my trading bank is now down to £29.19 it was lower but I have recovered a little bit today,but it is shocking to looking at my spreadsheet to see that I have gone from £140 to £29 in just over four days.
Whether I end up at zero and have to go and get a real job or if I recover and maybe get my bank going again we will wait and see.
I know all the rules in my head and how I want to play the markets but sometimes when it goes bad I am able to block out all common sense and go straight to gambling mode.
Hopefully this is something I can avoid in the future, lets see how it goes then.
Will keep you posted... see you tomorrow

Just over 50%

Sounds good that 50% doesn't it, shame it was a loss to my bank because I couldn't help myself but go in-play. It all started at lunchtime when I layed a horse for £10 got it wrong but got out one tick down, tried again market went right down, so I thought lets switch stakes to£100 and make the ticks up back backing it down and hedging up the green, obviously as soon as I put my £100 back bet in the market rebounded and I was -£7 on all runners, so my plan was to lay the horse for £10 and to green up in-play, plan never worked and I am back to the start of November in terms of bank size.

Very disappointed with myself, discipline went out of the window and I seemed to break every rule I've ever made.

Bal CF £50.55

up and down day

Nothing much to add to my bog, trading has taken it out of me today.
I made 5% of my bank and overall I am happy with that wish I could do it everyday because 5%'s will soon compound into doubling my bank, I always try and run before I can walk and imagine myself trying to make 10% or more,that just makes me make more mistakes and affects my mindset so 5% is my aim and then its time to turn off pc for a while and relax.

Going in-play is not an option

When will I ever learn, was trading really well today....until the 1745 @meydan, I thought I was unbeatabe adding up all my small little profits, before the big loss I had 5% of my bank in profit.
When I was trading the meydan race liquidity was crap, even worse than Irish races, I shouldn't have got involved and needless to say the market bombed against me and just couldn't accept the loss I was faced with, and scaled out to leave a £40 liability on a horse and +£5 on any other runners, with a view to back it in play anyway you know what happened next, and I have lost a weeks worth of profit in one race.

I seem to reach good highs and then end up not being up to it in my mind, something along the lines of I don't deserve it.

I must focus on the 50p a race issue, I know it doesn't have to be every races and trading does present lots of opportunities to trade horses, so why would I want to trade every last race that there is on betfair. Anyway all I would like is to have betfair balance up to £200 by the end of the year. there is about 20 trading days left this month so that works out at about 3.5% a day.

new balance £100- well pissed off

Starting too early

Today was going well, happily scalping my through the markets, when Southwell was abandoned but I thought never mind we can carry on with just one meeting and I did and went straight on and got in to the 1350 @ Lingfield way before the market had formed properly and went from one horse to the next getting it totally wrong and ended the race -£10.99 on any runner. It affected me a bit as I haven't lost like that before and hedged it other wise it would have been pretty bad on each of the runners. Luckily th eday was nearly over as I scaled the markets in the next race for a £1 or so and then put in a lay bet and left it, had it won I would have lost about £40 for the day, needless to say it lost and my losses for the day are £2.75.

I learn't two lessons today

1. Set a limit on the max loss per race, if it happens- close market and move on to next race
2. Don't get involved in the markets to early, I must wait until at least 10 minutes before the race is due to start before I start putting bets into the market.

Didn't trade the last race and went out and bought a Christmas tree for our house

Little increase for little effort

As the title says, not much for me today, I was all set to do the whole afternoon's trading but I got a phone call and had to go out and only got back to complete the last two races.

Sunday update

I wish everyday on betfair could be like today, managed to keep my focus all day. Keep a calm head on my shoulders and scalped away, taking a bit at a time, even when I was on the wrong side when the market bombed I cant believe it but I still managed to claw it back and accept the loss when I had to. Lets see if I can keep it up for the rest of the month.
Even with a few good days, I am trying to keep my feet on the floor( I know these are not millionaire amounts) as I now realise that you have to face each market as a new one and accept that anything can happen, not tempting fate but I think I might of turned a corner in my trading, only time will tell.

Confidence is building

Like the title says, my confidence is building but I would say too fast, I made consistent profits for most of the day and the total for the day was building- slowly. Until I entered the market far to early on one race and ended on a big red of £5.50 and managed to bring it back down to approx £3.20. this affected me a bit and went on to suffer another big loss, but keep my head, although I could feel myself getting ready to start letting it go in play if it went bad or profit wasn't as expected. I was going to carry on and do the evening races if I could of managed to keep myself in the right frame of mind, overall good profit and very happy with it.

GREED

greed- excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions.

Yes it got the better of me today, let one of the races go in-play and obviously it won, having already layed it. My own fault I should stick to my plan of 50p per race, but I always think one more scalp, one more tick and the ticks go bad and green turn to red and the red gets bigger, until my mind switches and thinks F*&^ it let it go in-play, we can easily get this back, but its not the way to successful trading, in the heat of the moment its easy to block out all common sense. Maybe I need to able to handle losses better and think that at the moment I can't win every trade I enter or come out of every market in profit.
Anyway lets try again tomorrow.
Wipe the slate clean and start a fresh. 

One whole meeting

We had to wait all day, for a bit horse race trading but when it came I did ok from scalping the markets.
Still working on £10 stakes, although I did double and treble up my stake on one or two races went the odds were quite low on two equal horses. I have decided that for the time being I will only traded horses as it seems what I make in the day I give back at night on football.
Goes like this-trade the races, add up profit and fill in spreadsheet and turn off pc(or at least shut down tgt and log out of betfair), so temptation doesn't get the better of me.

Total Profit today £5.98 from 7 races

MAN CITY CS pre match

Writing this as I trade, so please excuse the grammar and text,

1. 1800 placed my back bet 115 @ 8.2, was matched and placed lay bet @8.0
2. From there the market has drifted out to 8.8 where I have moved £100 of my lay bet, doesn't look at the mo.
3. lay price has moved to 9.2 and I am still waiting at 8.8
4. big money has come in at 9's, moving my £100 to 8.6 as mine was the only money there, I move it and its replaced by £200+ of somebody else's cash.
5. Seems we may be turning in the market, heading towards 8.6/8.4 maybe 
6. Still £600 @ 8.6 but I have moved my £100 back to 8.4 as there is only £22 on it
7. Not good there is now over £450 @8.8 and a load @ 8.6 as well.
8. Just over 1 hour until KO and its looking pretty red.
9. I have learn't something doing this- dont trade with your whole bank, not happy as I am going to lose my profits from today's horses and more.
10. Now £800+ @8.8, going to wait until then and hedge up just before KO.
11. Don't think I have the balls for this and wish I hadn't got involved. Safely say I won't be trading football with these stakes for sometime yet
12. 1902 back odds upto 9's, lay is @ 9.6
13. 1912 redded for a real bad loss.
14. Just learn't one my biggest lessons there- don't get involved in market you don't understand. I got into this on a whim really, not looked but I presume the team news came out while I was in this market. Even the AUQ has gone out from3.9 to 4.5, just layed it at 4.3 for £24 and backed it bit higher and layed it again and now going to take it in play and green up at about 9 or 10's and exit at 2's for a loss if I have to.
15. 
    
16. In fact I started scaling placing £2 stakes  every other tick, and will red up once auq has moved one way or the other. Or do I hedge when my liability will keep me with £100 in my bank.
17. Nope changed my mind and I'm redding with my bank, part intact while I can hedged at 4.8 current red -£15.90
18. taking a risk and backed 3-0 @9.2 put in lay @9 will take it in play if I have to.
19. getting match now 3 mins til ko
20. re- backed at 9's for 90 and scaled out 1 tick lower £20 a tick increments
21. ok currently got £67 back in my bank
22. all back and scalped auq in 1st five mins then out for -£13.37
23. lesson learnt, not getting involved next time
24. I have layed auq @6.6 for £4 
25. goal scored 1-0 oops,
26. layed a further £4 @ 3.6
27. leaving it until ht
28. the wank thing is the 3-0 is down to 6's, which is where all my trouble began
29. layed an extra £1 @ 4.2 to leave my max liabilty   to £49.29
30. 15 mins to HT
31. I will scalp at ht and hopefully lower my loss
32. laying auq back @1p a tick at every other tick
33. HT Scalped profit-£1.25
34. still in auq going hedge up but since then there has been two goals and I know I am not doing ths right but I am not hedging up until later 
35. 2 mins to go and its =10p any score -£30 on auq
36. Final loss -£3.30 could have been so different.

Apologies if this post looks rubbish, but like I said I wrote it as I traded so 

OK thats enough now

I know its winter, but why are we having all of this snow if we global warming happening at the same time.
Anyway what I mean is, this is my 1st full week on betfair since David Cameron decided I shouldn't have a job any longer, and its fair to say that the weather is getting right in the way of me trying to make any progress in growing my betfair balance. but I have read on various blogs and forums that trading in the winter becomes a bit hit and miss, thats ok for the people who traded there ass's off during the summer.
I am only joking about the full time bit, the only way fulltime and betfair go together with me is because I have the time to sit at my pc all day, so I might be fulltime in one respect but no in the important one- profit.

Still I did make £3.54 over 6 markets today.

Bank CF £115.41

Setting targets

After reading an interesting post on the racing traders forum, where advice was offered to learn how to make £1 a race and the rest will follow. So I have decided to adapt that and I am aiming for 50p per race, at my current staking levels of £10 ( until I reach £200 then its 5% of bank) I can achieve the 50p with two scalps of the market. I know there is a lot of difference of opinion on whether or not targets should be set or not.

I know I can't trade every race every day so my profit levels will fluctuate a bit.

My future targets are as follow and will increase along with staking levels

• this week 50p per race
• w/c 06/12/2010 60p per race
• w/c 13/12/2010 70p per race
• w/c 20/12/2010 80p per race
• w/c 27/12/2010 90p per race
• w/c 03/01/2011 £1 per race

From the beginning of January I want to maintain the same stake and bank and start to withdraw the profits daily.

Not sure if it will work but I have broken down £500 a month into manageable chunks and not made the mountain look so big. Isn't there a quote about how would you eat an elephant, answer is one spoonful at a time, which leads back to the slow and steady/ little and often.

I have been writing this post in between races and now I am not consumed by the market and happy to wait to make the amounts above, I can safely safe ten minutes is a long time to make those two ticks, so with patience and discipline I will try and put the plan into action

P+L today= £4.62 from 8 races, 7 wins and 1 loss

Bank CF £111.16

thou shalt not go in-play

Basically before the last race today my bank was £121.75, I was satisfied with what I had achieved but thought lets just make it a round number tried to scalp another 0.25p to make it £122. the market went the wrong way and I redded up most of it but was left with £14.50 liability on 'love in the park' and was going to hedge up once it was 25p on all runners needless to say it didn't happen and I have given back all the profit I have made over the last four days. I feel like a complete idiot as I know that going in-play is not the answer. But at least I haven't blown all my bank this time.

So we carry on tomorrow and start a fresh.

P+L today -£10.05

BANK CF £107.25

Snow business

The weather is wrecking the horse race fixtures and more importantly any chances I have of increasing my betfair balance today. I traded the 1st two races at Folkstone for a small profit before they were abandoned. I have done the 1st at wolves but the second race is an odds on favs and the rest of the field is made up of runners with odds of 10's or more, my bank wont generate much profit trading at those odds so I will carry on trading at 1550 or 1620 depending what time I get back.    

SLOW TRADING

With only one meeting on betfair for horse racing, 30 mins is a long time between races, I do check the market and watch it form but I only want to scalp the last few minutes, so I find myself getting bored and checking emails, facebook, twitter and just not feeling in the mood.

Todays profit £4.20

Bal CF £117.40

too much money

I have decided that Saturday horse racing has too much money floating around, not that I wont be here doing it next Saturday, but today I just don't feel in the mood, two races in and my mind was made up.
Anyway there is more fun in unpacking Christmas decorations with my 7 year old girl.

Total Profit for today. £1.52


Bank C/F £113.10

No time for trading

I started trading the horses at lunch time and stopped after a few races to go and have some lunch with the wife, tried to resume where I left off, but the evening races at wolves, are too spaced out and too inconsistent with money and price movement, I think it is down to the large gaps between races and people are getting in early and obviously trading against the flow of the market. For example people jump in when market looks like it is going up and boom its down five ticks, now is this down to inexperienced traders (like me but not this time)try and out price each other forcing the price up up and up outside its normal range, only for a more experienced trader or bot to take advantage of the mismatch in the market price and nick a few ticks along the way.

Just thought I would add a pic of my last race, nothing spectacular to most, but good by my standards

Total profit £4.15

Bank cf £111.58

Standard trading day

Best day since I became a full-time betfair user, well yesterday actually, I have done OK and added a profit of £10.43 to balance, no trouble just simple scalping, I enjoy seeing all the little profits add up.

Balance cf £107.43

Slight recovery

I made a slight recovery from scalping around the 4.1 mark and got about £2 back, but that leave me with a -£14.22 on the 1.5 goals market.
More importantly I cut my losses pre KO with gambling the lot away.

Bank cf £104.21


update made a few speculative bets last night and lost another £7.20.


Bank cf £97.01

How wrong can you be

How wrong could I be there, fucked it right up, but do have a good reason, I got made redundant today and remembered about this trade earlier on, I have done no horse trading today, even though I was home by ten o'clock this morning, feel pretty gutted about having no job even though we knew it was coming.
I will be able to trade the horses daily now- at least until after Christmas as there is nothing around work wise that pays similar.
 Anyway I backed the U1.5 goals last night @3.55 pretty good drift there if I was on the opposite side and layed it instead, still best to cut my losses, tomorrow is another day but sods law it will be 0-0 come HT lol.

About me

I am 33 years old, ex-RAF aircraft fitter, I have traded on betfair for fun for quite a few years, going through many boom and bust cycles or to put it another way, turning my £10 into a decent amount (£200+) and then blowing it, through a collection of lack of discipline, boredom and greed.

This leads me to where I am today, I know it is possible to make money with betfair/bookmakers as I had a good run at matched betting and paid for half of our family holiday to Spain a few years ago.

Having started this blog it will hopefully lead me to finally see a return, for the effort in the sporting investment world, because being a blogger now give some kind of public accountability, call it added pressure but to me I see it as a positive pressure.

Coming around to the thinking of ‘little and often’ has been key part to changing my mindset towards profit and earnings on betfair, a well known trader once posted “3% a day and double your bank in 24 days”. Even then I found it difficult because in my mind because I wanted to switch on my pc and make the 3%  in one trade whether that was on a horse race or football match, this would lead to over exposure and not having the mindset to cut losses early enough, especially at the peak of my previous trading bubbles, I would let my trade run, hoping or wishing it would come back and then when it never did I found myself committing the ultimate sin and letting it go in play and we all know that is a quick route to the poor house.

So I suppose this is more of a biography than an ‘about me’, but I thought I would put all the cards on the table, so people don’t think I have gone from £0 to ££££’s without learning the hard way.

I know it’s a rocky road but I know I will make in the end.

Thanks for reading

Correct score pre match

Last night I entered the Chelsea CS market on the 3-0 scoreline and backed it for all of my bank, and layed about £60 instantly at 8.2, as bets were matched and layed and the money came back into my account I re-entered the market at higher odds as the scoreline drifted through the day and came back in this evening, this is how I have backed and layed for over £160, even though I only have £114 in my betfair account, not going to do any more for tonight, but will have a look at tomorrow nights CL games and get more of the same.

Today's profit £4.29

Bank CF £118.44

Pre match scalping

Simple scalps

Take advantage of a gap in the market on the U1.5 goals market for Sunderland v Everton, nice green there pre match of £1.25 and that's already in my bank, moved on to the HT and tried some scalping although didn't like the chances as I have no pictures of game so I have to wait to until the whistle has gone for HT and then  I find my options were limited, must be because its a televised game as there was thousands on either side of 1-1, so I opted for 1-2 scoreline and only got £7 matched for one tick before price moved away and that gave me 13p green on any scoreline so its better than nothing.

profit £1.38

bank c/f £114.15

I am very with my performance so far during my time blogging I started off with approximately £25 and added an extra £10 to take my blog over the £50 mark, so lets hope it continues in the future. More important than trading I have spent a lot of my time reading about psychology of the mind and mindset. to enable my trading to develop, so good to me.

Further horse race scalping

Due to family commitments today I only did seven races and even though I was only on for such a short time, I knew that I wasn't going to earn much and in my mind I didn't think of it as big deal as it improves my consistency and also show my dedication to taking the green no matter how little. 2.08% added to my bank for my efforts.

Today's profit £2.30

Bank C/F £112.77


Seems to be a good week of football coming up, going to have a look at the correct scores for pre match only, I will be using my whole bank and hoping to nick a tick here and there. Then I will back that up with a similar scalp at HT on the same game, this will add a few percent a day to my bank and will be an easy way to add free money.

When I started out the returns seemed minimal on CS scalping but now that my bank has increased considerably, the amount per tick is also increasing and I suppose without being greedy the effort does seem to be paying off.

Mentally challenging

I would like to give myself a pat on the back for the afternoons effort. I feel that to do this consistently you need a lot of focus to do this every day, I couldn't imagine doing that after a days work on the evening races- would be a quick way to the poor house, anyway I have enjoyed seeing the returns over the last two days not sure about Sundays races yet as the markets are very volatile due to a lower liquidity I think.
In total I have scalped my way through 23 horse racing markets today with good success,by my standards. My biggest win being 71p and my smallest win being 11p, no losses and not an in-play market in sight which is more important to me as it is showing that I am developing in my mindset and the things I am saying are beginning to sink in, little and often is the key, although I do feel I am being too cautious sometimes even though I can see the signals are there but I feel like I am paralysed with fear of losing, I suppose consistency will be the key to overcome that in the long term.

Today's profit- £10.42

Bank c/f £110.47

100 not out

Very happy days trading, good day with the horses and very profitable, enjoyed the scalping even though sometimes I let myself think I am in for a long move and quickly take the profits as they are there, the reason I accept profits by scalping at the moment is that I am really just focussing on trying to build my bank to a good level before I decide to try to take other opportunities.

Previously I have been staking 10% of my bank when scalping on horses, from now I would be using £10 stakes until my bank increases to £200 from there I will continue on with 5% stakes until a future date.

Dont know if there are any new traders reading my blog, but a couple of things to keep in mind are-

• Greed- you don't have to make a million every race.
• Little and often- Kind of relates to the above point but the small profits soon add up.
• Discipline - Biggest thing I have learn't now is DO NOT GO IN PLAY ON HORSES.

They are just my pointers to anybody starting out, I am far from the best but happy with my return today.

Profit £8.84

Bank £100.03

1000 PAGE VIEWS

As I write this post, there have been 1006 page views on my blog since it started on 23 Oct, thanks for reading.

Camtasia

Not a lot going on tonight, I have downloaded camtasia tonight and was going to do a short vid of my trading tomorrow, but I have decided against it as the lag it creates on my screen would not help me one bit. So it will have to wait until I have a new PC, but that will be a while off yet. So I will just focus on trading tomorrow instead although I might try and remember to take some screen shots to post on blog tomorrow.

England expects?

Me I am not so about the England side that was put out tonight, I know Fabio is trying to build for the future, but what's the point in playing players that aren't good enough, why not pick senior players who are capable of putting in good performance at this level.

Apart from that I am £3.49 on any score, so at least someone from England wins tonight.

Bank total now £91.19

half a percent is still half a percent

As it says above I only got £22 matched at the HT whistle on the Hertha berlin game, but still green is green and today the is £0.44. What a result

Bank £87.70

QUICK TWO QUID

Decided not to watch the x factor and turned my attention to the milan derby and traded my whole bank at HT and scalped the 0-1 for a tick and come out with £1.96 on any score, just thought I would get this trade in as there is no big games tomorrow.

Bank £87.26

Another day another fiver

Happy days trading on the horses again, not been near Football this weekend as I like to trade pre match but it would have tied up my bank for the day and obviously I wouldn't have been able to have done the horses, so it will be footy through the week and horses over the weekend until I have more cash available to do both.

Total for today £5.02

Bank £85.30

Positive day

Absolutely  brilliant day for me personally, I traded the horses toady and did the first 5 races and then had a break for a bit, then I traded another 9 races to bring me a total of £4.14, not amazing totals but the step forward in my mind is a giant leap. 


I think this is coupled with reading 'The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes' for the last few weeks, I have read a bit each day and have nearly finished it, there is a lot in it  to take in so as soon as I finish it I am going to read it again. Very valuable in the way its changed my mindset.


I am ging to continue traded horses using 10% of my bank as stake for backing and laying until I reach £100 and from then on I will stay at £10 until £200 where I will switch to 5% stakes, obviously I have big plans in my mind  but I will write them if when I get there.


New bank: £80.28

Consistency

I feel I am getting better at the horses, I know its only one good day and there will be bad ones to comes but I enjoyed it never the less.

I mostly scalped the markets today but did well on one race where I was £1ish on any horse pre race so I layed it low in running for it to drift and be replaced with another horse at odds on so layed that one as well and  finished that race with a good green and went on from there a bit more relaxed and just carried on scalping.

Came back earlier and started on the evening races, but thats me now for today, ending with £12.81 in the bag.

New Bank  £73.11


I have added an extra £2.99 to my account by trading the over reaction on preston v hull after 1st goal and again at ht

Updated bank- £76.10

Good lesson learn't

Yesterday I Backed the 3-0 on Chelsea pre-match to lay it 1 tick lower this never happened as it drifted out, never mind I redded up for -£3ish and left it at that, not bothered as you can't win them all.

Later on when I went to watch Manchester derby at a friends house with a few beers, anyway rush of blood I decided to lay the 0-0 at 3's for £10 and ended up losing £20 or another way  to see it is as a massive percentage of my bank. Bit annoyed with myself, but something I don't plan to repeat in the future.

BEER AND BETFAIR DO NOT MIX!

Nothing tonight, may try the horses when I finish work tomorrow afternoon.

BANK= £60.59

Apologies for my previous post, about whether its worth the effort or not, I have had some bad news about my job and will be finished in about two weeks time, but hey thats life if you worked on building Nimrod MRA4.

Enthusiasm?

Mine is running out at the moment, I mean I have another £4.01 or 5% for no trouble at all, except check my betfair progress throughout the day on my phone, but is it really worth it. I know it is going to take me a while to get to a substantial amount to give me sums of  money each day from my betfair account.

 Sorry for the lack of quality in the post-  if that's what you can call it. but that's me today.

Will carry on for now and keep plugging away

Bank £81.16

UPDATE

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days, I am still going forward with regards to my bank growing albeit it slowly in money terms but quite well in percentage terms traded Sat and Sun and did a bit on tonight's Spanish game by the end of today my bank will stand at £77.13.

Gonna have quick look at any games on for tomorrow, until then goodbye

Question time

Is it me or is there too much money floating around on a Saturday for horses. Started trading the Wincanton 1340 and gave up as I wasn't comfortable with the thousands on each side of the market. Any comments very welcome.

Also traded the spurs game at HT but I will add that into my totals later on,once I finished for the day.

Steady day

With no football that I liked the look of on the coupon today, I decided I was going to make my 3% by trading on horses. Overall I did OK apart from one race where I let it go inplay as the price had moved against me I greened the price up for £0 return, bet even so I was not happy with myself for doing it, I know I was capable of redding up before the start and you know you are doing wrong, but atleast it was only one race and not ten. In total I made £4.57 with my biggest win at £1.61 and my lowest was £0.10p.

So one slip up could have cost me, I do feel that my discipline is improving and I am not trying to win a fortune on each race, I think little and often is sinking in.

New Bank £65.17

Keep em coming

Nothing really of interest to say about today's trading, I took £2.14 out of Man City game before KO - fantastic result for the big club.

Same thing with Liverpool at HT except it didn't quite go to plan so £0.30 there, chilled out evening for me and will carry on with increasing bank tomorrow.

Cheers guys

New Bank £62.59


Update I decided to scalp the 0-1 with a £2 stake to reduce the 30p deficit and lost as Liverpool have equalised and my profit is down the pan today.

New bank now £60.60


you win some you lose some

Another good day

Having looked at the Chelsea correct score market last night, I decided that 2-0 was already too low at 6.6, so I opted to try and nick a tick by scalping the on U1.5 placed a back of £58 at 5.8 I was unlucky as I only got £4 matched before the price went down by 2 ticks but ended up with just £0.15. Then I cancelled the remaining stake and switched to the CS market and went for the 3-0 and Backed it at 8.4 for the same stake, laid it 1 tick lower and settled for £1.30 all green before KO, at HT It went well as I increased my green to £2.58 any score- happy days that is for me.

Some second half that for Chelsea game, five goals- don't you hate hindsight as I considered laying U4.5 goals, but didn't want to risk my green while I am trying to make my bank grow at this stage. Saying that though I consider that as one of my draw backs, when I don't want to enter the market for fear of losing, but I am sure that this is something I will address as time goes on and my confidence builds along with my bank (hopefully).

New Bank £60.75

Sticking to the plan

Textbook pre-match trade on Barca game 0-2 scoreline, backed it late last night @7.6 for £54 and placed a lay bet today @ 7.2 for £56 and equalised the profit when I got home from work for £2.87 on any scoreline. I decided to go for a two tick profit on this one because Barcelona were heavy favs and I thought that 0-2 would be well backed and indeed it was. I made nearly 6% on my bank through this one trade. There are definitely times in day the day when prices move and volume increases significantly but I think as long as you have put in your back bet by mid morning you should be able to exit by KO with a profit.

At ht I switched to the spurs game as this was on TV and therefore liquidity is greater. So on HT i backed 1-0 and it instantly went back by a tick and I redded up I should have waited as it went down to 5.1 and I could of made 3 ticks had I not got out to early, So I did the 2-0 after that ended up with a £0.48 on any score.

So a good days worth of trading there, even though technically I don't do anything apart from check my phone throughout the day, so enjoying the free money from doing that.

Once I get to a significant level- about £200 I am going to start taking a more active in play trades/ bets/ gambles with a small portion of my bank probably about 5%. But that is some way off yet.

New Bank £58.02

Did ok, but still breaking the rules

Like the title says, I started out on the Blackpool v WBA by backing (all for £2) 0-0 1-0 0-1 and 1-1 as an insurance bet. My aim was to start laying off at 10 mins, but Blackpool got a penalty which they duly scored and WBA had a player sent off and all the odds went all over the place with 1-0 up @ 14's I backed it for £40 and it layed it a few ticks lower leaving in profit to the tune of about £3 with £16 on the 1-1 I was going to wait until it came so I could scratch it @7.8, but that wasn't moving too fast so settled for a 75p loss from my £2 stake. I scalped the 1-1 again at high odds before getting in again @ht on the whistle for my whole bank and took another tick, greened up across all scores for £6.14.

Earlier in the evening I scalped @ht on Rapid Bucharest v Pandurii and ended up with £0.54 profit on that game.

Quick round up gives a profit of £6.68

New Bank £54.68


Like I have said in previous posts I lack motivation when there is so little return on the stake and seem to be prepared to take more risks to get my bank to grow quicker. Hopefully now my bank has got to here, it means I will generally make £1 a tick whether pre-match or half time scalping and I will start to have more focus and discipline with regards to greed and lack of motivation.

2 IN1

Quick update, yesterday I traded the St Johnstone and Celtic 0-2 scoreline pre-match ended up £1.37 on all scores. Then I went out to watch Man Utd game, what goal from Nani- not, but they all count.

Notjing much today due to feeling rough from last night, but still managed £1.10 in Bolton and Liverpool game.

Going to add £10 to my bank to get it going a bit more.

Betfair balance now £48.03

A Better Day

I started off with a back of 2-0 in the bayern v freiburg game @7.8 for £33 the price yo-yo'd up and down between 7.6 and 8.0 and I had my bank match twice over and ended up £1.68 before KO, so that's OK there.

Traded a few horse races using 10% of my bank as stake, made a good amount based on staking levels, had a good drift on one where I did ok, in the end I made £1.24 over four races.

In between horse races I was going to trade the current score at HT whistle but inter scored in the last minute of time added on and prices went haywire before the whistle was blown and I only ended up making 22p.

All in all a good day to keep my focus and motivation, wont have time tomorrow as I am working tomorrow morning then off out to watch Man Utd at Old Trafford for the tea time KO- may have a look at the correct score in real time from my phone and try and a £1 or so.

Total profit for the day £3.15 or nearly 10% increase in bank today, good stuff,

So that's it until next time

PS my trading on correct scores through the is done through my Nokia N96 on Betfair mobile- does anyone know any better betfair app for Nokia. Thanks

OK for today, not exactly retiring on it though

At least I didn't lose today, but its not like I am going to make million doing this either. Firstly I backed 1-1 in the Osasuna v Deportivo game @ 8 for £31 and placed lays as the back was taken, then once the lays were taken I simply re-backed the 8.0 with my bank and cycled a bit more of my money, ended up pre match for a grand total of 45p.

Since I got home from work I have scalped the 1950 at Wolverhampton race for another massive profit of 12p and further 9p in the 2020 race

These figures are not much to motivate myself and will lead to frustration and boredom setting in, so to combat this I have decided that I will make a target for increasing the bank by 3% but will not religiously stick to this, if the opportunities are there then I will take them, if not then tomorrow is another day, as well as this I am going to add £10 per week to my betfair account every Friday, I see that this will help keep my focus and discipline as I try to increase my bank and I reckon I will be at around £500 at the end of the year.

I didn't want to turn this into another £0 to wherever target chasing blog, but just thought I would share my thoughts about being on betfair with a small starting bank, it is hard maintaining discipline, fighting the greed inside and trying not rush.

The last point there being a major factor in my trading experience as I am pretty good at over trading and ending with myself sprinting and ending up losing as I would find myself staking with higher levels than I am used to and get into a losing position and be caught in the head lights freeze and lose the lot, chase it and be on a downwards spiral until I am back near zero bank and start again promising myself this time it would be different.

Anyway end of explanation and take forward my combined profit of 66p or 2% which isn't bad I suppose.

New bank £32.38

Drifting score lines

I backed man Utd in the Carling cup winners market straight after the final whistle for £34 but only got £10 matched and it instantly went down by 0.3 and I looked at the market and decided it was spread a bit thin so I hedge it and I now have 75p on who ever wins the Carling cup. Not bad as a trial run but maybe I will try it on markets that have more money in them.

So with my bank I decided to back 1-1 in the villa game @ 8.6 for £34 had a little bit backed and put in my lay bet @ 8.4 but I shouldn't have bothered as it went on an almighty drift to11.0 before KO, redded that up to have a loss on all scores of £7.27 but then backed the 0-0 in minutes before HT and now the deficit is only £3.23, so happy with myself to have quit my losses before KO but annoyed that I went on and gambled my bank to get the red down, as a goal would have seen me lose the lot.

Bank is now £31.71

Never mind tomorrow is a new day and I wont dwell on my poor result.

Carling cup

A few scalps of the correct score market, with Man Utd and Wolves, from what I can see on BBC sport it sounds like a poor game, but never mind what ever score it finishes I will be £1.65 better off.

If man Utd go through to the next round, I am going to back them in the Cup winners market as no other favourites play until tomorrow and any of those fail to win then man Utd's odds will shorten quite a lot I think. It comes down to order of play and this can be used in league games for example where the top of the league is playing Saturday lunch time for example and the next two teams are playing later in the weekend. The same principle applies.


Bank at the end of today £34.95

Cardiff pays out early

Three 2nd half goals from Cardiff see my 2 tick scalp of 0-1 at ht payout for £1.32 profit for today.

Already paid out before game finished.

Now backed 2-0 in Man Utd v Wolves tomorrow @7.8 and will put in lay at 7.6 soon as it starts to get matched.

Slight mistake in my figures as P&L net of commission wasn't ticked so its a few pennies different to yesterday.

New bank £33.30.

SHORT AND SIMPLE

Stoke v Man Utd 0-2 moved my lay bet to 8.8 as the money was building, so I moved it this morning, made 2% of bank or 66p, depends how you want to see it, anyway its green at the end of the day. Little and Often we are always told. Onto the scalping of current score at HT in between races and made another 61p. So £1.27 or 4% altogether.


Horse race trading on a Sunday doesn't seem very fluid prices are jumpy and all over the place, gave up after an hour or so. A few losses and handled them ok, didn't go in-play which is more important total profit on horses 54p.

So profit for the day £1.81

Bank carry forward £32.03

Day one

Hello, technically this is not my first day I have had a betfair account for about four years, started off matched betting, making a few quid paid for a holiday for me the wife and two kids from it. from there I went onto blindly laying second favs on horses- soon realised that is a quick route to the poor house. Have done footy then got in too deep with liability and lost big time on a game, lost heart and gone back to horse trading, then done the same cycle a few times over always increasing my bank to a good level (£200+) and then blowing it all.

Once you start typing it all comes out, so I may as well carry on for now. Horse trading looks so easy from the outside lay low back higher, so they say except when its moving at 1000mph (not quiet that fast), so at the moment I am purely scalping the market with The geeks toy, with a three ladder set-up. I adjust my stakes to 10% of my bank and off we go. In the beginning I am faced with the challenge of maintaining concentration because when you have scalped a price and then green up for 7p it leads you to question if it is worth it at all. Today I made £2.89 on horse trading so it does add up and I try and get more than one scalp per race, but find myself being cautious once in profit and that I trade best when I am coming back from a red position. I will not lie and say that I never go inplay, because that would only happen in ideal world, that leads me to where I always come undone- allowing a lay to go inplay and then next thing you are back at square one- you could say its like the world biggest game of snakes and ladders.

I also have an interest in football, but for the moment I only back correct scores pre match and on the HT whistle as you always get a tick move there. Today's profit- £4.57


New bank balance £30.22 


For info I have just backed 0-2 in Stoke v Man Utd for £29 @9.0 lay bet in @8.6 and will green/red up before KO tomorrow.


I could go on but I think thats enough for an opening post, so see you next time