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.