Back to it!!

It's been a while since my last post I know but due to going back to England and being busier than expected in my other job really meant I did very little trading at all through December. Pretty glad I had something to keep me busy with the weather pretty much destroying all the events! That being said I did work Boxing day and 3 days up til New Years Day which was interesting for all the wrong reasons!

First day back was a real disaster making a terrible start and losing 18quid in one of my first races back for 6weeks in an environment that was unfamiliar really not doing my confidence any good at all. I really wasn't on it and could tell, being to slow to react and getting caught out often, getting frustrated from losses, pretty much all the thing that you need not to be doing really! I struggled on knowing I needed to just stay with it and it would eventually come. I took it slow lowered my stakes a bit and totally went back to basics.
I gradually started to get back on it again making my loss back and going into the green a few hours later only to get caught on the last and take a -25 on the day.. annoying!
I then came back to it again 29th and 30th feeling a bit more focused after the Christmas binge for trading.

The 29th was a -45 on the day again early taking a big loss meaning i was constantly fighting to get back to scratch getting close but then taking a nasty hit. I was having good spells and feeling pretty good but then again taking a big hit in the odd race wiping out any recovery .
The 30th was a totally green day feeling much more relaxed in the markets again but also feeling more settled in my environment. It's funny but these things do make a difference to me! In England there are people in my house during the day so distractions are hard to avoid! I was happy really to end the month only -30 from the 3days work.. looking forward to going back to Spain so I could really concentrate!

Back to Spain

Weather again was annoying for work start of January so i left it for the first 2 weeks and started proper Fri 15th eager to hit the markets for a long haul stint. Also I'd upped my bank to 500 thinking now was a good time to do so even in the quiet time of year. The time just felt right.. goodish meeting coming up.. why not! I didn't feel like i was gonna do me any damage and was confident i was really to increase my stakes.

Firstly felt good to be home but I was working well too.. making 75 on the Friday and carrying that form through to Saturday therefore feeling more than happy with my first 2 days back.
I was reading what i think is a big bank trader totally manipulating the markets to get the prices he wanted most of the time looking like he was dominating most of them money wise and myself doing the total opposite most of the time to what the market was telling me to do. It was a waiting game looking for when he appeared to be working the price on more than 1 selection putting random 8grands on multiple selections to hold at certain places then cancelling after getting what he wanted matched and really sending it! Gotta say i was sort of playing it safe a little to much and getting out a lot of the time to early meaning i felt a little underpaid when getting it right but was enjoying it for sure! Was more than happy tho after the Saturday to be 140 up on the week from 2days.



The celebration didn't last long though! Came back to it Tuesday 19th and ended up loosing 120 on the day i think through over confidence! We all no where that gets us unless your a big fish.. Nowhere!! On the fight back from the start of the week, not exactly what i had in mind!
Back to basics again!! Surprisingly this loosing day did me a lot of good! I was pretty annoyed with myself and really studies my day on Camtasia looking for the mistakes, looking back i saw that really I'd been a bit unlucky.. What i was doing was right but just wasn't quite getting out of situations quickly enough waiting for that little bit to long and the market turning. Conclusion being work to what I think is 70% of the move and no more.. I was usually in good positions just starting to get matched for profit, that's all i had to remember! I stuck to this for the rest of the week made back my loss and pushed on to have a positive week..

November

I haven't really traded much hence the lace of content this month. I took a break to go to the south east coast of Spain to go check out a place Jack is interested in. It was really nice to get out of the city for a bit and see the beach again and the amazing views looking over the med towards Parma and Ibiza from the balcony of the apartment where breathtaking!



There was other reasons as to why this was a good idea to go other than just a holiday and Jack wanting a driver again, my Internet at my house was been really bad and cost me a few nasty losses from dropping out sometimes coming back on quickly after others not!.. really not an easy one to get out of in Spain when you never top your mobile up!.. Thought it best not to risk anymore money until it got sorted out. Turns out the cable coming into the apartment was totally messed up so they put a new line in after a bit of time.. I am in Spain.. everything takes time!! This was the fourth visit.. previously they just patched up the cable and made it work for a bit! Turns out when they pulled the whole thing out there was over 20 patches..

Obviously good news in the end!..straight off I notice the connection was much more solid but unfortunately I didn't get much chance to work it as I've had to come back to England to do my other freelance job for a few weeks... I will still be trading every chance I get which will be most of Fridays and definitely Saturday. Which in these hard weekday markets isn't all that bad!

What trading i have done

This week just gone I worked only Friday and Saturday and i was happy with the markets and the way I was trading.. a biggish meeting at Newbury and Newcastle Saturday attracting some big money again.. nice!

Had 3 or 4 good races on each day and a lot of average races but more importantly not many losing ones.

Being a bit of a fan of horse racing the anticipation of the return of Denman on Saturday and knowing being back in England I could actually watch it was ace.. I couldn't wait! He definitely didn't let me down either.. what a racehorse he is! I had to stop working after watching the race due to the excitement of the return of Demania!! I was at Cheltenham Gold Cup day when he beat Kauto Star and after that I'm thinking about going back this year to see him try to do it again with a fair chance this year if I can pull myself away from trading such a big day!

I think I worked less that 10days in Spain this month with the road trip to the coast and the Internet playing up. This caused me to take a few losses as i said earlier. It was down from the beginning of the month until the 13th..
I took the week to try to get back to where I was before the Internet went down.. First day back was really good but midweek I had a few bad days because i was being a bit greedy.. not losing day but losing more profits on races than wanted through not spreading across the field sometimes and most times losing all of it.
Anyway kicked that toward the back end of the week and had a good weekend so all in all happy on the week whilst reminding myself that it would of been better if I'd spread those midweek profits!!

Other than that I had a go at the Breeders Cup... Friday I started off just checking it out to see what they where like as I'd never watch them before, after a while I involved because the markets on the big races were very solid, there was loads of money being turned over! I will definitely be working it again next year!!
They were very much big scalping markets with the odd little bounce but never anything that you where worried about due to the weight of money everywhere! I was always needing more of a bank as its was very much my biggest stake being used therefore not to many order due to liability..

These are p&l for Friday and Saturday of last week, Saturday Breeders Cup day and the first day back after the Internet came back on.

How i got into Trading

I first found out about this game from a friend of mine, we where both working for sky bet in my hometown of Harrogate taking bets on the telephone. We frequently had the odd punt on the horses and the only way to place bet whilst working was on the Internet through betfair.
At this point i really didn't understand it that much but the horse prices were usually better than the bookmakers prices so i didn't complain.

A few months later I found out that my friend who's called Jack had started to work on this program for himself on a part-time basic and was interested to no more. I went round to his house and sat watching him put money in on one side of a ladder and taking it out on the other making free money! Now this was 4 years ago when this was to most people an unknown! I had a little bit of knowledge in the field so was more than interested. I watching my friend countless days trying to learn more about how this was possible.. I understood the idea of backing a horse but laying was new to me.. But soon got it.
Around 18months later it become obvious Jack was doing well out of trading, he had gone full time and was moving away to London. I had not actually gone any further with trading myself because my career at the time was going well even though i was still watching my friend work as often as i could.

I stayed in contact with jack while he was away and at this point got a betfair rapid to try things out! I tried out with minimum stakes at first on weekends for a few hours as a hobby losing most of the time but enjoying the thrill of the market.
To cut a long story short now my career was in property development working for my parents and at this point was booming so trading had to take a backseat until the back end of 2008 but then the recession really hit and in November 08 I bought betangel and really starting thinking about trading as a job.
Firstly I decided to go travelling for a few months round South-East Asia to get a few things out of the system. When i got back to England end of march nothing had really changed.. I was working for my parent very little on a freelance basis meaning I had lots of time on my hands to knuckle down trading.

I stuck to low stakes pre-race trading the horse as Jack was doing and it was really hard to get any sort of flow going in the right direction and for a good few months was fighting with myself for most of the time seeing thing but not acting quickly enough and chasing things down to only get court out at the bottom or top of a move. Then chasing the loss and losing more by gambling in-running. At this time the losses where small so not damaging but i think it went on for a few months and the loss started to add up.. Looking at it I think I was way too active and eager and actually doing to much was what was costing me because a lot of the time i was getting on moves in good positions and reading things well but getting back in way to soon after making a profitable move and the obvious one not getting out quickly enough when in a losing position.

Where it properly gets started!

I've now been trading around 8months on a pretty much full time basis. Jack gave me the chance to come work alongside him at his home in Madrid where he's just moved in exchange for me helping him get his stuff (computers etc) from England to Spain. I stayed with him between April and August living with him for most of it bar taking the odd trip back to England to do my freelance work. This was an amazing opportunity for me to see a successful trader working the markets and sent me on leaps and bounds in the right direction. Teaching me what he had learned over the years about keeping focused and making sure your in the right mind frame to trade to start with. Not upping the stakes to soon and having a structured increase as to how you are doing, not as to what you want to earn making sure you don't get any shocks along the way.
Since I've been in Spain 'I've upped my stakes twice, when i got here i was still trading with £5 and £10 stakes working off £100 bank. I changed it first to £10's and £20's, felt that out for 2-3months or so with some losses along the way but still nothing i couldn't deal with, then as the profits kept building the bank i upped it again to £25's and £50's which is where i still am now working off a £250 bank. Anything above this at this time i send home at the end of the week. I'd say for me this is the first mark where i can say I'm making enough to survive.

Obviously I'm not saying Jacks given me a recipe to print money but its definitely given me much more of a laid back approach to the markets and made me look away from the figures and look at the much bigger picture. Also the way he's helped me get round losses is key! I've not gone to far away from Jack just yet though as I have also moved out to Madrid and will not be leaving here anytime soon other than for Christmas as trading has started to pay the way in the last couple of months and I've found a lady to entertain me. Plus the weathers much better isn't so why would I!

Starting from now i will try to post as often as i can with P&L

Here is todays and an average days Profit and Loss off my £250 bank.