Steady growth

Profit/Loss : 40.76€
Total Profit/Loss : 176.01€
Current Bank : 911.23€

Another weekend, another healthy profit. It's been normal to have a profit of around 40€ per week, that's what happened once again, mostly during the weekend of course. Tried some horse racing but without success and left without losing/winning which isn't bad at all. I don't have the right tools to trade on the horses so I'll try to stay away from those markets while I don't get those tools. Football during the half-time and some inplay seems to be the best markets for me to trade at the moment despite the low profits.

All trades were green once again. This tells me that I'm not making too many mistakes which keeps me happy. However, I shall not trick myself into thinking that I haven't done any mistake, because I did some.

The 900€ barrier is behind me and I'm heading to the 4 digits again at a decent pace. Hope to achieve it during the first month of the new year.

Please note that I've changed the date of the last post because it simply wasn't right. I've started to write it days before publishing it and it came out with the starting date instead of the publishing date.

Mixed Feelings

Profit/Loss : 37.20€
Total Profit/Loss : 135.25€
Current Bank : 870.47€

First of all, sorry for taking so long for an update. That's how I am, lazy!

Let me separate this post in two different parts, last weekend and this weekend. Last weekend I took a loss of -8.86€. I made so many mistakes that I should have been wiped out. It all started on friday night with an NBA match between the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons. I always seemed to be on the wrong side and taking constant losses and getting pissed off about it. I had a total accumulated loss on the Pistons of around -60€ and 0€ on the Bulls. The Bulls were in front near the end of the match but were leading by just 4 or 5 points. I told myself that I couldn't afford a loss of -60€ so I took a hard decision of dividing the loss and taking a -16€ guaranteed loss. The Bulls did indeed win the game, very hard to swallow. This trading was in the back of my mind the entire weekend.

Saturday morning trading the horses I decided to buy a horse at 3.40 because I thought it would drift. It was the favourite in the race in question and there was nothing that could tell me that that horse was indeed a favourite for that race so that was why I decided to lay him. Immediately I saw him steaming to 2.80s. Obviously, I should have closed my position much earlier but I did not, I was in love with my position. Exited losing -18.94€.

During the afternoon I've entered in a self-destroying mode. I was watching the Manchester United vs. Derby County game on TV and was surprised to see Derby not conceding a goal for more than 30 minutes so I decided to do some trades on the under/over 3,5 goals market. Guess what happened, Man Utd scored two goals in 5 minutes while I had a position opened. I was very lucky to leave with a -44.84€ loss.

The rest of the weekend I was trading on a mood that is completely unacceptable. I was putting huge chunks ( almost the whole bank ) in some very very risky situations, I felt like I wanted to blow my whole bank in a few seconds, very weird feelings. I don't know how I managed to lose just -8.86€.

I'll have to work hard to get my mind right for trading. If I don't, I'll be wiped out in a couple of months because this is indeed a very tough game.

Ok, let's to move on to this weekend. In constrast with last weekend, this one I haven't missed a single trade, all green. That's something that I can't understand, I'm capable of the best and of the worst.

There's nothing special with these trades. It's the usual thing. A profit of 46.06€. It should be like this every day. :)

Hope you don't make the mistakes I made.

Tough days behind me

Profit/Loss : 34.05€
Total Profit/Loss : 98.05€
Current Bank : 833.27€

Been very busy these days due to professional reasons and haven't had the mind sharp enough to do as many tradings as I'd have wanted but since last update I managed to make a somewhat nice profit.

Lost -5.00€ today on AC Milan vs. Celtic match and ended the day with that loss. I've decided to not trade anymore today because I felt that I wasn't with the required mindset. When this happens it's better to stay away from these markets than to have a huge loss. I believe you agree with me.

It's amazing to notice how I've been cutting my profits lately. I'm picking very small profits because I'm scared of taking a considerable loss so I sneak in and out of the markets as quickly as possible. I get very satisfied to get a tick and this is starting to frustrate me, honestly. There have been several greenbooks that could have been 10x more had I stood by my decisions when I've entered the market. The problem is, if I lose this feeling of fear for a loss and then go and take a considerable loss right on the first attempt, this feeling will double its magnitude and that wouldn't be good. Now I'm experiencing how hard trading is mentally. I think I just have to choose the perfect timing/moment to break this mental barrier. I'll overcome it someway!!

November was a terrible month for me because of a single huge loss of -819.64€ in a football match, therefore, it was impossible to end the month on a green position. Here's the screenshot from my November's P&L.

The 800€ barrier was broken and is now way behind me.

Cheers!

So disappointed

I'm so disappointed to have read on bettingtraders.com forum that Peter Webb's book seems to be a farce.

Profitable Exchange Trading was a much awaited book by all traders in sports markets. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Profitable-Exchange-Trading-Peter-Webb/dp/1843440288/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196117312&sr=1-1
( Amazon's link to Profitable Exchange Trading book )

I was obviously interested in reading his book. I wasn't expecting magic formulas but I was hoping it could trigger some new ideas inside my mind and that would be very helpful indeed.

After having read that topic on bettingtraders I obviously cancelled my order from amazon.co.uk. Let's see if this book will ever be released, I doubt !

My weekend in review

Profit/Loss : 41.11€
Total Profit/Loss : 64€
Current Bank : 799.23€

First of all, allow me to conside Friday night as part of the weekend so that this post doesn't get invalid because of a Friday night trade on a football match. Overall, this weekend was quite good for me, a good profit and the most important, very few mistakes and some perfect trades, technically.

Before the big loss ( see first post ) making 41.11€ a weekend would be a bad result because I could make that in one single trade quite easily. Making 200€ on a weekend wouldn't be a surprise but now things have changed. I'm putting less money into the market and exploiting less ticks as well. In case things go completely wrong or in case I go completely mad I can't lose too much. Something that I have in the back of my mind now is that the number one rule is not to lose money. It may sound obvious but it's not, if you are a trader you will understand me.

I've spent Saturday's afternoon watching football, I guess I watched to 6 or more matches making small profits in almost all of them. Some were done inplay exploiting a single tick with small chunks ( 100€ maximum ) and always when the matches were calm ( half-time included ).

During the morning I was trading ( or trying to ) on horse racing and this was where I made my biggest mistake of the weekend. Having layed a horse at 3.35 and watching it drift to 4.50 in less than 10 minutes I made a nice greenbook of 7.60€ with just a 30€ chunk trade. Quite happy I was but then I decided to mess up things a little bit and lost a tick, then tried to take it back and the race went inplay. I was lucky I managed to get out with a loss of -0.14€. I'm so stupid, it was the only loss I had during the weekend and it could have been a nice profit. Shame on me!

Hoping to break the 800€ barrier very soon!

Ouch !!!

Profit/Loss : -4.92€
Total Profit/Loss : 22.89€
Current Bank : 758.12€

First loss in the NBA trading the Washington Wizards @ Charlotte Bobcats game. I wasn't watching the game on TV this time and that might have been the problem here. I was caught on the wrong side twice on some big swings and that was it. I'm glad the loss ( -4.92€ ) is acceptable because it could have been much worse.

Hope to get back to football during this weekend and to some good profits, hopefully.

Another greenbook

Profit/Loss : 2,43€
Total Profit/Loss : 27,81€
Current Bank : 763.04€

Milwaukee Bucks @ Cleveland Cavaliers was probably the most difficult trade I've made on NBA markets so far. There wasn't much money in the market making it very difficult to get 20€ or 30€ matched. I was in a red position in the beginning but kept my head cool and things turned around in my favor as I knew that a swing could happen soon and it happened, thankfully. I've made a 2.43€ profit in this game.

And now the Cavaliers chart at half-time, the usual swings.

Note that the Cavaliers were traded at 1.10 and lost the game.

I'll make 30€ my standard trading chunk on these markets hereafter to try to achieve a 10€ profit everyday. Let's see how it goes!

Good luck!

Another small number in the bag

Profit/Loss : 3.24€
Total Profit/Loss : 25.38€
Current Bank : 760.61€

Another trade on NBA, another greenbook.

This time was Portland Trail Blazers @ Charlotte Bobcats. Bobcats were the favourites starting at a price of 1.43 or so. I've only made 4 trades during this trading session ( went to bed at half-time as usual ), all were profitable, this time starting with 20€ chunks instead of 10€. It was enough to give me a 3.24€ profit as the Bobcats won the game by 9 points difference. Not much more to say about this trading session.

For those interested in charts, there you have the Bobcats chart at half-time.

Good luck on your tradings!

Small number but happy day

Profit/Loss : 15.34€
Total Profit/Loss : 22.14€
Current Bank : 757.37

Basketball, especially NBA, is a well known sport for me. For quite some time I was thinking about trading it but there's always a problem, time-zone. Considering that I'm an European, the hour difference means that games over here start past midnight which isn't good if you have to wake up early the next day to go to work. However, I decided to give it a try during this weekend to see how the market is.

Today the earlier game was Portland Trail Blazers @ Washington Wizards, the Wizards were the favourites even though their best player wasn't going to play due to a knee injury. I've started by backing the Wizards which were comfortably in the lead the whole game. I've traded in small chunks, mainly 10€ and a couple of 20€ trades by backing the Wizards and laying them 5 or more ticks lower. One thing was clear from the beginning, these markets don't have much money which can be a huge problem for traders, so be aware and don't trade with huge chunks because if you are caught on the wrong side you might find yourself in a deep hole.

Wizards won the match comfortably by a margin of 19 points giving me a profit of 6.07€.

For those that are not familiar with NBA markets, I took a screenshot of the Washington Wizards chart ( at half-time ) last night against the Portland Trail Blazers to show you how this market can be very good to trade. Wizards started with an SP of 1.60 or so. Blazers scored first ( 2-0 ) and just because of that the Wizards drifted a little bit to 1.70 which is insane in my opinion. They immediately pulled it back and the price steamed a lot as you can see in the image. I can't see why people overreact so much, a 2 points difference in the beginning of a Basketball game is nothing.

Another NBA game today where I made some trades was Golden State Warriors @ Toronto Raptors. Toronto were the favourites but not by much, so I've started this game by laying them ( SP at 1.40s ) and backing a few ticks above quite easily because the Warriors started a little bit better and as the market tends to overreact to everything that happens in the game it was quite easy to get matched a few ticks above. The Raptors quickly took the lead and so it was until I left the game. With just 5 or 6 minutes left in the game, the Warriors were losing by 3 points and were available to back at 4.50 !! By that time I already had my 9.27€ greenbook done and wasn't in the mood of wasting it, you know what I mean. Guess what, 3 minutes later they were available to lay at odds under 2.00 and ended winning the game by 6 points margin.

Here's the Raptors chart when I left the game, lots of swings.

I haven't traded Tennis yet but just from what I've heard from some fellow traders is that these swings also happen there very often which is good if you are on the right side. It seems like I'll have to start trading Tennis!

Happy trading!

A much needed win

Profit/Loss : 6.80€
Total Profit/Loss : 6.80€
Current Bank : 742.03€

After several consecutive losing days it's always good to have a positive one.

Euro 2008 qualifying game between Portugal and Armenia. Portugal was a clear favourite and could only afford a victory. When the game was 1-0 I sneaked in for a single tick giving me a profit of 6.80€. It's a small number but it was a very important win for me, it boosted my confidence which was the most important thing from this greenbook.

It's time to get it all back!

Welcome

Welcome to my sports trading blog. This is where I'll keep my trading results on betfair so that you can see it with your own eyes.

I'll first talk about my previous results so that all the rest that comes here after makes some sense.

I've been making some good profits over the last few months but last Sunday I wasted them all.

Last Sunday I lost 819.65€ on a single football match. It was Chelsea vs. Everton when Chelsea was in front 1-0. I had 34€ greened up on that match when it all happened. I thought I could sneak in and out of the market very quickly to extract one more tick that would give me an extra 10€ ( 1000€ staked at 0.01 increments ). There were 3 or 4 minutes left in the game and I was watching it on TV. I got matched at 1.05 and I was trying to get out at 1.04 but the market moved one tick against me so I immediately changed my lay bet to 1.05 to turn it into a scratch bet because I didn't want to stay in too much time with such a high exposure in the market. It was taking too much time to get matched and I was starting to get nervous. Guess what happened, disaster, Everton scored 1-1 at the 89th minute!

The end result of this sad story was that all my profits from this football season were gone and so my confidence.

It's clear that I've made a huge mistake here. The risk/reward ratio was obviously too high and I simply shouldn't have backed that much.

I was mentally devastated during this last week. Since then I can only attract losses, haven't had a single profitable day since then but this will change soon, very soon!

I'll start from here on with a bank of 735.23€ as the zero point.

Hope you enjoy this blog.