lost my profits on one race, again

I made a real mess of the 14:20 at Haydock. It was a difficult race to trade, with 2 low priced horses that drifted and came in a lot. So by the time I got near the off, I was down £1.30, did I just take that loss? No, I attempted to trade out, scalp no less, in a very volatile market, made more volatile by the fact that it was near the off, and it was very difficult to predict. So of course I got caught out by a big move right before the off, and had to red out, more than doubling my loss to £3.09. After a bit of shouting at the screen, I got a grip, took some deep breaths, and carried on trading, managing to get back to a profit for the day of £0.80. If I had just taken the £1.30 loss then I would have been on for a decent total for the day. Another hard lesson in when to take a loss, which I will learn from, or die in the attempt!

A Better Day

Today actually went ok, after the disaster of yesterday which prompted me to start the blog. I am only using small stakes, and have just about got used to taking losses on the chin when using £2 stakes. When I move up to £10 stakes , everything I have learned seems to go out the window. I am much more panicy, fearful and undisciplined. Today after having written my first blog post and hopefully realised what I have to work on, I found it easier to take the bigger losses that happen when using £10 stakes. It helped that I had a nice 82% strike rate ( races not trades) . I took a £1.80 loss in 1 race and at the time I got a bit angry and started to think "Oh here we go again". I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and mentally pushed all the negative thoughts away from me, and it seemed to help calm me down. I ended up with a nice days profit after 17 races.

I think the big loss was in part caused by someone whacking a huge back bet on, in the last minute before the off. I have seen this happen a lot recently, sometimes a series of huge backs, and am wondering what they are doing. it happened in a few races today, sometimes on the favorite, sometimes on the 2nd or 3rd with about 30 seconds to go. I dont think its bookies, as it doesnt happen every race. I am very wary about putting any trades in with less than a minute to go, as you cant predict where hes going to strike.

first post

Ok, I have finally decided to create a blog to record my progress in the world of betfair trading.
I know there are already millions of similar, established blogs out there that will be more interesting and have more to say, but even if no-one reads this I hope it will help me become more disciplined, which seems to be the main problem that is holding me back from becoming more successful.

I realise that I have a terrible mental attitude. I am very negative, take losses badly, give myself a hard time when things go wrong, and have a lot of emotional involvement in how i perceive the progress of my trading. By that I mean all the hopes and dreams that may be fulfilled by being a successful trader, and every little setback is a blow to these hopes.

But I dont give up easily - I think a lot of people after trying for 2 years and failing a lot of the time would have just jacked it all in. So I am going to fight the inner demons of fear, greed, hope, wishful thinking and pride, and hopefully train my mind to see things differently