first day back

Today was the first day I have traded for 10 days, and it felt a little weird to be back. I really struggled with consistency and ended up down about a pound for the day, which I am happy with, seeing how badly things seemed to go. I am hoping it was just a bit of rustiness and lack of concentration which affected me, and will aim to trade another couple of days during the new year period before getting back into it fully in january and building on the progress of the last few months.

Not much to report

I havent had much to say about my trading in the last few days, the markets have been fairly tough but I have come out of them ok even when I have struggled early on. I wont be able to do much trading from now on until after christmas, and there will also be days where there are no meetings/meetings are called off. I'm kind of worried about what effect this will have, but I guess I will just have to find out!

battling back

Another day where I started badly, with a big loss, £5.56 in the 3rd race today. I feel I am much better at handling these losses, buoyed by the knowledge that I can make the loss back, and more, in the rest of the day. I don't seem to chase as much, and they are having less and less mental effect on me. So it turned out today, where I ended up making a decent profit for the day, £4.37.

Its weird thinking back to where I was a year ago, I had been on courses, I had had 1 to 1 tutoring, I had spent hours, and lots of money, trading, and it seemed totally baffling to me how it was possible to make a profit. A loss like this one today would have spiralled out of control.
It took a bit of help from Andy Fuller, some advice I saw on the Bet Angel forum, and really going back to basics, that has helped me turn things around in the last 8 months, from where I had never had a winning month in a year and a half, to having 4 winning months out of the last 5. As someone pointed out in a comment on one of my posts, I still have a long way to go, but I know that I can make it.

Stupid stupid stupid

greed and indiscipline almost got me today. After the first race where I took a £2.90 loss without blinking an eye, I proceeded to go on a nice run of 16 races in profit ( well, 2 were scratched), to be looking at my best ever total for the day. In the next race, I was trading too close to the off, and had a small red, £0.64. This affected me more than it should, maybe I felt it was an insult to me to actually get it wrong for once, maybe I was just getting tired and losing concentration. The next 2 races I also traded after the official off time, and in the 4'oclock, it went against me just as the race went in play, the horse must have rocketed out of the stalls, as I was all of a sudden looking at a £12 red situation if I closed out, in a 5f race. This would have wiped out my days profits and i wasn't able to accept that, so I basically just sat and hoped. I got away with it this time, but it shows how I still have a long way to go in controlling my emotions. I am usually good at getting out at the official off time, and must make sure I keep control even late on in the card. There is no point trading after the off time because 1) the market is usually more volatile 2) there is no time for the market to come back , and 3) there is no time to put in another trade to make back your loss. I also should have taken the £12 loss, rather than the £74 loss I was looking at if the horse had gone on to win, surely its better to finish the day neither up nor down, rather than £62 down, which would basically wipe my whole month.

WTF?!!!??

The markets have been really swingy recently, I have had to adjust to ( or learn ) a new trading style to be able to deal with it. It means being much more cautious, choosing "safe" entry points, and cutting out as soon as it moves against you, or scratching if the move doesn't materialise in the first few seconds.
The 14:20 at hexam today was just ridiculous though. The favorite swung from 3.5 to 5 early on, then with about 5 minutes to go, came back in to close to 3!.





I had laid at around 5 ( lol) as it looked like the second fav was coming in, luckily I got out with a smallish red which I was able to get back.
I dont understand how to make money from these big swings, as unless you get on right at the start, there is no guarantee ( in fact it seems less and less likely the further it goes) that it will keep going. I wasnt confident enough to jump on the swing at any time, until it had started going out again, as the 2nd favorite was coming in fast. If I understood what makes these swings happen then I may find it easier to profit from them.

overall I was quite happy with the days profit though, the last few days have gone fairly well after a poor start to the month

A good day

Today made my best ever total, £11.83. Obviously it is possible to make more money when you have increased your stakes, but I am feeling good about it anyway. The rest of the month has been up and down, so need to keep my head together. I could already feel the reluctance to put in trades for fear of destroying my days profit. A good day can also affect the next few days trading through greed and overconfidence, so tomorrow I am going to have to push all the thoughts and emotions away, and make sure I am in the zone.

fear

Felt a bit of a struggle again today, although I scraped a small profit. The increase in stakes has definitely made a difference to my trading, and I need to work hard to get over that. At £20, the losses can start to make an impact, losing pounds instead of pennies, and I am being affected by the fear and uncertainty.
It took nearly 2 months to get used to trading with £10, at this rate I will be using meaningful stakes by christmas 2010!

Not a good start

I decided to start December by raising my stakes to £20. I felt the last 2 weeks of November went well, and wanted to challenge myself a little. I knew that raising the stakes was going to test my new-found discipline, confidence and temperament, I didn't expect to be tested so soon!
The first few races started off ok, but then things started to go a bit wonky, the markets seemed, crazy, with big moves all over the place. I always seemed to be on the wrong side and came out with some fairly big losses. I felt I took these losses well, but my discipline slipped a bit, with some trades put in after the off time, which went in play a couple of times( not a conscious choice). A couple of the losses were due to me not paying attention to the signals the market was giving me, and waiting in hope for the market to turn. I ended up with an £8.15 loss on the day, which isnt too bad, I have recovered from comparable losses before. I think the higher stakes will bring into focus aspects of my trading that I need to work on, and will hopefully accelerate the learning process a bit.