February Summary

Ive got to be pleased with this months results, only 1 losing day, and I feel like I have made big strides forward in consistency and discipline. I am still hitting some big losses sometimes, from entering the market at the wrong time, but even my bad days are still ending up in profit, I am taking the losses well, and I am not going in play. I have started tidying up my positions when it hits 1 minute to the off, and am aiming to not open any new positions after that, as I have been caught out too many times by the unpredictable movements, and there is also the added danger of being caught in play.

Heres my PnL for the month


And the average win and loss per day


I raised my stakes to £35 for the last few days of the month, and that will account for some of the reasons why my average loss was increasing, but I am still hitting too many large losses for my liking. I know that stopping trading earlier will help lower this.

My strike rate



I did find the second half of the month a bit more of a struggle, with more losing races.

I know that there are still areas I can improve on( concentration, patience, dedication, controlling my greed and sometimes boredom) but this month has been a real encouragement.

Think Happy Thoughts

I was reading my old blog posts, and was surprised at how negative I sound sometimes.Well, maybe not surprised, as I am negative a lot of the time, but I didn't think it had come across in the blog. I was trying to describe the problems and feelings that trading brings, maybe I need to find something else to blog about. If I am not going to do negative posts about trading, and I don't want the blog to just become a daily PnL report, what am I going to write about? I dont know yet.

Things have been going great this month though, I have upped my stakes to £35 in the last 2 days, will do a monthly report soon.

Raging

Last two days have felt like a bit of a struggle compared to earlier in the month. It feels like there is a bit less money in the markets, and they are a bit more unpredictable. I have found myself hitting a few more losing races, and my anger has been building. Its stupid to get angry, I know, but its been happening quite a lot as I perceive the market turning on me. I try to take a minute after each losing race to feel calm and accept the loss, and this does help, but when something like today happens, I end up just exploding. Things were going along ok, then I hit a £3.25 loss when trying to lay a horse close to the off time, as it looked to be drifting, but it came back in, as they often do. a couple of races later, I saw a horse drifting a bit close to the off time, so I thought " this time, I am not going to get caught out laying it when its obviously going to just come back in, so I will back it!!"
of course, it went through the price so I thought, " well, it will still come in, so I will back it again!!!".
Price continues out, and there's a few seconds before off time, so I did a final back waiting for it to come back in, it never did, and I took a £7.57 loss just before the race started. At least I didn't go in play I suppose. I was absolutely raging. Stupid to be so angry over something I have no control over, and the things I did have control over, ie entry and exit points, were done to the best of my abilities. I think I was extra angry because this is my first losing day this month, and everything had been going really well up to now. I need to make sure that I deal with this, accept it, and keep trading the way I have been.

A good week.

Trading has carried on in the same manner as I left off in my last post, and I am really happy with the way things are going at the moment. If someone was to ask me what has changed in the last couple of weeks, I wouldn't be able to tell them, but something obviously has, and I have hit a new level of consistency. I think all the things I have been learning over the last few months are finally becoming part of my subconscious, the thought processes needed to trade successfully are being ingrained.
Mark Douglas was right when he said no-one can tell you how to trade. Stock phrases like "cut your losses" and " let your profits run" are kind of obvious, but to actually understand what they mean in a real trading context, you need to experience the situations for yourself, experience the feelings that a losing trade gives you, and get over the emotional response. I think maybe that has been the leap forward I have made, a lessening in the fear, along with more trust in myself to do the required action in each situation. You would think that fear would be a good response to have, it would stop you from over-exposing yourself to the market, but it actually stops you from taking opportunities that present themselves. If you take more opportunities as they come, and deal with each one appropriately, without hesitation or emotion, whether its cutting out, closing, or letting it run, then you should be well on the way to learning how to trade.

Steady progress.

February is going along nicely at the moment, I am making £5-£10 a day, and I feel that something has clicked into place recently. I am getting a feeling for the markets and can sometimes get a sense of "the zone", where I am tuned in to what the market is doing, and not really thinking about profit or loss. I feel I am reading the markets better, and am able to recover a red position more frequently. I am getting out of the market at the official off time almost all the time( yes i know, it should be all the time). i am less fearful of opening a position, less worried about it being a loss, and less affected by losses when they happen. I guess this could all be due to the markets suiting my style at the moment, and the random sequence of wins and losses being mostly wins over this period. Or it could mean that I have made some progress, and come to a deeper understanding of trading.

One thing that is concerning me is my daily profit. I know from reading other blogs that other people who are fairly new to trading are making 100% or more of their stake per day, where I am making 25-50%( yes, I'm talking about u J.S :P). I can still reduce the number of errors I make, and let my profits run a bit more, but even my best days only approach about 75% of stake. I guess it doesn't really worry me, just being competitive I want to be as good as its possible to be.