June Summary

June was a month of mixed results for me. My PnL is more of a straight line up than it has been the last couple of months, and I have only had 5 losing days( 6 if u count the £0.05 loss), so I feel I have made progress in being a bit more consistent. I am still making too many mistakes though. A couple of inplay errors, some slack thinking and slack reactions, and getting caught out by the mad bomber on a few occasions, has meant that my profit isnt as high as it should be. A number of times I have put in a trade in a weak market, the market has moved away, so I put in another trade, it also doesnt get taken, and I leave them in, then the market comes back, and I sit there hoping that it will stop at my trades. Sometimes it does, but if it doesnt then it generally goes through both trades and moves a number of ticks leaving me with a loss that hurts both my emotions and my PnL, since it is a double sized loss. I need to be more careful to remove trades that have not been taken.
I guess I should be happy that I am in profit, seemingly only 5% of traders are. Its tough to keep a level head when you see or hear about others that are making good money and it can make me try and force things sometimes. If I can stay calm and concentrated, do the simple things right, and stay out of trouble, I should see my PnL grow.

Long Boring Day

Today started off badly, getting caught out by the mad bomber, and losing 8 ticks in the first race. Things didnt get any better as the day progressed. I wasnt able to trade as normal, for fear of getting caught out again, I had to try and stay out of the bombers way, and take advantage of him if possible. I really struggled, lost my rythym and confidence, and by 5pm was down 20 ticks. I took a break before the evening races and went for a walk. It was a beautiful sunny day and I had missed it all by being stuck indoors lol. Over the evening races I managed to make the 20 ticks back, and ended up break even. Today showed that I am still quite fragile when it comes to losses, and that a couple of bad results can still affect my trading, making me more impatient, less confident, and not able to think straight. I go on tilt very easily, and everything becomes over dramatic: "Oh no, I cant trade, Im useless" etc etc. Hopefully the way I recovered will give me a bit of a confidence boost.

A decent day

With encouragement from some people in The Geeks Toy chat room, I decided to up my stakes today by 1/3rd, to £1 a tick Book profit. Book profit really seems to suit me ( or maybe its just that I am finally getting a little less loss averse) in that I dont consider my stake or the consequences of a losing trade as much. I now think in ticks and if I am making 2 or 3 ticks most races, then I am happy to take a tick or 2 loss when needed. I found todays trading ok, although the markets were fairly volatile, which doesnt seem to suit my style. I was up 20 ticks after 14 markets, but started to lose my concentration, made a couple of mistakes, and struggled with the rather empty evening markets. I ended up 17.5 ticks in profit so I was happy with my first day at increased stakes.It is a long day trading from 11am (on the dogs), right through to 8 or 9 in the evening, I'm not sure if its worth trying to trade that long, as mistakes will inevitably creep in.

Monday

Over the last 2 days I have managed to make back nearly all the money I lost on saturday. I am really pleased with how it is going, and feel like I am still learning a lot and making progress. I am now also looking for opportunities to back first, to try and avoid the big punter if possible. It also helps with learning to read the market, and if there are twice as many opportunities then hopefully it will mean twice as much profit. I changed my staking last week, I am now using Book Profit staking, which means that I make a set amount, greened up, for every tick. I find this is better than just staking £35 on every trade, as if you lose 3 ticks at 6.6, and then make 4 ticks at 2.2, you are still looking at a loss. I have it set to £0.75 a tick and it seems to be working well. I am continuing to grow in confidence, although I am still a little tentative at times. I need to have more belief in my self, and confidence that I can deal with any situation as it comes up to the best of my abilities.

No Imagination

A bad day today, not simply because I was trading badly, but because I showed no imagination, no adjustment to market conditions when it was called for.
Over the last week or so, someone has been punting huge amounts, 20 to 30 thousand pounds often, on a single runner, and moving the odds by 10 or more ticks. I knew this was happening, but just carried on trading in my normal manner, which usually entails laying first, although its not set in stone, I am just used to looking for opportunities for a drift.
I have managed to avoid him over the last couple of days, but it was inevitable that I would get caught eventually, and so it happened today, for a £15 loss. The loss threw me, and I lost my discipline and control in trying to find ways to exploit the punter. I tried laying another runner when the large amount came in, but instead of going out this runner also came in, for another £7 loss.
I need to use my brain more in thinking about the situation, rather than just carrying on happily as if the market is the same. Maybe these events will help me to identify opportunities other than my lay-first technique.