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.

January summary.

My target at the end of December was to have my first £100 month in January. I didn't quite manage it, in fact I made the amazing sum of £0.25! I wont go in to all the stupid mistakes I made this month as I have posted about them already, but I hope January will drill it in to me to close out as soon as possible if I go in-play, even for a seemingly painful amount. If I had closed out for an £8 loss on the day I lost £40, then I would have been up £32 for the month, which seems like a really good amount just now. This is the major hurdle I have to get over at the moment, to remember that trading is a long term thing, and that it is possible to get back a loss fairly easily. This knowledge has helped me a bit I think, as I am being a bit more aggressive(well, a bit less fearful anyway) about putting in a trade when I perceive an opportunity: I am less scared of getting a loss.



So heres the PnL:
I am pleased with the way I recovered at the end of the month.
Heres the average PnL per event, not much I can tell from this.


And the daily strike rate: I felt that my trading was improving, despite the number of off days, and this is reflected in my improving strike rate. I am finding better entry points, and making better decisions about where my exit points should be. I am also starting to eliminate the "greedy" entry points where I try and jump on a swing right at the end of its life, and then have to cut out when it bounces back. Sometimes I am able to wait out the bounce as I am fairly confident it will return or at least lessen my loss.



So I think I learned a lot this month, we shall see if I can put it into practice in the next month.

Back in the game

I moved house on monday, and BT werent supposed to be turning on my broadband till next monday, although the phoneline was getting turned on on friday, I thought I would check to see if I had internet access and WOOHOO, it was on early, thanks BT. apparently i have a 19Mb download speed according to my router, although when I did an online speed test it was only 7.5 Mb.

So I traded a couple of races yesterday evening, and the full day today, and glad to say I am basically break even for the month. My trading seems much better since I lost the large amount in-play, I feel more relaxed and less pressured to trade too close to the off to try and get rid of reds. We will see how relaxed I feel when I have a bad day and nothing seems to be going right though.

I will do a january summary in the next couple of days.

Kick up the rear

I don't know if my stupid mistake the other day has given me a much needed kick up the ass, but since then, the last 2 days trading have gone amazingly well, and Ive made about half the deficit back. No dramas, no in-plays ( except one where a big spike took a trade well out of the money right before the off, I closed out immediately), no feeling of struggling, whats going on?

I had one fairly big loss today, and have a new strategy to cope. I close my eyes and imagine myself putting my arms round the loss, accepting it, absorbing it, until it kind of dissolves away. I think welcoming thoughts to it and try and note any bitterness or dissapointment that I feel and just let them sit there until they go away.
It probably seems a bit new age and mystical, but I need to find a way to accept the losses, make them part of my trading, and deal with the feelings they bring. It seems to be working so far.

I am moving house tomorrow and I don't think I will have internet access for a couple of weeks, unless I get really lucky, so it looks like I will be taking a break from trading, as anonymous suggested in the comments to my previous post. I might try and find a wireless cafe or something where I can try and trade on my laptop, or I may just take the break.

Getting myself all tangled up

Have been going along steadily the last few days, almost break even for the month after the disaster of a few days ago. Its been hard going though and I think this is affecting me. Today I lost the first 4 races, and was down £5, quite a lot for my stakes, but I wasn't unduly worried, I knew I could( and would) get it back. This is in fact what happened over the next 4 races and I was a few pence in profit for the day. The next race I traded I got caught out by the mystery punter who seemed to be whacking great chunks of money on the favorite, I redded out at over £5 for the race, and was prepared to accept that. The favorite was still getting hit so I traded in the expectation that it was going to continue, which it did, and I got my PnL down to about a loss of £1 . Instead of accepting that this was a good result, I put some final trades in too close to the off, got the dreaded in-play signal, and the favorite must have crawled out of the stalls because its odds moved out and never recovered, over a 1m race. I didnt close out, through inability to accept a big loss, and so the race ended and I had a huge loss instead, £40. I thought I was past this stage, or at least coming to grips with it, but going through a tough couple of weeks has shown just how fragile my discipline is.
The loss itself hasnt affected me that much, its the dissapointment of failing to do what was needed in the situation that is really discouraging. If I don't sort it out( as I have said before) I will never be able to make this work. Its my own fault, but I dont know how to remedy the problem. Embrace the losses I guess. Its funny how my mind works, I was prepared to ( unhappily) accept a £5 loss, then couldnt accept a £1 loss, then couldnt accept the £8 loss in running, so was forced to accept the £40 loss. Maybe thats part of my subconscious thinking, let it go out of my control and then I cant blame myself for the results( blame is probably the wrong word, accept responsibility is better). Well I am blaming myself, the £40 loss was my fault. I accept that I didnt do what was required, I will do what is required next time.

Wtf am I doing?

I was looking forward to trading today as it seemed to be a full card. Unfortunately someone came round to visit me, so I wasn't going to trade. but half way through the afternoon I thought "F**k it, I'm going to trade, I know its risky but I think I can handle it and I know what to look out for and avoid if there is someone else distracting me". The things to avoid being going in play and paying attention to what bets had been matched and what bets hadn't. So of course, with someone talking to me and distracting me, I traded, had a small loss, put some trades in too close to the off, went in play, thought I had closed out for a big loss, decided I'd had enough of that, and only traded one race. then I found out later I had left an unclosed back bet in( think it was one of my efforts to close out in running that I hadnt cancelled) so ended up with an even bigger loss after just one race! Feel free to laugh at me or mock me, because seriously, if I'm going to do such stupid things then maybe I should just stick to minimum stakes and have trading as a past time and hobby, similar to playing a computer game or whatever. Have I learned nothing over the year I have been trading "properly" or over the 2 years that I have been trading in full? As Someone mentioned in a comment a while back, "Don't like to say it but you've acheived absolutely zilch since starting this blog" I didnt really agree with him then, but maybe hes right. My trading and discipline have improved a bit, but when it comes down to it, I give in to impulses that I know are wrong and likely to lead to difficulty.