Tuesday 13th February 2007

Its a very tough time for Sports Traders at the moment especially if your main sport is UK horse racing but it is at times like this that you have to remind yourself of how you have made this job pay to date and try to stick to to your tried and tested formula without losing discipline and forcing the issue to make money.

I only managed to trade in 7 races and 1 football match today. I started with the 13:40 at Folkestone where I backed Lyrical Lily for £46 @ 1.61 between the last two hurdles to net myself a profit of £28. Next I had 2 small winning trades.

In the 15:40 at Folkestone I laid Hercules Morse for £28 @ 4.00 at two fences from the finish when looking unlikely to get past the eventual winner to net  a profit of £28.

The next race was my only losing race of the day. It was the 15:50 at Southwell where I had backed Red Cape for £33 @ 2.00 coming into the finishing straight in the lead and looking quite strong. However, he didn't seem to have the will to win when coming under pressure for the lead and was soon beaten into fourth place to cost me £33.

Next for me was the 16:10 at Folkestone where I started with a back for £45 @ 2.10 on Sonevafoushi before laying off @ 1.70. Then in the final 50 yards of the race I backed the eventual winner, Honourable Spider for £510 @ 1.10 to leave me with a profit of £51.

My final race of the day was the 16:40 at Folkestone where I had a total of 9 trades on the race. I started with a back for £41 @ 2.75 on My Friend Sandy before laying off @ 2.50. Next I laid him again for £100 @ 2.00 before backing back a total of £99 @ 2.02. I then laid him again for £50 @ 4.00 and covered this with backs of £30 @ 5.00 to net me a profit on the race of £21. I finished my race trading day with a profit of £104.

The football match that I traded was the televised 5th round tie of the FA cup between Midlesbrough and Bristol City. I watched the first part of the match and only got involved after the first goal had been scored. I then backed the under 2.5 goals in a small way for £26 @ 2.30 before laying off @ 2.20. Next I backed the unders for £36 @ 1.85 before laying this off @ 1.76. I continued trading in small amounts and taking quick margins until the end of the 90 minutes of play where I had a profit of £14. I didn't get involved in either the extra time or penalty taking markets.

I had therefore finished my trading day with a total profit of £118.

Comments

[Simon]

Hi Ray
Certainately agree the racing is not great at the moment but that should change in the coming weeks.
Have been doing some research regarding upgrading my computer set up and it was interesting to read about your system.
As you will probably realiase from my next question i am no IT expert.Was wondering how you manage to get two seperate monitors showing two seperate websites as this is something i would like to consider. Is it software that allows you to achieve this?
Anyway good luck today.
Simon

[Ray]

Hi Simon,
I am no expert either I just did a lot of research. The two screen function is brilliant and is achieved by getting the right type of graphics card. I used the Asus eXtreme N6600GT card but there are many more that would do the same job. I often have two or more browers on each screen and also have the option to use both screens as one, which is usefull if you have a large spreadsheet. Good Luck.
Ray

[Simon]

Hi Ray
Thanks for the reply.
As you say,the ability to have the two seperate screens is great and would be really useful to me.This is something i will definately include in my system.Will check out the graphics cards available and add it to the list.
Thanks for the help Ray.
Simon

[Brian Ford]

Hi Ray

Do you just trade on Betdaq or do you use BF. The liquidity dosent seem to be there on Betdaq?

I cannot understand why that is as it is certainly there prerace. Yor thoughts?

[Ray]

Hi Brian,
Almost all my trading is on Betdaq. I find in the bigger races and at weekends liquidity is pretty good. In the week there is normally reasonable liquidity around the favourits. I think I must have just adapted my trading to suit the liquidity.
There are some exciting times ahead with Betdaq and I think you should see quite an improvement in liquidity.
Ray

[Brian Ford]

Ray

I certainly hope you are right about the "Daq". IMHO all Betdaq have to do is give 0% comm on racing for 6 months and then keep it 1% below the oppo after that. I think that if they dont do something then nothing will ever change.

[Ray]

Brian,

I think a lot has changed over the last 6 months at Betdaq. The 0% commission on in-running has also helped and I know for a fact that quite a few new traders have come on board because of this initiative. All we really need is for a few more in-running traders to come on board and liquidity will then just keep growing.
Ray