Saturday 3rd March 2007

The Sports Trader has had a decent day with 19 UK horse races, 1 Rugby match and 3 football matches traded and only two losing trades all day.

I started with the 13:35 at Newbury where I backed Minella Tipperary for £50 @ 2.50 before laying off @ 2.21. I also laid La Dame Brune for £50 @ 2.21, £90 @ 3.24 and £25 @ 22.00 as she weakened out of contention and I backed the eventual winner when jumping the second last fence and going into the lead for £222 @ 1.71 to start the day in good style with a profit of £278.

My next trade was in the 13:50 at Kempton where I laid Cathedral Rock for £50 @ 2.68 then backed back for £50 @ 2.72. I had a further 6 similar trades to net myself a profit of £19.

The 14:25 at Kempton was my next race and here I had 10 small trades on Tallow Bay to result in a profit of £27.

My first loss of the day was in the 14:30 at Navan where I backed Valain for £50 @ 2.00 and later backed Alqaab to end with a loss of £45. Next I traded in 11 races that all resulted in small profits.

I made a complete mess of the 16:20 at Newbury by backing Illicit Spirit for £265 @ 1.45 when well in the lead and just clearing the final hurdle only to see him headed near the finish with no possibility of trading out to cost me £265. Ouch. I followed this with another small winning trade.

Then my best result of the day came in the 16:55 at Newbury. I laid Procas de Thaix for £270 @ 4.50 soon after being headed on the run in to result in a profit of £270.

My final race of the day was the 17: at Navan where I laid Woodbine Willie for £40 @ 2.10 and backed back £35 @ 2.40. I then backed Kimberlite King for £10 @ 1.50 to result in a profit of £10.

My race trading day had finished with a profit of £333.

As soon as the racing had finished I listened to the Radio 5 commentary on the Portsmouth v Chelsea match. After the first goal had been scored I backed the under 2.5 goals for 52 @ 1.90 before laying off £22 @ 1.80 and £30 @ 1.64. In the final few minutes of the match I backed the unders again for £20 @ 1.13 and laid off £3 @ 1.07 to finish the match with a profit of £13.

I then watched the live Rugby Super League between Salford and Catalans. There was a surprising amount of liquidity on this game but I ended up just having a small trade by backing Salford on the -4.5 point handicap market for £20 @ 1.25 and £17 @ 1.02 to finish with a profit of £5.

Next I watched the Valencia v Celta Vigo football match. I only caught the last 15 minutes of the match and backed the correct score line of 1 - 0 in the final few seconds for £258 @ 1.03, to result in a profit of £8.

My last trade of the day was in the Sevilla v Barcelona match. I watched the match with no trades until after the first goal had been scored. I then backed the under 2.5 goals for £183 @ 2.52 before laying all off @ 2.30. After the second goal had been scored I backed the unders again for £45 @ 3.75 before laying this off @ 3.50 I then greened up to leave a profit of £15 whatever the result. I also backed Sevilla in the match result market for £110 @ 1.56 and laid off £49 @ 1.53 and £60 @ 1.48. Later I backed Sevilla again for £20 @ 1.52 and laid this off @ 1.42. I finished this trading with a profit of £7.

At the end of the day I had made a total profit of £382.

Comments

[Gavin]

Hi Ray, good to see you've had a great day, I've decided to start my onn blog and was wondering if I could add you to my fav blog list if thats ok?

my URL is

http://thepurplelayer.blogspot.com/

stay lucky

Gavin

[John]

Hi Ray,
I was wondering if having a 3/4 second delay pictures makes a difference? When you see a horse jumping the last ít's already landed and maybe fallen/stumbled etc.

[Mark Iverson]

Hi Ray,

I'd just like to ask you a quick question - when you first went full time, how big was the trading bank that you started with?

All the best and thanks,

Mark

[Ray]

Hi Gavin,
Ofcourse Gavin please add a link to my site. I will do likewise for you. Good Luck with the blog and your trading.
Ray

[Ray]

Hi John,
Yes the delay does have some effect. But bear in mind the vast majority of users on any exchange have the same delay.
Ray

[Ray]

Hi Mark,
I started with a £200 bank in my early days and when part-time. By the time I turned full-time I had around £10k of a bank. I do not think you need a bank of that size to go full-time, it's just the way things happened for me. Remember I only went full-time because of my wife's ilness and I just kept my spare money in my account, as a part of my wifes's illness meant that on occassions she would spend any money she could get hold of.
Ray

[Rob]

Hi Ray
I feel a little punch drunk, managed to get caught by every goal in the WHU v Spurs game. Undone nearly 2 months good profit, was very silly and got caught big on the winner, the irony is I got caught the same on this weekend last year.....will I never learn :-(
GL Rob

[Ray]

Hi Rob,
I am sorry to hear that. I did watch some of the match, what a game, 7 goals. Just get back into the market tomorrow and start clawing your way back. Very Best of Luck.
Ray

[John]

I'd be interested to see how many people have SIS feed, it's definitely something I want to have when I move back over.

[Ray]

Hi John,
I will try and find out for you.
Ray

[Wizardgold]

Ray

I have a question for you about the under 2.5 market in fact for whatever market.

I see in your postings that you put say 90 @ 1.23 on the unders and then laid off 50 @ 1.1
or
unders 183 @ 2.52
or
52 @ 1.90 and laying off 22 @ 1.80 and 30 @ 1.64
from recent postings

What baffles me is the the odd amounts you use.
Is there a formula that you use or is it random?

Thanks
David Allen
Wizardgold Blog and Podcast

[Ray]

Hi David,
The reasons for odd amounts being staked are because either:
I take what is on offer at the best price so I see this as a value stake,
I put up a bigger amount but only get matched for a portion of my stake,
When offsetting my liability I normally do this in stages with smaller stakes and the same can happen here as my previous two reasons.
It seems to work for me but I know a lot of poeple are more comfortable in using set stakes.
Ray

[Brian]

Morning Ray

Do you reckon that Russ is going to make any comment on his meeting with ATR as regards ATR Xtra.

Hope you have a good week.

Brian

[Ray]

Hi Brian,
Yes he has told me that he is meeting with ATR again today at Betdaq's H.O. so he will get an answer today of some sort. It may just be to say we have no comment.
Ray

[Peter]

Hi Ray,

I've alway read your blog with interest and have been looking at having a go at scratching a living at trading. Do you just use Bdaq or other sights. The liquidty on Bfair seems a lot higher than Bdaq, however I expect there will be alot more players to compete against for trades. So I think it boils down to this, how often do you get letf with out a lay/back when trading Bdaq?
Thanks in advance Peter.

[Ray]

Hi Peter,

I use Betdaq for the vast majority of my trades but do on rare occassions use Betfair to lay off a bet.

If you are trading horses or football there should be no trouble in getting out of a position.

Ray