Wednesday 28th March 2007

It's more of the same for The Sports Trader. I read most of the other blogs by fellow traders and gamblers, and it seems it has been a tough period for just about everybody. It must be the post Cheltenham blues but what ever the reason I hope I can find a solution soon. I ended the day trading 5 horse races and 3 football matches, with just one, all be it horrendous, loss.

I started my work looking at the first horse race of the day but it wasn't until the 15:25 at Kempton, that I had my first trade. As you probably know I have to leave my trading between 2:45 and 3:20 each day, whilst I pick the children up from nursery and school. So my first trade was to back Poppy Maroon for £72 @ 1.50 before laying off @ 1.20 to result in a profit of £22.

In the 16:00 at Kempton I laid Star Shot for £11 @ 9.60 and backed back £6 @ 16.00. Later I backed Treasury Counsel for £500 @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £10.

Now for my worst trade and my only loss on the day. It was in the 16:10 at Towcester where I started off OK with a lay of Seafield Bogie for £39 @ 2.70 before backing back £35 @ 2.80. I then laid him again for £200 @ 3.00. I just got my timing wrong on this, if I had done it earlier I would be telling you how much profit I had made but as it is I lost £403 on the race. I did put lays up but could not get matched.

My next trade was a small winning one. My last horse trade was in the 17:15 at Towcester and I saw my chance of getting back a lot of my loss. I backed Deckie for £393 @ 3.60. I should of held on slightly longer but conscious of not making an already bad day even worse I traded out of my liability quickly. I laid £39 @ 3.60, £200 @ 3.20, £71 @ 2.70 and £84 @ 2.20. On the run in I backed him for £30 @ 1.25, this resulted in a profit on the race of £268. I know many will say if I had held on to my back I would have been up over £1k, and that is a fact, but I am a trader and not a gambler. It is by trading that I have made a real success of using Betdaq and I could point to many other cases where if I hadn't traded out of my liability I would have sustained some heavy losses.

I finished my horse trading with a loss of £96.

With all the European Football qualifying matches on television tonight we were spoilt for choice. In hindsight I should have been on the unders in the England match. I hope some of you made a killing on that. It's not often you can back the unders at 5.00 and over. By half time with the price around 1.70 some traders will have made a lot of profit.

I decided to watch the Italy v Scotland match, mainly due to the fact that it was on BBC1 Scotland so I had faster pictures than most. I also thought there would be better trading opportunities with this match. I was expecting a few goals so unusually for me I waited until about 10 minutes had been played and then I backed Italy for the win for £500 @ 1.30. Luckily I didn't have to wait long for a goal as Toni scored in the 12th minute. Almost immediately I laid off @ 1.08. I waited until around half way through the second half and greened up with a lay of Italy for £100 @ 1.09. So I ended the game with a profit of £101.

I had a few trades on the Andora v England game on the under 2.5 goals market and had got a position of a profit on the unders of £70 and no liability on the overs. I was waiting for the price to drop a little further before greening up this position but was beaten by a 90th minute Defoe/Nugent goal so no profit or loss there. I looked around for some decent value odds and decided to back the under 3.5 goals market for £500 @ 1.10 whilst in the 3rd minute of injury time and did put up a lay @ 1.02 but cancelled as the referee blew his whistle to result in a profit of £50.

I also had a very small trade on the under 3.5 goals market in the Wales v San Marino game. This resulted in a profit of £3.

I have therefore finished a difficult day in profit to the tune of £57.

Comments

[Kenny]

Hi

First time I have read your blog and loved every minute of it. The highs and lows of internet 'trading'.

Very important point you made there when you said you are a trader and not a gambler. I admire your dicipline, because sometimes when the day is turning out to be a nightmare, it's so easy to become a gambler.

I wish you well.

[Ray]

Hi Kenny,

Thanks for your comments, I am pleased you have enjoyed the blog.

Discipline is the key to this job, without it we would all be doomed to failure.

Good Luck with your own trading and keep in touch.

Ray