Saturday 14th April 2007

The Sports Trader has had a frustrating week as you know, mainly due to the lack of child care help, which has meant that I have had to spend a lot of time looking after my children and less time trading. Today was different, my kids were away for the day, so I had no distractions but I still managed to make a real mess of things. Writing up my blog on a day like this is very difficult, as it makes me go over all the days trades and put into words exactly what I have done. In fact I don't feel too bad as I traded the way I always do but I am going to look at introducing a limit of exposure in the future. I finished the day trading in 15 horse races and 1 football match but I did have 4 large losing trades.

My first trade was a small winning one. In the 13:55 at Chepstow I laid Sayago for £72 @ 17.00 and backed back £6 @ 50.00 to result in a profit of £66.

My first loss came in the 14:25 at Chepstow where I laid Miss Rideamight for £28 @ 6.40 and put up backs @ 7.60 but did not get matched so I suffered a loss of £151.

In the 14:45 at Lingfield I laid Bicoastal for £17 @ 3.05 to give me a profit of £17. My next race trade was in the 14:50 at Aintree where I laid Detroit City for £29 @ 3.00 and backed back £16 @ 4.50 to result in a profit of £13.

My second loss of the day came in the 15:05 at Newcastle where I laid Le Solieil for £169 @ 3.00 when being held up and thinking that he had left himself too much to do but Barney Curley knew better than me on this one and I lost £338. I followed up with a small winning trade.

Next was the worst trade I have made since going full time, but it is a trade I would stand by and is one of those things that will get me from time to time. It was in the 15:25 at Aintree where I laid Albertas Run for £498 @ 6.53 just as he made a mistake at about two third distance and dropped back a couple of places. He had been held up in mid pack for much of the race and when I saw him make this mistake I submitted my lay. I put up backs at 10.00 and 12.00 to cover my liability but these were never matched. By the second last fence he had taken the lead and it was impossible to trade out so I just watched as  Lyes Green kept eating into the lead but to no avail as Albertas Run won by a half length and had cost me £2756, ouch.

In the 15:35 at Chepstow I laid Jahash for £18 @ 10.50 to give me a profit of £18. I then had 3 more small winning trades.

I watched the Grand National but didn't trade on it.

Silver Birch and Slim Pickings are battling for the lead over the last.

My final loss of the day came in the 16:50 at Chepstow where I backed Archway Copse for £100 @ 3.00 when taking disputing the lead around the third last fence. She soon pulled into a clear lead and I didn't try to lay off my liability as I thought she would go on to win, however in the last few strides of the race she was pipped to the post and this had cost me another £100.

My next trade was in the 17:25 at Chepstow where I backed Inherent for £118 @ 3.05 before laying off £75 @ 2.75 and £51 @ 2.68 to result in a profit of £24. My final race trade was another small winning one.

My race trading had resulted in a loss of £3175.

I took time out from trading to assemble two bikes that I have bought for my twins who have their 4th Birthday on Monday. So the only other trading I did was in the Real Betis v Real Sociedad football match. I backed the under 2.5 goals, after the goal had been scored, for £315 @ 1.86 and laid this all off @ 1.75, to leave me with a profit of £35.

My day had finished with an embarrassing loss of £3140. But tomorrow is another day and I will just have to work at it a bit harder to get my money back.

Comments

[Sand Racer]

Not good. I have always stayed away from the exchanges. I figured I won enough in the bookies. Was toying with the idea of trading to see how it went. Not so sure I want to now. Never tried spread betting for the same reasons actually.

..... Bikes.
The missus said "shall we buy the two youngest a bike for xmas?".. Why not I said.

She came back and said her dad will collect the things from the shop tomorrow and drive them over - good I said.

He turned up with 2 boxes. WTF is going on here I asked? I honestly never knew I had to build the things. If i'd have known that, i'd have said get them some rollerskates. I'm good with laces.. Not building bikes for crying out aloud.

[The Gambler.]

Sorry to hear that Ray. I've noticed that your stakes have been increasing recently. I think when stakes get too high, it starts to cross the trading/gambling border. I know when I trade on sports, if my stakes are too high, I cannot get out of my position. The lower the stakes the easier it is to trade. The balance is to trade high enough to make a decent profit, without going too high to make it more of a gamble. Cheers.

[Ted Hanbury]

Hello Ray,
have found that when I take a big hit,I have to throw the towel in, for the day, as my reasoning ability is impaired.
By study of downloaded P/L's,also noticed my Ist few trades of the day return poor results.
Your results are exemplary, so no need to alter course of action.
Yours in Sport.....Ted

[Rob]

Hi Ray
As you may remember??, I have had a similar recent big loss.............the one thing in your favour is you are far more profitable, so won't take much to get over.......for me its been a hard month since to get my feet back :-)
GL, take a break and 'try' not too chase
Rob ;-)

[Ray]

Thanks for all of your comments and support, whicj I appreciate very much. I have been busy trying to concentrate on gettin gmy trading and mindset right today, hence my delay in answering you all. Good Luck to you all.

Ray