The Sports Trader

Monday 27th August 2007

After yesterday's major cock-up the Sports Trader got back on track today with a solid performance. I traded on 9 horse races and 1 football match with no losing trades.

I started my day with 2 small profitable trades. In the 14:45 at Newcastle I laid Judge Neptune for £81 @ 12.00 to result in a profit of £81.

Next was the 14:55 at Cartmel where I backed Silmi for £31 @ 2.13 and laid off @ 2.12 to leave me with a profit of £20. My next trade resulted in a small profit.

In the 15:05 at Chepstow I laid Summon Up The Blood for £10 @ 11.50 and a further £5 @ 15.00 to result in a profit of £15. I then had 2 more small but profitable trades.

My last race trade was in the 16:00 at Kempton where I laid Mutamared for £37 @ 5.00 to result in a profit of £37.

My race trading had produced a profit of £162.

I decided to trade the under 2.5 goals market on the Stevenage v Oxford Utd football match. I started off with a back of the unders for £329 @ 1.75 which I laid off @ 1.66. Later I backed the unders again for £100 @ 1.60 and laid this off @ 1.54. Towards the end of the match I backed the unders again for £514 @ 1.05 and laid off @ 1.04. This resulted in a profit of £42.

My day had finished with a profit of £206.

Sunday 26th August 2007

The Sports Trader had a day to forget with a major mistake late on to cost the whole weeks profits in one go. It was looking like a good week up until this point. I am writing this 3 days after the event and am still mad with myself for being such an amateur. I had traded on 4 horse races a football match and a golf tournament. My day started late as I had my daughter Josie and her friend Stacey to pick up from the airport. Their flight was due in at 10:30 am but didn't arrive until 14:00 and then it took another hour to get their baggage.

My day got underway with the 16:45 at Ballinrobe where I laid Corrieann for £46 @ 3.50 before backing back £30 @ 4.00 and £6 @ 5.00 to leave me with a profit of £10. My next 2 race3s both resulted in small profits.

The best result of my day was my last race trade of the day in the 17:50 at Ballinrobe where I backed Cuchulains Son for £224 @ 2.50 before laying off £134 @ 2.25 and £90 @ 1.25 to result in a profit of £146.

My race trading had finished with a profit of £164.

Now for my major blunder. I had decided to be quite aggressive on the under 2.5 goals in the Valencia v Villareal football match. So I went to back the unders for £1110 @ 1.87, which I thought was a good price. This was just before kick off and my intention was to lay off within 15 minutes at an average price of around 1.65. Well the theory was correct but what I actually did was to somehow back Valencia on the Asian handicap - 0.5 goals market. I had all the markets up on one screen and had simply entered my trade in the wrong field. Looking back, I was in a hurry to get involved on this match and had been busy doing a thousand and one other things with the children, hence my mistake. Mistake number two was not to quickly trade out of the situation. As soon as the markets went in-play I noticed that my bet was not showing up on the under 2.5 goal market, it was then that I realised my mistake. At this point I started to get pretty mad with myself for being such an idiot. The market that I had inadvertently traded does not turn in-play so I could not do a simple reverse trade. What I should have done was to lay Valencia in the match result market but by the time I had calmed down and realised what I should do the price that I could get would have meant me losing £100. So like an idiot I thought Valencia will score first and I will then trade out. Well they didn't and once Villareal had scored I was looking at a big loss and decided to just hold on to my position. The rest is history, Valencia lost their local derby match 3 - 0 and I lost £1110.

To make my week finish in the red I then backed KJ Choi in the Barclays Open golf event for £305 @ 5.00 with 2 holes to go in an attempt to get back my losses on the day. Stricker went on to win by 2 shots to cost me another £305.

My day had finished with a loss of £1250.

My decent looking week had been blown apart and I ended up losing £100.

Saturday 25th August 2007

The Sports Trader had a good day with just 1 losing trade after trading on 9 horse races.

My day got underway with 2 small but profitable trades. Then came my only losing trade in the 14:10 at Cartmel where I had laid King's Jester for £25 @ 4.50. I did back him on the run in for £877 @ 1.01 to lower my loss on the race to £79.

In the 14:20 at Newmarket I backed Lap of Honour for £65 @ 1.30 and a further £554 @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £25. I followed this with another small winning trade.

The best result of my day came in the 15:15 at Cartmel where I backed First Cry for £1910 @ 1.10 and £888 @ 1.02 before laying Browneyes Blue for £15 @ 14.00 to result in a profit of £225.

My next 2 trades both resulted in small profits and then I had my final trade in the 16:45 at Tralee where  laid Timely Prospect for £222 @ 2.50 and backed back £175 @ 2.80 and £22 @ 2.00 to result in a profit of £25.

My day had finished with a profit of £223.

Friday 24th August 2007

The Sports Trader missed most of the afternoons racing due to family commitments and I went out in the evening with my son Oliver so I only traded on 7 horse races, but again with no losing trades.

My first 2 trades both ended with small profits. So my first trade of any significance was on the 17:10 at Kilbeggan where I backed Carraig Na Gcapall for £25 @ 3.20 before laying off £25 @ 2.10 and £10 @ 2.05 to result in a profit of £17. I followed this with another small, but profitable trade.

In the 18:30 at Tralee I laid Alabama Banjo for £34 @ 2.21 and then backed back £12 @ 2.70 and £11 @ 3.00 to result in a profit of £11.

My best result of the day came next in the 18:40 at Kilbeggan where I backed Mantell Gail for £40 @ 2.00 to result in a profit of £40.

My last trade of the day was in the 19:00 at Tralee and this resulted in a small profit so my short day had ended with a profit of £79.

Thursday 23rd August 2007

It was a much quieter day for the Sports Trader but I still managed a good result after trading on 9 horse races with no losing trades.

My day started with 2 small winning trades. In the 14:40 at Tralee I backed Young Lochinvar for £25 @ 1.33 and then for a further £355 @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £12.

In the 15:35 at Lingfield I laid Majehar for £50 @ 1.50 and then backed back £40 @ 1.80 which resulted in a profit of just £10 due to the result being a dead heat.

The best result of my day came next in the 15:50 at York where I laid Race Forever for £20 @ 11.00 and then laid Somnus for £182 @ 8.00 to result in a profit of £202.

A View of York Races from the Ebor Stand.

The last 4 trades of my day all resulted in small profits to leave me with a profit on the day of £244.

Wednesday 22nd August 2007

The Sports Trader had a good day with 11 horse races and 1 football match traded.

My day started with the 14:00 at York where I backed Sir Gerry for £131 @ 1.10 in the closing stages of the race to result in a profit of £13.

In the 14:35 also at York I backed Purple Moon for £6 @ 3.05 and £50 @ 1.01 before laying Strategic Mount for £5 @ 15.00 to result in a profit of £17.

The best result of my day came next in the 14:45 at Tralee where I backed Alhabeeb for £440 @ 1.66 to give me a really decent £292 profit.

Next came the 14:50 at Carlisle where I laid Blitzen for £27 @ 6.00 to result in a profit of £27.

I had to wait until the 15:25 at Carlisle for my next trade where I laid Royal Challenge for £54 @ 11.00 for a profit of £54. I followed this with 5 race trades that all resulted in small profits.

My last race trade of the day came in the 19:20 at Flokestone where I laid The Skerret for £18 @ 6.80 to land a profit of £18.

My race trading had produced a profit of £443.

I had a couple of very small trades on the England v Germany football match. The first was straight after the second goal had been scored when I backed the under 2.5 goals for £80 @ 4.53 of which I laid off £60 @ 4.25 and then came the third goal to leave me with a £20 loss on this market. I then had small trades on both the under 3.5 goals and correct score markets to give me a profit of £21, which left me with a £1 profit on this match.

My day had therefore finished with a profit of £444. 

Tuesday 21st August 2007

The Sports Trader had a good day, with no losses, after trading on 8 horse races and 1 football match.

My first 3 trades all resulted in small profits. In the 16:15 at Tralee I backed Dancesowell for £65 @ 1.42 to result in a profit of £27.

Next was the 17:10 at Brighton where I laid Quantum Leap for £10 @ 14.00 to give me a profit of £10. Then in the 17:50 at Tralee I backed Duartin for £35 @ 3.20 before laying off £35 @ 2.80 and partially greening up with a lay for £5 @ 1.70 to result in a profit of £11.

My last 2 race trades both resulted in small profits to leave me with a profit of £58 from my race trades.

After racing I watched the end of the U21 football match between England and Romania. In the 76th minute I backed the under 2.5 goals for £128 @ 2.03 and laid off £71 @ 1.78 and £57 @ 1.74 in the 78th minute to leave me with a profit of £33, not bad for 2 minutes work.

My day had finished with a profit of £91.

Monday 20th August 2007

Very little to report from the Sports Trader today as I only traded on 7 horse races, with only one losing trade.

My day got underway with the 14:30 at Leicester where I laid Dr Faustus for £26 @ 10.00 to result in a profit of £26. My next trade resulted in a small loss.

In the 15:30 at Leicester I laid High Five Society for £18 @ 30.00 to give me a profit of £18. I followed this with 2 small winning trades.

In the 16:45 at Wolverhampton I laid Silent Beauty for £16 @ 19.00 and backed back £1 @ 370.00 to result in a profit of £15.

I finished my day off with another small winning trade to leave me with a profit of £68 on the day.

Sunday 19th August 2007

Well the Sports Trader finished the week off with a decent result after trading on 14 horse races and 1 tennis match, with no losing trades

My day got underway with the 14:10 at Pontefract where I backed Mister Fips for £139 @ 1.92 to result in a profit of £128.

All the other 13 races that I traded ended with small profits and this left me with a total profit of £180 from  my horse race trading.

In the evening I traded on the Rogers Cup final tennis match between Henin and Jankovic. I backed Henin for £500 @ 1.42 in the first set when she was 4 -2 down. Soon after I laid off @ 1.27. Towards the end of the match I backed Henin for £154 @ 1.01 which left me with a profit of £74.

So my day had finished with a profit of £254.

My result for the week came in at £686. This is not as good as I have been used to earning but when I look at the whole picture I am still very pleased with the result. How else would I be able to earn a decent tax free income and still be able to look after my 3 young children, as a single parent, and be able to afford to pay for childcare.

I have recently been reading another blog known as Bet Trading £100 to £100,000. It is written by Richard Wildman who has a background in IT and is a part time trader on mainly horse racing and who has an interest in trading software. Richard has only recently found out about betting exchanges but it is his intention to turn a starting bank of £100 into a nice £100K wedge, I wish him the very best of luck, it can be done. 

Saturday 18th August 2007

The Sports Trader has had a good day to make up for yesterday's disappointing performance. I managed to trade on 15 horse races with 2 losses. I didn't trade on any of the later evening events as I had my daughter Josie and her friend Stacy staying with me.

I started my day with a losing trade in the 13:40 at Newbury. I had backed Seeking The Buck for £68 @ 2.40 when leading and with 3 furlongs to go, only to see him fade in the final furlong to cost me £68.

My next 3 trades were all small but profitable. The best result of my day came next in the 15:10 at Ripon where I backed Sporting Art for £108 @ 1.94 to result in a profit of £102.

Next was another good result in the 15:25 at Bangor. This time I started with a back for £30 @ 1.27 on Lusaka De Pembo before laying off @ 1.20 and then in the closing stages I laid him for £97 @ 2.57 to result in a profit of £97. I followed this with 7 small, winning trades.

In the 18:00 at Market Rasen I backed Kindlelight Blue for £109 @ 1.92 to result in a profit of £100.

My day had finished with a profit of £284.