Sunday 21st October 2007

Welcome back from the Sports Trader to all readers. The past few weeks have been a little difficult to say the least and because of these problems I have been unable to post my daily account of trading. I can not go into too much detail about my problems but I feel I should let you know some of what has been going on.

It is now just over a year since my wife left me and our three children to fend for ourselves. We have got on surprisingly well although I have had to develop my culinary skills some what. My days are necessarily quite a strict regime to enable me to get the children up at around 7:00 then fed washed and dressed and ready for school and play school. The twins are only at play school from
9:15 to 11:45 so by the time I have got back home and done a few jobs it is time to pick them up again. My Au-pair starts at 2:00 so from then on I can concentrate on my trading. I start to prepare the evening meal at 5:00 so I have to stop trading from then until I have got the children in bed @ 7:00 for the twins and 8:00 for Zoe. I would then normally recommence trading in the evening. At weekends my wife is suppose to take the children which gives me time to concentrate on full trading days.

Well I think my wife has had the children just 1 whole weekend in the last 6 which plays havoc with my routine and also means that I can not get a much needed lye in bed at the weekends. But worse than this during the first week of October I was happily trading away on the Thursday night Premier League snooker tournament when I started to feel unwell. It started as a touch of indigestion, then I felt my heart racing and I could not stop shaking. Soon after I had serious pains in my chest and all down my left arm.  I suspected the worst and gave my son Oliver a call to see if he could come round to look after the children whilst I went to see a Doctor. Oliver arrived and I had spoken to the NHS 24 service. I was told that I could not drive so they would send someone to check me out. Soon after an ambulance turned up, much to my embarrassment. They checked me over and I had very high blood pressure along with other classic symptoms of a heart attack. I was taken to hospital and had all the tests but thankfully my heart was ok. I still do not know what was wrong. I spent a day in hospital and then went back the following day for more tests. It is likely that I had some sort of stress disorder but my heart is as fit as possible.

A few days after getting home I then had some sort of viral infection which again made me miss trading, as many of you will know, if you are not 100% fit it is a waste of time trying to trade as your concentration levels are just not good enough. This infection lasted 7 days but I am now back fighting fit and on a mission to stay healthy and continue to make this Sports Trading pay.

Thanks for all the emails and comments that I have received over the past few weeks, it is always so pleasant to hear from fellow traders. I do realise that a blog should be updated regularly and I must admit it had crossed my mind to stop this blog completely as it is quite time consuming but for now I do intend to keep going.

Week Ending 7th October 2007 - Unsurprisingly this turned out to be a losing week. My activity was much reduced due to the problems detailed earlier and I made a big mistake on the Saturday which cost me £1733, although later that night I made £1413 on the Sri Lanka v England 3rd ODI. My week finished with a loss of £348.

Week Ending 14th October 2007 - This was another shortened week due to my illness but I did manage to turn in a profit of £766 after trading on 60 events with just 3 losing trades.

Week Ending 21st October 2007 - This was half term week for the children and we decided to have a couple of day trips as life has not been much fun for them over the past few weeks. So after yet another short week I managed to finish up with a profit of £889.

I have been trading a lot more conservatively over the past couple of weeks but still showing reasonable results, so I will continue this way for a while and see how things work out. 

Comments

[felds]

Hey Ray,

I have been reading your blog for a while now, and find it extremely interesting. I just wanted to tell you that you should not be worried about your health scare. I had exactly the same 5 years ago, I thought I had a heart attack too and was very worried about it, it turned out I was just extremely stressed. It took me a while to accept that I was fine, and that the stress caused all of this. So you'll be fine.

Keep the good work

[Ray]

Hi Felds,

Thank you for your comments. It is a whole lot better thinking I have a stress related problem rather than a dodgy ticker.

I am trying to change things in my life to reduce the stress but when I am responsible for my three young children and 3 older ones along with trading to make a living, without having to scrounge off the state, it is a little difficult.

Good Luck.

Ray

[johnizere]

Hi Ray,
Thanks for posting this latest blog, been wondering where you'd gone, but also understanding you have difficulties in your life at the same time. I'm (sure all your readers too) wishing you all the best and a speedy recovery from your illnesses, whatever they may be, and you are back on track fighting fit. As someone who has also had a stress related illness, not the same symptoms as you had, in my case I was physically paralysed for a few days (10 years ago now), and also now recovered fully from cancer, you will see things in a much different way, which you mentioned in your last entry. You've been an inspiration to many, and I think many can only aspire to making the game pay as you do. Enough compliments for now or you'll be getting big headed!
Keep up the good work, and keep the blog running.
John.

[Ray]

Hi Johnizere,

Thank you for your kind comments and I wish you well also.

Good Luck.

Ray

[iow]

Great to have you back Ray. Concern was expressed by John and the Man of Mystery on his recent radio programme and I think a lot of people shared this concern.

Many people have suffered from stress in some shape or form but have not experienced such extreme symptoms. I am relieved for you and your family that you are back and raring to go. You and people like John the Gambler have indeed been an inspiration to us small traders. There is proof that profits can be made and I wish you good health and further success in the future.

Good news that you have decided to continue with the blog. Best of luck mate.

[Ray]

Hi IOW,

Thanks for your comments. It's good to be back :-). I hope people do find some inspiration to trade profitably, it was one of my reasons to write this blog.

Good Luck.

Ray

[Talkbet]

Good to see you back Ray, keep the profits rolling in and keep up the excellent blog!

[Ray]

Hi Talkbet,

Thanks for your comments. I will try to keep the profits coming in and as long as people are still reading the blog I will continue to try and keep it going.

Good Luck.

Ray

[tom]

good to see you back mate

kids, never mind the trading, would drive you mad at times, but stay cool

look after yourself and keep postin

cheers

[Ray]

Hi Tom,

Thanks, I will try on all counts.

Good Luck.

Ray

[keane]

Hi Ray,

Im from malaysia and far far away from ur location.

Im inspired by ur blogs cos u r such a good trader in making a living out of betfair.

Well, i wanted to be a pro like u n perhaps im sure one day i will indeed.

Anyway, sad to hear your sad news and hope u will be continue to blogging as ur blogs r very useful to many readers especially traders who r serious in making a living.

look forward to ur contribution & take care.

regards,
keane

[Ray]

Hi Keane,

Thank you for your comments. I hope you make it as a trader but remember that aven though my results are good now, I did start with just £200 in my account and was looking to make £25 / day. There is a steep learning curve and it is better to make mistakes when only small stakes are involved. In time your stakes and bank will grow along with your confidence and experience. There is no short cut method to big profits - you have to do your aprentership.

good Luck.

Ray

Great to have you back.

[keane]

hi ray,

tq for ur advise n hope i will make my way to achieve a pro trader standard :)

looking forward ur blog

cheers