The Sports Trader

Saturday 10th November 2007

The Sports Trader had a very bad start to the day but things did improve later on. I traded on 15 UK horse races, 1 Flat Jockey Championship and 3 football matches, with 3 losing trades.

My day started off in the 12:35 at Kelso where I laid The Shy Man for £5 @ 5.00 to give me a losing start, costing me £20.

My second trade of the day ended in a similar way. This was the 12:40 at Wincanton where I backed Procas de Thaix for £23 @ 2.00, when challenging for the lead in the final furlong, only to see him beaten on the line by a short head to cost me another £23. My next 4 races all resulted in small profits.

The worst result I have had for a while came next in the 13:25 at Naas. I backed Montana Bay for £845 @ 1.45 when in the lead and looking quite comfortable at about 3 fences out. I put up a lay for the whole amount at 1.30, which, had it all been matched would have left me a decent potential profit, however, I only got £83 matched and he finished a close second so I managed to lose £762. I know this was a hefty loss but it is the type of trade I would willingly take on again everyday of the week, sometimes they just go against you. My next 5 trades all finished with small profits.

In the 15:35 at Sandown I laid Fields of Clover for £79 @ 4.30 to give me a profit of £79. My final 2 race trades of the day both resulted in small profits.

That was the end of my race trades and I finished with a loss of £686. I did have a few trades on the Flat Season Jockey Championship which helped me to claw back some of my losses. Early in the day I had backed Seb Sanders for £91 @ 1.20 and laid this off @ 1.15 then after the 2:05 where Jamie Spencer came 5th I lumped on Seb again for £1247 @ 1.18. At this stage Jamie needed to win on 2 out of his last 3 rides to take the championship away from Seb. I took the view that he was unlikely to win 2 more. I did lay off my liability @ 1.08 and then backed Seb again after the next for £250 @ 1.04 which resulted in a profit of £148. I have been a supporter of Seb Sanders all through the season but was pleased to see the pair share the title.

After racing I watched the Liverpool v Fulham football match and backed the under 2.5 goals for £457 @ 2.25 just before kick off. I started to lay off @ 2.11 and all the way down to 1.82. I then had 3 more lays to green up my position and give me £70 whatever the result.

I managed to see the final few minutes of the Stoke v Sheffield United match and backed Sheffield to win for £21 @ 1.14, £350 @ 1.06 and £21 @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £24.

My final event of the day was the Getafe v Barcelona football match. I backed Getafe for £41 @ 8.00 before the first goal and laid off £113 @ 2.86 to give me a profit of £73 again whatever the result.

My day had finished with a loss of £369, which is the first losing day I have had for 14 days.

Friday 9th November 2007

The Sports Trader had a quiet day of trading as my Au-Pair had the day off to go to a graduation ceremony. I ended up trading on 13 UK horse races but I did have 4 losing trades.

My day got under way with a small but profitable trade. In the 13:20 at Hexham I sustained my first losing result as I backed Hollows Mist for £50 @ 5.00 although I did also lay Cash On Friday for £9 @ 15.00 to reduce my loss to £41.

In the 13:40 at Fontwell I had another loss as I laid Big Al for £14 @ 5.20 to result in a loss of £60.

In the 13:50 at Hexham I backed Cash Man for £715 @ 1.12 to result in a profit of £86.

Next was the 14:20 at Hexham and here I backed Ice Tea for £80 @ 1.22 before laying all off @ 1.05 to result in a profit of £14.

In the 14:50 at Hexham I laid Neutrino for £25 @ 10.00 for a profit of £25. I followed this with 4 small winning trades and 1 small losing trade.

The worst result of my day came next, in the 21:10 at Dundalk, where I laid First In Line for £40 @ 3.20 to cost me £88.

Fortunately my best result was to come in the 21:20 at Wolverhampton where I started with a back of £50 @ 2.59 on Spirit of Coniston before realising I had got this wrong but I then managed to lay the same horse for £200 @ 3.00 to result in a profit of £150.

My day had finished with a profit of £95.

Thursday 8th November 2007

The Sports Trader had a reasonable day after missing the early races. I traded on 7 UK horse races, 1 cricket match, 1 football match and 1 tennis match and had 2 losing trades through the day.

My first trade was in the 13:00 @ Musselburgh where I laid Desert Hawk for £61 @ 22.00 to result in a profit of £61.

In the 13:15 at Thurles I backed Optimus Prime for £452 @ 1.03 for a profit of £14.

My only losing race trade on the day was in the 13:50 at Huntingdon where I laid Calusa Caldera for £100 @ 1.20 to cost me £20.

Next was the 14:15 at Thurles and here I backed Rindoon for £100 @ 2.08 before laying off @ 1.90 to give me a profit of £18. My next trade ended with a small profit.

In the 15:20 at Huntingdon I laid Bauhaus for £42 @ 3.00 before backing back £28 @ 4.00 and then towards the end of the race I laid Bauhaus again for £52 @ 50.00 to result in a profit of £65. My last race trade of the day resulted in a small profit.

My race trading had produced a profit of £139.

In the early evening I managed to watch the final 4 overs of the One Day International cricket match between India and Pakistan. I backed Pakistan for £30 @ 1.38 and £50 @ 1.08 before laying off £80 @ 1.02 to result in a profit of £14.

Later I watched the Aberdeen v Lokomotiv Moscow UEFA Cup match. I backed the under 2.5 goals for £183 @ 1.77 and laid off between 1.72 and 1.16 to result in a profit of £20. I also backed the draw for £50 @ 1.15 and a further £26 @ 1.04 to give me another £8 profit.

After the football I watched the tennis match between Jankovic and Chakvetadze and ended up losing £35 as I backed Jankovic for £36 @ 2.20 just before she had her service game broken and I had little chance of trading out.

My day had finished with a profit of £145.

 

Wednesday 7th November 2007

The Sports Trader had a good day after trading on 11 UK horse races and 1 Football match with no losing trades.

My first 8 race trades all resulted in small profits. The best result of my day came in the 14:55 at Nottingham where I backed Cuban Missile for £555 @ 1.03 to result in a profit of £83. My next race trade resulted in another small profit.

The last race trade of my day was in the 16:10 at Chepstow and here I laid Charlotte Street for £200 @ 5.84 and then backed back £150 @ 6.09 and a further £9 @ 12.00 to result in a profit of £41.

My race trading had produced a profit of £146.

I had an interesting evening of trading on football as my eldest son Oliver (21) brought his lap top round to my house and wanted me to start teaching him how I trade. As you know, I always advise new traders to start trading on the under 2.5 goals markets, with small stakes and profit targets, to build their confidence and banks. We decided to trade the Barcelona v Rangers match. Oliver had deposited £100 into his account so I advised he used no more than £10 stakes at any time, which is a lot bigger percentage of a bank than I would normally use. I also advised that he should be looking to make 1% of his bank. A 1% profit / day may sound very low, in particular with a small starting bank, but the original £100, as in this case, would grow into £3700 after 1 year and over £140K after 2 years. By then end of this match Oliver had produced a profit of over 3% as he traded in and out of the market a few times riding the steep price declines that happen at particular times of most matches.

I started the match with a back of the unders for £100 @ 2.46 before kick off. I had put up a lay @ 2.30 but by the time the first goal was scored none of my lay had been matched. I therefore backed the unders for £50 @ 4.40 in the reformed market. I then started to lay off @ 3.40 and all the way down to 2.66. I partially greened up with a lay @ 1.80 for £20. In the final minute of injury time I backed the unders again for £520 @ 1.15 and laid off within 20 seconds @ 1.06. This had resulted in a profit of £82.

My day had finished with a total profit of £228.

Tuesday 6th November 2007

The Sports Trader missed the first  2 hours of trading as BT were here sorting out my internet problems. It looks like it was the double socket on my office wall that was faulty as they have now given me two separate sockets and I have had no interruptions to my service since. I traded on 5 UK horse races, 1 football match and 1 tennis match with no losing trades.

The first trade of my day was in the 15:50 at Exeter where I backed Pablo Du Charmil for £194 @ 1.63 and laid off @ 1.20 to result in a profit of £83.

In the 15:20, also at Exeter, I backed Templer for £100 @ 1.40 and laid this all off @ 1.12 to give me a profit of £32. My next 2 trades both resulted in small profits.

The last race trade of my day was In the 16:20 at Exeter I backed The Crazy Parson for £64 @ 1.50 to result in a profit of £32.

My race trading had produced a profit of £147.

In the evening I decided to trade on the Celtic v Benfica football match. I started by backing the under 2.5 goals for £130 @ 1.75 and proceeded to lay off in £25 chunks from 1.66 down to 1.48 and then made 1 final lay of £16 @ 1.36 to green up my position. I also backed Celtic to win in the later stages of the match for £500 @ 1.20 and laid off @ 1.09. In injury time I had a further back of Celtic for £100 @ 1.06 to result in a profit of £58.

    After the football I watched the Kuznetsova v Ivanovic tennis match and I backed Ivanovic for £500 @ 1.70 before laying off @ 1.58. I partially greened up with a back on Kuznetsova for £10 @ 2.50 and this left me with a profit of £46 on the match.

My day had finished with a total profit of £268.

Monday 5th November 2007

The Sports Trader had a frustrating day mainly due to internet problems again. BT are coming round on Tuesday so hopefully we will get to the bottom of this problem. I ended up trading on 9 UK horse races and 2 Football matches, and had 2 losing trades.

My day started with the 13:50 at Wolverhampton where I tried my hand at trading before the start of the race. I had several trades looking to make just a couple of ticks at a time and this produced a profit of £20. My next trade resulted in a small profit.

My best result came in the 14:10 at Warwick where I backed Twist Bookie for £25 @ 2.26 before laying off @ 2.11. Later I backed him again for £351 @ 1.43 and laid off £274 @ 1.10 to result in a profit of £127.

The first of my two losses came in the 14:30 at Plumpton where I had started by backing Coolers Quest for £155 @ 2.24 and then bailed out at 2.29, 2.71 and 3.00 before she kept on at the finish to end up costing me £27. I made a real mess of this one but that is trading, it's not a precise art. I followed this with 4 small but profitable trades and 1 small losing trade.

My race trading had finished and I had produced a profit of £116.

As it was Firework night I had my fatherly duty to perform with the children so we had a few fireworks in the garden and then went off to a local Firework display. By the time we got back and then got the children all into bed I had missed most of the evenings football.

I did trade a little, right at the end of the Barnsley v Blackpool match and backed Barnsley to win for £149 @ 1.28 which I laid off @ 1.22. Later I backed Barnsley to win again for £112 @ 1.11 to result in a profit of £21.

I also caught the final 10 minutes of the Manchester City v Sunderland match and here I backed City to win for £664 @ 1.28 before laying off very quickly @ 1.23. This resulted in a profit of £21. I also backed the under 2.5 goals for £147 @ 1.06 to produce a further £9.

My day had finished with a profit of £177.

Sunday 4th November 2007

The Sports Trader had a short day of trading as my second eldest daughter, Josie, came to Glasgow for the day, so I missed the start of racing. I ended up trading on 10 UK horse races and 3 football matches and had 1 small loss that brought to an end another run of 54 consecutive winning trades over the last 4 days.

My first 8 trades resulted in 7 small profits and 1 small loss. My first significant trade was in the 15:55 at Cork where I laid Holy Tree for £80 @ 5.70 before backing back £30 @ 7.29 and £10 @ 12.00 to result in a profit of £40. My last trade resulted in a small profit.

I had finished my race trading with a total profit of £63.

After racing I caught the end of the West Ham v Bolton football match. With just a few minutes remaining, and the score at 1 -1, I backed the draw for £5 @ 1.20,  £240 @ 1.10 and £305 @ 1.04 before laying all off @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £26.

I started watching the Barcelona v Real Betis football match with the score at 2 - 0 and backed the under 2.5 goals for £241 @ 1.68, which I laid off within a minute @ 1.61. Later I decided to green up with a lay for 313 @ 1.16 to give me £12 whatever the final score. I had also backed the under 3.5 goals market for £578 @ 1.06 with a few minutes of the match left to result in a profit of £35.

My final match of the day was between Athletic Bilbao and Recreativo Huelva. I watched this match from the start and backed the under 2.5 goals for £84 @ 2.20 and a little later a further £82 @ 2.15. I laid off £116 @ 2.06 and £50 @ 2.06. I had to make a few phone calls hence the reason I laid off so quickly .During injury time I backed the unders again for £350 @ 1.02 to result in a profit of £35. I also backed the under 3.5 goals for £165 @ 1.08 to give me another £13 profit.

My day had finished with a profit of £171.

That was the end of a good week for the Sports Trader where I managed to finish up with a profit of £1486.

For any readers that missed my second interview with John at WUBT RonBot Radio you can here it by pressing the arrow on the media player below.

The Sports Trader live on Thursday 1st November 2007.

Saturday 3rd November 2007

It Can Be Done! The Sports Trader past a milestone in trading results and one that many an aspiring Sports trader aims at. I have today managed to turn my original £200 bank into £100,000, and that is after all commissions have been taken into account. As most of you know my original £200 was deposited with Betdaq when they launched in September 2001. I traded on a part time basis from then until December 2005 when I turned full-time. My bank at that time sat at £10,000.

The period of part-time trading included long spells of several months at a time when I did not trade due to my full time work commitment and it also included me building my bank up to £3.5K and then going all the way back down to £300. This was my apprenticeship and without this foundation I would not be trading as consistently as I do now. Since turning full-time I have had 1 losing month, March 2006 and this coincided with when my wife's illness became so bad that she had to spend a month in hospital and was also therefore the first time that I had full care of my three young children on my own. I was clearly not in the best frame of mind to trade.

Todays trading was difficult to start with as I kept losing both my internet connections at the same time but after I sent BT yet another email about my problem things did improve. I traded on 12 UK horse races and 3 football matches, with no losing trades again.

My first trade was in the 12:45 at Wetherby where I backed Battle Cry for £221 @ 1.70 before laying off @ an average of 1.37 to result in a profit of £78. I followed this with a small winning trade.

The best result of my day came in the 13:05 at Newmarket where I backed Twice Over for £600 @ 1.25 to result in a profit of £150.

In the 13:50 at Wetherby I backed Ellerslie George for £7 @ 4.20 and a further £3 @ 3.30 before laying off @ 1.01 to result in a profit of £20. My next trade resulted in a small profit.

In the 14:10 at Ascot I laid Boychuk for £22 @ 32.00 to give me a profit of £22. My next 2 trades both resulted in small profits.

Next was the 15:40 at Down Royal where I laid Galway Legend for £44 @ 4.40 to result in a profit of £44. My last 2 race trades both resulted in small profits.

My race trading had finished with a total profit of £323.

After racing I caught the final 15 minutes of the Wigan v Chelsea football match and I backed the under 2.5 goals for £81 @ 1.25 to result in a profit of £20.

Later in the evening I traded the Mallorca v Valencia football match and here, with the score at 0 - 2 I backed the under 2.5 goals for £49 @ 2.77 which I laid off @ 2.26. I then backed the unders again for £65 @ 1.64 which was laid off @ 1.50 and finally I backed the unders again for £114 @ 1.11 which I laid off @ 1.05 to result in a profit of £40.

The final trades of my day came in the Sevilla v Real Madrid football match. This was a game where there were 2 early goals. I had backed the under 2.5 goals for £270 @ 2.20 soon after kick off and had laid off £245 @ an average price of 2.12 when the first goal came and left me with a liability of £25. I backed the unders again as soon as the market was reformed for £67 @ 3.25 and within a minute or so the second goal had been scored, so my liability now stood at £92. I then backed the unders again for £50 @ 10.00, £17 @ 9.70 and £18 @ 8.20 and then I started to lay off @ 6.10 for £28 and all the way down to 3.52 until I had no liability. I then proceeded to gradually green up and had an all green £38 profit with a few minutes of the game left. I also backed the unders, with the last minute of injury time being played, for £288 @ 1.10 to result in a profit of £62 on the match.

My day had finished with a profit of £450.

Friday 2nd November 2007

The Sports Trader had a very much shortened days trading due to having to appear at an Interim Diet (pre trial hearing) in Glasgow Sheriff Court in connection with my tax case, which is one of the things that has been weighing on my mind over this last 12 months. This is in connection with a previous employment of mine and does not refer to gambling income. I was told to be in court for 10:00am but my case did not call until around 2:45. I therefore only traded on 6 UK horse races.

My first race resulted in a small profit. The best result of my day came in the 15:45 at Down Royal where I backed Kranji for £98 @ 2.01 and laid this all off @ 1.30. I then backed Kranji for a further £350 @ 1.01, when well in the lead on the run in, to result in a profit of £73.

In the 15:50 at Uttoxeter I laid Nils Anderson for £24 @ 7.90 and then backed back £8 @ 23.00 to leave me with a profit of £16. The other three race trades of my day all ended with small profits.

My day had finished with a profit of £101.

Thursday 1st November 2007

The Sports Trader made a good start to this new month. I traded 13 UK horse races, 1 tennis match, 1 football match and 1 snooker match with no losing trades.

My day started with an interview with John at WUBT RonBot Radio which you can hear by clicking the link to his blog. John has now archived all his previous interviews with blog authors and you can here my first one by clicking the arrow on the media player below.

Well my trading day got underway with 3 races that all produced small profits. In the 13:50 at Stratford I laid Arthurs Dream for £15 @ 17.00 to result in a profit of £15. I followed this with 4 more small winning trades.

The best result of my day came in the 14:25 at Clonmel where I laid Asian Royale for £72 @ 5.00 to give me a profit of £72. Next was another small winning trade.

In the 15:20 at Stratford I laid Scibano Eile for £108 @ 4.00 before backing back £60 @ 5.16 and £8 @ 6.00 to result in a profit of £40. The last 2 horse race trades of my day finished with small profits.

My race trading had produced a total profit of £142.

In the early evening I decided to trade on the Federer v Nalbandian tennis match. I wanted to back Federer initially and did so with a back of £190 @ 1.85 which I laid off at 1.66. Later I laid Federer for 350 @ 3.00 and backed him back for £30 @ 3.90. I did have a few more small trades in the match and I finally finished the match with a profit of £23.

Later I traded on the Valladolid v Barcelona football match. I  could not spend much time on this match but I did have a quick trade on the under 2.5 goals in the first half but before any score. I backed the unders for £157 @ 2.24 and laid off @ 2.10 to produce a profit of £22. Near the end of the match I also backed the draw for £12 @ 1.28 for a profit of £3, and I backed the under 3.5 goals for £170 @ 1.14 which I laid off @ 1.11 and then I had a further of the under 3.5 goals @ 1.02 for £67, this resulted in a profit of £7.

Whilst the football match was on I had a few trades on the Jimmy White v John Higgins snooker match. The biggest trade I had was a lay of the draw @ 5.00 for £125 which I covered with a back of the draw @ 6.50 for £90. This, along with a few more small trades on Higgins to win, resulted in a profit of £45.

My day had finished with a profit of £242.