The Sports Trader

Monday 2nd April 2007

The Sports Trader has had a very quite but profitable day. I only managed to trade on 5 horse races and 1 football match but had no losing trades on the day.

My first event to report on was the Shell Houston Open golf tournament that ended late last night but the result had not been finalised until after midnight so the trade comes into today's figures. I only caught the last few holes. I laid Adam Scott when he went into the water with his tee shot on the final hole for £535 @ 1.25. I then backed him back for £67 @ 1.70 and £143 @ 2.02 before trading was suspended due to the loss of pictures from Setanta. When we got the pictures back Scott's price was back down to 1.02 and I backed him for a further £149 @ 1.02 to leave me with a profit of £62.

My first horse race trade was a small profitable one. Next was the 16:10 at Lingfield where I laid Laugh'n Cry for £186 @ 2.30. I then backed back £49 @ 3.38, £40 @ 4.00, £10 @ 4.70 and £7 @ 4.50. In the final furlong I backed King After for £230 @ 1.17 just as he took the lead to result in a profit of £119.

My next trade was in the 16:20 at Kelso and here I backed Lutea for £50 @ 4.30 before laying off @ 3.42 and later I partially greened up with a lay of £10 @ 2.60 to result in a profit of £27.

In the 17:10 at Lingfield I backed Alfresco for £65 @ 1.30 when contesting the lead in the final furlong to leave me with a profit of £19.

My final race trade of the day was in the 17:20 at Kelso where I backed Natiain for £100 @ 2.70 before laying all off @ 2.50 to result in a profit of £20.

My race trading had left me with a profit of £186.

In tonight's live football match I only had one very quick trade as I was busy with other things. I backed the under 2.5 goals market for £200 @ 1.38 and laid off very shortly after @ 1.29 to result in a profit of £18.

My final tally for the day was a profit of £266.

There is a lot of talk at the moment on a new betting system known as The Money Vault which has produced a profit of £26,340 in the last 34 days to £20 bets and which has had only two losing days in that period. I  do not use betting systems but this one sounds as if it is one of the best about, you can see details of the system here.

Sunday 1st April 2007

The Sports Trader has had a hectic day today, mainly due to loads of visitors coming round in the aftermath of Jennifer's birthday party. I've had a really good time seeing all of my children together. I did get some trading done but it has been limited to just 10 horse races and 2 football matches.

My first trade was in the 14:20 at Newton Abbot where I backed Pepporoni Pete for £34 @ 2.45 and laid off at 2.10 for £30 and £4 @ 2.01 to result in a profit of £12.

My next trade was in the 15:10 at Hexham where I laid Open de L'Isle for £40 @ 8.60 before backing back £5 @ 15.00, £9 @ 25.00 and £1 @ 84 to leave me with a profit of £25. I followed this with 5 small, profitable trades.

My only loss on the day came next in the 17:05 at Limerick. I had backed Judge Roy Bean for £50 @ 3.00 and put up a lay at 2.76 but only got matched for £20 to leave me with a loss of £30.

In the 17:10 at Hexham I started with a back of Supreme Builder for £40 @ 1.85 and laid off @ 1.69. I then had further backs for £500 @ 1.05 and £184 @ 1.02 in the final furlong when well in the lead to result in a profit of £35.

My last race trade of the day was in the 17:35 at Limerick and here I laid Dead Sound for £167 @ 4.80 before backing back £100 @ 7.40 to result in a profit of £67.

My race trading had finished with a profit of £115.

As soon as racing had finished I took a look at the final few minutes of the Tottenham v Reading football match. I looked for a decent value trade and decided to lay the draw for £100 @ 33.00 whilst only just over a minute of injury time was left to play. I quickly put up backs to cover my liability and got matched for £20 @ 78.00 and £7 @ 100.00, before cancelling the rest of my lay, to result in a profit of £73.

Later I watched the end of the Celta Vigo v Real Madrid match and again traded in the final seconds of the match. This time I backed Real for £200 @ 1.08 to result in a profit of £16.

I did some trading at the end of the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament which resulted in a profit but the result didn't get finalised until past 12:00 midnight so that will come in to next weeks trading result.

My trading day had therefore finished with a profit of £204.

After what I have considered to be a particularly difficult and slow week for trading, with many interruptions due to my domestic situation, I have still managed to turn a reasonable result, all be it my lowest profit for 9 weeks, of £1010.

Saturday 31st March 2007

The Sports Trader has had an unusual day for a Saturday. It is normally my busiest day of the week but today was my eldest daughter, Jennifer's,  24th Birthday so I have had a lot of other things to do. On top of that my wife has been having some serious problems that I can't go into on this public blog, needless to say that has also taken up quite a lot of time today. I managed to see all 6 of my children today which is always a real pleasure and I also met with some of Jenny's old school friends, one of them, Stacey, is a regular reader of this blog and has a real passion for horses and horse racing, she was in the pony games team that my other daughter, Josephine, was in when representing Scotland at the Horse of the Year show at Wembley a few years ago. Stacey has turned into a fine young lady and is just about to finish University. One of her ambitions is to go to Ascot on Lady's Day and drink lots of champagne whilst soaking up the atmosphere of such a great occasion. We will have to see if we can make that dream come true for her one day. Anyway, I only traded in 10 horse races today and missed the rest of the sport later on due to the party.

My first trade was a small profitable one. Next was my worst result of the day where, in the 15:05 at Ascot,  I had backed Boychuk for £1500 @ 1.50 before laying off @ 1.42 which would have given me a very nice start to the day had he won. Later in the race I some how managed to back Always Waining for £64 @ 1.16, so I finished what could have been a good race with a loss of £64.

My next race was the 15:40 at Ascot and here I laid Fountain Crumble for £50 @ 2.65 to result in a profit of £50. I followed this up with 4 small but profitable trades. Then came my best result of the day, in the 17:30 at Uttoxeter, where I backed Katess for £224 @ 1.66 when just getting the better of Thebelloftheball, to result in a profit of £148.

My next race was the 17:40 at Nad Al Sheba where I backed Admire Moon for £224 @ 1.10 to give me a profit of £22. My last trade of the day was in the 17:50 at Kempton and resulted in a small loss of £7.

My day had finished with a profit of £169.

This being the last day of the March it is time to report my result for the month which has come in at a profit of £7225. I am well pleased with that result as I have felt that I have struggled over the past couple of weeks to make headway. There are plenty of positives to take from this result as March of 2006 was my only losing month since I turned full time 15 months ago, which indicates that March tends to be a difficult month for me to trade the markets and I have only had two losing days in the whole of the month which demonstrates my consistency over this month. Let's hope I can continue with this type of performance.

Friday 30th March 2007

It has been a difficult day once again for The Sports Trader. I made a bad start and spent the rest of the day trying to claw back my losses. I only traded in 6 horse races, 1 football match and 1 cricket match.

My first two trades were both small but profitable ones. Then my bad day started with the 14:35 at Wolverhampton. I backed Suhayl Star for £73 @ 1.99 and a further £22 @ 1.49 and £14 @ 1.39. The horse was in the lead several times and by the time I realised that it wouldn't be winning I could not trade out of my position, which cost me £109.

It was nearly an hour before I had my next trade, in the 15:30 at Ascot, but I had a similar result. I laid Shouldhavehadthat, ironic I thought, for £73 @ 2.42 to cost me another £104.

My next trade was in the 16:30 at Lingfield where I laid Eva Soneva So Fast for £139 @ 1.83 before backing back £23 @ 9.40, to result in a very welcome profit of £116.

My last horse racing trade of the day was in the 17:15 at Ascot where I just laid Make It A Double for £30 @ 8.00 to claw back another £30 profit.

My race trading day had finished with a loss of £62.

I was determined to try and end the day with a profit and therefore decided to trade the under 2.5 goals market in the Leeds v Preston football match. I backed the unders for £413 @ 1.91 soon after kick off and had laid back £106 @ 1.81 when along came a very early goal. At this stage I was starting to get that horrible losing feeling, however I thought I would practise what I preach on this unders trading and went back in with more backs for £200 @ 3.00 and £322 @ 2.90. This gave me a breakeven exit point of around 2.56. I started laying off my position @ 2.62 for £160, 2.59 for £70, 2.48 for £100, 2.45 for £272, and then smaller lays down to 1.75. I now had a potential profit on the unders of £115 and no liability or profit on the overs. Then along comes a second goal. Again I went with my old method of backing the unders after a goal and this time backed £140 @ 2.70 and £313 @ 2.67. This was all laid off very quickly with £140 @ 2.67 and £313 @ 2.52. From here on I just started to gradually green up my position and ended up with a profit of £82 no matter what the score ended at.

In injury time with less than 30 seconds of the match remaining I backed Leeds to win for £638 @ an average price of 1.015 to result in a profit of £9.

After the football had finished I switched channels to watch the final few overs of the England v Ireland cricket match. There was no value to be had on the match result as England were looking the winners with only about 6 overs to go. So I looked for a better valued bet and found someone was trying to lay Niall O'Brian as top scoring Irish player and as Andrew White was caught behind by Nixon I backed Niall for £220 @ 1.07 to result in a profit of £16.

After a difficult day I just managed to turn around my losing position and ended up with a profit of £45.

Thursday 29th March 2007

The Sports Trader survived a day where it was best to expect the unsuspected. There were plenty of strange results and few favourites went on to win. There has been a big response to my earlier post where I put up a link to the ATR Survey. It's good to see that so many people are still trying to get live pictures with the minimum delay possible. I ended up trading in 8 horse races and 3 darts matches, with two losing trades early in the day.

My first trade was a little disappointing as I had backed Investment Wings in the 14:10 at Hereford for £250 @ 1.90 and laid off @ 1.30 to leave a potential profit of £150. However McCoy's magic didn't work and he finished third. I did try to lay off more but the price went quickly and I was left with no profit.

The 14:25 at Thurles was my worst result of the day. I managed to lay Shabahar for £86 @ 2.00 to lose me £86. To make matters worse I had my only other loss of the day in the next, the 15:00 at Towcester, where I laid Pro Dancer for £98 @ 2.98 before backing back £78 @ 3.40 and then in the final furlong backed him again for £50 @ 1.20 to lose me £30.

I followed up with a small, profitable trade. I then had my Mother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law come round for afternoon tea and chat about my complicated domestic situation. This went well and put me in a better frame of mind for the rest of the days racing.

So I got back to work in the 16:30 at Towcester where I backed Inherent for £104 @ 1.91, then laid off @ 1.30 and a little later managed to back her for £58 @ 1.86 to leave me with a profit of £113.

My best result of the day was in the 16:40 at Hereford where I laid Viscount Bankes for £138 @ 10.00 soon after being headed for the lead. I also laid Kyper Disco for £23 @ 9.40 before backing back £5 @ 40.00. This all resulted in a profit of £156.

Next I had a small winning trade. My last race trade of the day was in the 17:25 at Thurles where I laid Irish Nation for £28 @ 30.00 just before he unseated his rider to result in a profit of £28.

My race trading today had yielded a profit of £189.

I traded in three of tonight's Premier League darts matches. The first was between Van Barneveld and Lloyd and I started with a small back on Lloyd for £14 @ 1.50 before laying off @ 1.20. Later I backed him again for £78 @ 1.06 and £77 @ 1.03 to result in a profit of £30.

Next I traded the Jenkins v Scholten match and here I just laid the draw for £2 @ 25.00 to result in a profit of £2.

My final match of the day was between Lewis and Manley where I backed Manley early on for £34 @ 3.20 before laying off @ 3.00. Later with the match well in the bag I backed One Dart for £250 @ 1.36 and laid off £204 @ 1.21 to result in a profit of £39.

I finished my day with a good profit of £260.

How Good Is the ATR service?

I received a survey this morning which is looking for peoples views on the ATR service and it is clear that they are looking at offering a paid for service from the questions asked. I have posted a link here to go directly to the survey. It does take about 15 minutes to complete but you will have plenty of chances to tell them what you think about their service and what they are doing wrong. I have obviously mentioned the lack of ATRxtra as often as possible. By completing the survey you will be entered into a prize draw to win a spectacular day out to see The St.Leger at Doncaster or one of 25 pairs of tickets to a summer evening meeting at Windsor.

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.

Tuesday 27th March 2007

The Sports Trader has only traded in 4 horse races, I greyhound race and 1 tennis match but with no losing trades it has been a reasonable day.

My first two trades were both small winning trades. My best horse race trading result was in the 16:20 at Sedgefield where I laid Silver Bow for £25 @ 3.25 and a further £10 @ 10.00 to finish with a profit of £35. I only had one more trade and that was a small winning one.

My race trading had ended with a profit of £52.

Unusually for me I decided to watch a few Greyhound races in the televised event from Hall Green. Many years ago I used to watch the dogs regularly at Rye House and more recently at Shawfield in Glasgow. Well tonight in the 19:40 race I had laid Meenala Babe for £124 @ 6.20 and had intended backing back for a profit but the price moved against me and after looking at the form figures I decided to hold on and ended up winning £124.

I had a very small trade in the Ferrer v Roddick tennis match to earn me £2.

My day had finished with a profit of £177.

Monday 26th March 2007

More of the same poor performance from the Sports Trader today where I traded in 10 horse races and 1 football match.

My day started with 2 small winning trades. In the 15:20 at Plumpton I backed Tommy Carson for £40 @ 4.00 and then laid of @ 3.00 to result in a profit of £37.

In the next at Plumpton, the 15:50, I laid Park Lane Princess for £19 @ 3.60 before backing back £17 @ 4.00. I then backed Young Owen for £100 @ 4.00 before laying off, too early,  @ 3.75 to result in a profit of £27. I followed this with a small winning trade.

My first losing trade of the day came in the 16:40 at Kempton where I had backed Cnoc Moy for £28  @ 1.50 when leading with a furlong to go. This cost me my stake of £28.

In the 16:50 at Plumpton I had my other loss of the day. I started with a lay on Clearly In Motion for £5 @ 2.00 before backing back £2 @ 6.20. I then made the mistake of laying him again for £50 @ 3.00. on the run in I did manage to back him for £250 @ 1.14 to result in a loss of £60.

My next two trades were both small winning ones. My final trade of the day was in the 17:30 at Stratford where I backed National Trust for £40 @ 1.31 to give me a profit of £12.

My race trading day had finished with another disappointing profit of just £10.

In the evening live football match between Oxford United and Dagenham and Redbridge I started trading on the under 2.5 goal market, after the first goal had been scored,  with a back of the unders for £42 @ 1.72 and laid this off @ 1.64. I followed this with a back of £182 @ 1.55 and laid off £82 @ 1.45, £50 @ 1.41, £25 @ 1.36 and £25 @ 1.26. All this before the second goal had been scored. With the goals then coming fast I did not trade any more on this market and ended with no profit or loss.

I watched for other trading opportunities and eventually I backed the draw, with 25 seconds of injury time left on the clock, for £2508 @ 1.04 to result in a profit of £87.

My day had finished with a profit of £97.

Sunday 25th March 2007

The Sports Trader has finished the week in the same mode as the last few days, a little disappointing but in profit. I traded in 13 horse races, 1 football match and 1 golf tournament.

My first trade was my best trade of the day and it was in the 14:00 at Southwell. I backed Bronson F'sure for £5 @ 2.90 and then for £231 @ 2.00. I laid off £236 @ 1.68 and greened up a little with a lay of £23 @ 1.20 to result in a profit of £76.

My next trade was in the 14:10 at Taunton where I laid Cockatoo for £30 @ 4.60 and backed back £10 @ 8.00 to result in a profit of £20. I followed this with a small winning trade.

In the 14:40 at Taunton I laid Remember Ramon for £46 @ 3.00 to result in a profit of £46. Next I had two more small winning trades.

In the 15:30 at Southwell I laid Golden Child for £150 @ 2.28 and backed back £100 @ 2.50. Later I backed again for £25 @ 2.90. In the closing stages I laid him for £17 @ 5.00 and backed back £5 @ 8.50 to result in a profit of £35. I followed this with another small winning trade.

My first loss of the day came in the 15:55 at The Curragh where I backed La Conquistadora for £66 @ 2.00 when contesting the lead in the latter stages of the race. I did put up a lay to cover this liability but did not get matched and therefore lost £66. Next was a small winning trade.

In the 17:10 at Taunton I backed Team Chaser for £68 @ 2.85 and proceeded to lay off @ 2.26 for £68. Later I laid a further £20 @ 1.20 to partially green-up my position and to result in a profit of £37.

My worst result of the day was also my last horse trade of the day. It was in the 17:20 at Downpatrick where I laid Another Biffo for £22 @ 6.00 before backing back £8 @ 8.00. Later I backed Leney Dow Jones for £40 @ 1.50 to result in a loss of £98.

My horse trading had finished with a profit of £76.

I had a small trade in the Milton Keynes Dons v Walsall football match where I backed the draw for £60 @ 1.60 before laying off @ 1.52 to leave a profit of £5.

In the CA Golf Championship in Miami I backed Brett Wetterich to win in the without Woods market for £15 @ 1.35 and laid V J Singh in the same market for £10 @ 15.00 to result in a profit of £15.

My day had finished with a total profit of £96. This brought another profitable week to close with a profit of £1193.