Had a little go on the Aussie racing this morning and the liquidity was really good on the big races. I had no idea what to expect from these markets and started out with the impression they would be similar to the UK ones. This was a mistake that actually ended up costing me as I had a lay order stuck in a poor liquidity race that was not going in running and the market suspended. I lost about £6 on that one race. Lesson learnt and after speaking to Peter and Andy on the BA forum they gave me some much appreciated guidance on which races were worthwhile and on connection settings. The loss didn't really bother me at all as I knew it was something out of my control and would not happen again now that I know which races to be extra careful in. I actually felt really confident I could make a fair chunk of it back, and didn't feel like increasing stakes or chasing it. This was a great feeling and it signified for me that I had truly accepted the loss and had just moved on calmly - a skill I have been battling to summon at will for quite some time. I stuck to the higher liquidity races and managed to keep profiting and reduce some of that earlier loss. Was really handy having someone to talk to inbetween the races, it helped ground myself more than anything.
After some sleep I got up at about 1pm and following a little snack I was back on my PC again to catch some of these UK markets. I think my confidence has reached a good level these past couple of days. Although I'm very careful of not being overconfident and careless. I went through a darker time recently and could not on occasions find the energy or motivation to trade. In almost stark contrast I now cannot get enough of it. I have this hunger for market experience and each and every market I trade is proving to be very enjoyable (doesn't feel like work at all). It really is a great feeling and although I know there will be many more ups and downs I think the attitude I've got at the moment is spot on for my development. It's hard to tell when your training yourself and this is where being part of the forum / blog community really helps. So I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has offered advice or comments, they have all contributed good or bad to where I am today.
Deep down I now have this belief that despite what happens in each individual market I have an edge to profit in the long run, and that is a great feeling, one I must say I did not have before. I don't fear the markets as I used to and approach them much more positively than before.
The operating system debacle
I've been really impressed with the OS changes, the dilemma I have now is which one do I prefer! Without a doubt Vista comes last but between XP and 7 I'm not so sure which one is better for my trading. XP is lighting fast and looks really old school after I stripped it down to the bare minimum. However 7 is equally fast and looks / feels impressive. The main issue I have though is that XP only recognizes 4 of my 8GBs of RAM. For this reason alone I thought I should lose XP and just simply dual boot 7, keeping one for trading. It's hard to tell whether having 4 or 8 GBs ia actually making any difference though, and if anything XP still looks faster despite recognising less RAM. I will keep experimenting with them both for now and can only expect 7 to get slower as it gets more cluttered. Haven't got around to installing Linux yet but I will do as soon as I find some time.
My trading screen is feeling more comfortable, I have made a slight addition of thebettingsite.co.uk just below my ladders. This did come in handy today and it gave me a more objective view as to where punters and traders money is likely to go. Here is a picture of the screen layout, notice the old school WinXP/2000 look!
Staking
I think I have reached a point now where I can start increasing stakes gradually with both the racing and football, and that 10% of my bank is adequate for trading purposes. I'm still a little shy of my 20 pound racing bank after the Aussie racing incident, so when I hit 20 after each session it will be adjusted accordingly. Doing it race by race would be better but it does makes things unnecessarily complicated, particularly if I'm trading a busy card.
Won't be trading tomorrow as I'm due to be working. My schedule at work has now changed again but it's not so bad as it gives me random weekdays off where I look forward to trading more UK racing markets.
5 comments:
Are you able to access the racing in Hong Kong? The numbers bet there are huge.
Don't know of any traders who trade Hong Kong markets. I've heard that US Racing is the only other one with adequate liquidity, but with no IR and random early suspension times, you can get caught with your fingers in the pie, which is what happened to me on the Aussie racing this morning.
Good work, JS, pleased things are moving in the right direction!
Thanks Rob, sorry to hear about your poor end to the month. I find it more effective when I forget about my P&L and just focus on trading well. Try and focus more of your energy on doing the right moves, if you feel your energy levels drop rejuvenate them or take a break (or even stop). At the end of the day it's better to not trade then trade badly (which will just add to your negative experiences). Once you build up a repertoire of positive experiences this will become the norm and you will instinctively act within your best interests without it taking so much energy/effort. Hope this helps mate, regardless of how much is made or lost in a session, if you have leant from it you are moving forward.
Really good news that Paddy Power is being allowed limited rights to operate in France - but imagine what a boost it would be if bookies could operate freely across the EU? See www.right2bet.net to see the Right2Bet campaign's for freedom of choice; it's wrong that EU companies and EU citizens can't move freely within their own trading bloc.
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