First full(ish) day for a while

Horse Racing

Unit stake: £2

Session P&L: £3.06

Average market P&L: £0.18

It's hasn't taken long at all to get used to trading again. I'm feeling confident and motivated after today's result. Before today my cautious plan was to trade with min stakes for about 5 sessions or so (until I felt comfortable with the markets and software), but it seems that has happened already. My plan after reaching that point was to pick up where I left off in February - building up my bank with the 10%-of-bank-max-unit-stake-per-trade-rule - if that last sentence actually makes sense! Considering my staking I am very happy with the return, but moreover being able to maintain my discipline easily for the entire session. I had an hours break between 15:00-16:00, and I think that helped me finish stronger (although I probably should of timed it better considering the quality of racing).

I'm still lovin' The Toy and although I keep postponing this review, it will come when I feel I've used it thoroughly enough. Fact is this software is so customisable that I'm still finding new ways to view the markets depending on how I set it up. I'm also trading with one screen at the moment as I've decided to upgrade the two analogue to two digital monitors. Am just waiting for them to arrive (having already relocated one of the analogue displays), should be next week pending stock. It has been interesting trading with one screen, forcing me to be more efficient with the available space. I do feel that with two though it will be better. Once they're installed I'm planning on setting at least one portrait (perhaps both), so the juggling fun begins all over again.

The Geekstoy Children in Need Plugathon

Well as some of you will know already, there are some great things going on at the Geek's Toy HQ. And believe it or not this isn't an appraisal of the software's performance, but a gesture from the Geek and others for the Children in Need cause.

Having some sort of following here I thought I should at least contribute to this great cause in my own little way. If you have a blog or site  you can also help, check this post here for details.

Make sure you get involved now before it's too late, the deadline is Midnight UTC Sunday 21st November. Not only will you be helping a great cause but there are some seriously great prizes up for grabs:

- Tradesharks Tennis Trading Guide. from  Tradeshark

- Bet Notes software from the Nugget Crew

- £250 form The Geek himself

- £200 Nuggets Football Trading Toolkit from the Nugget Crew.

- €720 BFExplorer Subscriptions from BFExplorer

- Bet72 "free-bet-a-thon" from Darren Hall of Bet72

- £2000 Betfair Personal Annual API Subscription from Betfair

- £100+ Fairbot / Tradeshark Tennis / Nugget Crews BetNotes 

- £300 Bet Angel + Tradeshark Tennis Trader Toolkit

GeeksToy - Probably the Best Betfair Trading Software in the world!

Good to be back

Well it certainly has been a while, looking back the last full day of trading before this month was 16th February!

As mentioned in my last post I have now resumed trading UK horse racing markets, and the past week or so I've gotten involved in quite a few markets, mainly getting back into the swing of things. I must say it hasn't taken too long to pick up where I left off, and it seems what I had learnt has been well cemented. The only issue was concentration levels and stamina so to speak, understandably I can't expect to be in the same condition I was before straight away. In terms of motivation, which was my main issue, I'm feeling as motivated as ever to do this again.

I have also been in contact with a few people in regards to making a bot. This is an ongoing process and will take a while before it's ready, I hope to have this up and running within the next few months if it materialises. It will based on a systematic bookmaking approach that I will be testing initially with Gruss via Excel. If testing goes well I'll look into getting it coded properly and perhaps run off a remote server.

API Software
As some of you will already know my main manual trading application before I stopped was The Toy, and although it lacked a few features I found useful with Bet Angel I managed to match my performance, perhaps even exceed it slightly upto when I stopped. I still felt with the advanced charting and overview The Toy would of been even better, and these were planned for a future release. I'm happy to say that after being involved in some testing of the latest Alpha & Beta versions, they are as promising as ever. My next post will be a review so make sure you're back for that one. Unbelievably the Toy is still free!

As mentioned above I also subscribed to Gruss, and have found it to be quite decent so far. The main reason being for the Excel features, however I traded a few markets manually and it responds very well. For £6 a month this really is a bargain considering how solid the software is and all the potential options you get with Excel integration.

Happy trading everyone, be back soon with more.

Next chapter..

Well the time for research is almost done. My house move is complete, and the Broadband & TV services are being installed within the next couple of days. With it all up and running I can finally set up shop for trading again.  Have been fortunate enough to secure a late two week holiday starting next week. Great news as I really could do with a break, and it was looking less likely to happen until yesterday.  It will certainly be nice to start this new chapter well refreshed.

I have a feeling this blog will be quite important once I get going again, particularly in regards to keeping myself motivated.

to bet or not to bet?

Overall I'm happy to say that my betting exercise has gone relatively well, and it is much clearer which aspects will be repeated while others left out next season.

With the MLB performing so poorly I have decided to withdraw placing wagers and paper trade the rest of the season. It really is like no other sport I've gotten involved in with the results almost being completely random, a bookmaker's dream I'm sure. All the major football seasons are of course over, with the World Cup in full flow, there are only a few scattered leagues that I know little about - so the betting there has also finished. And of course with the NBA currently playing out the final, that season is pretty much over too. The playoffs were in comparison to the regular season a definite no-no for me next time - being much harder to predict particualrly with my style of spread betting. The next venture in the betting world will be with the NFL which I am looking forward to, but of course doesn't start until September. With that in mind the spread betting will need to be put on hold until the events I'm interested in start again.

I would also like to add my biggest respect to any punters who make a living from this. In many respects the thought and analysis that goes into a well executed and profitable betting system rivals that of trading. Some would probably even argue it requires a more organised and disciplined approach, particularly when comparing it to some intuitive trading styles. The margins for profits are tight, add to that a little variance and your clear astute can become rather clouded. At least with trading you can point the finger at your own performance whilst reflecting over a negative P&L!

Trading places 

In my absence from trading I have had time to reflect and formulate some new ideas which I feel warrant a trial. Whilst blogging my progress I have found the emails and comments helpful, and some even inspirational in regards to pushing myself further if I was to ever give trading another go. Looking over my records I wasn't actually doing too badly, and my biggest problem on my last visit to these markets was mainly motivational. This time round I aim to trade one/two full days a week, leaving me with most of my time to focus elsewhere. I am still finishing some analysis but it is looking good so far and I will be implementing some of these ideas soon. This time it will be a more systematic approach, and I will of course be blogging my progress here as usual. At the moment it is looking like starting towards the end of July - perhaps a bit sooner if I finish early. Gives me just about enough time to recover form England's glorious World Cup victory!!  Not?