Losses Adding Up

The past few days have not been good to me. I am still at the stage where I can feel myself getting quite emotional when I get losses, and even more so when they start to come together. Following on from the losses I last posted up, I have suffered another loss of -£398.66 for the period since. This month is slowly going into the red which is not a nice feeling. However, I am confident that I will turn it round by the end of the month to show a profit, even if it is small.

The main 'event' that really knocked me this week, was the very sudden news that BetBrokers had gone into administration. This has really hurt me financially as I don't know what will happen next and at the moment it's a case of waiting till tomorrow to contact the administrators to find out about some money I had in this account. BetBrokers is a firm that places a bet on your behalf and tries to secure the best odds available. It is normally used by people who are finding it hard to get on or those that place substantial hefty bets. I am not one of those people! The reason I used them was that at work I was finding it increasingly difficult to find the best odds for my own bets and for those from Bluesky tips, and as such I was missing the best prices and having to take whatever price I could with a few Bookies without comparing the odds available. Therefore, I had deposited some money with them so that one call would ensure me getting on at a good price. On Saturday I called the number only to find that there was a message stating that they had gone into administration on Friday, and the website would not let me log in. So now, I have to wait and see if I have any chance of getting my money back, and to be honest I am not optimistic at all. I had a quick read of the Terms & Conditions that I initially signed and that states that "Client funds are held securely in a segregated client account with Barclays Bank." What this means in reality I really have no idea! I'm guessing it's not worth the paper it was written on now!

To finish off this very happy week, I started a bit of trading with a small bank of £50 and lost it all. I was sort of doing ok with very small losses or small wins. I then did something really stupid on one horse who went the wrong way after I had layed it. I decided that I would lay it in running but kept missing the price that I wanted and it then went on to win, and with it taking this small bank with it. So for the time being I'm just monitoring the markets for a few more days before I give it another go. On a happier note, BetAngel is the best software I have used so far.

I've been working on my own 'system/method' for selecting horses that i wouldn't normally consider and just paper trading it at the moment, but the past few days it has done well, so I'll keep an eye on it. I only thought of it due mainly to The Experiment Blog and the way it sort of makes you think a bit more. Its a very good blog that is well written and interesting, Highly Recommended.

That's it for today, and I really hope my week improves as so far it's been lousy, and a fitting quote from W. Shakespeare: "The miserable have no other medicine but only hope"

Losing Days

The past few days have not really gone my way at all. I was doing quite well with my betting but as I sort of expected, the losing run came bounding up and biting my behind. My laying bets have not done me any favours at all and have come in first at prices of 3.25, 7.00, 7.59 & 8.40. These made a bit of a dent in the betting pot! It would have been worse if the backing bets had not come in, but a few short priced favourites obliged to absorb the losses, whilst the EW bets were just sort of broke even. At the moment, the Stop At Winner (SAW) strategy is doing well, but it does get hairy sometimes and I'm torn between not following this strategy due to its volatile nature, especially if I don't find a winner in the first few races or the steady drip of profits it provides when everything goes to plan. At the moment I am sticking with it and exercising those scary heart muscles with it! All in all, since the last update I have made a loss of -£224.09.

The trading aspect is still in its very early stages. I have been playing about with some of the free trials and just monitoring the market or placing very small bets just to see what happens. At the moment, I think FairBot is the best of what I have used so far. Bet Angel is the next thing on the list but I'll have to pay the subscription fee to start off as I remember using the trial last year sometime. So for the time being, Bet Angel is on the "when I have a bit of spare cash" to do list! Using Fairbot and it's weight of money indicator, I placed a few trades using the following basic settings: Offset by 1 tick with automatic counter bet on the other side, Stop Loss of 2 ticks and place stop at 5 ticks, with a the trailing stop loss activated. I didn't do too badly. I made very tiny profits on some races but quite a few losses as well. I've not really analysed my trades too much as I was just going with the flow of what way I though the market was going to go. I have read the manual again and again but to be honest, I don't really understand the settings that much, but I did figure out that this way my trades are not very risky! If anyone can explain the above or even if these are "good" settings to use for scalping about 10 Min's before a race starts then please let me know.

I also paid for some software called Bet-IE Trader. The main reason for buying this was it's supposed to tell you when to place a back/or lay bet and places a bet on the opposite side automatically. I gave it a trial run in the learning mode a few times and it seemed to work. So with the volume turned up as it beeps at you and flashes lay or back on the screen. I then have to click at the available price and it places a bet directly. I tried it with some real money a few times and it just didn't seem to perform or trade very well. On all the races I tried it on, I came out with a loss on nearly all of them. Either I'm doing something wrong or the software is not that intelligent after all.

As it stands, I've still got about 8 days of the Fairbot trial left so I'll still keep on playing and monitoring to see if I can pick some tiny bits up.

Entering Betfair Trading Waters

Since my last post a few days ago, Ive been busy scouring the Internet for trading articles, tips, software, reading blogs and it really does seem like trading is the way to go. However, I'm finding it very frustrating that I don't really have a clue of the 'how' and 'why'. I found a really good blog called the Racing Traders Blog. Its not been updated since last year, but it does explain the sort of trading that I would like to be involved in. Its called 'scratcing' or 'scalping'...I think!! It goes along the lines of putting a back bet and a lay bet a tick lower, if it gets matched a very tiny profit is made. If not, a lay bet is quickly placed to cover your initial stake so you don't make a profit or loss. That's how I understood it, if anyone knows better then feel free to explain cos I could do with a 'dummies guide to Betfair trading.'

Armed with my knowledge, I went to find some trading software. During the past few days I have used Fairbot. I played about with some settings and using tiny stakes I found that I wasn't making any profit or losses, it just kept saying £0.00 on screen. I am sure there is something very obvious I'm missing but I cant see it. I need to look into this more when I get some more time. I paid for a trial of InPlayMaster, but after reading a few pages of the instruction manual, I don't think that it's for me! I also tried out BFexplorer. You could tell this software oozed 'For The Professional' but the problem was that even after reading the help pages, I am no closer to understanding the software! So at the moment, its back to Google to see what other software is available that would make this trading bit easier to do. All suggestions welcome from anyone who has more of a clue that I do!

The 'normal' betting has had a good few days. I am an additional £691.88 in profit from the last update. Ive not really gone into what my betting portfolio is, but I'll just quickly mention it for those interested. 1) I use a Stop At A Winner Strategy for the first few races. I realise that this is frowned upon by most people as it does lead to chasing losses and bankruptcy. It is early days but I'm hopeful. 2) I use a laying bot to place a few lay bets on Betfair. 3) I use Blue Sky Racing for backing advice. I paid a substantial subscription fee for professional advice. However, It has not gone the way I thought it would. I started mid-April but ever since my bank has been on a downward slope. I am persevering with it as long as the Blue Sky betting bank does not reach £0. If it does, and it is quite likely then I'll be cutting my losses and moving on. 4) Finally, I use my own judgement along with the advice from Racingpost to make a few selections of my own.

That's it for now :)

Starting Out. Week 1

Its been an interesting week. Ive been spending hours on the Internet looking at ideas of how to make money. Ive come across apparent cash cows for online casino, Betfair loopholes, online cash mach machines and lots and lots of junk! I do have to admit, some of the items were very well written and tried to pick open my wallet. I'm glad to say I kept it shut by sitting on it. I have however, come across a couple of things that I want to look into, but have not yet started as I don't know much about it. One of them is trading on Betfair. A quick search of the Internet and reading other blogs, it seems like this is the most consistent way of making small money, that turns into big money. It does seem like these traders are very disciplined and almost work in a robotic fashion. I do wish I was like them!

My week has consisted of working a couple of night shifts, some very early shifts at work. I do find I have to literally drag myself to work at the moment! Our lass has now decided that instead of the usual 5 alarms going off before I decide to wake up, she has now taken it upon herself to roll me off the bed! We also need to start making sure the little one sleeps in his own bed. At the moment, he sleeps with us and he needs a lot of space. We are going to start putting him in another bed separately, but just seems like so much work at the moment..so this in now an urgent to do task on an imaginary list, which we will stick on the fridge to remind us at breakfast everyday.

Finally, I had a good week in terms of betting. For future reference, a good week = profitable week. I made a profit of £395.74. It could have been better, but a horse that I layed, decided that it was going to win, which it did! This cost me a few pounds. Additionally, a few Each Way tips haven't really performed as I expected.

Anyway, that's it for now. I need to go out and have a cigarette, get a haircut and other bits and bobs that I need to do.