Still Struggling

01/04

+£36.74. Yep, still struggling here. Trying to juggle all of those meetings today and winning pennies made me want to put my fist through the screen ... SO FUCKING FRUSTRATING! I'm winning so little that my commission is back to 5%. Not that it makes any difference because that gets bumped up to 20% every Wednesday. So in a nutshell I just can't seem to get back up to previous levels .... maybe that will change now that we are in the flat season?

Anyway, aside from that my weight is coming down nicely and although it's still fucking freezing it looks as though it's going to be sunny and dry this week ... so time to crack-on with the garden. Might even put up a frame for my heavy bag so that I can beat the shite out of it every time I win 55 fucking pence!

I'm trying to persevere with the pre-race trading but it's taking a lot longer to get to grips with than what I first imagined. I'm not going to give up though. Every time I get fucked off I just do more press-ups ... I'm gonna be RIPPED!

So here's today's P&L ....

Makes me want to cry!


02/04

+£39.41. Last night's TFF webinar got the pre-race juices flowing again, so today I had more of a crack in the pre-race markets, albeit for £20 per click. It wasn't such a hectic day today and I felt as though I played quite well.

As you can see I didn't set any records but was glad to get back into the pre-race malarkey


03/04

+£77.87. Blimey I'm cream crackered! The training and diet are starting to take their toll!

Had another day today of playing quite well and just slipped-up on a couple of sharp movers at Southwell. So I'm tired, but overall I'm quite happy.

04/04

-£27.47. Struggled with the pre-race today and also dropped over £100 in 2 in-running bets (one fucking stupid one late on at Wolverhampton) so did quite well to finish only £27.47 down.

05/04

+£58.40. Started off poorly but then had some improvement. I really need to get to that stage were I'm clearing over £100 a day .... we'll see if I can gradually improve.

06/04

+£16.55. The day of the Grand National. Never really got going and missed a couple of hours for an afternoon snooze.

 

07/04

+£30.66. Had a late night last night so felt a bit jaded. Didn't play much pre-race and was happy to scrape just a few quid before I gave up at around 17:00. Will try and crack on as from tomorrow and start getting a few £100+ days.

08/04

-£37.16. Fucking hopeless today!

09/04

+£77.37. Managed to do a bit better today and I was a bit less reckless with my pre-race trading following last nights TFF webinar.

10/04

+£106.74. Finally had a £100+ day today. My pre-race trading is still causing me a headache but I'm going to try something slightly different today to see if it brings any improvement in my results.

My diet has reached a bit of a sticking point. I'm eating very little (mostly protein) and the training is OK, but it's leaving me tired. However, I only have a few kilos to lose so I'm confident of hitting my target.


11/04

+£174.55. Had a good one today. It was just one of those days were everything seemed to go well and I didn't make many mistakes at all.

12/04

+£87.35. When I terminated my membership at LA Fitness they sent me a voucher that was a free pass for two periods of seven days. I finally managed to get LA to activate the pass after a few phone calls and a few emails (I'm sure that they do all that they can to prevent people from using their free passes). So this morning I got my ass out of bed early and trudged off to the gym, which is about 3 miles away. I then trained my back and had a good session in the sauna and steam and then trudged back the 3 miles home. My legs were knackered and I had a snooze before racing started.

Once again played a steady day and almost got to £100 just by playing safe and chipping away.


13/04

+£54.30. Weight is down to 93.2kg so I'm well happy, but fucking hungry! Drove most of the way to the gym this morning and walked maybe 15 minutes. Trained legs and had another lovely session in the sauna and steam. Had another steady day (strangely I don't think that I've ever won much on Saturday's)

14/04

+£35.14. Hit the gym again this morning and trained chest and triceps followed by another good sauna and steam. Really need to be ultra strict on the diet and throw in as much cardio as possible over the next 2 weeks. The afternoon was quite nice in terms of weather yet I was strict and stayed in to trade while everyone else went out for a beer in the sun!

On the trading front had 24 trades without a loss for a mediocre profit.

15/04

+£21.60. Hmmmmmm .... welcome to 5F sprints on the turf! Trying to play these in-running today was a fucking nightmare .... they were practically over before I even had a clue as to what the fuck was happening! One or two of these early races reminded me of how hard it is to lay some of these favoured beasts that are behind and look beat early, only to fly like Pegasus and win cosily. So I think that the secret is only to commit early if you see something totally miss the break, failing this I'm backing early'ish at 2.0 if I think I sport an opportunity or smashing in late at short odds. Despite this I quite enjoyed the pre-race trading today. Once again I'm only talking pennies here, but I may finally be starting to grasp a little about how the market often moves pre-race, and how to select nice positions as entry points.

If you are an aspiring pre-race trader then make sure to take a look at Adam Heathcote's blog and for a more up-to-date blog take a look at Caan's P&L!!


16/04

+£51.25. Trundled through the day with not much happening, just nicking a few pennies here and there. Once again my pre-race efforts were quite good in terms of consistency and I'm starting to feel quietly confident so I might up my stakes tomorrow. The knowledge that I've gained in the weekly TFF webinars is gradually sinking in and I'm feeling quite excited that I might be able to start making a nice regular pre-race profit at some point in the near future.

Have picked up a bit of a cold yet I still managed to jump on the spinning bike for about an hour in total. Also I haven't really felt that hungry today (well not for tuna fish or boiled chicken) so with any luck I can shed a few pounds over the next few days and break through the 93kg mark so that I don't have to go mad in the last week of April. I must admit though that when I went shopping today the muffins looked superb and were calling my name from the shelf ..... and as I sit here now I could absolutely murder a large doner and chips!

PS If I'm really strict then I'll get up tomorrow at 05:45 so that I can hit the gym at 06:30 and thus avoid the parking restrictions.


17/04

+£21.64. Well made it to the gym by 07:30 and had a few 5/6 minutes sessions in the sauna and steam rooms. Felt really good but it was fucking HOT and I felt drained by 08:00, so came home, ate some tuna and went back to bed! Had a couple of hours deserved kip and then did 30 minutes on the spinning bike. Weight is down to 92.3kg so if I keep strict I might even get to 89.0kg by the end of April?

Made a couple of blunders early on but once again felt really confident on the pre-race trading (did get caught by a steamer but noticed afterwards that it was a 5F maiden race) so should have been a bit more cautious.


18/04

+£110.95. Actually made it to the gym by about 07:00 and trained quads and hamstrings but my very low carb level made me as weak as a kitten. Followed this by another great steam session, something to eat, a quick kip and then managed to flatten my car battery by leaving my lights on over at a mates house ... doh! Luckily the AA man was at hand and I made it home having only missed a few races.

Really enjoyed the pre-race trading during the day today. I have found the markets to be quite strong with the only big moves being in maiden races. However, as soon as Wolverhampton came along in the evening the markets went bonkers ... pretty typical of Wolverhampton and you really have to play a totally different style. The good thing is that I really noticed the difference, something that I didn't quite grasp in the early days of my pre-race trading.


19/04

+£106.86. OK ... a third video of me in my boxers!

The racing was super hectic today and at one point there was a race every 5 minutes. Once again played very steadily and felt quite confident.

20/04

+£83.44. A busy day today on the horse racing front but I managed to miss quite a bit of it as I was helping to install a new fence in a neighbour's garden (so probably would have hit 3 figures again). My washing machine also fucked-up yesterday so I had to spend a bit of time ferreting about on the internet seeing if I could pick-up a bargain on Gumtree or eBay. My recent P&L dictates that I can only afford a secondhand machine!

Don't want to get too greedy but would be nice to get a few £150+ days under my belt before the end of April.


21/04

+£43.77. A quiet day today. Continued installing my neighbours fence and ended-up completely knackered! Managed to trade a few races although there were only 3 meetings today so no records were going to be set.

22/04

-£55.05. A frustrating day turned into a pants day late on. Was admittedly a bit distracted by finishing the fencing in my neighbours garden so not an ideal scenario.

23/04

+£65.16. Managed to recover yesterday's losses in a pretty un-eventful day. I'm approaching the last week of my diet and I'm fucking starving! Just need to knuckle down and lose the last few pounds before the big weigh-in on May 1st! Then I'm going to make myself a lovely mince Rogan Josh!

24/04

+£34.74. Felt pretty tired most of the day and really couldn't get into then swing of things. Struggled in the pre-race markets and particularly struggled with the Epsom markets. The weather was lovely though so I managed to get out in the garden and do some more paving, so that was nice.

25/04

BF = +£78.16 & Betdaq = +£1.50. Another nice sunny day so I dusted off the bike and cycled down to the Olympic stadium. Felt more alert today and I seemed to do slightly better in the the pre-race markets.

I also decided to have a crack in the Betdaq pre-race market. It's a bit tricky as the Betdaq API doesn't yet return the total matched at each price so it's harder to spot resistance points and the tops and bottoms of the price range. However, I got around this by selecting the horse that I wanted to trade on Betdaq, setting Geeks Toy to show just one ladder and then overlaying the Geeks ladder over the relevant Geeks Toy BF ladder .... confused? Here's a screenshot which probably explains it a bit better ...

You can see where I've overlaid the Betdaq selection of 'Fred Willets' over the BF selection thus I'm using the BF data for trading on Betdaq.

I only played a couple of the early races on the Daq as it started to get quite hectic changing the screens/windows etc so I'll have to find a way of setting-up my screens in a more user-friendly manner ... might even need a third screen maybe?

26/04

BF = +£62.41 & Betdaq = +£1.79. It's been a while since I've added a video of me NOT in my boxers so here it is ...

Had another crack early on in the day on Betdaq. It's time consuming fucking about with multiple windows but hey you never know it just might be possible to win a few quid without having my meagre winnings raped by BF every week. I'll take another look tomorrow (Saturday) and see if the pre-race liquidity is any better?

Was a pretty boring day trading-wise today as I couldn't really get excited about Plumpton and the BF Live video was bolloxed at Chepstow. However, I persevered and chipped away in order to nick a few quid.

Would love to jump on the scales in the morning and hit sub 90kg because I really do need to make a mince rogan josh .... and to add to the pain Masterchef is just coming on .... I'm fucking starving!!


27/04

+£19.46. Weighed in ... weighed in ...

Smashed through the 90kg barrier today and treated myself to a Belgian bun and a donut! Also managed to fix my washing machine but I did come very close to taking a sledgehammer to it!

As for today's trading ... it was pants. Didn't have the time to try the Daq and Leicester was a no go area as BF Live was behind ATR and I just couldn't seem to get up to speed today. I'm pre-race trading with £20 and £50 depending upon price but I think now that I should be using at least £100 a click, especially as I'm favouring s scalping style. I think that in May I need to focus a bit more on making some money from swing trades as well as the scalping, so I'll have to give that some thought over the coming days. Right now I feel that I really need to smash into May and win some decent money. I have only had 3 losing days this month so my strike rate is good .... so why the fuck ain't I diving in for bigger stakes? Grow some balls Davey son!!

 

28/04

+£69.21. Was up at the crack of dawn today and out in the garden screeding an area ready for my paving. The weather was nice and sunny and I contemplated a day off and indulging in a few beers but the clouds rolled in so I decided to try and nick a few quid and save it for a scorcher in the summer

My early enthusiasm meant that come 14:00 I was knackered so made sure that I played very diligently. Chipped away again and banked the equivalent of  28 bottles of Hoegaarden from Asda or 14 pints of Hoegaarden at The Belgian Cafe down in Ramsgate.

29/04

-£8.98. I'd sum up today as wanky (is there such a word?). Anyway, felt a bit tired again, probably due to my excessive consumption of cakes and biscuits, and accordingly played like a twat. Actually thought that I'd lost a lot more. I did however up my stakes slightly so I'll make sure that I get a good night's kip tonight so that I'm ready to get stuck in tomorrow.

Feel sick right now as I've eaten too much shite today (including crisps, belgian buns, muffins, biscuits, bread and a chunky kit kat!). I'll maybe cook a curry tomorrow and partake in a Hoegaaarden or 2 and then back to the good diet for May.


30/04


Finished the month with a very frustrating and tedious day of trading. Felt tired again as I'd cracked on with the garden in the morning and felt physically knackered. The day seemed to drag on with no particular highlights. So the trading wasn't very good but I was pleased that I had made some progresss in the garden and spent some time in the sun, which was nice.