11:44 and because I played the
dogs last night I haven't been able to update today's horse notes
(should have got up early and done them this morning really).
I
suppose that it's only natural at this stage to always have a figure in
mind of how much I expect out of the day, and because it's Sunday today
I have the figure of £40-£50 in my head, although there are five
meetings today. This is a prime example that the lessons learnt of
trading five years in the exchange, i.e. the fact that Sunday's would
usually produce poorer results because of the general lack of racing,
have become embedded in my subconcious. Anyway, as per yesterday I'll
put that stupid thought in the bin and concentrate on trading calmly and
steadily.
How strange ... my grandkids have Pokemon on
the TV as I was typing the above and all of a sudden the top dude
Pokemon says 'You can't learn unless you take a few risks' .... how apt!
State of mind: cautiously optimistic.
+£70.65. Pleased with another day of steady trading, mostly in the win market.
30/12
+£48.64. I had loads to do today so didn't really get involved that much and to be honest wasn't really bothered. We're going away to the coast for a couple of days and to be honest I wish it was for a couple of years as every now and then my entire family seeem to want to grind me down.
So what
constitutes the traits of a successful trader? I've started to go
through the above videos again and there's just so much great
information available, so it's well worth giving them a view at least
once.
The start of my random scribblings that are mostly pertinent to in-running trading:
Consistent/robotic trading -
having the ability to execute your trades and not worry if the market
moves against you and you have to take a loss, as many trades will go
against you over the course of time. Remember that when you enter the
market you are now relying on others to move the price in your favour.
Accepting losses -
even the greatest traders don't have a 100% strike rate. Accept that
losses will occur and that they are a natural part of trading.
Using the fear of losing to your advantage - if
most traders always fall prey to the fear of losing, and therefore lose
their objectivity when a trade moves against them, then they will
clamour to exit their position with the smallest loss possible. This is
either thorugh fear of losing or trading well and cutting losses
quickly. I really do believe that this is the cause of big price moves
AGAINST the percieved chance of the horse. I have only spent a
relatively short time trading in the win market but I have seen this
happen too many times to be anything other than the herd mentality.
Therefore by staying level-headed and not joining in with the panic then
these fear based moves can present great opportunities.
Realise that the goal isn't to win every trade - the goal is to win over a series of trades.
Trusting your judgement -
if the price moves against you for no apparent reason then you should
add to your position. All that has happened is that someone has taken an
opposite view, for whatever reason, and the sheep have followed. For
instance, if you have backed at 5.0 and for no apparent reason the price
has moved to 8.0 then add to your position, it makes sense.
Staying calm and relaxed -
this is especially true for me during NH races. Even the shortest race
will usually take four minutes to complete, so there is usually time to
calmly evaluate your position before making a decision as to when to add
to or exit your trade. All too often I find myself on red-alert once
they go in-running and this is just not neccessary.
Dealing with the self-limiting internal dialogue -
the above example is a typical scenario where in the cold light of day
you would add to your position, it makes sense. However, if the market
unexpectedly moves against you, especially in a big way, for no reason
that you can see, then your self-limiting beliefs kick-in and you get:
'oh fuck I called that one wrong' instead of 'hey my opinion hasn't changed and now I can get an even better price ... happy days'
'someone knows more than me' instead of 'I'm
going to trust my own judgement here because I still think that I am
right and I believe that the herd mentaility has just presented me with a
great opportunity'
'I'm going to look/feel like a right mug as I give away more money' instead of 'even if
this trade doesn't go my way I am still making good and
consistent money and I shouldn't feel like a mug. Plus if it goes
right then I'm going to look/feel qute happy that I trusted my own
judgement and be more inclined to grasp these opportunities in the
future instead of second guessing or doubting my judgement'
'oh fuck I'm risking £80 instead of £40' instead of 'I don't mind risking another £40 as I think that this is a great opportunity'
Now
as long as you are only adding a suitable amount to your initial position then
there is no need to worry. Consider it as making two trades in one go,
or bringing your next trade forward by one race. I have the strong
feeling that this is where big opportunities occur, by taking advantage
of these moves that are predominately caused by the herd mentaility, I
am sure of it!
So where does this all get me? Well when
I visualise my idea of a successful trader then I see someone sitting
at a desk relaxed, trading in an authoratative yet relaxed manner.
Someone who is focussed and diligent and totally in control of what
he/she is doing. Someone you could watch trading and think 'wow, I wish
that I could trade like that'. Obviously if it was a woman she'd be
pretty, have long legs and a great pair ot tits!
There were 1 or 2 guys
like this in the exchange (no not long legs and big tits). They would
win great amounts on a regular basis but you could never tell on any
given day whether they had just won £10k or lost 10k. Their demeanour
was always the same.
So now that's the mental image I
have of myself when I sit down to trade. I want to trade so well that if
anyone was looking over my shoulder they would say 'wow, this guy is
good and makes it seem so easy'.
Anyway here's wishing everyone a fantastic New Year. I'm off to the coast too get pissed, watch the fireworks over the marina and freeze my bollox off!
+£21.47.
Another day of poor racing but hey it's a Tuesday in the middle of
December so it's no real surprise to have to try and trade on three
shite meetings.
I
ventured over into Caans blog and noticed his excellent link to a Mark
Douglas video. It really got my juices flowing again and made me realise
that I've made scant progress in my mental development since I started
this blog, which is obviously quite disappointing. I also turn into a
right miserable bastard in the winter months as my missus will no doubt
confirm. So when the racing finished super early at 15:30 I fired up
YouTube and went in search of porn .... no not really! I searched for Mark
Douglas and started by watching the following vid ...
Mark Douglas - Mind Over Market
So
in a nutshell what is he saying? Well he's highlighting the fact that
professional traders have the ability to execute their trades in a
carefree fashion and with no fear as they have developed a proven edge and have pre-determined, and are happy, with their potential risk and reward for any given trade.
Now I still trade seated like this ...
..
as though I'm on red alert and super hyped to react to anything that
happens in the market. I mentioned this quite a while back and haven't
been able to change. However, the way that I now trade doesn't need me
to sit on red alert all day, it needs me to sit in a relaxed fashion and
allow me to be more analytical. I think that this is quite a big issue
as the red alert kind of approach means that when I enter a trade I'm
now in that fight or flight mode which obviously doesn't lend itself to
calm, rational thinking. So as from now I'm going to have a much more
relaxed posture which should lead to a slightly calmer mindset when I'm
trading.
So the relevant issues are:
Knowing your risk before entering a trade -
now as I am mostly a backer nowadays I know that my risk is my stake.
So I should only ever risk an amount that I'm happy to lose in order to
find out if I can make a good trade. At the moment in the win market
this amount is usually around the £50-£100 mark per race.
Executing the trades in a stress-free and consistent manner with no fear -
if you have accepted that the markets are random and that your
potential loss is defined and acceptable then you should be able to
execute your trades without worrying whether the trade will be a winner
or loser as you know that your edge will put you in profit over time.
Realising
that once you have entered the market that you are entirely dependant
upon other traders/gamblers to move the market for you - in my short
time trading in-running in the win market I have seen some strange
market moves which seem to contradict the way that I see the race
developing. At the moment I tend to panic somewhat and bail-out with
perhaps an over exaggerated red, as opposed to trusting my judgement and
maybe increasing my position. Again this is work in progress so we'll
see how it goes over the next few weeks.
Jumping the gun or hesitating -
if you can achieve that carefree state of mind then you can
automatically act upon your signals without jumping in too early in fear
of missing a move or hesitating in the fear of being wrong .
Assessing the potential and scaling out and maximizing profit -
the potential of being a backer as your first trade is huge as it's
potentially possible to back at very high odds and then lay at very low
odds in most races. The opposite is true in races where the favourite is
a very low price. I do tend to scale-out my winning positions but the
method that I currently use maybe needs enhancing as I gain more
experience.
Dealing with an unpredictable series of wins/losses -
we dont know what the sequence of our wins/losses are going to be so
there's no point worrying or getting stressed when we run into the
inevitable run of losses.
Dealing with the emotional trauma of always expecting the same thing to happen - well we all know that it doesn't, so we need to accept this fact and get on with it.
It all adds-up to trading in a calm, carefree and focussed state of mind and without fear.
Obviously
the key aspect is the willingness to change. I can probably say that I
was willing to change when I last visited the subject of the mental
approach to trading but I didn't really make a concerted effort to see
it through and actually implement the changes. Maybe this time will be
different ....
I never knew that Prince was such an excellent guitarist until I saw this ...
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Prince & Co.
18/12
+£83.16. OK. My calm and relaxed state of mind swung into action today. I made sure that I was sitting in a nice relaxed position as I opened up my Betfair, Gruus and Geeks and casually nicked a few quid from the first race. Then the API crashed! Now normally I would have been shouting and swearing at the screen and the incompetence of the Betfair IT staff, but no, not today. I decided to have a nice soak in the bath and forget about trading for 30 minutes.
Rande Howell - Developing a Traders State of Mind
Betfair was still fucked when I jumped out of the bath so I had the opportunity to take a look at my tumble dryer which sounded like it was full of nuts and bolts. Now once again I would have been kicking the shit out of it after two minutes of trying to find the problem, but not today. I ventured down to the garage to get the relevant driver bits and started to dis-assemble the fucker in order to find out why it was making such a racket. I just couldn't find the cause of the problem but then noticed one of the wifes bra underwires sticking out of the back of the drum! Now my missus is a big girl up top so it was a fucking big wire! Put it all back together again and hey presto! It did mean that I missed a few races but at least my pants are now dry!
So once BF came back I sat back and nicked a few quid here and there all the while sitting back nice and relaxed and even humming to myself which seems to be a good way of staying calm.
The Olympics eh? Well we smashed it didn't we? We also had Elbow playing in the closing ceremony and every time I hear this song it reminds me of just what a spectacular event it was, once in a lifetime really, and just how well all of our athletes performed ...
Elbow - One Day Like This
PS I was probably slightly fortunate in the 15:10 @ Lingfield where I spotted Syncopate going well turning from home and I was just about to smash the back button when my eyes were attracted to Rakaan flying home from nowhere. Well it seems like that fucking stupid midget Ross Atkinson who rode Syncopate who actually finished third forgot to weigh-in! Surely for a jockey that's the equivalent of going for s shit and forgetting to pull your trousers down? Fucking cheating thick midgets ....
19/12
+£58.49. What a gorgeous day out there today and only two days to go to the shortest day of the year!
It was my mum's birthday today so we all went out to a local curry house and had a great time. The meals ranged from chips, chicken korma, chicken phall and the bhindi bhajee which was especially nice. All washed down with several pints of Kingfisher or in the case of my mum a nice cup of tea.
I found it relatively easy to continue my relaxed approach today and the only time I had my face anywhere close to the screen was when I traded the 5F race @ Southwell where you had to be in and out like greased lightening.
Rande Howell - Mastering Fear
Ballyhollow and the herd/sheep mentaility - so I'm trading the 15:40 & Towcester sitting back in a nice calm and relaxed state and I back Ballyhollow wih McCoy on board as he leads a 2M NHF race at a sensible pace. Now he's lobbing along and going well and his price just takes off and goes from 4.0 to 7.0, and he's still lobbing along in front!
Now I've only backed him for small money but I'm thinking 'fuck this I'm not bailing out for a red as he's still going well'. The price then crashes down at a rapid rate of knots and he wins the race. This is just a classic case of the herd/sheep mentality (mentioned in the above video) that I mentioned a few days ago and in future I'll be trusting my judgement and going in again!
I listen to The Streets every now and then and I just love this video. I can imagine that if my youngest daughter ever gets married then the wedding would be just like this, although I'm not too sure whether I'd be the one doing the punching or the one getting hit ...
The Streets - Blinded By The Lights
20/12
-£31.14. The 13:20 at Uttoxeter didn't treat me too well but soldiered on and didn't really let it effect me so wasn't too dissappointed at the end of the day despite the loss.
Took the opportunity to pop down to Canary Wharf to have a drink with the boys from the exchange and we had a good crack. We all agreed that it's still getting harder to make it pay and that it's still the biggest mind-fuck in the history of man. We ended up in The Hilton for a few beers after being in a pub where it was four deep at the bar all night (fuck knows why they didn't have twice as many bar staff as they must have lost a fortune). The Hilton was hosting a company Xmas party and it was good to see untold totty in short skirts, but amazingly I didn't manage to pull (must be losing my touch) and had to stumble back home to the missus.
How To Control Your Emotions When Trading- 1
You can never tell whether or not this girls is gorgeous or a moose but I think that some of her tunes are quite good. I quite like the video as well as it's all done in one take ....
Christine Aguilera - The Voice Within
21/12
+£27.74. A pretty unspectacular day..
How To Control Your Emotions When Trading - 2
Just wish I'd made the effort to go and see this guy while he was still with us ...
Gary Moore - Still In Love With You
22/12
+£30.13. Another uneventful December day ...
The one and only SRV ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
I have found these psychology videos to be really helpful. I tend to listen to a few in the evening and then have a quick blast just before racing just to focus the mind so that I'm prepared to trade.
How Do Successful and Profitable Traders Think?
26/12
OK. It's 12:00, ten minutes to the first race, and I've just had a quick blast of Brett Steenbargar on YouTube so I'm ready for action. I've decided to utilise my bank a bit more efficiently and therefore go in a bit heavier than usual so here we go ...
State of mind: slightly nervous/apprehensive.
+£80.42. Played steadily today and was well focussed. Didn't play as big as I had wanted to but stayed patient and actually turned down a £100+ green in one race as I thought that maybe I was close to landing a four fugure sum and held on a bit too long. Also missed a £40+ green in another race and bailed out way too early in another race where literally a few seconds later I would have been straight into a £100 green as the horse led all the way! So plenty of potential and food for thought. I'll probably go through some more psychology presentations on YouTube this evening in preparation for tomorrow.
Joe Bonamassa - Sloe Gin
It's 20:43 and I'm about halfway through tomorrows cards and updating my horse notes. It's time consuming and boring as fuck but it has to be done ...
How Winning Traders Think
27/12
OK. It's 11:37 and I've pretty much finished my horse notes for this afternoons racing and I'll probably do Wolverhamptons evening card race by race as it's doing my head in!
State of mind: cautiously confident mixed with a bit of apprehension.
+£84.78. Didn't really get into any good positions today and didn't spot any opportunities to go in a bit heavier but took my reds quickly when I had to and played quite steadily. I did have a bit of a scream and shout during the last at Wolves where I backed the favourite when it led only to see the price move against me almost immediately ... doh! Anyway had fuck all to do tonight so had a crack at the evening dog racing.
Trading Psychology Tips - 1
28/12
OK. It's 11:02 and I'd be lying if I said that I don't have the thought in my mind that I'd like to win more than yesterday, £100 maybe, and gradually increase my winnings day by day. However, I'm going to erase that from my thoughts and just get on with trading as normal today. So just some time to update some more horse notes before the first race at 11:40 ...
State of mind: confident but wary of getting too confident.
The Psychology Of Trading
+£94.03. Well I did get more than the previous two days but I had some luck on the dogs when Betfair closed the market early and I ended up with a few quid on the winner. In general though the trading was nice and steady again, so I'm happy.
I don't have a clue about who the bloke in the above videos is but he raises some really good points.
There are a zillion great gems of wisdom in the videos that I've posted and what I intend to do is to go through these agin and pick out the key points and compile a list here, kind of like a checklist that I can use each day before trading.
-£4.05. Chucked away £105
early doors when Luke Morris decided to drop his whip 50 yards from the
winning line ... fucking useless midget! When something like that
happens you just have to take it on the chin and crack-on .... he's
still a fucking useless midget though!
I'll probably visit the coast over the New Year with the missus and then maybe hit Broadstairs in February for the Blues Bash.
We went back in 2011 and had a great time. It's usually well freezing
down there so not exactly ideal drinking conditions (very good for curing hangovers though) but they have a
great line-up of free live acts in a lot of the local pubs over the
weekend so it's well worth a visit.
This guy played last year but for some reason we didn't go ....
Steve Roux - Can't Change Time
Trading in the Win Market
So I have one observation about trading in the win market (especially over the jumps). Here's the scenario:
I've backed a runner early
in the race and it travels and jumps well. I'm sitting pretty and into
the green zone and then the price starts to drift alarmingly for no
apparent reason and I'm forced to take a red. The horse then continues
to travel and jump well and after a lovely spike it then comes crashing
down in price to well below where I had originally backed it. I then sit
and swear at the screen and kick the cat/dog/wife. It's even more frustrating when the beast goes on to win.
So what the fuck is happening? After a bit of head
scratching I'll have a stab in the dark as to why this occurs:
The 'backers' who are all in the same boat as me (sitting on a nice potential green but holding on for more) are thrown a curved ball when someone takes a contrary view and decides to lay the selection. Maybe it's a genuine opinion, although highly unlikely, or maybe it's pre-race backers, dobbers or tick-offset merchants bailing out early for a quick profit? I don't think that it really matters why this move starts as it's the knock-on effect that is easier to explain. This move, seemingly against what is actually happening in the race, then starts a knee-jerk reaction where the backers who were sitting pretty now also want to bail out for a profit as they see the price moving against their position. The sheep then follow and before you know it a beast that is jumping and travelling well has inexplicably drifted like a barge. So in my opinion it's a simple case of a) people panicking and b) joining in on the crowd mentality.
So it's time to grow some bollox (again) and possibly even back again as opposed to bailing whenever this happens? Only time will tell ....
I've also re-visited the pre-race market and I've started trying something based entirely upon WOM
and that may develop into an interesting little experiment. Once again I'll let you know how this progresses ...
10/12
+£81.94. Another fun day trading in the win market. The exciting thing is that I'm still playing for relatively small stakes and I think that I can scale-up quite a bit. The last few days have give me the incentive to push on with updating my horse notes. This is a pretty time consuming and boring process but gets easier as I get them up to date. I need to try to make sure that I have all of my notes compiled a day in advance as that makes things a bit easier to manage.I'll also take a look at the Betdaq/Ladbrokes IR markets tomorrow to see if there has been any improvement in the liqudity since I last looked.
OK, time for something a bit different. I remember taking a chance and buying this before I'd even heard it and on coming out of HMV in Oxford Street one of the security guards saw what I had purchased and said that it was one of the best albums he had heard. Rap you either love it or hate it ...
Dr Dre - Still Dre
11/12
+£60.90. Lingfield and then Kempton were both cancelled due to heavy fog so we were left with a bag of shite from Hexham and Leicester. We did have Dundalk in the evening but that was practically impossible apart from the last race where I clicked one right on the line for £200+ (after a couple of beers) and it scraped third by a gnats cock.
Hey, it's only 10 days to the shortest day of the year and then it's summer here we come!!
I'm not too sure when I got hooked on Les Mis but I think that it's fucking fantastic and still brings a tear or two to my eyes whenever I watch it, either the 10th anniversary stage production or the film. Fucking superb ...
Philip Quast - Stars
12/12
-£16.47. Won a bit, lost a bit, won a bit, lost a bit and so on ....
I'm holding onto my in-running greens for a bit longer and that has meant that I have missed one or two £30-£40 greens but I think that I'm due to hit a few £70-£100+ (and possibly more) greens in the near future. Remember that I'm still a novice in the win market so it's work in progress.
Once again I can't say that I'm the biggest Amy Winehouse fan but a girl in our local drinking establishment (when it was still open) loved to sing this on the karaoke every Sunday night and it kinda grew on me ...
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
I'm out on a heavy Xmas drinking session with my mates on Saturday. These are my best mates from back when we were all about 8 years old and we still make sure to keep in touch, especially at Xmas. We're heading off to Camden and I'm slightly nervous as they are all skilled in the art of drinking copious amounts of alcohol and I can see myself being tailed-off and left in the gutter. I might have a few Hoegaardens tonight just as a warm-up!
On our Xmas outing two years ago I got absolutely wankered and literally stumbled from somewhere in the West End to Old Street. I didn't know where I was walking, can't remember crossing any roads but can remember throwing up along the way. I did stop and sit down at a few bus stops but every time a bus came along I couldn't even focus to see the fucking number or where it was going! I somehow found myself in Old Street where I had worked many years ago and finally managed to get a mini cab back home. Ah good times .....
13/12
-£60.38. Friday the fucking 13th eh? I traded like a zombie on crack today. Most of my trades in the day probably weren't too bad but my loss in the first at Wolves was criminal. I'm off out tomorrow night so could do with winning some beer/kebab/hooker(s)/bail/cab home money.
I stumbled across this man maybe a couple of years ago and he possibly has to be one of the best blues guitarists that I've ever heard ... and he can sing as well!
Joe Bonamassa - The Great Flood
14/12
+£7.56. Kind of felt as though I had to push things a bit today as I wanted an afternoon kip before I ventured out on the piss. Played a couple of races poorly and just about broke even.
I think that I first heard this in The Belgian Cafe down in Ramsgate where they have quite a bit of regular scheduled and impromptu music. I've just cracked open a bottle of red (added on Friday evening, so jumped ahead of myself here) so I'm feeling a bit bluesy ...
BB King & Co - The Thrill is Gone
15/12
+£21.07. Felt like a sack of shite after last night's marathon beer session so won £20 and went back to bed!
I was up late one night and managed to catch Jarvis Cocker on the Jools Holland show and I really love this song ...
Pulp - I Spy
16/12
-£44.72. Not a particular enjoyable day today. You know when you have that feeling that it's going to be a shite day and nothing seems to go right .... well that was today. I wasn't going anywhere fast and then I blew £55 in cold blood when I went to back a horse and managed to move the cursor onto the horse above it (I've probably still got the shakes from all that alcohol I consumed) and stood to win about a million pounds as the fucker had fallen or was 10 miles behind.
The in-running markets seemed to be a bit all over the place today and a prime example was the race won by Act of Kalinisi. The horse took an early lead and the price shortened accordingly. The commentator then mentioned that the pace was strong, so the price then went on a big drift. The commentator then exclaimed how it had now stretched on and had gone 5 lengths clear and the price fell like a stone. It often happens that a big move will occur immediately after the commentator mentions something positive/negative about the horse and this move is often way too aggresive compared to what is actually happening.
I couldn't wait for the racing to end as I was still fucked from the weekend and hit the sack for a late afternoon snooze.
I think I was eleven or twelve and every other music lesson we were allowed to bring a record (vinyl yep) into school to play for everyone in the class. One of the guys was right into his music and brought in 'Presence' by Led Zeppelin. Whoah I was blown away and have been a Led Zeppelin fan ever since ...
First of all I'm going to congratulate myself on going through the whole of November without a single losing day. OK I didn't exactly set the world alight in terms of profit but it's still good to have a nice steady month, especially at this time of the year.
Trading in the Win Market
Some things changed during November. Towards the end of the month I became more accustomed to actually trading in the win market. This happened as a natural follow-on to trading the pre-race market and in most cases I was taking positions early in the race. I only played for relatively small stakes but can definitely see the potential of hanging around in the win market, at least for the first half of the race at which point I have normally exited my position. I then tend to jump into the place market for the last half of the race and this seems to work well although it can be a pain in the ass forever jumping in and out of markets and combining pre-race/early race trading in the win market using the Geeks Toy and then jumping into the place market and trading on Gruss. I further complicated things by having a crack pre-race on Betdaq (Ladbrokes) and this meant that I had even more windows open and at times it just become too confusing. I may persevere on Betdaq this month but maybe only on those days when there are 2 meetings during the day. If they ever get their API sorted then Betdaq will be OK for pre-race trading as the liquidity seems to have improved significantly over the last few weeks. All we need now is a similar level of cash in the market once it goes in-running.
Trading the Greyhounds
There is some potential to make some small cash in the dog markets and I think that I'm right on top of how the markets move but I just didn't take advantage of the opportunities in November. The horse racing was quite full-on so I didn't really play many dog markets. However, it's good to be prepared for when the weather hits in Jan/Feb. I'm definitely going to make more of an effort to be up and about for the early dogs and also the live dogs on RPGTV Wed-Sun where there is much better liquidity in the markets.
01/12
-£27.26. Jumped on the spinning bike for 20 minutes this morning and waved goodbye to the bacon, sausages, cakes and crap that I've been eating recently so felt ready to trade.
So today I spent most of my time trading in the win market. The house was quiet with my lads in bed after a heavy night and the girls out shopping. Played small but steady and made a few pennies until boom! In a nutshell .... youngest boy woke up with the arsehole... caused a big argument .... missus, daughter and kids came in shouting and screaming ... I sit down for the last race and blow £50! OK not a huge amount but it provided me with my first losing day for ages and the right raving arsehole. Needless to say I vented my spleen and had a good scream and shout, threw my headphones and kicked the sofa halway across the room! They seeem to think that I sit here every day for the fucking fun of it? To be honest if I could fuck off tomorrow then I probably would ....
So seeing that it's not the time of year for beer pics in the sun let's have some music this month. Maybe a few favourite tracks or bands. I have loads of goodies lined-up so I'll start with a track/group that takes me back to my youth and a tune that I belt out on the karaoke given half a chance ...
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
02/12
+£62.89. Woke up in the middle of the night and the first thing that entered my head was that pot of cheese and onion gooey spread sitting in my fridge! Fuck I was starving!
Another one that takes me back to my youth. I must admit that I still haven't listened to a lot of their music but my vinyl copy of this album/track had much airtime in my house back when I was still in school. In my opinion one of their best tracks and they still do it justice 30 odd years later...
Yes - And You and I
03/12
+£64.01. Wasn't much on offer today. Tuesday and we were presented with Sedgefield, Southwell and Wolverhampton and loads of races with very few runners, so was quite happy getting any sort of profit!
David Gilmour, probably my favourite guitarist of all time ...
David Gilmour - A great Day for Freedom
Managed to get to see him on his solo tour back in the 80's and again at the Mermaid Theatre a few years back, but alas never got to see the mighty Pink Floyd (one of life's regrets).
04/12
+£109.85. A nice day today where one again I stayed in the win market for as long as possible but most of my profits came from the in-running. To be honest I think that the in-running still has more potential than pre-race .... but Caan may beg to differ. Take a look at his blog as he is posting some very nice profits!
I took some flak from my missus and daughter about my comments on the 01/12. They obviously keep a close eye on my blog in between their hectic days of cracking open cans of Stella/Fosters. If there was money in recycling beer cans I'd be a millionaire! Let's just say that my local off-license is doing very well out of my family at the moment thank you very much!
As I've mentioned before, my missus can be a pain in the ass but she did take me to see the one and only Leonard Cohen (fucking Legend) at the O2 but fuck me that O2 arena is fucking high ... and I'm shit scared of heights! Even sitting down I had the overwhelming feeling of plumetting to the ground miles below and after some of the comments I've posted about my missus on here I was seriously worrying that she was a) trying to give me a heart attack or b) even possibly about to trip me over the edge. Apart from the height it was a fabulous night ....
Leonard Cohen - A Thousand Kisses Deep
05/12
+£70.65. I was called up for baby sitting duties for my 18 month grandaughter
so had to juggle trading a few races while making sure that she wasn't
turning my amp up to max, turning the TV on and off, trying to pull the
flap off my CD player, smashing my camcorder, pushing the Sky box off
the shelf and shitting her nappy. I just about survived.
As for the racing, well I fared OK again over the jumps and stayed mostly in the win market. Unfortunately I nodded off briefy before the last race at Wolverhampton as I was SO tired and then managed to lay the favourite (which was good) and in my attempt to take a small red in-running I managed to back it back for too much using that fucking useless poxy greeen-up button. Obviously it got well beat so my original click was a good one ... DOH!
Call me a philistine but I'm not the greatest fan of Eric Clapton. However, when I first heard this track, especially the live version, well it blew me away. Love it ....
Eric Clapton - River of Tears
06/12
+£94.75. I was really keen to get cracking on todays racing but never really got going and had to settle for some small wins. I'm still amazed that so many races have small fields ... where have all of the fucking horses gone?
If you're in a chilled mood and have a bottle or 2 of wine handy and a fine woman to share it with then stick on some Black (Colin Vearncombe) and just chill baby .....
Apparently my missus has taken offence to some of my ealier comments and is planning to compile her own blog in which she intends to vent her spleen and shoot me down in a ball of flames. I'd better get that 'Blogging for Dummies' ordered so she gets it in time for Xmas ...
07/12
+£110.92. I REALLY enjoyed trading the races this afternoon. I've mentioned before that Saturdays don't usually provide me with the sort of profit that I'd expect from the busiest day of the week. However today I pretty much stayed in the win market all day and actually traded as opposed to backing/laying in the place market!
I have to admit that I only recently watched the film 'Quadrophenia'!! Yep how did that one slip under the radar? Well to be honest I'm not a fan of The Who, but the ending scene and the music, especially 'Love Reign O'er Me' is fantastic, especially as it's filmed in Brighton (and remember that I hate heights) ...
The Who - Love Reign O'er Me
08/12
+£47.11. Another enjoyable day. Not huge profits and make a few novicey mistakes (well I am new to trading in the win market) but a bit more exciting and involved than the way that I normally play.
The best thing to ever have come out of Newham! Up the Irons! ....
