OK .... Here We Go!

02/01

Just back from the coast and fuck me was it wet or windy or what??

We arrived early on the morning of the 31st and it was blowing a gale! We bravely battled the elements and made our way to The Belgian Cafe and settled in for an early morning Hoegaarden. The morning's fayre consisted of beers in The Royal, The Sovereign, Jacksons Wharf and The York Arms.

Following a nice afternoon kip we entertained The Red Lion, The Port and Anchor, The Belgian Cafe, then back to Jacksons Wharf to see in the New Year, and then after tucking the misssus up in bed at 01:30 I ventured out solo and ended-up back at The Belgian Cafe. I finally called it a day at around 04:30 and claimed my crown as the last man standing in Ramsgate harbour.

We smashed into it again on New Years day after a late'ish start (10:40) and added The Horse and Groom to our list. We dragged ourselves out of bed for the evening session and ended-up watching the darts final in The Port and Anchor and then onto The Belgian for a few late ones and finally got back ataround 01:30. All in all it was a fantastic couple of days and it was quite an experience being down on the coast in that sort of weather!

State of mind: apprehensive as I'm slightly jaded from the last 48 hours of binge drinking.

+£25.38. Stumbled my way through most of the racing but then hit the sack for an early evening snooze as I was knackered.

03/01

State of mind: confident.

+£32.46. Didn't really spot and great opportunities and I don't think that the heavy ground and general slow pace of many of the races suited my style of trading.

04/01

State of mind: confident.

+£43.22. The wet weather has started to take it's toll and Sandown and Towcester were abandoned today. That left three remaining meetings and the fuckheads who run this sport managed to let the races at Cork and Newcastle go off at exactly the same time all day long. What a bunch of twats! It looks as though quite a few more could fall victim to the rain in the next week and maybe further into January, but it's not unexpected and it's a case of soldiering on as March and the start of the flat season are just around the corner.

05/01

State of mind: confident.

+£15.85. A day of dire racing where I never really achieved any decent trading positions so had to settle for a minsicule win.

06/01


State of mind: confident but again not expecting much today.

It's 12:00 and I'm just going through the form for today's races and some of the races are so woeful that the form is practically non-existant. I might have to tread carefully as we could see plenty of fallers today.

+£0.13. I know that the weather has been terrible, especially in some coastal regions, but it's almost like a Sping morning here today ... the birds are chirping away and it's really nice out there. Roll on the Summer and a trim muscular body ready to soak-up ice cold beers!

07/01

+£8.93. We only had two meeetings today and the live pics from Leicester were well behind so I spent most of the day preparing my base curry sauce and then making a bombay potato, which if I say so myself was fucking fantastic! I was so hyped that I nearly smashed through the £10 barrier!!

08/01

State of mind: confident but not expecting much today.

+£110.63. Had one of those days where everyting seemed to go well and chipped away to just over £100.

09/01

State of mind: confident.

+£13.70. Missed a few chances by a gnats cock today so although I won fuck all I wasn't too unhappy.

10/01

-£28.43. My concentration and enthusiasm was poor today and I got what I deserved.

11/01

State of mind: confident.

-£0.58. Kids screaming, missus screaming, grandchildren screaming, trying to paint the kitchen in between races ... oh dear!

12/01
 
State of mind: confident.

My concentration has been very poor over the last couple of days. I don't think that I have made many mistakes but I've missed a few good opportunities and I seem to either be hanging on a bit too long on some selections when going into the green or coming out too soon. I'm maybe looking for a bit too much profit, but on the flip side I don't really want to bail out too early. So despite the poor results I can still see a lot of potential, I just need to focus a bit more and spend less time painting the kitchen and cooking curries!

It's Sunday today and we only have two meetings so I'm just going to concentrate on my trading and let the wins/losses trundle in and out of my BF account.

So I've just traded the first at Wolves and have already thrown away an easy £40+ green by not really being on the ball as I didn't have enough lay bets in the system ... DOH!

OK. Here's a later race where I did OK but it could have been so much better if I had a few more lay bets in the system!

+£113.26. It turned out to be an OK day, especially as there were only two meeetings, but it could have been so much better and could easily have been a £250+ day if I'd been concentrating a bit more. However, the potential is there so I'm pleased and so enthusiastic that I'm going to dive into tomorrow's form and update my notes this evening. It's a lot easier to go through the boring and time consuming task of compiling the notes after I've had a relatively good day. If you're an in-running trader it really does help knowing the general running style of each horse before the race starts. In fact I think that it is a big edge as I don't think that many traders have the willpower to compile this sort of info as it's so fucking hard to do on a daily basis, especially after a day of trading where all you want to do is sit back, drink beer and watch the TV.

This is a cracking time of the year as we're only a few weeks away from Spring, the days are getting longer and we're only 9 weeks away from the start of the flat season. So it's time to knucle down and earn some cash so I can go on the south coast drinking/cycling tour again this year. I had some great days down on the coast last year and one day that sticks in my mind is cycling along the coast at Whitstable and stoppping for an early morning beer on the beach ... was fucking fantastic!


13/01

State of mind: confident but slightly apprehensive as I don't want to undo yesterday's good work.

+£42.33. A steady day today and traded quite well.

There are only two meetings tomorrow which makes it easier to keep on top of the horse notes and eventually it becomes easier as the notes then just need to be kept up-to-date and I usually do this either during or after each race.


14/01

-£303.88. I learnt a hard lesson today .... never try to trade with screaming kids around. I got to the last race and had chipped away a few pennies and then my grandchildren started going apeshit, screaming and crying. I told my daughter about a dozen times 'shut those fucking kids up, I can't concentrate'. I should have just missed the last race. Instead I played, fucked-up and dropped over £300 in one race ... happy fucking birthday!. I am not fucking happy!

So as punishment I'm going to sit here and go through all of tomorrow's races and update my notes. I have a hospital appointment tomorrow afternoon, so I'll only be able to play a handful of races

I find that the besy way to deal with a relatively big loss is to see it in terms of just setting you back a few days. The money will be won back eventually, and the loss will be a distant memory, so there's no point beating yourself up. In fact it makes me realise that I should be pushing on a bit so that any loss like this only represents a loss of 2 or 3 days.

I stumbled across Paddy's blog over at the Geeks forum. It's a harsh reminder of the downside of gambling, and one of the things that he does every post is to re-affirm his status, that despite being a compulisve gambler, he is endeavouring to stay 'gamble free'. So here's my own take:

Hi, my name is Dave. I'm a fucking good trader and it's about time I grew some bollox and started to win some proper cash.

15/01