Time to have another bash at the pre-pace trading?



A couple of nice recent results have really helped to fire my enthusiasm. The hours that I spend actually trading are usually OK and still quite fun, especially when I'm winning. However, it's the boredom of keeping my horse notes up-to-date that sometimes gets on my tits.

My recent couple of days down on the coast coupled with a break from the gym and the slightly improved weather have give me some time to recharge my batteries. I'd been meaning to take a closer look at the pre-race trading videos put up at ItsAMugsBlog. Now I have spent many hours looking at material from Jack Birkhead and Caan Berry but I've never really been able to give it my undivided attention, as most of the time I would be trading in-running whilst the next pre-race market is forming.

Well over the last few months my trading has been more focussed on playing early in the win market and then I sometimes jump into the place market for the latter half of the race. So now I often find myself opening a market with 2 or 3 minutes to the off, and this is where maybe I could be trading, but I have always found it hard previously to get a grip of what is happening with only 2 or 3 minutes to the off.  

So last night I finally had the chance to look at some of the videos posted by ItsAMugsBlog and they  seemed to make sense. This guy approaches the art of pre-race trading in a slightly different angle from what I have learnt from Jack and Caan and the combination of all of this information made me rethink the way that I had approached pre-race trading in the past. So what I'm going to do is have a play over the next few days, for small stakes of £5 a click, and see whether I can make any progress.






29/05

May Total = +£2210.79

+£49.57. It felt like I had a good day today and I was a bit surprised that I only made just under £50. It was maybe that I felt pretty comfortable during a few pre-race trades, albeit for only £5 a click. So although I didn't win that much I felt as though the day went well and was pretty productive in terms of my foray once again into the pre-race market.






30/05

May Total = +£2520.12

+£308.33. One race made the day today! Late on in Ireland and I spotted a horse that was tiring but hanging on in fourth place over the last hurdle (the place market was first four) and I tried a crafty back for £50 odd at 1.5. So I was pleasantly surprised when I got matched at 7.0! Happy days! So happy in fact that I then had a quick dabble in the evening greyhound markets and nicked an extra £5!







31/05

May Total = +£2545.40

+£44.28. Not a particularly good day, especially for a Saturday. I think that I prefer the more volatile markets and the stronger Saturday markets don't really seem to suit my style of trading.




PS My mathematics failed somewhere along the line when adding my monthly total so the last few days don't add up correctly but I can't be bothered looking back to see where my maths went wrong.










It REALLY is Time to Win Some Cash!



The next four months are usually the most lucrative of the year as the volume of racing is at it's peak. It does take some perseverance and patience to be able to sit at the screen all day, especially when we get those hot long summer days where the ice cold beer is calling, but now is the time to make the most of the situation and win some decent money.

I am gradually increasing my stakes, but I'm STILL way short of what I really should be staking. I'm really going to be working on the pyschological side of this over the next few days to see if I can get myself playing with bigger stakes and with the same amount of confidence. It will probably be a situation where all of a sudden my profit levels really take off and I can get back to a stage where I can win £200+ per day. This should be readily achievable and a couple of months of that sort of profit would be very nice. That would then set me up for a stonking July-August. I might even be able to afford a few days down on the coast, although I'll be avoiding too much Stella (see below).




04/05

May Total = +£86.90

+£86.90. Today was my first day back after a couple of days down on the coast and a day of recovery yesterday after my late night binge on 02/04. My drinking effort was fine for my first three sessions and I purposely avoided drinking Stella which seemed to work fine. However, on Friday evening I over-indulged, drunk the wife's Stella when she bailed out early and then stayed out until 03:45 and ended-up praying to the porcelain God.





I felt like a bag of shite the following day and in hindsight I shouldn't really have driven home until the afternoon. We stopped halfway and I took a snooze which seemed to make me feel a bit better and as we passed the 13 mile to Blackwall Tunnel sign I realised that I was only 20 minutes from home and my bed. I was using all of my powers of concentration to avoid throwing my ring up but unfortunately when we went under the 2 mile to Blackwall Tunnel sign we hit a traffic jam from hell and I realised that the previous night's endeavours were about to come back and haunt me with a vengeance. My wife wasn't too pleased when I said 'pass that MacDonalds bag as I'm about to be sick!'. My stomach turned like the engine of a rusty old Ford Cortina but nothing surfaced, but boy did it hurt.




We finally made it through the tunnel and I managed to get 200 yards from my front door when I called out for the trusty MacDonalds bag again. This time there was no holding back and the remains of my stomach were gracefully expelled into the bag, obviously along with a load of snot and tears. Now my wife, who has a dodgy stomach at the best of times, demanded that I stop the car and let her out literally 50 yards from our house. I finished my journey with puke all down the front of my shirt and trousers, and then to top it all the Macdonald paper bag split and I got covered in the remainder of my sick and a half eaten sausage and egg mcmuffin. Suffice to say that I went straight to bed and when I awoke many hours later I didn't smell too good!






05/05

May Total = +£172.19

+£85.29. Bank Holiday Monday and another full day of racing. It would have been nice to have cracked the three figure barrier but it was pretty close. So a relatively good start to the month and I'd like to build upon this during the week and get some £100+ profit days on the board.




I think that the way to progress is to remind myself before I start tomorrow that I can play freely with the £170+ that I have won over the last 2 days and it doesn't really matter if I lose that, but in fact by playing with higher stakes that should enable me to make this profit £300+ ... and that will get the ball rolling for the next day, and so on.


01/04 09:30 Hoegaarden (1) in The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate
 





06/05

May Total = +£283.74

State of mind: very confident and ready to start giving myself the chance of winning some decent money.


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


It's so fucking annoying when you see the market suspend and then re-open at the off and then the stalls open one second later. It just means that you're so fucking far behind live that it becomes an almost hopeless cause to try and play in-running. It's only 14:26 and this has already happened at Brighton AND Kempton, so even the RUK pictures are fucking useless!


01/04 11:15 Fosters (3) in The Royal @ Ramsgate




+£111.55. So in-running trading in the win market seemed impossible today and my profit came mostly from 2 wagers in the place market. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done to counter the fact that the pictures at some tracks are delayed seemingly more than others. The best policy is not to get frustrated, not to chase prices, and play stronger when the opportunity arises. 




07/05

May Total = +£402.00

Following our Fosters in The Royal (see above) we ventured up to 'The Falstaff'. However I would have been waiting a fucking long time for it to open as it had closed down many months ago .... another boozer bites the dust!




+£118.26. I tried to press on today and increase my stakes. Now in a few races I did play slightly bigger but in truth I probably need to change my Geeks Toy settings and get rid of the smaller stake buttons.





Some of the todays racing was pants and the feed from Brighton was still way behind so the result wasn't too bad, but I'd like to kick-on tomorrow and gradually increase the profits to somewhere near £200 per day.





08/05

May Total = +£411.35

+£9.35. I felt as though I had a pretty poor day today but still managed to scrape a profit. Now that's much better than having a poor day and losing £100+, so I wasn't too dissapointed.




01/04 12:50 Guinness (4) in The Artillery Arms @ Ramsgate





09/05

May Total = +£666.62

+£255.27. I knew that I was close to this sort of daily profit and it all fell into place today. I actually started pretty poorly and lost £30+ in the first race of the day. This was caused by external influences which pissed me off and put me in quite an aggressive mood, especially in terms of winning some cash.



I actually felt slightly cheated at the end of the day as I had one race where I could have taken a £200 green and a few other opportunities that could have taken me over the £500 mark. In fact I'm now starting to feel slightly greedy .... whcih is exactly how I need to feel each time that I sit down to trade.


01/04 14:00 Fosters (5) in The Royal @ Ramsgate








10/05

May Total = +£843.27

+£176.65. Another good day on the back of my nice result yesterday. I'm starting to feel quite greedy in terms of how much that I think that I can realistically win during these busy Summer months. The way that I'm trading at the moment could easily see me increase my stakes, and subsequent profits, by four or five times, especially in the busy markets, which would see me in 'Caan' territory and looking to win more like £400-£500 per day on busy days.

It's time to be a greedy fucker!



01/04 20:02 Guinness (6) outside The Horse & Groom @ Ramsgate








11/05

May Total = +£847.58

+£4.31. I found today's racing to be as boring as fuck, a typical Sunday really. The pictures from Killarney were fucked as well, which led to it being a pretty miserable day as I really wanted to build upon my last few days.



There are 6 meetings tomorrow, albeit five on ATR, but hopefully I can get back on track, trade with some greed and venom, and make a better effort than today!


01/04 23:40 Hoegaarden (9) outside The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate








12/05

May Total = +£965.36

+£117.78. I wasn't going anywhere fast today and made pretty much fuck all during the daytime racing. However, it all seemed to change when the evening cards started and I started to chip away and didn't do too bad in the end ...






02/04 00:52 Hoegaarden (10) in The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate






13/05

May Total = +£1028.38

+£63.02. I had another day where my concentration levels were quite low and  once again I missed one or 2 good opportunities as I was either cooking, making a cuppa or chatting. I didn't get to the gym until after 08:00 this morning, which is on the late side for me, and then I had to do some shopping, so by the time I got home I was in a rush to update my notes and never really got them all completed before the first race.

Much like yesterday I didn't make much progress during the day. It's 18:40 as I type this and the evening cards from Ffos, Southwell and Killarney are all a bag of shite. I think that my hopes of getting anything tonight might lay with Killarney as the low grade/low liqidity Irish markets usually suit my style of trading.




I've been recording most of the racing but to be quite honest I'm struggling to find time to watch it and update my notes. I need to make an effort to get in the routine of completing my horse notes a day in advance, i.e in the evening when the cards come up on BF, and then watch the recordings the following morning.




02/04 08:45 Hoegaarden (11) outside The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate






14/05

May Total = +£1078.37

+£40.99. Midweek mediocre effort ....




02/04 10:35 Hoegaarden (12) in The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate






15/05

May Total = +£1183.20

+£104.83. Another £100+ day, so I'm heading in the right direction!





02/04 11:35 Fosters (13) in The Royal @ Ramsgate






16/05

May Total = +£1403.36

+£220.16. It all seems to be coming together. Obviously the increased amount of racing helps, so I really need to fill my boots over the next few months. It's time to get EVEN GREEDIER!!




PS My maths have gone wrong somewhere as my monthly total so far is only £1394.36 so I'll work out where I went wrong later ...



02/04 13:35 Hoegaarden (14) in The Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate





17/05

May Total = +£1424.04

I need to keep telling myself to get stuck-in. If I do a carpet today then I've still won over £1k in half a month, which is not too bad, but I should now be winning £5k+ per month. Let's go ....

+£20.68. Saturday today and I tried hard but it was just one of those days where I couldn't really get going, so quite disappointing.





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


02/04 20:55 Carling (15) in The Port & Anchor








18/05

May Total = +£1409.04

-£15.00. I spent the whole of the morning fucking about buying stuff off eBay and loading stuff into and then out of my car. So by the time racing started I was already fucked, and it turned into the most boring day ever.




03/04 03:45 Ramsgate Harbour 
 


So once again I was the last man standing in Ramsgate! Fuck knows how much I drank between that pint of Carling at 20:55 in the Port & Anchor (see above) and being kicked-out of the Belgian Cafe at around 03:15. One thing that I do know is that a few hours later I felt as sick as a pig and spent the remainder of the night chucking my ring up!. It then took me another 2 days to recover. Never again!! .... well until the next time!



19/05

May Total = +£1421.35

 +£12.31. Monday today and I really couldn't be bothered. I was tired and bored shitless by the wanky racing, so decided to give up early and go to the pub!








20/05

May Total = +£1498.37

+£77.02. I had one good result during the afternoon which helped soften the blow of an otherwise shite day of trading.







21/05

May Total = +£1589.88

+£91.51. I had a mixed bag of results today. I had a £50 green turn into a £10 red in an early race where I was being a bit greedy and hoping for a bit more, and then I bailed-out too early on a couple of races where I could have easily ended-up with a few hundred in each race. Such is life eh?




I've somewhat lost my focus over the last few days as I've been busy doing other things and there are only so many hours in the day. I'm off back down the coast this weekend so hopefully I can recharge the batteries and smash it upon my return. In the meantime it would be nice to have a good couple of days before I go and win some beer money.



22/05

May Total = +£1656.48

+£66.60. I didn't seem to trade in many races today ... not quite sure why?







23/05

May Total = +£1859.83

+£193.35. Everything seemed to go really well today. I had just fallen short of £200 so attempted to get the extra £2 on the dogs. I asked the missus whether I should back or lay the 6 dog and she stupidly said 'back it'. So I did and it got beat! I tried again in the next race but lost again so thought bollox to this gambling shite!!



 




26/05

May Total = +£1838.12

-£20.71. Just back from 2 days down on the coast and felt knackered. Had an afternoon kip and then the market moved against me in a Ballinrobe race so ended-up having a small losing day.







27/05

May Total = +£2117.57

+£279.45. Had a cracker today and in fact could have won a lot more if I had held on to my positions for a bit longer, but hey I'm happy with the result and I'll be looking to crack-on tomorrow.


 




28/05

May Total = +£2161.22

+£43.65. Not much to say about today's effort ...