Heatwave!

Yep here comes the Summer! Apparently it's going to get well hot over the coming weekend so it's off to the coast for me for some cycling, sun, Hoegaarden and late night guitar twanging in The Belgian Cafe.

Unfortunately we all know to well that the Met Office are generally fucking shite at predicting the weather so come Friday it'll probably be freezing cold and pissing down with rain!

It's a right fucker as it's June already and the summer months are short enough as it is so that currant bun better start shining! I'm literally gagging to get down there and have a crack and chill out!










26/05

+£166.21. I never really got going in the afternoon and struggled to make any headway but then had a couple of wins in the early evening which made the total a bit more respectable.

27/05

+£436.21. My recording equipment arrived today and to be honest after I had that very nice win I couldn't be arsed with the trading as I was fucking about with my new toys!

The trade itself was a very strange one as initially the market went against me big style and I was looking at a £70+ loss! It was a crazy move in my eyes so I sat with it and then it swung back in my favour and I then had a great position which just continued to get better and better!

28/05

+£53.01. Unfortunately when I received my XLR cable yesterday the pins were slightly bent so I had to order a new one and that arrived today. That now meant that I pretty much spent all afternoon fucking about recording stuff and playing with the software which meant that my concentration on the job at hand was pants. It was no surprise that I had 3 losses in a row which saw me do the best part of £120. Somehow I managed to get back into profit between singing and guitar strumming!

29/05

+£56.87. Once again I spent most of the day fucking about recording shite and once again I won fuck all ... what a nobber!

I did however manage to cobble together some acoustic guitar, a little bit of lead guitar, some lyrics and a video of me cycling back from Deal to Ramsgate after 6 pints!

 



30/05

+£124.59. I didn't trade all of the races today as I was heading out on the piss again in the evening so I had a crafty nap mid-afternoon! I do find Saturday's can be kind tough so I had to settle for enough to cover a couple of minicabs and a few sherberts with family and friends.

I also managed to record another small vocal clip with a backing track from a free midi site and some lyrics that I conjured up from deep inside ...

The video was from when I got kicked out of The Belgian Cafe at just after 03:00 in the morning after a right good session on the Hoegaarden and then grabbed my bike and cycled through the night to Deal! It was something that I had always wanted to do and cycled along pitch black deserted trails with only my super powerful torch to guide me and prevent me from going headlong into a ditch! It was a fantastic experience, from what I remember, and this was Deal at around 05:00 in the morning ... it was beautiful.




31/05

+£234.04. I quite enjoyed trading today even though I started off slightly behind due to an early loss. The races seemed to flow smoothly and we didn't have any clashes. I kinda like the low liquidity and volatile Irish markets and on a relatively busy Sunday the winnings soon added up.

To complete my recording studio setup I realised that I needed some monitors (speakers) and stands so I really wanted to win enough yesterday to cover the cost (about £300). Todays winnings on top of yesterdays give me enough, so bollox to it, I'll probably order some tomorrow ...

Now that's NOT my desk as it's far too tidy but with a bit of effort I can get all of my clutter sorted and it'll look OK and more importantly be really functional.



01/06

+£105.42. I'm actually updating this next part of the blog on 10/06 as I've been a bit lazy and have fallen behind on my blog updating duties doh! Plenty of trades today but a poor result based on the number of races ...

02/06

+£41.24. Shit meetings (I hate Wolves & Southwell) = shite result!

03/06

+£30.51. I had a poor start to the day and spent the remainder of the evening just trying to get my head in front on the day.

04/06

+£249.07. A much improved day today with most of my winnings coming from the evening meetings.

05/06

+£118.99. Win a bit ... lose a bit ... repeat several times ...

08/06

+£115.43. It's always good to get any sort of win under your belt after a return from a few days off ...

I took opportunity of the improved weather and shot down to the south-east coast for a couple of days. I made it to Ramsgate by around 07:30 on Friday and had a pint of Hoegaarden as a livener outside The Belgian Cafe and the weather was already OK. I cycled up to the station and got the train to Whitstable and then cycled along the coast to Herne Bay and grabbed my second pint, this time Oranjeboom, and sat outside The Rose Inn. From there it was on to Reculver and my third pint, this time Fosters, outside The King Ethelbert.

It was now warming-up nicely and the strong tailwind made my jouney to Minnis Bay a lot easier, whereupon I indulged in my fourth pint, a pint of Amstel, outside The Minnis. At this point I started to feel the effects of a lack of a recent outing and the jouney to The Jolly Farmer at Monkston Airport began to sap my energy and my glutes were starting to burn ever so slightly. My fifth pint, a pint of Carling, outside The Jolly eased the pain and provided some brief respite. It was then back on the bike for the final leg of the journey back to The Belgian Cafe where I administered pints six and seven, Hoegaarden of course, purely as a medicinal treatment!

After clambering back onto my bike I cycled up to the B&B and hit the sack! My plan was to sleep for a few hours and then indulge in an evening session. However, each time that I woke up I still felt knackered and SO comfortable in bed that I kept saying to myself  'just 1 more hour then I'll go out'.

When I woke up at 22:00 I thought 'fuck this I'm staying here for the night!'



09/06

+£63.09. Didn't really manage to trade that many races today ...

So following my Saturday effort I bounced out of bed early doors Sunday and hit The Belgian Cafe (without my bike) and setup camp outside in the sun. The Hoegaarden was flowing very nicely indeed and I managed a little bit of reading, guitar twanging, lyric writing and chatting to various locals. To be honest I was a bit of a lightweight as I was only into my fifth pint when I got the munchies and ordered a full english breakfast. Now this was just fantastic, as apart from a couple of scones yesterday it was the only thing that I had eaten in 2 days. However I can never usually carry on drinking after a decent meal and I hit the wall after pint number 6, so once again I ventured back up to the B&B and hit the sack again.

Now I don't know whether or not it turned a bit nippy but every time that I woke up or jumped out of bed for a piss it was fucking freezing and I couldn't wait to get back into bed. Suffice to say that once again I stayed in bed all evening and couldn't be bothered to venture out.

So in summary it was a cracking couple of days even though I never made it out for late night fun and frolics. To be honest it was probably a good thing as I probably would have been mangled, my kidneys would have seized-up and my spleen probably would have exploded!

I'm treating those 2 days as a warm-up for future visits (going again next week) so I should strip fitter and stay the distance.




10/06

+£177.41. I had a bit of a patchy spell mid-afternoon but then seemed to get into the groove early evening and finished the day quite well.

Getting There!

Trading results getting better, weather on the improve, training and diet going well, backup cycle almost built, yet house still a shite hole!

Yep the results are on the improve but there's still SO much potential. During trading on Saturday I was up to £200+ but still didn't feel happy as I'm now expecting closer to £500+ per day on a regular basis.

The weather is normally pants at this time of the year even though the days are getting much longer. I'm off to the coast for a 2 day drinkathon mid-June but would like to get down there on my bike beforehand if we happen to get a couple of days of nice sunny weather.

I'm right on top of the gym and diet and I'm going to have a big push this week, especially with regards to the diet where I'm going to cut out as many carbs as posssible.

Time for some Frank Medrano ...

16/05

+£167.80. I had a nice steady day today with regular small'ish wins but then I fizzled out towards the evening and I was quite dissapointed that I didn't go £200+.

17/05

-£130.52. I was fucking hopeless today. It seemed that every time that I pressed the button that the market went against me almost immediately. I spent most of the day shouting 'this is fucking unbelievable' in true Victor Meldrew stylee!

18/05

+£82.33. My confidence was quite low after yesterday's result so my main aim today was just to get a green total at the end of the day. This trading game can really screw with your mind so it's important to try and avoid consecutive losing days as this can make you feel as though it's all going tits up!

 
To be honest I wasn't going anywhere fast yet I was managing to keep my head above water and then I had a couple of wins late on which pushed the total up nearer to £100 so it was mission achieved!



19/05

+£159.69. Another one of those days where a few regular wins soon took me well into 3 figure territory. Not fantastic, but I won't complain.

 

20/05

+£61.14. An up and down day today. Concentration was low and it was a small victory to nick a few quid in the last couple of races.

21/05

+£30.55. I had a fairly good start to the day but then stalled in mid-air and then dropped £70 in the last fucking race of the day!

 
What a bellend!

22/05

-£58.22. I did my bollox early doors and that included backing that fucker where the jockey fell off in the final furlong! Things like that happen now and then and you just have to take it on the chin and carry on ...

I can't wait to get down to the coast again and hopefuly I'll bump into Angelo Tristan and his band in The Belgian Cafe. I managed to catch them doing a short acoustic set last year and they're the bollox ... give them a listen and a thumbs up!

23/05

+£279.48. I had a strange day today. I was up fairly early but was too knackered for the gym so played some guitar instead. I thought I'd have a bash at 'Let It Go' from Frozen and record it onto my PC.

Well I'm still a novice on the guitar and my singing voice is pretty poor atm (although I like to try) but my mic on my Logitech cam wasn't really up to the task. Now for some reason at this point I thought to myself 'why not buy a decent microphone?' The rest is history (see video) ...

As for the trading, well I had a crap start and lost £130 in one of the early races but after that things seemed pretty easy and I chiselled away and ended-up with almost enough profit to cover my microphone spending spree!

24/05

+£80.42. Today was a typical Sunday where I traded very few races and subsequently took what I could ...

25/05

+£15.79. Bank Holiday Monday today so I decided that I would go out on the piss in the evening, so I traded a few races and then had an afternoon snooze!

We had in a few sherberts in the local boozer and then headed back to my son's girlfriends place whereupon I indulged in a few bottles of chilled Hoegaarden. Had a right good time and I treated myself to a cheeseburger topped with a fried egg when we got home, as you do, and hit the sack at somewhere around 03:00.

Quite Literally a Shite Week!

Well this last week has been pants in many ways. I've been struggling with technical issues and subsequently my profit has been non-existent. Then on Thursday I had my grandchildren staying with me and my grandson had picked up a bug and spent most of the day throwing up and shitting.

Fast forward to Friday morning and now I'm the one yakking my ring up and fuck it hurts! The shit that came out of my stomach was unbelievable!

The only good thing to come out of all of this is that my weight dropped drastically and with a bit of good work down the gym and some good dieting I'll be ready for the coast when the weather brightens up!


I was browsing through my videos and came across my cycle cam video from back in 2012. Not exactly Go Pro quality (I might have to invest in one of those) but it captures the moment! Cycling along in the sun after a 5 or 6 pint morning session is a right crack!

09/05

+£14.31. Got out of bed ... traded 2 races .... felt like shite .... went back to bed ...

10/05

+£109.77. It's fucking annoying when I update my blog but then forget to presss the 'Update' button and all of my changes get lost ... grrrr!

11/05

+£541.78 Smashed it!

12/05

+£128.64. I'm still having some technical problems and that's having an adverse effect on my P&L. Hopefully I can get them sorted ASAP!

13/05

+£122.02. Had my Virgin 152Mb fibre connection installed today and literally five minutes after the guy fucked off the connection dropped mid race.

 
Luckily I didn't have an open position, but now I have even more fucking technical problems!!

 

14/05

+£200.67. I had an abysmal start to the day! I was not in the best of moods due to my ongoing tech problems and added to that I had family issues, AGAIN!, and just before racing I had a heated argument with my youngest daughter. Now it's been mentioned before that you have to be 100% focussed on the trading otherwise you will be open to mistakes. Well in the first race of the day I got caught with my pants well and truly down ...

.. and managed to lose £48.74 in the place market and £202.94 in the win market .... oh fucking happy day! I was NOT fucking happy!!

When this sort of thing happens you need to control the burning inner rage, take a deep breath, re-focus and go about business as normal, even though you feel like smashing everything in sight, including the next few races!
 
Well I chipped away with my first aim to try and get the loss under £200. I was feeling a bit better once I had reduced the loss somewhat and then late on I had 2 cracking results back-to-back which saw me go from a -£250 start to just over +£200 at the close of pay.


 
15/05

+£227.50. Well my technical issues seem to have been resolved, fingers crossed, so I was able to crack on with the trading today. To be honest I was expecting a bit more as we had seven meetings although I do prefer the more volatile lower grade races as my trading style is usually more effective.

Raring To Go!

The weather has turned shite again but it's only a matter of weeks before we get some decent sunshine then I'm off to the coast!

The bikes are washed and oiled and I've had a couple of practice runs on the binge drinking front so I'm pretty much set for some serious drinking action.


So hopefully at some point soon it'll be Nigel Farage'ville here I come ...

All I need to do now is to smash the markets to pieces and make enough cash so that I can comfortably afford to fuck off for a few days now and then whenever the sun comes out.



03/05

+£91.69. I didn't trade that many races today but still nearly made it to £100+ so it wasn't too bad.

04/05

+£6.67. For some reason I decided to fuck about looking at bike stuff before and during racing today and this really fucked with my concentration. I made a really stupid trade in the 14:40 @ The Curragh and I spent the rest of the day trying to get back to dry land. It really fucked me off that I had made such a poor decision but at least I acknowledged the fact that I was a pratt!

It's quite an obvious statement to make but when you're supposed to be trading and trying to make cash then that is ALL you should be thinking about. Once you start to get distracted by other shite then your performance is going to be negatively affected.



05/05

+£12.02. I was ravaged by technical problems today and only managed to trade 12 races.

On the plus side I noticed that the guys were outside of my house running the cabling for my new 152Mb Virgin fibre optic broadband connection.

06/05

+£53.16. I had more technical problems today and that really destroyed my concentration, so it's a wonder that I made anything at all!

I've beeen asked to post a video of some in-running trading and hey presto here's one I made earlier ..... well actually last August but it should give you a few ideas on how you could tailor your own trading ...

07/05

+£167.83. Yet more technical problems today and that meant that I was starting to get the right asshole! Everything was starting to piss me off including the incessant spouting of shite by those hopeless and rather annoying RUK pundits. Why does Lydia Hislop have to talk so fucking fast? Yep she has huge fucking tits but I bet she'd be fucking annoying in the sack.

This week seems to be littered with distractions and that really effects how well you can trade and ultimately screws with your P&L. Even as I type this they are really fucking annoying me with their complete bollox and laughing and charfing.

Luckily I managed to get  couple of decent wins in the evening and that eased the pain somewhat.



08/05

+£1.30. I stayed up last night to watch the election results and still felt a bit jaded and irritable during trading today. It was a fucking struggle and I was always behind and was dishing out the abuse to various jockeys every 10 minutes. It was pissing down at both Chester and Market Rasen and that added to the general gloomy feeling.

I think that I'll get back down the gym tomorrow morning and beat the fuck out of the heavy bag!

On Your Bike!

It's time to get the bike prepped for sunny days down on the coast but this year I think I'll switch to my hardtail as I don't really need to use a full suspension bike. My youngest son moved out a while back and so I inherited his Voodoo Hoodoo which are supposed to be good hardtail bikes, so I'll give it some TLC over the next few days and hopefully I should notice the lighter weight as opposed to my full suss GT bike.

Anyway, I'm in a giving mood today and feel like sharing the love, so here's some information that I have posted out to some of the guys that follow my blog.

It's some general information pertaining to trading in-running that should be helpful to those of you wanting to give the IR trading a real crack. I've been receving quite a few emails over the last few weeks with regards to in-running so I might as well post some of the relevant information on here. I've probably covered most of these points previously in the blog but here's one of my replies in encapsulated form (with more to follow):


Hi Dave.

How do you deal with getting out the market for a loss IR – do you use stop losses?

You mentioned in your blog that when you are in green position, you start firing in the lays – can you elaborate on that in layman’s terms (excuse the pun), what are you actually doing on the ladder interface?

Why do you use Geek’s Toy and not BetAngel –  is GT better for stop losses?
 


Hiya xxxx

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you as I haven't checked this account for a few days.

In answer to your questions:

If I sense that the market is not acting as I expected then I take a red ASAP. Let's say for instance I have backed for £50 @ 6.0 and after a couple of furlongs (or jumps) the horse seems to be going well. Now I'm obviously expecting the price to shorten and I will already have placed some lay bets for maybe £5 at odds of 5.0, 4.1, 2.6, 1.8 (as an example). If then after a couple more furlongs my 5.0 and 4.1 get matched then my green zone has been extended should I need to exit quickly for the remainder of my stake (hope that this makes sense). If however the price actually starts to move out, let's say to 5.6 and there seems to be opposition then I will immediately click to take a red but I'll probably click on the red value further up the ladder, at maybe 6.2. This means that in most cases I will get my 'red' bail out bet matched even if it means that I lose more by doing this, i.e. I'm laying at any price up to 6.2. This helps to avoid most of the 'fuck I've missed it' situations, especially when the market becomes more volatile. All of my bets are entered using the ladder so the best way of quickly exiting a position is to click on an exit value that is a few ticks away from the current price. As an example, I might be sitting on a £10 green at the current price but I think that the market is about to go against me so I'll click on let's say £8 green which will be a few ticks away from the current and gives me a better chance of getting matched should the price start to veer away from my position.

Firing in my lays .... as above. If I have backed something as my first bet then I will nearly always scroll down on the ladder and put in smaller lay bets at various prices depending on how well I think that the horse is travelling. I do some mental arithmetic as I go. For example if I back £100 @ 11.0 as my entry trade then I'll quickly put lays for £10 at 6.0 and know that's £50, then £10 @ 5.0 and know that it's now £90, £10 @ 4.0 and now it's £120, £20 @ 3.0 and now it's £160, £200 @ 2.0 and now it's £360 and maybe £200 @ 1.5. So now I know that should the price go down to sub 1.5 then I'm pretty much £500 green 'ish. The beauty of this is that if your first prices get matched then your green zone is extended and it's much easier to then hold this position for a bit longer in hope of a bigger green but also knowing that it's easier to take at least some green if the price then start to move against you.

Stop loss ... I don't think that the stop loss is much use for in-running as the markets are probably too volatile for it to work efficiently. The market will often fly through your stop loss point and just keep going. I don't know of any traders that use this function for in-running. For me it HAS to be controlled manually, i.e. you have to place your exit points manually on the ladder, and do it quickly enough so that you have a good chance of getting matched, as in the technique for bailing out above.

It's good to hear of your involvement in the racing game and for sure if you have a very good understanding of running styles and are a good judge of pace then that is the hardest part cracked. I think that you just need to be more flexible with your exit points and maybe try phasing out some of your stake, as above, when the market moves in your favour.

I hope that this makes sense and helps. Please let me know if it doesn't or if you have any more questions as I'm always happy to help.

As for Geeks Toy, well the layout of the ladder interface is very tailorable and it just feels comfortable to use.

I'll try and do a video over the next couple of days of how I normally trade as that may make it easier to understand.

PS Use brickcrafts@hotmail.com as I don't check this one daily.


Cheers - Dave.




28/04

+£132.39. I traded pretty effectively today but then had one slip-up at Chelmsford, which in hindsight was a very poor effort and that cost me £90. Luckily I reclaimed £50 of that in the next race but I really should have sailed past the £200+ mark today.

29/04

+£141.98. Another day where a few little wins here and there took me past the £100+ barrier ...

30/04

+£137.01. I didn't have a particularly great start to the day but then had a nice result in the place market @ Punchestown and once again I was into 3 figure territory.

01/05

+£534.87. Well I eventually hit my first monkey of the year! Everything just fell nicely into place today and there's no reason why I can't kick on and post more results like this one and even head towards the £1k day barrier!

02/05

+£28.85. I celebrated my wedding anniversary last night but maybe over indulged as I was absolutely fucked today! We had a right good time down one of my fairly local boozers where they had late night karaoke followed by more music and we were the last ones to get chucked out at around 02:30.

Now this morning I had to get up and pop down to the post office and boy did I feel ill! I traded a couple of the early races then just had to admit defeat and went back to bed. I felt a little better after a good kip but it probably would have been better if I had just stayed in bed all day!!

I spent some time in the evening flicking through the channels and came across 'Cascadeur'. Maybe well worth a listen to chill at the end of a stressful day ...