Tyson Fury

Well it's been a bloody long time ... but just like Tyson Fury I'm about to lace-up the trading gloves and give it another bash! More to follow .....  🤪

The hare is running 🤣

£25.16 - A Pretty Poor Week

I only managed to trade in 47 races this week so things were pretty grim again!

December 15th - 21st  

I'm really not getting the time to put in a good few consistent days of trading atm so I'm kinda treading water. I'm juggling my trading with the more important needs of my business and visiting my mum up in London so I guess that things will be pretty quiet until we hit the longer days in late Spring. 

£82.58 - A Slightly Better Effort This Week

The snowy and icy weather decimated the racing this week. It also meant that I couldn't get out and work, so it was a case of doing a bit of housework along with lots of guitar twanging. 

Additionally, I was continuing to travel up to London to visit my Mum in hospital so once again trading time was limited.

December 8th - 14th

£47.16 - A Predictable Slow Start for December

I'm still juggling with my business and family commitments atm, so once again I've had very little quality time to sit down and trade. Unfortunately, when I do get some time to trade then I'm finding the markets either very tricky or severely lacking in liquidity and therefore action ... that's until the track players swoop in and hoover-up all of the tasty pickings!

December 1st - 7th

£23.54 - Trading Takes a Back Seat

Family commitments had to come before trading this week and I only managed to find the time to trade in 37 races.  

November 22nd - 30th

It's frustrating when all you want to do is sit down and improve your game, but life will throw you curveballs every now and then and all you can do is stay patient and wait for better days.

£80.38 - Treading Water

The third week of November was pretty much the same as the second week! To be fair, I didn't have much time to trade due to work and other family commitments, so things were haphazard at best.

November 15th - 21st

£20.76 - Frustration

The second week of November was quite frustrating. Quite a few of the markets seemed impossible to read and other seemed to desperately lack any sort of liquidity. It's frustrating when you're trading with just £50 a click and there's literally just fivers and tenners available, and sometimes only £2 at various prices.

On a couple of days I got off to a relatively bad start and this tends to make me shout and scream quite a bit, although fortunately I very rarely go on tilt and it's just a case of being patient and avoiding making the same mistake or learning on why you just lost your money!

One of the reasons for the paltry total was that I only traded 4 days which amounted to 49 markets as I was busy elsewhere. 

November 8th - 14th

£81.28 - A Very Quiet Start to November

I was a bit busier with my business during the first week of November and this meant that I had less quality time to trade. Additionally, there are a few tracks that I tend to avoid at the moment, such as Doncaster and Newcastle, so the pickings were quite slim.

Having said all of that, I did actually manage to trade in 83 races, so at least I'm being more active when I do get the chance.

November 1st - 8th

Obviously there's a lot less racing during the winter months but it's an ideal time to work on my new strategies and get myself back up to speed with regards to monthly profits.

£3.77 - Tagged .... but an early release 😀👍

14/10/2022

Well, it looks like I may be back!

After a very long hiatus from Betfair (the Wi-Fi is crap in Pentonville) I decided to log onto BF to see if anything had changed in the last few years.

After a quick fact finding mission on the good old forum it was apparent that, if anything, things were worse than ever!

However, I just had to have a crack, for old times' sake, and I fired up the Geeks Toy and set my stakes to £2 a click. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before I realised that:

    a) I'd completely forgotten how to trade and 

    b) the markets were crap

    c) I've become a slow old cunt

Over a period of 7 days I traded a few races and here are the results ...

It was obvious that I was better off sticking to the day job ..... 

To be continued .....

£22.44 - Looking for a Different Angle

20/10/2022

The fundamental mistake that I made when having another look at the markets was that I immediately adopted the same old routine that I was using back in the day. Now, things have moved on and the opportunities that were previously available have gradually became less lucrative over time, eventually leading to my decision to knock the trading on the head.

The single most important factor of being a successful trader is finding that angle or edge that then allows you to make a consistent profit. As I traded a few races using my old redundant 'techniques' I began to notice an obvious opportunity that arose time and time again in many of the races that I was trading. Funnily enough it was an observation that I had noted thousands of times previously whilst pretty much trading every single horse race every day of the year for a few years! However, to take advantage of this apparent opportunity required that I change the way in which I trade each race and most importantly that I need to become a lot less risk adverse. Pretty much all of my profits to date have been based on being risk adverse, having as many winning trades as possible while at the same time keeping losing trades to a bare minimum. Unfortunately, this is what led to me being fucked by the Premium Charge! 

When you are looking for that elusive edge it makes sense to keep your stakes to a minimum as you test different strategies. There's nothing worse than jumping in and doing your bollox early doors! So, I set my stakes to something like £3 a click and set about trying to make some sort of consistent profit using a consistent strategy. Here's my initial results:

September 1st - 7th

So, I ended up trading in 55 races over a 7-day period and won £22.44. Now that might seem like a total waste of time, but in fact it was time well spent. The more that I traded the more potential opportunities I could see!

The main challenge was now to become less risk adverse and to trade in more races as I was still missing opportunities by being too cautious. As I'm still on the 40% premium charge I need to turnover much more in order to negate the weekly charges. For instance, the way to win a premium charge free £100 a week is to win £800 and lose £700. By doing this you've already paid the 40% in commission 😀 

£7.97 - Another Week of Testing

21/10/2022

Nowadays I do run my own business and I'm also in a relationship with a gorgeous woman who makes relentless demands upon my body so my spare time can sometimes be limited. However, that trading bug is still there so I endeavoured to squeeze in as much trading as possible during the second week of September.

September 8th - 15th

This time around I traded 58 races and amassed a staggering profit of £7.97! Despite this underwhelming effort I could still see potential and to be honest I was still finding my feet after not trading for quite a few years. I had to remember simple things like the fact that different venues trade differently along with the basic rules of when and when not to enter the market. So, in hindsight the £7.97 profit was irrelevant as I felt as if I was starting to understand the markets again along with learning how to trade in a completely different way in what I had done previously. 

On the plus side of things, I have finally stopped watching Emmerdale as it's complete bollox!

£36.64 - Starting to See Some Progress

25/10/2022

I've just realised that these latest posts may be somewhat confusing as I'm currently writing them at the end of October and reporting on my progress during September.

Anyway, onto a few days of trading between 16th-22nd of September ...

This week's results made for better reading both in terms of profit and the number of races that I was able to trade. I actually traded in 63 races, which is still way too low for 7 days of racing, but it was certainly heading in the right direction. I'm guessing that at this time of the year I should be aiming to trade in at least 100 races every week. 

One main factor to consider when trading is when to trust your own judgement when the market is moving against your position.

This can initially seem somewhat tricky but when you take a closer look you can usually spot the difference between a genuine move against your position as opposed to a panic in the market caused by traders trying to minimize their losses. It's always a pain in the arse when you trust your judgement and hold onto a position when it's obvious that the market knows otherwise and also when you initially trust your decision but bail for a loss when the market moves wildly against you for no apparent reason. Learning to differentiate the difference and act accordingly makes a huge difference to your P&L.   

£6.89 - Old Habits Die Hard

26/10/2022

I was quite shocked when I looked back on my P&L for this 8-day period at the end of September. However, I immediately realised, just by looking at the P&L report, that I had gone back to my old ways of trading and was therefore totally missing out on trading in the most lucrative parts of each race. Quite often in this game you can't see the wood from the trees and all you do is end up banging your head against a brick wall.

The good thing about looking back over your P&L reports is that you should be able to see what is working and what isn't! 

September 23rd - 30th

£89.00 - Regaining Some Sanity in October

26/10/2022

It seems that the start of October may have been a turning point in terms of settling into my new trading style, albeit that my stakes are still only a combination of £5 or £22 a click, and for the majority of the time I'm still only clicking once per race!

October 1st - 7th

As mentioned previously I'm naturally a risk-adverse person and this is quite a hard habit to adjust but it's a gradual process and I think that I'm heading in the right direction. I've even asked my gf to tell me at every opportunity to 'grow some bollox Dave!'

£91.78 - Could We Be Heading For 3 Figure Territory?

26/10/2022

I still only managed to trade in 77 races during this second week of October, although I did have one day off, so there's still work to be done in that area and more potential for increased profits.

October 8th - 14th

My stakes were still relatively meagre at either £5 or £25 per click depending on the situation and stage of the race, so once again more potential for greater P&L once I scale these up to a reasonable level.

Out of interest I searched for trading groups on Facebook and joined a couple. It still surprises me that people are still looking for 'systems' or guaranteed ways of making a consistent profit. If you have the willpower to read through this entire blog, and some apparently have, hopefully you can pick up on some nuggets of wisdom that may help steer you in the right direction. However, if you just need a quick guide on the do's and don'ts of trading horse racing in-running then I'll post a tip on each of my blog posts as I merrily blog away. 

Tip 1

When starting out or finding your feet in any new market ALWAYS start with minimum stakes! Apparently, the minimum stake on BF is now just £1 so that's ideal. This gives you the opportunity to try different approaches without the worry of doing your bollox before you've even had a chance to find out how the markets operate.   

This might seem to be a very simple and obvious tip, but I've seen many a punter start to chase their losses when things get a bit hairy, and things usually end up messy accompanied by plenty of xxx rated language!

£133.68 - Procrastination is the Thief of Time

27/10/2022

If there is one thing that I am guilty of then it's definitely procrastination! Now, having previously mentioned that you need to start with small stakes and then gradually build up as your confidence increases .... well, it can take me bloody ages to get to a stage where I'm playing with decent stakes in order to make a decent profit.

My risk adverse nature always holds me back in this area and it's still something that I struggle with ... even today. Instead of realising the potential I procrastinate over entering the market or raising my stakes, it's fucking stupid tbh.

October 15th - 21st

The problem that I find with increasing your stakes is that the overriding fear is that it's now easily possible to wipe-out a few days profit in just one single bad trade. I still let this fear prevent me from realising the full potential of what is available.

Looking back, I now realise that I could, and should, have been making profits of at least £10k+ per month back in the good old days but my complacency and fear of losing held me back. It's quite frustrating really.

Tip 2

Make sure that you have a suitable trading environment. This means having a nice quiet place where you can trade without any distractions. Quite often in the past when trading from home I've been distracted by screaming kids, a nagging wife, barking dogs or just plain wandering off into the internet between races. It's amazing just how many times I done my bollox when this happened!

Additionally, you also need to have your PC and screens setup in a user-friendly way along with your trading software, I use Geeks Toy. Ideally you also need to have a nice clear full screen picture of the racing so that you're not struggling to see things as they unfold.

Basically, when you sit down to work you want to ensure that you are in a nice environment and that your setup is tailored to how you want to trade.

Mine has changed slightly since I took this old pic (I no longer sit under a parasol that's actually inside of my conservatory 😂) so I need to take a new one and hopefully I won't be looking so fucking smug .... not too sure what happened there!

£95.71 - Patience ia a Virtue (Apparently)

28/10/2022

I had a right old mixed bag of results over the last 7 days. This was combined with an initial enthusiasm that was tempered by frustration as the week progressed. I managed to trade in 93 races with my stakes now set at either £5, £10 or £30 a click. I'm currently trading with a bank of anywhere between £60 - £100. 

It was one of those periods where everything seemed impossible, progress was mind-numbingly slow, and mistakes and errors of judgement were coming thick and fast. The only thing that you can do in this situation is to stay calm and have the patience of a saint. If you can stay in a chilled-out zone then it's a lot easier to avoid going on tilt and it's also a lot easier to identify missed opportunities or areas where you just completely fucked up!

October 22nd - 28th

I realised that I still have some way to go before I can start to expect regular and bigger profits with some sort of confidence. Having said that, I'm literally going to smash the fuck out of things over the next 7 days ....

£39.79 - And That's October Done And Dusted

31/10/2022

So, October was a pretty eventful month in terms of progress and dealing with the usual challenges, such as finding the time to trade, getting back up to speed with the idiosyncrasies of the markets, identifying opportunities and taking advantage of them, cutting out mistakes and the increasing stakes ... phew!

I did actually go to the London version of Oktoberfest way back in the day. I was out on an afternoon sesh with work colleagues and we ended-up at a big Marquis in a park somewhere. The only thing that I remember is being helped-up off the floor at some point having fallen over. I managed to stagger to the local tube station where I burst into tears whilst waiting for the train and then chucked some beggar bloke off the tube at some point (fortunately not between stops). Alas my days of heavy drinking (somewhat highlighted in this very blog) are way behind me ... but I did have fun! Ah the good old days 😂

October 29th - 31st

Surprise Surprise!!

01/09/2018

+ £241.62

I'm Dave, a 56-year-old wrinkly, fat and bald bloke who came to a major turning point in my life a few months ago. My marriage of 30+ years gradually evaporated and after taking my destiny back into my own hands I met a woman who turned my world upside down (in a good way). She is my friend, lover and soulmate.

However, true love comes with harsh consequences, and she demanded that I move to Maidstone!

We both believe that fate brought us together (soppy maybe) but this woman has already changed the direction in which my life was possibly heading ... namely drinking, meaningless fucking and becoming a lazy fat bastard.

To be honest I knew very little of the area. I was born and raised in East London and following the breakup of my marriage I spent most of 2017 in a great apartment overlooking the marina in Ramsgate.

I had only ever been to Maidstone a handful of times, but my initial thoughts were that it is green, pleasant, has a nice river but the traffic is fucking annoying! It also has a large shopping centre, loads of places to eat and plenty of pubs and bars ... which is all good 😁

So yep, I'm still trading but this time it's from my conservatory. Life is good but profits have taken a big hit as it feels as though liquidity is at an all-time low. Betfair have also kindly decided to rape 50% of my meagre weekly profits from my account each Wednesday so my bank account is looking decidedly frugal.

Anyway, I'll try and muster some enthusiasm in order to resume the blog and we'll see what the next few months bring 😜


02/09/2018

+£65.98

An absolutely gorgeous day weatherwise for early September but only 2 meetings today 😢 When you get days like this then it's usually best to play carefully, plod along and realise that there may only be a few opportunities to make any wonga.


03/09/2018

+£57.04

I managed to get my fat lazy ass back to the gym this morning which was a good thing as I haven't been for over 2 months (at least!). I've had a few days out this year at naturist venues and it would be nice to actually look and feel in good shape the next time that I get my kit off and wander about in front of dozens of other naked peeps 😜

The beauty of doing this for a living is that it gives me the time to do things such as gym, shop, housework and cook. I fancied doing a chicken, mushroom and bacon pie but I didn't quite realise how much time it would take and I missed a few races while swearing at my soggy pastry and burning myself about 5 times on the shit oven that we have in this gaff!

04/09/2018

+£105.49

More gym this morning and my body is already feeling sore!

I didn't really spot many opportunities today so barely got into 3 figure territory but it beats working 9-5. I much prefer having the freedom to do stuff from home, even if it's tidying up or doing the washing. I also have the opportunity to grab a nap before the racing whenever I'm fucked from the morning gym session 😴


05/09/2018

+£37.40

A lazy day today watching old episodes of Love Island (sad but true). I also had a snooze in the afternoon so missed quite a few races but to be honest I wasn't feeling it and once the racing finished it was time for Big Brother 😂😂😂

It's a strange old world. I spent a year in Ramsgate without a TV and didn't miss it one bit but now I'm hooked on all of this shit as well as Emmerdale! You couldn't make it up!

06/09/2018

-£23.07

Oh the joys of chipping away all day only to blow £105 in the last race backing an unplaced horse at 1.01 ... doh!


07/09/2018

+£13.80

Was literally scraping around for a few pennies each race. Definitely not one of my better Fridays!


08/09/2018

+£59.23

We had friends over today so I only managed to trade a few of the early races. Not a lot of profit but I suppose that it paid for the quiches, pork pies and all of the other fattening stuff that we scoffed 😋


09/09/2018

-£0.08

A 3-hour Sunday stint today and ended up losing 8p 😭


10/09/2018

-£9.21

At least I won 13p on Celebrity Big Brother 😂


11/09/2018

-£63.06

Another frustrating day but not going to complain. It's a nice evening so might even open a bottle of Hoegaarden (if I have any left) and chill.

12/09/2018

-£32.47

Doncaster is not one of my favourite tracks and an early loss put me on the back foot and I didn't fare any better at Kempton's evening meeting.


13/09/2018

+£48.84

A rare winning day but to be honest it was another uninspiring day of trading.


14/09/2018

+£226.53

Finally, a half decent day! I much prefer trading on the Irish meetings and it will be interesting to see what happens when the coverage is moved to RUK in 2019. At least I'll be able to actually see the horses and the fucking colours as opposed to watching the BF live video with my nose pressed against the screen!


15/09/2018

Didn't trade today as we popped up to London for one of my grandkids birthday. It was an great day and also made more enjoyable due to the fact that I now drive a very fast and shiny Golf R (pics to follow). However, I'm still in '2003 Toyota Avensis Grandad' mode when it comes to putting my foot on the floor.

As we pulled away from a set of lights the Golf GTI in front of me rapidly and very loudly disappeared into a cloud of smoke before I even had the chance to react. Next time I'll be ready!


16/09/2018

+£28.58

The recent change in going conditions to soft on many tracks has really buggered up my basic form notes so I'm having to tread carefully when getting in early positions. I'm really looking forward to the jumps and AW season as I'm struggling right now with the turf flat so here's hoping.


17/09/2018

+£178.47

To be honest it was another struggle today but I managed a nice win @ Brighton and that made the day so I'm not complaining.


18/09/2018

+£55.98

Another day of scraping around for a few pennies here and there 😒


19/09/2018

Shot around the M25 in the yellow peril to spend the day with my dad and his partner so no horse shenanigans for me today.


20/09/2018

+£15.09

Yet another day of going nowhere fast although to be honest I'm enjoying myself here in Maidstone so I'm not getting too stressed when I win fuck all ...

21/09/2018

-£1.57


22/09/2018

+£50.98


23/09/2018

+£7.93


24/09/2018

+£8.84

I only managed to trade a handful of races today and almost made £10!


25/09/2018

+£187.90

A bit better than yesterday!


26/09/2018

-£5.67


27/09/2018

-£19.87


28/09/2018

+£50.50


29/09/2018

+£121.13


30/09/2018

+£5.15

Total Profit Sepember 2018 = £1411.48

The results this month were pretty indicative of what's been happening since I was last posting on a regular basis. Liquidity in some markets is non-existent and getting matched at the right price is becoming more and more difficult.

To be honest I don't know how much longer I can carry on in this mode. I suppose that I need to knuckle down and do more prep ... maybe next month 😒

£4125 - May 2017

Things seemed to pick up in April. The evening racing started to kick in and I had some good days, average days and a few days off as well. All in all, April was quite enjoyable 😜

I always look forward to this time of the year as the days are longer, the weather improves and there are more opportunities to trade, win more cash and get more pissed!

In terms of fun and games April was a pretty quiet month. I didn't really venture out that much apart from the occasional Friday or Saturday to watch a band in one of the many local boozers. I did however take a trip over to Birchington to see a band and it was one of those nights where my ability to drink copious amounts of alcohol totally deserted me! I realised after a couple of drinks that I was feeling slightly tipsy and after a few more my memory decided to give up for the night and fuck knows what happened! I do know that at one point the doorman had to ask me to leave the ladies toilets! I must have been on auto pilot as I found myself back in The Belgian Cafe supping a Hoegaarden and bleating on to 1 or 2 of the regulars about some shit that I cannot remember for the life of me! I was that pissed-up stumbling about bullshit spouting guy that everyone tries to avoid! Needless to say, I didn't feel too handy the next day 💀


01/05/2017

+£173.13


02/05/2017

+£141.44


03/05/2017

+£87.79


04/05/2017

+£170.88


05/05/2017

+£115.56


06/05/2017

+£312.82


07/05/2017

+£74.22


08/05/2017

+£160.82


09/05/2017
 

Didn't trade ...


10/05/2017

+£95.07


11/05/2017

+£413.24


12/05/2017
 

Didn't trade ...

13/05/2017

+£96.74


14/05/2017

+£126.28


15/05/2017

+£120.27


16/05/2017

+£37.94


17/05/2017

+£58.52


18/05/2017

+£25.87


19/05/2017

+£49.16


20/05/2017

+£56.07


21/05/2017

+£18.36


22/05/2017

+£242.05


23/05/2017
 

Didn't trade ...

24/05/2017

+£225.96


25/05/2017

+£55.80


26/05/2017
 

Didn't trade ...

27/05/2017

+£322.03


28/05/2017

+£384.90


29/05/2017

+£233.33


30/05/2017

-£123.31


31/05/2017

+£450.06

May Total Profit = £4125