August Review

An excellent month in terms of profit and loss which is great as I won’t be able to trade all that much going forward. The evening racing comes to an end which only leaves my days off for trading. I like to try spend Sunday with my wife and daughter so realistically, I’ll only be trading one day per week during the winter (plus some all-weather evening racing).

This may make it difficult to meet targets although that’s why set a realistic target of 5% per month.

The target for the end of September is to have the bank at €1,276.28 and that has already been met so this month, it’s a case of protecting my capital while trying to push the bank forward a little. Nothing too aggressive though.

I’m still learning all the time and am spending some time reading books about trading the stock market (there’s no real books on Betfair trading as yet). Many of these are helpful, especially the psychological end of things. In fact, I think I’ll start doing book reviews on the blog soon. I’ve just ordered two books on trading psychology so I look forward to their arrival.

On a negative side, I still feel that I have one or two discipline issues that need addressed. I still find it hard to accept when a trade goes wrong and am often tempted to try trade my way out of it. I have to learn to move on quicker without letting it get to me.

When a trade goes very bad, I always jot down the reason and here’s a quick copy and paste of that. Sorry about the grammar etc, it’s just from my quick notes:

Too volatile, rushed in
greed, chasing
stop loss too near
couldn't get head around market
getting in too quick
ingoring stops
waiting for the best
too many trades in one direction
not adjusting strategy for market
guessing that there would be a crossover spread
In running twice
greed - getting in late SAVED by R4
went back to market I had previously dismissed as too volatile
was well up at 2 mins but went in for more - got taken out
staking too high on odds-on horses
Chasing bad trades with bigger stakes
boredom trading instead of waiting for oppor.


Making an honest note of your errors can be useful to look back on but you have to be truthful. As you can see, most of these are discipline issues which I hope to work on in September.

Not sure when I’ll get to trade next as I’m off to London this weekend but I’ll post again soon.