Happy New Year folks, hope 2014 was a profitable one.
I’ve often said that I’m not one for new year resolutions – January
is just another month and I believe new goals and ideas should be set
all the way through the year. In fact, people usually set themselves too
many goals all at once every January, so
much so that the changes become overwhelming, and thus they fail to
continue with their resolutions.
But I suppose us humans like to compartmentalise our time on this
earth, and January is as good a time as any to review the year just gone
and look ahead so here’s a few thoughts about where I’m at and what I’d
like to do. As I say, all of this won’t start
on the 1st January, rather, I’ll come back to this list throughout the year and add changes over time.
Book and newspaper column
I published my first book in 2014 ‘Sports Trading on Betfair’ which was a
huge achievement. As a librarian by profession, I suppose I’ve always
wanted to write a book but it was a hell of a lot harder than I
anticipated. For 2015, I want to keep promoting it
as the sales have been good. I’m toying with the idea of writing a less
specialised book along the lines of ‘how to pick winners’ or ‘how to
profit from horseracing’. I think a less technical, less graphic-heavy book
would be much easier to write but I’ll hold off
for now and concentrate on selling the one I have out already. Something
to ponder though.
As always, I want to keep my Irish Independent column in the black
for the upcoming year. Writing is something I enjoy doing and would like
to do more of it. I'm very lucky to have a piece in a national newspaper each week so fingers crossed I get some good winners in 2015.
Financial trading
I went to cash some time back and have put this on the backburner. No
big reason and I was showing a modest profit – it’s just time. As
always, time is limited so I’m concentrating on making money on the
exchanges, rather than trying to spread myself too thinly.
It’s definitely something I continue to have an interest in though, and
it’s definitely something I’ll come back to. I may look at some
strategies which don’t take up a lot of time later on this year and
build again from there.
Betfair trading and betting
Once again, getting time is the key but I hope to do as much as
possible, especially in the summer months. I’ve been working on some
automated trading setups which have proved slightly profitable so far so
I’m keen to work on those in 2015. Ironically, I didn’t
get a huge amount of trading done in 2014 as I was writing the book
about it but I hope that can change in 2015.
Wayne Bailey Racing
It’s been a very good year for my tipping website
www.waynebaileyracing.com
with a profit of around €1888 to a €10 stake. I’ve quite a few loyal subscribers
and you always get the odd few
each month that only hang around for a while. But each subscription is a
few quid so I’m hoping to continue to build the figures. I've been the top lay tipster for over a year now on
Racing Index (a tipster proofing site) which helps a lot so I want to maintain my position at the head of the table.
New betting strategies
Alongside my traditional betting and trading, I came up with some new
betting strategies in 2014. I want to continue to try these out and
improve on them in 2015. If I can automate them, all the better. One that has potential is the laying certain
outsiders in the place markets if they match my criteria
(explained
HERE). I’ve only been doing it for about a month but I’ve the
best part of a monkey earned using a €2 stake. That was over 357 bets. Of course, all it takes
is a couple of bad bets to knock me back down but as you can see, the
graph is going in the right direction and I’m
building a bit of a buffer for when the bad times come:
Health and fitness
Two major goals were ticked off in 2014. I completed the
Insanity workout which was a damn hard few weeks. I also ran the Dublin marathon
which was a good achievement too. People often say they get addicted to
marathons but for me, it was very tough on
the legs which always seem to pain once I run past 15K. I’ll never say
never but I’m not in any rush to do another marathon and you have to
listen to the body or else you will do it damage. That said, the feeling
crossing the finish line was fantastic and you
never know. For 2015, I will continue to keep fit and tone up using
some light dumbbell work and running 5K two or three times a week. Last
year, I found out I had high cholesterol so I had to change my diet to
get it down. This means eating a lot healthier
which is no bad thing and I’ll continue to improve my diet and watch the
alcohol intake too in 2015.
That’s about it really – as I say, it’s not a good idea to start a
load of goals in the first week in January. Too much change is
overwhelming and unsustainable. If you are making any changes this year,
do it gradually and add something new every month
or so.
Thanks for all the comments, emails and well wishes in 2014, I hope all readers have an even better year in 2015.
Wayne
Wayne's book Sports Trading on Betfair is out now:
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