I’ve always believed that if you want to improve and develop any skill you don’t just need to do it often, you should also review/analyse your performance. I record my screen when trading quite often to re-watch them later, and I talk to my mentor about trades whenever I can. Even though I know I’ve improved a lot over the last 3 or 4 years something happened recently that gave me a bit of a shock. I logged into my personal Facebook on about the 2nd or 3rd of January and was offered the chance to share a memory from 31st Dec 2019. It was a screenshot I’d shared on…
-
-
Illogic and foolish emotions
Although I’ve been profitable each month for a long time now, I’ve not managed yet to go an entire month without having at least one red day. (I don’t count April, June and August of this year because I traded very few days then.) Now the summer (busy work time) is over I’m back to trading nearly every day. During November I really thought I was going to do it, but on Saturday 26th I made a mess of a trade and it cost me a red day to spoil the month. I was so annoyed with myself I can’t tell you. Luckily, I couldn’t trade on the Sunday or…
-
Back in the swing
I’ve had a very enjoyable month trading throughout October. As I said in my last update (read the post here) I had a trading plan and I’m pleased to say I stuck very closely to it. It was great to be back in the Telegram room with the guys and girls. They have always been a terrific bunch and just lately we have had an influx of nice new members. I don’t know why for sure but there always seems to be more people join the group during the jumps season. I do prefer the jumps myself for in-running trading and I guess maybe others do too. Stuck to the…
-
Break Time is Over!
So after a work induced summer sabbatical, I plan on starting to trade on the Betfair exchange again. My work has gone better than I could have hoped for over the last 6 months, but now it’s entering the off season. This means I should have a bit more time to resume my trading. My Trading Plan I’m a believer in the idea that you have to have a trading plan when trading so I thought I’d share mine. The reason for this is, to make sure I stick to it! I always feel I have to try harder if I write it down and share it here. Horse Races,…
-
My shortest update ever
Cause for celebration! My business which has struggled throughout the pandemic has suddenly taken off again and I’ve been incredibly busy. On the downside it has been almost impossible for me to trade during the weekdays. Therefore, I thought I’d do what may be my last update for a while. My business is seasonal and now through till September will be very busy. That suits me as I prefer the jumps so when things quieten down I will be in time for the jumps season. I thought maybe I could spare an hour each day, and I might be able to work that in when I get into a routine,…
-
Two Years with Back for Profit
I joined the Back for Profit (B4P) in-running (IR) trading academy run by Andrew Banthorpe on the 19th of Feb 2020, so two years in I thought I’d do an update. Trading wise it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m doing this post as a thank you and to bang the drum for his service because I think he deserves it. If you haven’t read them here is my first review and second review a year in. What has B4P done for me? It has transformed me as a trader from being a long-term consistent loser to being a rock-solid grinder. At the start of each month, I don’t…
-
Eight Swallows: Betfair Trading
My February 2021, Trading Update. For anyone who has read this blog on a regular basis I thank you for following along with my progress. I still intend to post from time to time going forward but this will be the last regular full monthly update. Without giving too much away about how I trade, when I do enter a trade there has to be a strong reason(s) for me to enter the market and if while I’m in the trade that reason disappears then rather than wait and hope I just immediately trade out. Well, the strong reason for me starting to record my progress on this blog has…
-
Back For Profit: 1 Year Review
B4P 1 Year Review Exactly one year ago (19th Feb 2020) I joined the Back for Profit Trading Academy. So here is my B4P review one year in. If you haven’t already done so you should probably read my original review here first, as it is quite detailed. Back 4 Profit It took me a while to get to where I am now but thank heaven, I finally found B4P. I have recorded my monthly updates (my trading report) on this blog so you can see exactly how I’ve done month on month even from before I joined B4P. I joined B4P on February 19th, 2020 and did what most…
-
Four King Hell
F me. This is getting a bit serious now. Not too much to say about my exchange trading this month, except I cracked the four-figure mark for the first time. Notably the lowest number of trades I’ve done in a month by some margin and yet my most profitable month since I started trading. The lower number of trades was helped by a few more days off than usual, but the main reason was because I really tightened up after last month’s poor performance discipline wise. I didn’t go into detail in last months blog and I won’t this time either, but Andrew (my mentor) was absolutely furious with me…
-
The Good the Bad & the Ugly
OK so here is my trading update for Dec 2020. This was a month that had a bit of everything thrown into the mix. I’ve done a quick video with my thoughts on some of the highs and lows which you can view at the bottom of the post. (Read my November update here if you missed it) If making mistakes is learning, which it should be, then I’ve learned a fair bit this month. Dropped a few howlers in December with some of my biggest reds of the year. After my last feedback session with Andrew I feel like I’m still a million miles from where I need to…
-
Trading on Betfair: My Progress
OK so this is Novembers update. The month started off quite badly and could have sent me into a downward spiral but fortunately with a well-timed phone call, a disaster was avoided. November ended up being my fifth consecutive profitable month and finished of well in the end. I’ll give my thoughts in the video at the bottom of this post where you can hear in more detail what happened this month. As Bruce would say “Here are the all-important scores on the doors.” The daily breakdown is here and there is a quick summary at the bottom but the Video contains more info and details on my plan of…
-
Onwards & Upwards
My October In-Running Trading Update. Going to try something a little different this month by doing a lot of the update via video! The daily update (which I write each day immediately after trading) is here the same as usual but at the bottom of the post instead of me writing my summary and thoughts I’ve posted a video. Headline figures: Fourth Consecutive winning month and my best month since I started trading. Oct 1st Starting Bank £1,204.33 Was really tired after a late night and missed an easy trade as I was half asleep on the second race I watched. Got one on the third race (Tide Times. Warwick…
-
The End of the Beginning
My September In-Running (IR) Trading Update OK so here we go again. After two winning months in a row I knew I had to work extra hard to maintain that. I figured that if I can get to three months of consecutive green that can’t be a fluke can it? Each month though no matter how well you did last month the clock re-sets to zero and it’s time to go again! At the bottom of this post are my thoughts for moving forward and a decision I’ve got to make about my blog. This Month’s Headline Figures Just one Red day, three days where I watched some races but…
-
Two Swallows
My August update on my trading journey. I was going to entitle this post “That difficult second album” as after a successful month last month (Read July’s update here) I was feeling a bit under pressure at the start of the month to maintain my progress and improve still further this month. As the month got underway, I quickly forgot about that and just carried on as I was before. The great thing about doing % of bank is as you win (even small amounts) the bank and your sakes just steadily grow over time so you never need to worry about increasing stakes. It just takes care of itself.…
-
One Swallow
July Update: My Betfair (BF) trading update for July 2020. This is the most positive update I’ve had yet. I feel sure I’ve taken a good step forward this month, but I know that one profitable month doesn’t make me a winning trader. I can’t be certain that losing months are behind me, but if I can maintain this method/mindset of trading then there is no reason why they wouldn’t be. June was a weird month in many ways (Read June Update Here) but July has been much better for trading In-Running (IR) I feel. July though has thrown up a lot more opportunities for easy trades. We are getting…
-
Back to Trading School
After messing around during May with the US racing I knew that June and the re-start of UK & Irish racing would be like the first day back at school. Not too sure how I should feel about my June Exchange Trading performance, but I am very disappointed with myself. In my update of last month’s trading (read May’s update here) the last paragraph said I was expecting a Green month and I finished by saying “One thing I can confidently predict is, I won’t be having 6 Red days that’s for sure.” Well, I had seven Red days and although it wasn’t by much I was in the Red…
-
Limbo Trading
Here is my May 2020 Betfair trading update. Away from trading I’ve suddenly got incredibly busy with my online business so doing the US races early evenings has suited me well throughout May. Although I’ve enjoyed the US racing and had “fun” with it, it has felt like I’m in limbo just passing time, waiting for the UK & Irish racing to return. Bottom line for May A very disappointing 6 Red days and an overall Red month of £61.89 After a couple of bad reds, I dropped my liability dramatically on the 11th May, and that virtually locked in a red for the month. I wasn’t interested in chasing…
-
Record Breaker
My April Trading Update The headline news is that April was a record-breaking trading month for me. Sounds great but I only won £94.98 so I’m not getting over excited. *For the youngsters reading this who have no idea who the guy in the image above is I’ll tell you at the bottom of the post. (You’ll have to read it all now) After 16 months of trading it’s only my 2nd ever green month so a win is a win as they say. I switched to In-Running (IR) about a year ago on 26th April 2019. I’ve used trial and error and switched and tweaked strategies over the last…
-
Trading Milestone
I bought Tony Hargraves’s “In-Running Guide” on the 26th April 2019 and barring holiday’s, the odd day off for a poker tournament and days with no racing I’ve traded In-Running (IR) almost every day since. Prior to IR I tried pre-race scalping for about four months. Happy Birthday So I’ve completed a year now and so far I’ve had one green month. This month though barring late slip ups should be my second green month. That should be proof enough to show it’s not easy, regardless of what people might tell you. It requires some skill (race reading ability) which takes a lot of screen time to master, it requires…
-
Efforts and Courage are not enough
March Betfair Trading Update I started trading in Jan 2019 and as a long term “work from home” person I trade almost every day and in the intervening 15 months I’ve had just one green month in all that time. After getting some help from my new mentor and embracing his methods from 25th Feb I was confident that I’d be green in March. I didn’t quite manage it and that has been tough to take. Having had some time to reflect on it though I’ve realised that it wasn’t too bad a month in the grand scheme of things. If for no other reason than of all the losing…
-
Carry On Racing
It takes more than Coronavirus to stop the Irish racing industry! Fantastic news that Irish Racing will continue, albeit with stricter guidelines in place, though that decision will be under daily review. No public allowed to watch, which we already knew about but the main new rules state the following. No horses allowed from overseas, which is sensible. Though due to the travel restrictions in place from most countries worldwide currently they’d have had a job getting there in any case. Zero owners allowed at the track at all. I think when behind closed doors was first discussed for the UK they were looking at just one owner. So syndicates…
-
Kamikaze Trading has to stop
February 2020 Trading Update Here is my Betfair Exchange Trading update for Feb 2020. OK so I started the month as a man with a plan. I’d mentally set up my own stop loss system to cut out the big losing days. Apart from my own mental stop loss, my 3 strategy changes for this month were to be. Switch to “liability” rather than “staking” which I did from 3rd Feb onwards. I pledged not to lay anything at the business end of a race. No longer will I be laying anything with just a hint all is not well. I’m planning to wait a little longer till I can…
-
Two Steps Back, My January Update
January Trading Update January was a horror show for me results wise. Over the last few months lots of people have commented on my twitter account either in the replies or via DM that they like my honesty about my trading results. Well I’ve got to tell you there were points in the month of Jan when I was thinking to myself “I can’t post these results up”. It’s totally embarrassing that I’ve had such a dreadful month, my worst by a long way since I switched to In-Running from pre-race on 26th April 2019. At the start of the month if you’d told me I was going to end…
-
Tough Decisions. My December Update
Well this is tough, but I’ve made a decision on how I’m going to trade for the foreseeable future. For the benefit of people who read all my trading updates I don’t want to go into too much detail on my past trading history but in brief: Re-Cap: I work from home so I’m able to trade about 600+ races a month as I can fit work around my trading. I started trading Jan 2019 trying to scalp pre-race. I lost lots of money. I switched to In-Running from April 26th after buying Tony Hargreaves (TH) In-Running guide*. I immediately liked In-Running (IR) trading much better, but I still lost.…
-
November Trading Update
So, November was a HUGE learning curve for me, attempting to learn how to trade In-Running in a way which was totally alien to everything I’d learnt since the 26th April this year. I attended the Hunting for Profit (HFP) trading course on the 4th Nov (Blog post here if you want to read about it) I didn’t trade at all on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Nov so the new month on my spreadsheet would just be HFP method stats. My plan was/is to fully embrace the HFP In-Running method for at least 300 – 400 races or a month whichever was longer and then see how it’s going.…
