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 and rightly so.

If you haven’t read last months blog update it is here.

Anyway, worked hard this month in what was a dreadful month racing wise. So many days with no jumps and just terrible AW flat races via the Betfair video so I can be pleased with the month and hopeful for February.

Daily review below and my video update and summary at the bottom. There is also a very quick video but I warn you the quality of the voice recording is worse than usual.

1^st Jan

Starting Bank £2,000.00

Bad day, but a good bad day if that makes sense. Nothing much of anything, didn’t really feel like trading so decided to protect my bank and call it a day.

Number of Races 6

Traded 3, 0 losses, 2 wins, 1 scratch, Biggest loss N/A, biggest win £18.37

Daily Total Plus £33.28

Bank £2,033.28

2^nd Jan

Starting Bank £2,033.28

Watched lots of races didn’t spot much, which was probably responsible for the red.

Number of Races 16

Traded 4, 1 loss, 3 wins, Biggest loss £81.16, biggest win £36.42

Daily Total Minus – £21.55

Bank £2,011.73

3^rd Jan

Starting Bank £2,011.73

Funny day as I got a few poor trades in early, but patience rewarded when I got a nice easy one to finish when Salsaretta jumped and ran like a drain in the 14.50 at Fairyhouse.

Number of Races 14

Traded 4, 0 losses, 3 wins, 1 scratch, Biggest loss N/A, biggest win £66.77

Daily Total Plus £84.59

Bank £2,096.32

4^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,096.32

Thought about taking the day off as only 2 afternoon meetings and none on RTV. Probably would have but I looked at the racing for the next 2 days (Tues & Wed) and it looked just as bad if not worse, so I figured I’d have to see what I could get out of it.

Manged to squeak a couple of trades and a scratch and called it a day.  Not a day to be overtrading.

Number of Races 6

Traded 3, 0 losses, 2 wins, 1 scratch, Biggest loss N/A, biggest win £25.80

Daily Total Plus £46.69

Bank £2,143.01

5^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,143.01

Only one flat AW on Sky in the afternoon so I wouldn’t have bothered but I turned my PC on for work and watched 3 of the races. No trades.

Number of Races 3

Traded 0, 0 losses, 0 wins, Biggest loss N/A, biggest win N/A

Daily Total Zero

Bank £2,143.01

6^th Jan

Day Off.

7^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,143.01

Blimey settled in, to trade Southwell and Ffos Las, wasn’t that hopeful as both on Sky and one was AW flat. Got a decent trade on Cold Harbour in the first race and then found out that Ffos Las had been abandoned so decided to call it a day. Not really fond of AW and I don’t trade anything less than 7f anyway so my opportunities were severely limited.

When you watch races all day trying to find a trade you are asking for trouble. £39 isn’t a bad return for the day so banked it and switched Bet Angel off.

Just one trade in the last 3 days!

Number of Races 1

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, Biggest loss N/A, biggest win £39.32

Daily Total Plus £39.32

Bank £2,182.33

8^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,182.33

“Jumper Bumpers” on the AW today due to the weather. Didn’t think I’d trade one but did spot an easy one. Happy to call it a day straight after that trade.

Number of Races 4

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, Biggest loss N/A, biggest win £56.80

Daily Total Plus £56.80

Bank £2,239.13

9^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,239.13

Careful what you wish for. Was hoping for some really good jumps races but sadly that’s what I got. A lot of very competitive races so no easy obvious trades in a lot of them.

Managed to get a couple of smaller trades and decided to call it a day.

Number of Races 10

Traded 3, 0 losses, 2 wins, 1 scratch, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £29.12

Daily Total Plus £41.20

Bank £2,280.33

10^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,280.33

Again, not a great days racing but the beauty of B4P is I only need to get 1 or 2 trades a day for it to be successful.

Manged 2 half decent trades and what was really a scratch but a small green one. (£5.48)

Number of Races 7

Traded 3, 0 losses, 3 wins, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £32.30

Daily Total Plus £53.28

Bank £2,333.61

11^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,333.61

Was worried before the start as although 2 decent jumps meetings they were both on Sky. As it happened the videos were OK, and I was lucky to get 2 good trades in on the first 2 races I watched and called it a day.

Today was like a dream day, had Bet Angel switched on for less than an hour and made £100.

Number of Races 2

Traded 2, 0 losses, 2 wins, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £68.91

Daily Total Plus £101.01

Bank £2,434.62

12^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,434.62

Damn, annoyed after such a good day yesterday to have a red day today. Started off ok then had a bad one. If I had carried on trading, I might have been able to salvage the day or I could have made it worse, but I had to stop as I had something important to do.

I’m getting better at ignoring reds and carrying on as before, but I’ll never know as the decision to stop was made for me.

Number of Races 8

Traded 2, 1 loss, 1 win, biggest loss £70.02, biggest win £33.31

Daily Total Minus – £36.71

Bank £2,397.91

13^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,397.91

Great day today first race odds on Fav wasn’t travelling. In and out pretty quick and later in the race it came back on the bridle and won easy in the end!

Number of Races 1

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £80.58

Daily Total Plus £80.58

Bank £2,478.49

4 days off!

Family reasons meant I had other things to worry about other than trading for a change.

18^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,478.49

Felt refreshed after a break and had a decent day. Nothing too exciting but 3 OK trades.

Number of Races 7

Traded 3, 0 losses, 3 wins, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £41.64

Daily Total Plus £74.81

Bank £2,553.30

19^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,553.30

What a dodgy day. At first glance I thought it would be good with 3 jumps meetings but Exeter’s weather was poor and visibility with dark skies and rain on the camera lenses meant it was very tough to clearly see what was happening.

Not much at Clonmel that matched the criteria so after one small trade and several watched races that offered nothing, I called it a day.

Number of Races 5

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £14.98

Daily Total Plus £14.98

Bank £2,568.28

20^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,568.28

Very good day. Stuck rigidly to the process and got 2 easy trades.

Number of Races 6

Traded 2, 0 losses, 2 wins, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £61.28

Daily Total Plus £98.88

Bank £2,667.16

21^st Jan

Starting Bank £2,667.16

LOL. After yesterday I was thinking good thoughts for today then Betfair goes tits up after I’ve done one poor trade! It apparently got fixed about an hour or so later but I’d switched off BA and was doing other things by then.

Number of Races 2

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £8.99

Daily Total Plus £8.99

Bank £2,676.15

22^nd Jan

Starting Bank £2,676.15

If ever there was a day to have a day off this was probably it. I had some important stuff to do for my business and I felt guilty taking time off to trade this today. If it had been a good day, I could have justified it, but this was pretty poor. Lingfield with a dodgy live stream via Betfair and just one jumps meeting from Musselburgh on RTV. The make up of the Muss races were not great and after the 3.00pm I was happy to switch off BA.

The only highlight was that I did a B2L on the 12.50 Muss and after I’d done it I saw in Telegram that Andrew had done the same bet. I only won a small amount on it because my B2L servants are set to a fixed £25 stake. There are still many things I could improve about my trading, but if I could become proficient at B2L’s I could dramatically improve my overall profitability.

Number of Races 5

Traded 2, 0 losses, 2 wins, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £19.67

Daily Total Plus £27.61

Bank £2,703.76

Jan 23^rd

Starting Bank £2,703.76

About as easy as it gets. First race no trade, 2^nd race nice easy one. In at an average of 2.97 and out quickly for a nice green trade on Tritonic. It came back to win but I’d already switched BA off by the time it crossed the line.

I could and perhaps should have carried on trading, but it was a nice sunny (if cold day), so I thought I would go for a walk round the lake.

Bank and brain nicely intact ready for tomorrow. Also, I overtraded an awful lot some days last month, so I am trying to keep the number of trades I do under control this month and this seemed a good opportunity for a “one trade day”.

In truth it could have been a £100 trade but I was a little cautious with it, but I don’t need to beat myself up over it.

Number of Races 2

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £53.99

Daily Total Plus £53.99

Bank £2,757.75

24^th Jan

Watched a couple of races, what a terrible day. No trades.

Bank £2,757.75

25^th Jan

Another dire day, with no trades. Watched 2 races and gave up. 3 runner fields at Plumpton on dodgy videos and AW flat races not really for me.

Bank £2,757.75

26^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,757.75

Another poor day of racing but got a couple of trades at Southwell. Timed it well as only Southwell on early and Wolves later, I decided to start at 2.15pm so I could trade for a couple of hours where there would be 2 meetings on at the same time at the end of the Southwell races and the start of the Wolves card.

Traded the 2.25pm and 2.55pm at South, and switched off before Wolves even started.

I get bored waiting 30 mins between races and when you get bored that is extremely dangerous for a trader. That is when you are tempted to piss about and start trading races that don’t meet your criteria because you don’t want an hour gap to wait.

I guess that if I added up all my “boredom” trades over the last two years it would be a scary amount of red. Now I just switch off BA. It has a hugely positive effect on my bottom line.

Number of Races 2

Traded 2, 0 losses, 2 wins, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £40.80

Daily Total Plus £68.88

Bank £2,826.63

27^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,826.63

Did a B2L early which was a poor trade and almost lost the entire stake. The only good news being that my B2L servants are just set to a fixed £25 stake as I’m pretty poor at doing them. (As this trade indicates).

Patiently watched several races after that waiting for an opportunity but after a couple of hours I gave up and called it a day as I had something important to do workwise. 3^rd Red day of the month, which is a bit disappointing, but a manageable size.

Number of Races 8

Traded 1, 1 loss, 0 wins, biggest loss £20.49, biggest win N/A

Daily Total Minus – £20.49

Bank £2,806.14

28^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,806.14

Terrible day for Betfair videos. Only 1 on RTV and 2 on BF and it was awful. On some of the races it wouldn’t even load at all and when they did load they were unreliable.

Managed to get a trade out of Fabilis in the 14.45 at Southwell when the video held up long enough for me to enter the market. Sadly nowt at Gowran so just gave up. It is still possible I could do £1,000 this month but I’m at that dangerous point where to do it I may be tempted to push it. So I’ve mentally accepted I won’t do it so I’m not going to try.

Number of races 8? (Who knows, tried to watch several but was unable to really count them)

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £44.85

Daily Total Plus £44.85

Bank £2,850.99

29^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,850.99

Another day to test the patience and pleased to say I passed the test today.

Number of Races 10

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £30.53

Daily Total Plus £30.53

Bank £2,881.52

30^th Jan

Starting Bank £2,881.52

Boom. 1^st race of the day didn’t match the criteria but the 2^nd one did.

Number of Races 1

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £94.22

Daily Total Plus £94.22

Bank £2,975.74

31^st Jan

Starting Bank £2,975.74

Started the day at £975 profit for the month, so was concerned I might mess things up. Fortunately had a nice signal on one in the first race I watched at Naas and got an OK trade on it.

There were not too many races on my short list today so I was very grateful to get one early and switch off. There was no way I was going to do “just one more trade” once I’d passed the £1k mark.

Number of Races 1

Traded 1, 0 losses, 1 win, biggest loss N/A, biggest win £30.03

Daily Total Plus £30.03

Bank £3,005.77

Totals for the Month

Summary

Nice to hit the four-figure mark for the month. I think if you have a job or are self-employed like I am to win a few hundred quid a month doing something you enjoy that’s a nice bonus. Now I’m at the £1,000 mark it starts to get a bit more serious.

If you are new to trading let me assure you it is not a magic money tree as many would have you believe. I have been trading for two years to get to where I am now and at the end of February I will have been a member of Back for Profit for 12 months.

It isn’t easy, it takes hard work and discipline. The hardest thing is to change your mindset into what is required to be successful with the B4P method. (Or any method for that matter)

The B4P process is pretty simple really and you don’t have to be a genius to understand it. It takes time and concentration to stop overtrading race after race where you are feeling you have to Lay somthing.

Whenever you go looking for trades you will find trouble eventually. The hardest part of my journey was switching from being a consistently losing trader to being a break even one.

Once I’d done that, then to build up from winning pennies to pounds was actually much easier in many ways.

I have withdrawn from my account again and will re-start next month with a £2,000 bank. This means I’ll stagnate at this sort of level for a bit, but needs must currently. My long-term plan though is still to grow the bank/stakes and get to £2,000 per month profit. Always looking for more!

Thanks for reading.