2 Steps Forward, 3 Steps Back

Daily P/L: £33.47
Monthly P/L: £79.56

I got involved in three events today; the 4th One Day International between India and Sri Lanka, the Worcester v Leicester rugby match and the Nissan Open Golf. For reasons that will become clear, despite my green daily profit & loss figure I'm feeling extremely frustrated at the moment.

When I got out of bed Sri Lanka were coming to the end of their innings. Despite a shaky start where they'd lost 4 wickets in quick succession, they'd rallied and were producing a reasonable target for India to chase. Or so I thought - I'd failed to notice that the match had been reduced to a 47 over game so my calculations were a little out. Even so, I thought the Indian target of 260 to win would be a challenge. At the start of the India innings I had a nice green position and looked to improve on this by laying them at 1.51 - I thought the price should have been more like 2.00 - surely the price was too low? Nope - the price turned out to be way too high! Terrible bowling by the Sri Lankans allowed the Indians to gain momentum and they never looked back. I bailed out of my position after 7 overs when it became apparent that India weren't going to be denied but it wasn't soon enough to hold onto my green position -my screen at this point was all red.

What happened next I can only describe as extremely fortunate. After a lovely off-drive by one of the Indian batsman (Virender Sehwag) he ambled up the pitch to claim his one run. However, what he failed to do was ground his bat within the crease and a moment of quick fielding saw a hearty appeal from the Sri Lankans. With the price on India at 1.14 I took a calculated punt and laid them without too much thought and got matched. Within seconds their price had drifted to 1.16 but with the commentators advising he was 'out' I held onto my position and decided to wait for the verdict. He was rightly dismissed, the price rocketed out to 1.25 and I cashed in to finish the match in profit. I know I was lucky. I'd traded the match badly but had got away with it.

The rugby in the afternoon was a pleasure to trade and a welcome distraction to the strains I'd experienced in the morning. Leicester were without the majority of their England Internationals but it was quite obvious they'd be too strong for Worcester. I got in and out of the market at the right times and made a good gain on the match.

Then came the golf. If you read my previous post then you'll be aware that I'm very much looking forward to trading on the PGA Tour this year. Last year, it proved to be an area where I was able to make a good profit so my hopes were high for 2007. That was until Sky Sports lost the television rights and Setanta Sports took over. I haven't got access to Setanta but I do have access to Tourcast which is a very nifty tool for anyone serious about trading the PGA Tour. Therefore, I decided tonight to try and trade the Nissan Open from Tourcast alone. If this was possible then Setanta would not be needed and I'd save myself another additional subscription fee. Needless to say it wasn't a successful experiment and I'm now sitting with a red position that will wipe out today's profits if I can't produce a salvage mission tomorrow when I trade on the 4th round.