A Great Year

Since Last Post P/L: £417.56
Monthly P/L: £1901.16

After a busy Christmas period I'm exhausted but hugely content. For me, 2007 has had it all and 2008 promises to hold even bigger challenges with becoming a Dad being just one! At the start of the year I'd only just begun my trading journey and my goal for the coming 12 months was simple - to take my results to another level. On the 1st January my betting bank stood at £821 and from the graph below you can see how that amount has grown into £8346.

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These figures are beyond my expectations and I'm chuffed to bits. Along the way there's been the temptation to spend some of the cash but at the end of each month I've been very keen to reinvest my winnings, with my only withdrawals being £280 to pay for an LCD television (to go into my trading office) and £18 to pay for the odd game of low stakes poker (these results I haven't included on the blog as I count these as 'leisure' expenses).

Why have I adopted this approach? Well, my hope is that by increasing my stake sizes gradually month on month (whilst reducing my maximum exposure at the same time) I can go on to even bigger and better things. I realise I'm not the finished article and I want to keep pushing to see how far I get - somethings happening out there and I want a part of it!

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So what are my expectations for next year? I'm not one for plucking numbers out of the sky so after reviewing my past results I think a realistic aim will be to grow my trading bank by between 10-20% each month but I'm very aware about not getting too far ahead of myself. It's not going to be easy so I'll need to continue refining and analysing my strategies to hit these figures and I can't allow myself to get distracted and lose track of the processes I need to follow in order to be successful.

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As I mentioned earlier, I've been working hard over the last few days so here's a roundup of my final trading action of 2007:

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PDC World Darts Championship

Shepherd v Bates : £21.04
Lewis v Eccles : £23.71
Wade v Dudbridge : £43.43
Manley v Van Der Rassel : £135.57

Van Barneveld v Painter : £33.41

Roy v Part : £39.45

Manley v Shepherd : £4.47

Part v Wade : £124.34
Taylor v Mardle : £19.04

Painter v Lewis : £24.03
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NFL

New England @ NY Giants : £12.85

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Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and may I take this chance to wish you, and all the other betting bloggers a very 'Happy New Year' and all the success you can hope for in 2008.

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Putting Things Into Perspective

Since Last Post P/L: £425.32

Monthly P/L: £1483.60

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Every now and then I think it's hugely important to reflect, take stock and if things have gone to plan tell yourself 'well done'. This is all part of the psychological aspect of gambling. Too often, in all walks of life, we're quick to pick out the faults and as a consequence we continually fail to see the positives around us. By taking this step back it's possible to feel so much better about ourselves within a short period of time and I'm convinced this sense of well being allows the mind to be so much more productive. The benefits can be felt almost at once as as the 'brain' baggage is ditched and autopilot mode is able to kick-in when you most need it.

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As I knew today was my blog's first birthday and after completing a great day's trading, last night seemed like the perfect time to take a look back at the journey I've been on over the last 12 months so I started reading some of the first posts that I put up last January. After scouring through a few paragraphs the most noticeable thing which stood out was how committed I was even though the amounts I was making were so minimal. We all know trading can be frustrating at times and there must have been times when I thought "why bother?", so why was I so determined to carry on? Where did this outlook come from and why did I want it so much? It's only now I realise how results motivated I must be as I remember drawing up a chart at the time to show what my trading bank would grow into if I was to keep producing consistent monthly profits. The results were impressive and needless to say this snaphot has stayed with me ever since.

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Here's my results from yesterday:

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PDC World Championship Darts

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Maish v Eccles : £19.01

Hamilton v Roy : £194.19

Baxter v Dudbridge : £141.63

Barneveld v Clark : £53.75

Taylor v Tabern : £16.74

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A great day yesterday and this is the stage of the tournament I like the most; plenty of matches, good quality contests, a short format and fluctuating prices. All this means I intend to try and make the most of it over the next couple of days.

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Scary Saturday

Since Last Post P/L: £114.50
Monthly P/L: £1058.28

From a trading perspective things got a little bit scary over the weekend. Saturday was a day where everything went wrong. After gaining some confidence from successfully using a new Darts trading strategy on Friday I came back to earth with a bump with a hefty loss on the Andy Jenkins v Tabern game. I just didn't see a 4-0 scoreline being on the cards and as this is exactly what happened I came unstuck - ouch! My state of mind must have been affected as I then turned to one of my most reliable sports (Rugby Union) and ended up turning a decent green figure into another sizeable red number. Now in most cases I would have left things there for the day, but instead I decided to take the dog for a walk to clear my head and it must have worked as when I returned I got stuck into the first match of the Darts evening session and made back the majority of my losses with some aggressive but controlled trading.

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Here's a list of my Christmas results :

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PDC World Darts Championship

Andy Jenkins v Tabern : £175.52

Scholten v King : £208.04

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Rugby Union

Bristol v Wasps : £59.98

Sale v Leicester : £64.78

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NFL

Cleveland @ Cincinnati : £94.19

Baltimore @ Seattle : £17.00

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Thankfully Sunday was kinder to me, so I was able to relax and enjoy myself for next three days without worrying about making money or missing opportunities :-)

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I hope you enjoyed yourselves too and good luck with your gambling for the rest of the holidays.

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In The Line Of Fire

Since Last Post P/L: £200.01
Monthly P/L: £943.78

It's been a busy week as the PDC World Championship has kicked off and there's been plenty of action everyday. Initial impressions are that the money's back, with most games getting over £500,000 matched and it's only the first round! There's also been a list of incredible results and big name casualties with none bigger than what happened to Terry Jenkins. When 'The Bull' was leading 2-1 in sets and leading 2-0 in legs in the 4th set he was almost unbackable at a price 1.01 but the story didn't end there. During the next half an hour some amazing play signalled a fantastic comeback from underdog Kirk Shepherd and an early exit was waiting for one of the tournament favourites. All this is great news for traders and there's no doubt about it, the Final's going to be bigger and better than anything that's gone before.

With a bit more time on my hands, I've managed to get involved each evening this week but even though I've made a profit of £200 I haven't been too happy with my performance. Why? Well, my old strategy seems to have run it's course - from watching the markets in recent tournaments I've noticed that there are other people out there using my old approach and this means I can't make money from it. On Thursday I sat down and reviewed my recent trades and constructed an alternative method and from my results last night the outlook seems positive. My plan is to continue the trial over the weekend before getting too excited though :-)

Here a round-up of my recent results:

PDC World Championship Darts
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Tabern v Laursen : £42.72
Gray v Walsh : £12.63
Scholten v Clark : £30.57
Manley v Greebe : £64.88
Taylor v Van Gerwen : £92.87
Anderson v Clark : £47.37
Jenkins v Shepherd : £67.15
Mason v Brown : £22.53
Priestley v Maish : £7.76
Lewis v Askew : £46.49
Van Barneveld v Forde : £10.88
Van De Voort v Klaasen : £15.34
Baxter v Olsen : £55.91
Wade v Macarthur : £10.45
Part v Losper : £27.22
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On a slightly different topic, I'm delighted to see that the developers behind the excellent 'Bet Angel' software are continuing to push the boundaries by launching a specific API application aimed at the soccer markets. Aptly named 'Soccer Mystic' it looks very interesting and the well put together demo videos are almost tempting me to give it a go. If Peter Webb's reading this - any chance of a free trial?
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Good luck to you all over the weekend and if I haven't said it before, have a very Merry Christmas!
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Bah Humbug!

Since Last Post P/L: £108.96

Monthly P/L: £743.77

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Christmas shopping this weekend has really disrupted my trading. Even though I'm able to report a healthy gain for the events I got involved in, most of today was wiped out due to a festive trip to Cardiff. It was freezing cold, the shops were packed, the queues stretched for miles and it all re-emphasised my dislike for trudging around the stores. I'm sure I'm not alone - there must be plenty of you reading this who share my feelings! Don't get me wrong though, I like this time of year but I much prefer to be inside rather than out.

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Here's a roundup of my results:

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Rugby Union

Cardiff v Stade Francais : £22.43

Edinburgh v Leinster : £40.40

Wasps v Clermont : £7.81

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NFL

Buffalo @ Cleveland : £53.94

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The Darts World Championships start tomorrow so I plan to take a look. Last year I was staggered at the amount of money traded on the tournament so I'm keen to see if history repeats itself.

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King Calzaghe

Daily P/L: £43.16
Monthly P/L: £634.81
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The man went and did it and yet again I failed to follow my own advice! You may remember that in this post I mentioned that following Joe's demolition of the Viking Warrior, Mikkel Kessler, his odds to win the Sports Personality of the Year award were still a very tempting 23's on Betfair. Yet again though, I decided that my punting days were behind me so I let the opportunity pass me by. Skip forward a month and what does the champ go an do? He romps home by 50,000 votes! I suppose that's the way things go and it's my own fault for not having the courage of my convictions but the worse bit was that even after Hatton's convincing defeat to Mayweather he was still available at 14's yesterday afternoon :-(
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Well, you can't win them all so I'll have to console myself with a steady gain for the day. It was a mixed bag of results and despite taking an early set back in the game between Glasgow and Biarritz, I was able to claw my way back. It just goes to show that by keeping your losses small you have every chance of making them back on the next event you trade.
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My trading results for today were:
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Rugby Union
Glasgow v Biarritz : £74.06
Stade Francais v Cardiff Blues : £86.66
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NFL
NY Giants @ Philadelphia : £30.56
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On a completely different topic I've been highly amused recently by something a friend brought to my attention on YouTube - what would Star Wars have been like if the cast had been Welsh? Find out by viewing this but beware, the language is shocking but the sketch is very funny!
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A Beautiful Day

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Daily P/L: £501.76

Monthly P/L: £591.65

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Listen to this song whilst you read this post if you want to 'blog' interactively :-)

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It's not often that I don't look forward to trading but as it was my works Christmas party last night today fell into that category.

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As to be expected, I drunk way too much, crashed out as soon as I got home and woke up like a bear with a sore head so it takes little to imagine how unenthusiastic I was about sitting in front of a computer for a few hours.....but .....with hindsight I'm glad I did! The warm tired feeling was with me all day and on more than one occasion my bed started calling me but I resisted the temptation and instead glued myself to the office chair for the afternoons Heineken Cup match-ups and it turned into one of those days where everything went right. Every click of the mouse seemed to channel my thoughts to the TV and as if by magic the players responded - it was so ridiculous at times it seemed even the referee was in on 'the action'! Derren Brown watch out...

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Here's my trading summary:

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Clermont v Wasps : £216.36

Leicester v Toulouse : £234.32

Llanelli Scarlets v Munster : £51.08

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So, after a couple of hours 'work' I can now report a great gain for the day and a healthy monthly P&L, which as long as I don't get too carried away should put me in a strong position for the rest of December. Tomorrow, there's some more Rugby Union and NFL so there's an opportunity for me to make this a very memorable weekend - Have I ever mentioned that I love Betfair!?!

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Step By Step

Since Last Post P/L: £89.89
Monthly P/L: £89.89
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Rome wasn't built in a day and by the look of things neither will my trading bank! It's been another tough weekend but the positive thing to keep in mind is that I've still been able to turn a profit. As December is another relatively quiet month I'll be more than happy to make a 10% growth on my trading bank (around £640) so I'll continue to try and pick up the gains wherever I can. Here's a brief round-up of my weekend trading:
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Llanelli v Saracens - EDF Cup
This 'winner takes all' match took a while to get going as the atrocious weather decided to play it's part but when things stepped up a gear in the second half it became nail biting stuff. As per usual I only traded the first half and after getting on the Scarlets before they took a commanding lead, I levelled out my position to take a reasonable £39.31 profit.
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Barbarians v South Africa
Easy come, easy go! My decent start to the day soon evaporated as the 1.35 South Africans got turned over by a very talented Baa Baas side. I missed a great opportunity early in the game to lay the Springboks as their price began to drift quickly once the market realised we had a contest on our hands. However, by the time I realised it was too late and I ended up evening out my losses to take a hit of £30.87.
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South Africa v New Zealand - 3rd ODI
This was meant to be the highlight of my weekend - a chance for me to put a positive step forward and cement a strong position for the month. What happened? The Proteas cantered to an easy victory and I whimpered to a gain of £6.12! Not much to write home about for 4 hours work! During this match I did check on Dip's Blog to see if his strategy for trading the first innings was similar to mine and I was very impressed with his approach. Dip knows his cricket and if you haven't read his blog you're missing out - take a look by clicking here and I'm sure you can learn alot from his style.
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Jacksonville @ Indianapolis - NFL
My Sunday had turned into a damp affair and I was determined to try and make some sort of success of the day so I decided to take the plunge and got involved in the NFL. I really enjoyed trading this sport last year and I'm glad I took another look today as I seemed to read the game well and was able to ride the price movements when they happened. It wasn't an error free performance but it was enough to make me a profit of £75.33.
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Not the most exciting few days I've ever had but I've got to take the rough with the smooth as it's all part of the game. The trading diary looks empty until next weekend so have a good week and be lucky!
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