Viva Las Vegas!

Since Last Post P/L: £185.78
Monthly P/L: £471.16
.
With the British weather continuing to ruin all the Twenty20 cricket thank goodness for the Desert Classic Darts. The action started on Wednesday night and within a few minutes I'd racked up a nice green figure on the first match but I was a little worried about the liquidity so I decided to stop there and leave it a couple of days until the second round started. Tonight I decided to take another look and as there seemed to be a bit more money about I decided to get involved. After a few legs I soon remembered how volatile the darts markets can be but fortunately I called more decisions right than wrong which means that July is shaping up to be a very good month. I'm aware that things can turn around quickly though so I'll be trying to keep my feet on the ground.
.
I've listed a brief summary of my results over the last few days below.
.
Wade v Osborne
£72.55
.
Scholten v Beaton
£75.20
.
Newton v Jenkins
£1.59
.
Barneveld v Mardle
£36.49
.
Lewis v King
£3.13
.
As I'm ahead of where I thought I'd be I've decided to treat myself to a round of golf in the morning instead of trading the Australia v South Africa match. A wise decision? I'm not so sure, but it's important to break the routine now and again and have a break.
.

Great Start

Since Last Post P/L: £219.30
Monthly P/L: £285.38
.
The start to July has been the complete opposite to what I experienced at the beginning of June and with plenty of action scheduled for the rest of the week long may it continue!
.
Paraguay v USA
I very rarely make straight up bets anymore and will only do so if I feel the price on offer is significantly better value than what I perceive to be the true odds for the event. As the cricket was called off on Monday evening I decided to scan the Betfair markets to see what was going on and I noticed this little beauty. Paraguay are a team "on the up" and after their 5-0 drubbing of Colombia I was surprised that 2.08 was on offer for them to beat a USA side crushed 4-1 by Argentina in their previous game. As the USA side were also missing several key players I decided to take a punt of £35 on a Paraguayan victory. When I woke up on Tuesday I was greeted by the news that they'd won 3-1 and I was £35.91 better off.
.
Sussex v Essex
Can you believe that the groundsmen at Hove could forget to fill up the floodlights with petrol before a SKY televised game? I couldn't either, when at the turn of the innings the umpire declared that this was the case. Despite the Sussex Chief Executive back tracking with some other excuse a little later, it was a very embarrassing situation for all concerned as the Essex reply to Sussexs' 163 was delayed by 45 minutes. Hove is a deceiving ground - it looks like a great pitch but teams always seem to struggle to post massive scores and the Sharks' total was always likely to be a challenge under the conditions. Essex looked in control for much of their innings with Bopara leading away but they started to crumble in the last 7 overs and in the end fell considerably short of the target. The match was a bit a of a trading dream for me as I constructed an all green position of £193.39 on the outright market but lost £10 for covering myself on the completed match market just in case they couldn't solve the floodlight problem. So overall a profit of £183.39 can declared for the match.
.

Out!

Daily P/L: £66.08
Monthly P/L: £66.08
.
A good start to July has left me with a smile on my face - being on the right side of the p/l at the beginning of the month is always nice and as it puts me in the right frame of mind for the coming weeks.
.
England v West Indies (ODI)
Fair play to England, they're starting to look like a decent 50 over side! Shame they haven't quite got the Twenty20 format sussed just yet but there's no denying that if they continue to bowl like they did today they'll be taking some major scalps in the near future. Okay, I know the Windies aren't great but it still took a good effort from the England attack to knock them over and with the likes of Broad and Mascarenhas sure to learn from the experience things should only get better. From a trading point of view I was happy with the way I performed but I missed out on a big win by a matter of seconds. I was keen to get on England just after the Windies 2nd wicket fell but only managed to get £188 matched at 1.60 before Anderson took Samuels out on his next ball. The price crashed to 1.33 immediately and I had to settle for a smaller gain than I'd have liked. I'm not complaining though, these things happen and I'll settle for a profit of £66.08 on the match.
.
There's plenty of cricket to look forward to so it should be a busy week.
.

All Black For New Zealand?

.

Daily P/L: £73.93

Monthly P/L: £480.17

.

Another month ends and I'm very happy that I've been able to grow my trading bank by 20%. It was slow going at times but it just shows the importance of being patient and waiting for the right conditions to come along. The end of June also signifies the half way point of 2007 and it's a good time for me to evaluate my performance so far. By scanning my records I can see that since January I've been able to chalk up a profit of £2376 after commission, which all bodes well for the future but I'll try not to get too far ahead of myself. The most positive point is that I now have four sports (Rugby Union, Cricket, Darts & Golf) that I feel very comfortable in trading and it makes such a difference when you have confidence in every decision you make.

.

Australia v New Zealand

Have the wheels fallen off the the All Black bus? I don't think so. They may have let a 15-6 lead slip but I sense this defeat will put them in the right frame of mind for the World Cup and it's definitely not good news to anyone they come up against in the next few months. The fact is they're still the best side in the world (by a decent margin) but it doesn't mean they're unbeatable. The Aussies showed today that by taking the game to them it's possible to score points but stopping the New Zealand team from scoring more is the hard part. Stirling Mortlock had another great game in the centre which reemphasises to everyone how good he's become - I just wish he had a Welsh Grandmother! From a trading point of view it was a hassle free match - I got in and out of the market at the right times and in the end I finished with a profit of £73.93.

.