Kodiac's Journey

[Kodiac]

Afternoon all,

As the cliche goes, the journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step. And this is mine.

About me, im a total newbie. I came across betfair trading having spent a few months bonus bagging. I've spent the last few months reading, practicing, failing and learning. The markets fascinate me. I feel like a sponge.

My job in the corporate world is long hours and pretty stressful, so i only really get chances to trade evenings and weekends (when my social life and girlfriend permit). Occasionally i take half days off work. I'd love to make this a second income stream at first, then who knows. REading about the more sucessful posters on here is inspiring, however im realistic enough to know this is the exception not the rule.

I intend to use this as a log for my activity. I'll copy my pnl after each session. I'll be using £5 stakes with a starting bank of £100. Focusing on Pre race markets and the occasional football trade. I know people advise not to set targets at this stage, but im setting a loose one - +£22 for the first month (5 trading sessions per week, average £1 per day). To be honest, i'll be happy to have any kind of green by June.

Let the games commence.

[Kodiac]

Well, first days trading. Definitley a bit edgier than the demo account!

I was out on the pop last night, so was like a bear with a sore head today - not ideal for your first day, granted.

I started out by watching trends, the relationship between the runners etc. I tended to trade the second fav when it felt right, and the fav about 30% of the time. Due to my small pot i backed first and once i had a little green cushion i scalped a bit. As the day progressed i gauged ranges and placed trades just outside and waited like a fisherman for a bite - these swings proved more profitable than the scalps which tended to feel a bit random with me scrabbling to scratch out or take a loss quickly. Out of 21 markets i had 5 losing. I dont have any live feeds so was effectively trading blind, just watching the liquidity. I did manage to get the betfair feed up for a few races, and then it said video not available for the rest of the day. Bit annoying, as I could have waited to close a few a bit longer. Still, i avoided going in-play but cut it fine a few times.

At the moment i feel a bit like a kid picking up pennies in the road, and somewhere out there, theres a steam roller heading my way. I've got a lot to learn about the rules and types of races, but anyway, a reasonable start.



edit: the resolution on that screen grab is rubbish...£2.59 profit for the day...£5 stakes.

[Kodiac]

Got bored waiting for the missus to get ready...two more markets...felt much more relaxed as had had a few hours off...



£4.79 for the day...£17 to hit my target for May 29th

how the hell do you improve the resolution on these screengrabs?

[Bog]

hi. for printscreen I press the "print sc" key on the keyboard and then I go to windows paint -> paste the print screen and then save it. maybe it can help. good luck

[Kodiac]

Thanks matey. I'm on a imac, using shift command 4.... Looks fine when I open up pics on desktop but not when I upload....

[DarkHorse]

Upload to the likes of tinypic.com and then use the image tag in your post:

[IMG]image_link[/IMG]

Don't know if it will make a difference, but worth a try...

[Kodiac]

Well, work and bank holiday fun took over the last week, but i had the afternoon off today to trade chester. All was going well with 10 wins in a row at one point, £11.80 up after 12 races at £5 stakes and then...the cardinal sin....i got on the wrong side of a nasty drift. I tried to scalp the prices back thinking the price would rebound, but it didnt...and then i got caught in play. The days winnings gone in one. I kept on, and the next race again the second biggest loss of the day.

After chester i noticed the later courses were extremely spiky, with big moves which steamed in either direction. Id not experienced that before, and it didnt suit my style of gap filling and then scalping 3 or 4 ticks. I think at one point a horse moved from 3 to 5.5.

All in all, a useful lesson.

-£4 down on the day :/


Over the last month, ive read lots of blog posts about learners going in play and paying the price for this lesson. Losses are a part of the game. Todays lesson was get out early and dont risk going in play, you bloody idiot.

[Caan Berry]

Good luck! im reading

[Kodiac]

Managed to fit in a few days trading - usually evenings. The weekend wasnt too great as you can see. Im sticking to the £5 stakes.

Today went a bit better, 7/10 strike rate and managed to keep the big losses out this time. Embarrassingly small sums i realise, however from small acorns do great oaks grow...or something like that. Im getting a feel for the different markets at the minute, however ive developed an aversion to laying first.

What im struggling with is my strategy on correct entry points. Quite often i pick a point and the market immediately moves against me, i then spend the next 4 mins fighting my way back into the green or waiting for the reversions...when it doesn't happen is where i get the bigger reds. I find myself regularly in the red, but have a reasonable knack of clawing it back...so far.

Im guessing what i need to do next is appreciate different resistance points and use them as entrys perhaps....

As a sideline ive been trading the footy goal markets to help offset the nags.

Tell you what though, its bloody hard staring a screen all day when the suns out and all the mischief that come with it.evil

[Kodiac]

So today I had the day ff to get the car repaired, a 2hr job, leaving me with the afternoon to have a run at the markets. So I ended up waiting 6 hours whilst it go repaired, sitting in some chain pub , with a big plate of food and Chris rea on in the background...I felt like Alan bloody partridge. Got a mate over from Columbia tonight so rushed home to sort the house out then jumped on the market. The API was going at a snails pace, unworkable. Really really groggy, sticky and generally not responsive. Not a good start. I think I lost 75% of the markets I entered today, nothing really worked. I started getting a bit flippant, chucking in trades here and there with frustration and ended up with a £5 loss on one market, my biggest pre race loss. Ended up jacking it in an grabbing a glass of red. Slightly pissed off . Round about -£10 on the day. What a wanker. Today's lesson is have the right set and setting , as Terrance McKenna said. My mindset was rushed and my setting was wrong, knowing my pal would turn up any minute. Oh well, I'm cracking on!

[Kodiac]

So after the misery of last friday I pulled my socks up and went back to the books. I've picked up a few more strategies which im working on and tried to start employing them today. Again, im sticking to small stakes until I iron out these f**king in play errors.

So today went a little better. Learning how the prices react and inter-relate and applying that with split second decisions will take some getting used to. I spent more time assessing each horse and its ladder position before i entered. I guess you have to keep practicing until you get a feel. I won 16 out of 19 markets today (the last one got suspended so shouldn't count, but i'll have that!). I was up a £5, and then an in play error wiped the days profits again...but at least im in the green.

The in play wasnt an error, i'll be honest, it was a gamble to claw back a small red into the green...that was my ego wanting to keep a clean sheet for the day. Take your losses (or protect ya neck as the wu tang say). I also tried to find an angle in every race, which is a bit daft. I need to sit on my hands more and wait for the bloody obvious trade to smack me in the face, watching from 10 mins out as the race forms rather than hopping into a new race every 5mins. Anyway, despite the big error, I've taken heart from today.

Next stop is recording my trades on video and paper, and reviewing the courses and form in the mornings. Tricky when i work8-6 most days...

Tomorrow I trade carefully, take my losses, avoid in play and slowly grow that bank.

[Kodiac]

Another free evening, so I spent it drooling in front of the screens like the sad sack I am. Off to the gym in a second for punishment.

So I tried to trade a little more rationally, didnt jump in as much (although had to a few times when i saw momentum breaching a few key spots). I still traded every effing race though, even when i didnt have a clear opinion of the direction the markets were heading.

Whilst I promised not to get caught in play, I did. Twice. You'd have thought id have gotten used to taking the loss by now. Each tim i managed to exit quickly but lost a bit of green, and in the other i snatched some green...so it evened out but could have been worse. MUST STOP DOING THIS.

Whilst Im targeting £1 a day from min stakes, my ego wants to outperform...I could feel myself reaching for the £5 figure and getting a little agressive, so ive sacked off the last few races tonight. No losses today, which is good, but tons of errors and a few spots of luck, which is bad. A lot to work on.

[Kodiac]

Well, this diary is meant to be warts-n-all.

Not a good day at the office. perhaps i got a bit cocky with yesterdays performance...stakes went up a bit, few mistakes early on...jumping int too quick and snatching profits only to see them run many times...i still struggle to see which way the markets moving. I need to scratch earlier and take small losses/ Sound like a broken record.

and to top it off i got caught in play and tried to trade out in the last race of the day. Biggest single loss and about 20% of my bank gone. IDIOT.

Back to the drawing board. My discipline is not the best. Not much more to say, other than back to small stakes and caution when I next jump in.

Horse Racing: -£20.43 Total P&L: -£20.43

Horse Racing Showing 1 - 10 of 10 markets
Market Start time Settled date Profit/loss (£)
Horse Racing / Sand 19th May : 1m1f Hcap 19-May-16 20:35 19-May-16 20:39 -19.94
Horse Racing / Ripon 19th May : 1m4f Hcap 19-May-16 20:25 19-May-16 20:29 0.45
Horse Racing / Clon 19th May : 3m Hcap Hrd 19-May-16 20:10 19-May-16 20:18 0.60
Horse Racing / Clon 19th May : 2m3f Hcap Hrd 19-May-16 19:40 19-May-16 19:56 1.14
Horse Racing / Sand 19th May : 1m2f Hcap 19-May-16 19:30 19-May-16 19:34 0.28
Horse Racing / Ripon 19th May : 1m6f Hcap 19-May-16 19:20 19-May-16 19:25 -0.18
Horse Racing / Sand 19th May : 1m Hcap 19-May-16 18:55 19-May-16 19:00 -1.09
Horse Racing / Ripon 19th May : 1m2f Mdn 19-May-16 18:45 19-May-16 18:51 0.46
Horse Racing / Clon 19th May : 2m Hcap Hrd 19-May-16 18:35 19-May-16 18:40 -2.30
Horse Racing / Sand 19th May : 1m6f Hcap 19-May-16 18:25 19-May-16 18:30 0.15

[Kodiac]

The Good, the bad and the ugly...


So i'll preface this post by saying ive spent hours reading various blogs, taking mental notes of each persons shared frailties when it comes to this trading endeavour. Time again ive read of guys not accepting losses, of their ego taking them in play. In an academic sense, i acknowledged it. Im not a gambler; ive never experienced going on a tilt or overstaking to claw back losses. Well, now ive taken a step from the academic into the practical, and yours truly learnt some age old lessons first hand.

So, a few days ago i made a good start on my evenings trading. £7 up on the evening using 5 stakes, winning 11 races in a row. I wanted to finish on a £10er in the last race and played agreesivly, i got myself into £2 green before the race spiked against me. My ego couldnt accept only 50p green so i kept hanging in as the ticks dropped...whilst the clock ticked....next thing im £2 red and it go's in play with £30 on the lay side. I sit in horror as the red mounts and my lay romps home. £30 down the shitter. I was gutted. I wanted to claw it back, so what did I do...staked £50 on the manu game. Cashed out for a big loss again. The trading bank down from £90 to £18.



Having reloaded the bank to £90, i dipped in once more. First race, caught in play....accepted the loss after watching it trade in the red and hedged out for a £5 loss. Not a great start. A few deep breaths then traded out the rest of the evening without losing anything notable and ended £1.38 up---a small positive.



Despite the shite start, this gave me a glimmer of hope, and motivation to push on, and to take those effing losses quicker.

And onto the good. Today was my best day, only £9 but won 11 out of 11.



So whats my tactic? Well, i think i can be consistent with small change. I noticed Chuck356 posted something on twitter showing similar experiences blowing up and it gave me a little hope i guess. Im setting up a database to record every trade and to colour code greens and reds and the inplays so i can see where the in plays happened. Im going to try iron these out and review each month....with punishments each time i go in play consisting of either a 10k or 250 pushups. I want to get my bank up to £200 by the end of next month. Of course, i could just plonk £500 in from my regular wages, but i want this to grow slowly, to protect it and for it to grow itself.

[lcredd]

Great post Kodiac. The trading game is 95% mental imo. The amount of times I've turned a £5 blip into a £50 mistake by simply not 'accepting' it is criminal. Over time you'll reduce these errors but eliminating them for good is near-on impossible (I can't anyway.)
You're right not to plonk on your hard earned £500. If you can get to £200 by the end of the month you've done very well. A larger bank normally means larger stakes and then larger mistakes. Slow and steady wins the race.
If you're consistent, 11 out of 11 shows you are, then you'll succeed. As your bank grows and your experience, so do your stakes and profit.
Good luck.