Small Win

Small win but still cautious. I have been thinking a lot over the last 2 days and I need to make this more professional in 2009. I will set new targets etc and also devise a plan so I can make sure I can trade at least 4-5 days a week. I hope to quit the day job in 2009 but it will take a lot. May need to have something part time too.

Anyway there were so many races today I knew it would take a while finding the best races to trade as a few were starting within 5 minutes of each other while some even started at the same time. I need at least 10 minutes before the start of a race to form an opinion.

Unlike a lot of people I prefer to trade races with a lot of runners and with no clear favourite and this was the basis of my initial shortlisting of races to trade. However the liquidity on many races was just not there and I had to instead just trade the ones with most liquidity.

Overall again I was bailed out by my system C horse laying system

System A, my favourite lost 8 ticks over 3/3 races. System B won 6 ticks over 7 races with, 5 wins, 1 loss & 1 break even although most wins were at 1 tick.

System C, I do not count in my tick calculation, layed a horse at about 10 and the horse duly obliged. I know when I get a loss on system C it will really be a test of character and will send me running to lok at the races to look for additional loss avoiding filters.

System C is now 8/8 while I don't think system 8 has won in about 10 bets. Should I give this up ???


I will take a look at the charts and decide. System A is laying at high odds so I am trying not to get too excited about the wins. I will review when i have had at least 30 lays.

Overall I was pleased with my discipline amidst all the distractions. I rejigged my spreadsheet completely on tuesday night so spent the first 2 hours also fixing minor errors. There were more meets than I have ever traded before and liquidity was not great.

I have learnt a lot in 2008 but setting myself a target of March 09 to be in good regular profit or I will move into trading forex. Part of the reason I am doing this is to improve my discipline and learn some technical analysis.

Side benefits also include better excel & programming skills.

I am happy that I am now programmed to keep my losses low and manageable although I might actually be too risk averse.

Anyway a quick and early update as i plan to watch my beloved Arsenal avoid defeat against Aston villa, then go for a run and finally do my income/expenditure look back for 2008.
In 2007 I used to do this almost weekly in 2008 I decide to do monthly and he last time I did this was in June. I just want to see what I can afford to loose in 2009 to help determine my starting bank.

Anyway still lots to do today before lots of meets to also trade tomorrow so will stop here