Response to recent comments

As promised, here are my replies to some recent comments:

Nick

Thanks for your comment mate and I agree 100% with everything you say. I think I was in danger of getting too caught up in the term ‘riskfree’ and one thing about my particular strategy is that it is nowhere near riskfree!

I was also too caught up with the amounts I had been winning or losing in the last 2 weeks and not looking at the bigger picture. I’ve made £750 this month from trading in the evenings mostly and I was getting upset. I can be such a fool at times!

Dropping my bank is not really a big deal for me since I don’t use all of my bank to trade. Obviously, with a higher bank, I can use higher stakes when I’m entering my opening position and I’d have more money at the back of me if it goes wrong but this isn’t always a great thing for me.

Recently, I’ve been getting a bit carried away and have been getting in too deep on horses too early in the pre-race markets and having to use a large chunk of my bank to bail me out of my position for a smaller loss.

Dropping my bank seems sensible and as my confidence grows again, I will happily top up my Betfair account again if I find I need more money in there.

I also agree with your discipline point. I think there is a very thin line between discipline and risk aversion. I’m trying to edge towards more discipline but keep the same level of risk aversion I have as this is where the big money can be made I think. I’m not anywhere near this place yet though but I’ll get there one day I hope!

Thanks for your comment and I hope your trading is going well.

Stan

Hi there. I think you are correct in the sense that I’m going through a sticky patch but I’m not sure if trying to ‘ride the storm’ is always the correct course of action. Also, instead of increasing my time trading, I’m going to decrease my time on Betfair.

I think all of this recent self-doubt has come about due to the fact I haven’t had the proper time to trade on Betfair and I was trying to sneak a race here and a race there to keep the profit ticking along. I have now decided to only trade on Betfair when I can set aside an appropriate amount of time to trade and to stop pissing about on Betfair when I don’t have enough time.

I’ve covered the stake size issue in my reply to Nick above. Thanks for the comment and keep reading the blog!

Alistair

Hi Ali. Good to see you are still on an upward curve mate and long may it continue. I agree that I have maybe lost sight of the fact that I should expect losses with my strategy and I just need to ensure I keep the correct level of trading and gambling.

I did take your advice and withdrew some more profit from Betfair and it’s really pleasing knowing that I have withdrawn over £2k of profit now from Betfair. This has actually made a big difference to my financial position recently and whatever happens from now, I’m never going to lose on Betfair which is a nice feeling to have. The £2k has already been spent by me clearing up my overdraft and topping up my savings account!

Good luck with your future trading and once you switch to the win markets, I can give you a few pointers!

Steve

I think you hit the nail on the head mate! I think the problem I’ve been having is really a lack of time and nothing else and for this reason, I’ve decided to only trade on Betfair when I get the time.

I agree I have maybe lost focus a little bit recently when things weren’t going that great. Having withdrawn £2k of profit now and after seeing how much I’ve made this month even, I feel much better. I feel like I need to set myself little targets that are slightly more ambitious as I keep meeting my target every month too early and then I go off the rails a bit!

I like your comment about how bad you thought I’d do at the start. I’m sure that comment was shared by many as when I set out on this adventure, I had all the right tools and equipment to do well (IMO) but I was missing 2 things, a trading strategy and some experience!

To go from not having either of these 4 months ago to having a strategy and 4 months experience is pretty cool in my book and I think I have even exceeded my own expectations for where I’d be after 4 months.

I just hope I can continue to exceed my expectations in the future…..