Friday 31 October 2008

Draw a new line under this month!

Profit since last update £265.79

After writing a review of the month and drawing a line under the month, the last two days have saw a further upturn in fortune for me and I’m posting another nice profit to complete this month so that it is recorded on the blog and is in my records.

In the last two days, I’ve analysed 6 races which has resulted in a winner, 2 seconds and a third along with 2 horses unplaced. 5 of the 6 have traded very low IR and I’ve made money on each of the 5 races and lost a little on one race.

Obviously, the winner has removed the monkey from my back regarding the losing run I was on with the tipping but being honest, it’s scant consolation for the month I’ve had.

I think the world is a strange place at times and especially where the gambling gods are concerned. For 7 weeks, I was purely punting my own selections and this was partly because I knew that most people at the site were doing this. However, I made the decision to stop doing this after I’d lost most of the subscriptions I’d collected and the world wasn’t looking that great for me or the subscribers.

8 days on, not a losing day in sight for me and everything appears to have ended on a bit of a high for my own personal punting. The subscribers won’t be feeling so great but I’m not going to hide the fact that I use my analysis to win money. That’s why people wanted me to give selections in the first place! Obviously, I’m disappointed with the way most of the selections have run and it’s been a poor month for The Form Analyst but thankfully, I personally don’t need winners to make money from trading the selections.

I’m trying to start discussions across at the site about different ways to make money from analysing a race using basic trading skills and some brains. Clearly, I’m never going to be a great trader and I’m unlikely to have a decent trading bank anytime in the near future as we enter recession and I’m paying a massive mortgage on a house that’s worth less than I paid for it!

However, I’ve made money all year by being smart on Betfair and from limited funds and as I’ve shown myself in the past week, when I’m in form and analysing races well, I can still make money. Obviously, the irony is the fact I was off sick for a few days and started trading again and it seems like I’ve never been away from it at all but I think the break has done me the world of good.

Before I started down on the whole tipping route, I was slightly disillusioned with trading and I was consistently annoyed with my lack of time and opportunity to do it. This hasn’t changed but now my attitude has changed a bit and I’m in no rush to make big bucks at the moment. The whole point of this experiment was to find a way to make money from my knowledge of horse-racing and obviously, any profit gathered along the way was greatly appreciated.

However, it was never the be all and end all and maybe I should have realised this. I’ve been reading back over my posts for May and June and at times, I was making the game seem very easy! Obviously, I then got a bit carried away and was trying to scale it up and try out a million different things when in all honesty, maybe that was as good as I ever was on Betfair. I was making £30 an hour from trading the horses and maybe that’s as good as I can be. If someone offered me that now, I’d take it every time!

Obviously, back then, I knew I wanted to try out different things and get better and be the best I can be but maybe I was pushing for something that I can’t achieve. Earning £500-£1k a month on top of my salary would put me in a hell of a good position and so what if other people can earn much more, they don’t have my job!

Anyway, these are just a few thoughts I shared on the forum at the site and I thought I’d share them here.

The Experiment was definitely an apt name and I’ve experimented with more things this year than any other gambling blog I’ve ever read!

I don’t think I’m finished experimenting yet…………..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to see some winners again Graeme. Did you see Lucky Dance win from pillar to post at double carpet yesterday? I couldn't believe that the bold front would pay off, but it was brilliant. Pity I only had my usual tiny stakes on.

Graeme Dand said...

Hi George.

As you say, it's nice to see some winners but Lady Luck isn't exactly smiling on me at the moment!

I had 2 horses trade at odds on IR and lose yesterday including one trading at 1.04 and I had one trade at 1.25 and lose today!!!

That's now 11 horses in less than 3 weeks trade odds on IR and lose which isn't helping me much.

Obviously, this should all level out in the long-run and I'll get back in profit and push on but it's not helping the situation too much!

11 of the last 15 selections have been in the first 3 home and when you look at the odds, I only 1 or 2 to win and I'm back cooking with gas!

Well done with Lucky Dance. I fancied it 2 starts back but it let me down!

Graeme