Trading Diary

[ShaunWhite]

I have no urges to behave irrationally.

Quick! Call the police, someone has stolen the real SeaHorse and replaced him with an android.

(Halliday, I still keep smiling about your comment that this thread was "like watching one of those endless depressing episodes of EastEnders".)

[Halliday]

I have no urges to behave irrationally.

Quick! Call the police, someone has stolen the real SeaHorse and replaced him with an android.

(Halliday, I still keep smiling about your comment that this thread was "like watching one of those endless depressing episodes of EastEnders".)

Let's hope the android version is a permanent fixture

[SeaHorseRacing]

Another -0.80p to settle on my P & L. too tired so logging off

[Naffman]

I found Kempton tough too tonight, hope tomorrow goes better for you

[SeaHorseRacing]

I found Kempton tough too tonight, hope tomorrow goes better for you

I hope the markets are better for you too.

I never usually trade a maiden market with prices higher then 4/5. I usually find them weak and one of them only had 200 matched with a few mins to go and I thought to myself, I am so indulged with learning and breaking some habits I am forgetting to remember the basics.
They were so weak and I literally had no chance of scratching anything and did I listen no. Placed the same trade like 3 times on one of those markets.

It's a shame because my trading plan has been better the last few days it's just they haven't shown in my results so I hope to see some changes soon.

I am buzzing because I am making real progress internally it's just that transition period where my mind is focused on me and not so much the markets. They great thing is I've had 2 stonking days and you the loss is completely minimal. A month a go my losses would have at least been double from such poor trading and would have aloud a few of those trades to get out of control.
If I can trade just normal and have these bad days stay like this I will be doing alright.
From pure trading my worse two days trading in months and I don't think it's a coincidence. If I can accept days like this and they are few and far between I will be very happy.
puts me in a position to still make a profit on the week.

Murphy law is catching me out on everything at the moment.
Closing orders before the off and then my closing positions further away get matched.
Double clicking stakes like a twitchy finger.
hold my position over ready to scratch and letting go with out my brain telling me too.

It's difficult getting the balance right as I open one door another closes.

[Halliday]

Another -0.80p to settle on my P & L. too tired so logging off

I'm not surprised your knackered trading The amount of hours you appeared to have traded.. How many greyhound markets did you trade and what time was you last trade ...

Your traded English racing into the evening and greyhound racing as well by the look at it ( you told us the other day you were practicing on greyhounds) . And even tried Dundalk . Which is a notoriously volatile market . What made you think that was a suitable market to trade

It's far too long to be trading in my opinion and the results seem to bear this out ..

21 horse racing markets traded( if the -0.80p was one .. It was a losing trade whatever )

So excluding the greyhound markets . Which would be interested in seeing how many you traded.. You had

21 traded Markets ... Resulting in 10 LOSING TRADES .. And 2 that returned less than 0.01 or zero ( 12 Total)

You've traded exactly 100 markets since you started posting P/L ( excluding greyhound ) ... Resulting in

100 traded markets ...........38 LOSING TRADES .... And 9 that returned less than 0.01 or zero (47 total )

So just over 50% of your trades are returning a profit .. Which is a very similar figure I think to what PW said If you were just trading markets randomly .

So yes you have the "gambler" in you to control . And the emotional side of dealing with loses etc...

But when you said ...
"Over the last 5/6 months I have probably only had no more then 15 losing days. I don't think there is anymore to learn about the markets other then being open minded and learning on the way."

You talk about "making real progress ", your " trading plan being better ", "Murphy law" , but the fact is based on those percentages you are deluding yourself .. And for your own good and benefit please look at those figures . They don't lie


I would say that you need to re visit your trading strategy . And this is going to sound harsh .. But I suspect a complete beginner who maybe had had two or three days understanding the ladder and going into markets randomly would be pretty close to those percentage win/ loss figures


You trade for far too long . And randomly in my opinion .. And to many varied markets ( greyhound , Irish racing should be left till you can trade English horse racing )

If your traded the hours you are doing . Have posters all over the house reminding you . And you say you punish yourself if you sit and watch a losing trade by scrubbing the toilet ... It's complete overkill .. I know you want to succeed but that is no sort of life SHR
And you are putting so much extra pressure and expectation on yourself by publishing your P/L..


Take step back . Relax .. Review your trading strategy . Because what your doing isn't going to work . But most of all enjoy it . If you can't then you will never succeed

Hope tomorrow is a better day. Or maybe a take a break and spend it with your family

[cybernet69]

SHR....

Like others have said, you really need to step back and think about whats happening.

My advice would be:

Tomorrow, try and find some Horse Racing markets where 2 or 3 runners are controlling >= 75% of the book%. Trade these markets from 4 minutes to 1 minute before the off. You will soon spot which trades to open and which ones NOT too. After awhile it will be like taking candy of a child.

Keep your chin up and stop posting your P&L.

Best of luck,

[Trader_Tom]

I too think you're over trading to be honest. Not a dig but an observation. There's good reason a lot of professional traders only trade a few hours a day and that's because this work is taxing. Focus on quality over quantity.

My personal approach is to go in to guardian in the morning. Tick "UK" under horse racing and load JUST those markets up. Stick to those and if by the end of it all you're still thirsty for it. Go read a trading book or something like that.

Keep at it though. No one said it should be easy but you don't have to make it hard for yourself either.

[SeaHorseRacing]

All my profit gone on the last race.
Place a predefined back to lay where I take a price as there linning up and I allow the closing orders to be taken as SP.
My orders were left in the market and I though OK they must have been taking at sp.
The price even went through the orders and they never took them.. So I waited and waited. 44 seconds I waited the price went the other way and I just simply couldnt risk losing the lot.
Two days in a row.

[Halliday]

SHR Do you not just trade manually on the ladder? How many trades did you do today?

[spreadbetting]

All my profit gone on the last race.
Place a predefined back to lay where I take a price as there linning up and I allow the closing orders to be taken as SP.
My orders were left in the market and I though OK they must have been taking at sp.
The price even went through the orders and they never took them.. So I waited and waited. 44 seconds I waited the price went the other way and I just simply couldnt risk losing the lot.
Two days in a row.

BSP reconciliation problems are very rare and it's usually the whole reconciliation goes down not someone's individual bets. Yu need to ensure your bets meet the minimum standards of a £10 payout for lay bets , each bet much be over £10 liability not an aggregate of bets being over each individual bet must have that liability, back bets must be £2 or over.

If you think you met that criteria and your bets should have reconciled just contact customer services. I've had plenty of BSP bets credited to my account when they've had problems with reconcilation even in 4 figures.

[SeaHorseRacing]

SHR Do you not just trade manually on the ladder? How many trades did you do today?

Simply nothing whatsoever I could do.

Samething yesterday happeded were it was practically a break even and I am proud because it only led me to compounded anoter two -£2 losses aftwerards.
But it happened again. lol. I dont understand why the SP isnt working properly. I couldnt risk it not getting matched, I did the right thing twice.

Yes I trade manully but I like to do abit of back to lay but taking sp and the must be making up for 50% of my lossess at the moment.

Only a handful of races today will post a screen shot latter.

[SeaHorseRacing]

All my profit gone on the last race.
Place a predefined back to lay where I take a price as there linning up and I allow the closing orders to be taken as SP.
My orders were left in the market and I though OK they must have been taking at sp.
The price even went through the orders and they never took them.. So I waited and waited. 44 seconds I waited the price went the other way and I just simply couldnt risk losing the lot.
Two days in a row.

BSP reconciliation problems are very rare and it's usually the whole reconciliation goes down not someone's individual bets. Yu need to ensure your bets meet the minimum standards of a £10 payout for lay bets , each bet much be over £10 liability not an aggregate of bets being over each individual bet must have that liability, back bets must be £2 or over.

If you think you met that criteria and your bets should have reconciled just contact customer services. I've had plenty of BSP bets credited to my account when they've had problems with reconcilation even in 4 figures.

Its only a toal of about £10, so I will call them. thanks. Yes my liability was over the minimum.

[ShaunWhite]

All my profit gone on the last race.
Place a predefined back to lay where I take a price as there linning up and I allow the closing orders to be taken as SP.
My orders were left in the market and I though OK they must have been taking at sp.
The price even went through the orders and they never took them.. So I waited and waited. 44 seconds I waited the price went the other way and I just simply couldnt risk losing the lot.
Two days in a row.

At least you're finding these issues with small stakes...in 'test mode'. But it's irritating I'm sure.

At this stage I'd be very tempted to massage my stats to have a 'with' and 'without' software bugs balance, just so you don't get a false read on the quality of your part in the process.

I know tech probs will always happen but at least you'll be able to see if the weak link in the chain is you, or the tech.

[spreadbetting]

Its only a toal of about £10, so I will call them. thanks. Yes my liability was over the minimum.

If you go to your betting history section on the website you can get the betID's to check the bets were over the minimum limits. Just go to betting history and select Lapsed bets from the bet status dropdown box to get the bet details.

If you're betting in small amounts and auto offsetting bets rather than manually closing they may be being submitted in chunks rather than whole bets. Always quicker if you give cust servs the BetID's and it'll save a red face if they are under the limits.