1st Year Graph

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SpikeyBob
Posts: 451
Joined: Thu May 14, 2009 12:31 pm

Today marks one year since I started keeping records of my activities trading and I thought I would share the graph of my performance over that year. I am doing this essentially just to show people that you can actually succeed at this, especially as there has been a few posts on here recently about people struggling.

I have taken an extremely conservative approach to the whole thing, compounding my winnings/losses as I have gone along. The graph is below and I have not included any figures on it, other than the day numbers across the bottom, as it is not that relevant in proving that this is possible. What I will say is that from my starting bank on 1st August 2009 to the end of trading yesterday, I have increased my bank by 1545.83%, while my bank savings account over the last 12 months has probably paid out something like 1.5% (thanks to greedy w/bankers). :shock:

The graph shows some serious draw-downs on my bank in the early days and this still occurs occasionally now as well. I'm not saying this game is easy by any means, I still doubt myself every day, the emotional side of it is very difficult, but if you stick at it and learn from your mistakes then it is possible.

I still consider myself a novice at this game and am learning every day. I treat it like a job, when I fist started work, many years ago :), I never earned much money, but as the years went by, I got better at my job and I earned more money through promotions, etc. Trading is the same, learn to walk before you can run.

Good luck with your trading and if you are struggling, remember that you are not alone, we all have and do struggle to get those green figures, but if you persevere it can pay off. :)

Cheers

Spikey
Trading - Year 01.png
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PeterLe
Posts: 3729
Joined: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:19 pm

Hey Spikey Bob, 1500% is an awesome result. Well done..!
I thnk it is sometimes frowned upon to show the P&L, but if Im honest it was Adam Heatcotes blog that finally convinced me to either go for it or pack it in..(Crap or get off the pot!)
I wasn't envious (in the true sense of the word); I just thought, that if Adam could it, then it was possibleand with dedication I might achieve some level of success.
Anyway well done !! (Here's to the next 12 months!)

Regards
Peter
(PS Still not achieved the same level of success as Adam...but I'm working on it!) :D
lilgreenback
Posts: 211
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:28 am

Hi Spikey,

Well done on a good year as you say that's a hell of a lot better return than sticking it under the mattress or in the bank. I would consider that what this does show is how one can progress if one sticks to a consistent approach and method. As you indicate there have been losses but by managing those effectively and continuing to plug away at what you know works you get there in the end. Cheers for sharing that as it is inspiring to see what can be achieved. As for the profit and loss issue goes I can’t see a problem, it is not nice to lose granted (I know) but in doing it is only then you can see how difficult trading is and how bloody hard people have worked to get there to be able to make it.

Take it easy

LilGB
Bet Angel
Bet Angel
Bet Angel
Posts: 4031
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:47 pm

Well done on a great year. You can also see the drawndowns on the graph I see, so well done on not chasing them!
danum
Posts: 237
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:57 am

excellent! Well done
DodgyKnee78
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:23 pm

Well done and thanks for showing us newbies that its possible with some hard work.

Can I ask if you have increased your stakes over the past year and also if the graph represents a percentage of your stake/bank?

Good luck going forward
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oddstrader
Posts: 344
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:55 pm

Great to see a success story - good on ya ! ;)
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CaerMyrddin
Posts: 1271
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:47 am

Congrats ;)
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BennyBlanco
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:35 pm

Well done "Spikeybob", just goes to show what one can achieve if you stick and it and keep an open mind - a lesson for all!

A nice thread to read.

keep on trucking!
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SpikeyBob
Posts: 451
Joined: Thu May 14, 2009 12:31 pm

Hi folks,

Not done any trading since Sunday, so I'm only just catching up on the forum. Firstly thanks for all the positive comments, it is appreciated.

I never put this up to gloat, it really was just to show all the newbies out there (and us not so newbies) that this can be done. I deliberately never put any figures in there to avoid any of that 'showing off' kind of mentality.

As I said in my original post, I have an extremely conservative approach to this whole thing and I think that has helped me to progress over the year. Based on this and to answer DodgyKnee78's question, I only ever stake with 1% of my bank (conservative or what!) and I increase/decrease my stakes at the end of every day depending on my daily result. e.g. if I had a £500 bank, I would be trading with £5.00 stakes (no matter what the price of the horse). If I win £10 on that day, my bank grows to £510 and the stakes the next day will be £5.10.

Originally my aim was to make 1 - 2% per day (or 100% - 200% of my stake), which is relatively easy when your stakes are low, but I have found that as my stakes have increased so my returns have diminished, mainly due to only getting partly matched, not getting as many orders through the market, having to scratch more often, etc.

As everyone knows who has spent any time reading anything about this game (blogs, forums, etc.), my big draw downs were with letting lays going in play and the horse winning (or coming close and my panicking and exiting with a big loss). I found that the best trick to stop going in play was to get out at the official off time regardless of greening/redding up and also not watching the races as I pushed myself too far to often to get that one last trade in before the ... oh bollocks, they're off! This was just my way of dealing with it, watching the pictures does have lots of other benefits. You can see from the graph that some of these losses took me a couple of weeks to claw back, which is very difficult to deal with, but I kept plodding away at it and did get it back (stubborn git that I am).

Compounding has been the biggest thing for me, using 1% was a slow climb in stakes and you don't feel the big jump like you do when you jump from £5 to £10. Easing you stakes up slowly makes the losses a lot easier to deal with as they gradually get bigger (as do your wins!).

If you compound £100 by 1% every day for a year, it will become £3740.93, at the end of year two, the £100 would have become £141,345.34. I'm not saying this is doable as the betfair markets can only take so much money, it's more just to show how compounding can grow. I think that means that my 1500% represents less than 0.5% bank growth per day which sounds 'hardly worth the effort', but after a year of compounding it is and don't forget the banks are only giving you approx 0.5% per year at the moment on your savings, not per day.

Anyway, thanks again for the positive comments and I wish you all the best of luck in your trading. We all need it from time to time. :)

Cheers

Spikey
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CaerMyrddin
Posts: 1271
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:47 am

Thanks for the details, SpikeyBob. Made a great reading.

Compounding is a powerful thing, allegedly Einstein declared it the most powerful force in the world. And if he didn't, he should have :D

I reduced my bank to €100 by March, after attending Peter's course and promise to post my results by March next year, hopefully I'll have something decent to show.

Keep up the good work!
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