Hello all,
In Peter Webb's blog I usually see how he speaks that he has had certain strike rate on a market, or percentages on winnings compared to previous year, profit made using a new tactic, and information like that...
My question is... what do you use to keep track of your trades? It'd be useful to be able to extract those stats as Peter does for oneself's trades to see our progression, identify bad spots, be able to certainly have the results of a new strategy, etc...
Till now, I was actually using a spreadsheet where I copied and formatted the data I retrieve in another spreadsheet from Betfair's P/L page. But I find it tyring, and difficult to extract info.
I was thinking about setting an easy Access database and try to keep it up to date... The problem I find with that also is that I use certain tactics (for example in football) that involves various bets in various markets just for one of the tactics... and I usually employ more than one in each match... so it's difficult to keep track of the P/L of each one unless I go manually writing them down as I trade (and that... I'd like to avoid because I want no distractions at all while in the market).
So in short... what do you use? Any idea to improve this little but also important area?
Thanks! Cheers!
Keeping records of our P/L and stats about our bets/trades?
I think keeping track of performance metrics is extremely important, and I do spend quite a lot of time analyzing them.
Personally I do everything in excel. I have a macro that works out how much I make 'per event'. What I mean by this is that if you request an account statement or download your p/l it gives you an overview per market. For instance for a football match if you have bet on correct score, match odds and total goals, it will view this as three separate markets. They may as well have been three separate games.
As I hedge and trade across markets, it means that the volatility shown is not realistic as the risk didn't really exist. That's why I like to look at profit 'per event', which in this case means per game.
Every three months I create a trading report with a whole bunch of metrics to analyze and compare to previous periods. This is something that I would like to automate so that the report is generated by looking at a given account statement.
Personally I do everything in excel. I have a macro that works out how much I make 'per event'. What I mean by this is that if you request an account statement or download your p/l it gives you an overview per market. For instance for a football match if you have bet on correct score, match odds and total goals, it will view this as three separate markets. They may as well have been three separate games.
As I hedge and trade across markets, it means that the volatility shown is not realistic as the risk didn't really exist. That's why I like to look at profit 'per event', which in this case means per game.
Every three months I create a trading report with a whole bunch of metrics to analyze and compare to previous periods. This is something that I would like to automate so that the report is generated by looking at a given account statement.
why don’t you use the spread sheet written by nigelk? it does more or less everything you need, it is excellent.
also there is a point where all this p and l analysis becomes quite pointless; in the sense it will not help you improve your understanding of how/why the market is moving, when to enter/exit etc. in short it will not make you a better trader.
also there is a point where all this p and l analysis becomes quite pointless; in the sense it will not help you improve your understanding of how/why the market is moving, when to enter/exit etc. in short it will not make you a better trader.
Agree 100% with that, especially if you're just starting out. If you've already got strategies that work then records can tell you where maybe you need to work on etc but for the most part focusing on the dynamics of the market will bring far more reward than disecting your p+lto75ne wrote: also there is a point where all this p and l analysis becomes quite pointless; in the sense it will not help you improve your understanding of how/why the market is moving, when to enter/exit etc. in short it will not make you a better trader.
-
JacoboPolavieja
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:00 pm
I'll have a look at the mentioned spreadsheet. Is it in the spreadsheet samples?
Thanks for the recommendation.
As for the other part... I has nothing to do to analyzing the markets and all. These are two completely different topics...
With one you stress how to perform and understand the markets better, and think about new strategies.
With the other one, you keep track of it to see how certain thing is performing and wether you are improving or where you need to put more focus on or just realize something is not worth it.
Both are complementary and both are necessary to become a better trader. Just my opinion of course!
.
Cheers!
P.S: What to say that... obviously, if you have no method, no tactics, no understanding, no anything that brings you money from the markets... it'd be absurd to pay lots of attention to the "track P/L" thing. You should then dedicate 98% of the time to understand the market and 2% on the other part (just to see how well you're losing!
.But it would also help you understand why something may be working some times and some times not).
Thanks for the recommendation.
As for the other part... I has nothing to do to analyzing the markets and all. These are two completely different topics...
With one you stress how to perform and understand the markets better, and think about new strategies.
With the other one, you keep track of it to see how certain thing is performing and wether you are improving or where you need to put more focus on or just realize something is not worth it.
Both are complementary and both are necessary to become a better trader. Just my opinion of course!
.Cheers!
P.S: What to say that... obviously, if you have no method, no tactics, no understanding, no anything that brings you money from the markets... it'd be absurd to pay lots of attention to the "track P/L" thing. You should then dedicate 98% of the time to understand the market and 2% on the other part (just to see how well you're losing!
.But it would also help you understand why something may be working some times and some times not).-
JacoboPolavieja
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:00 pm
Ok, I have tried nigel spreadsheet and although it seems like a huge piece of work, unfortunately it seems it only works well with horse races...
As I trade in other sports also, I think I'll have a look at developing something in Access myself.
If I achieve anything worthy I'll post it out and see what you guys think
.
Thanks for everything! Cheers!
As I trade in other sports also, I think I'll have a look at developing something in Access myself.
If I achieve anything worthy I'll post it out and see what you guys think
.Thanks for everything! Cheers!
I currently use this for both horse and football although i keep them in seperate spreadsheets.
http://betfairtradingmindgames.blogspot ... -your.html
Kris
http://betfairtradingmindgames.blogspot ... -your.html
Kris
