Be Honnest whats the most you have lost

[Alpha322]

This thread is just one to see while you were learning to trade according to how much your biggest loss was has it shapened you in becomming more diciplined. I saw a P&L balance on a earlier thread on here of -£1680 (from laying) Ok my biggest loss on BF in one go has been -£1000 That day i nearly packed it all in. But this happened not through ill dicipline, but by not getting very familar with BA and over staking and couldnt get out (hence another reason money management makes sence)
This taught me a couple of things

1) Trained with a much smaller bank
2) Divided the bank properly leaving some on the bank and all not in Betfair

3 Left my maximum liability on any trade in Betdaq incase i cant get out BF outage etc

4 Completly detached from the money and trade green screens fully relaxed (and some red ones but fully controlled losses) which emotionally dont matter because at the end of the month the worst result can be only a certain perctage of loss or a fat profit

So my real point is especially to newbies you will get a large loss down the line, it is like taking a punch in the stomach but what you have to do is not go down,take it and bounce back it really does toughen and shape you to be a better trader. Any advance on -£1600 laying

[PeterLe]

Think my worse loss was on a football match -about 300 I recall?
I was scalping the draw directly after a goal had gone in before the market settled and a second goal was scored about 20 secs after the restart
Ive just never got to grips with football to be honest esp in play?..still can't!

in general, my first two years of trading saw me lose about £1800? And I got to the point where I was on one final push - make or break and once my 2 k bank was gone that was that.
something changed in my approach, a different attitude I suppose (wish I could tell you what), But something clicked and three years hence (5 in total) I'm well on my way to the super PC so very glad I didn't give up.
its also fair to say that I've had some great help from a few people on here.
I wish this forum had been around when I first started too
regards
Peter

[Alpha322]

Think my worse loss was on a football match -about 300 I recall?
I was scalping the draw directly after a goal had gone in before the market settled and a second goal was scored about 20 secs after the restart
Ive just never got to grips with football to be honest esp in play?..still can't!

regards
Peter

Nice to hear your journey Peter, i am ok with football but the games that strike a first goal in the first 3 mins or even 20 seconds have got to be fluke. But my point indeed you need a large loss for your approach to change, -£1800 good puch to sustain good luck onward to your PC

[freddy]

Ive had times when i nearly gave up too, think most people have .
It was only when i really needed to succeed that i began to see profits,
before that i just fannied about not really needing the money and trying different things out.
It's interesting to me that most people say don't gamble with money you carn't afford to lose as infact it was doing this that turned things around for me.
we are all different, I guess i just needed some focus

as for the biggest loss, it was best part of 1000-00 from a Betfair site crash.

i was not amused

[malcolmk33]

Since this thread started with my notorious fall, I think I should make some clarification, lest someone might get the wrong idea.
Well, firstly that was really my biggest loss to date. Then, my account is in US$, so after conversion, it's actually a little short of £1000 (if u take the last loss figure which is $1570.69, so Alpha322, you still beat me on that count ). But this doesn't tell the whole story.
The fact, is the amount I lost yesterday was part of the sum that I've made (net profit) through trading Betfair for the past few months. Yes, I must admit that I was being too adventurous with my way of going about my trades lately. (though I wouldn't even call those as trades anymore). It was just a dangerous venture in hindsight. Now I must revert dutifully to normal trading.
p.s. I'll second the idea of learning with a small bank, building up gradually; and have a well thought-out money management plan.

[Online Trader]

The fact, is the amount I lost yesterday was part of the sum that I've made (net profit) through trading Betfair for the past few months

Always amazes me how people appear to think that losing money that they have won is not as bad as losing money that they have not won.

To me losing money that you have won is just as bad, it is a loss and should therefore be treated the same, once you have won the money it is your money.

It is a bit like the Mugs that are in the bookies 24/7 betting on every race saying after a win "I am betting with the bookies money now anyway"

[Alpha322]

as for the biggest loss, it was best part of 1000-00 from a Betfair site crash.

i was not amused

Take it the selection went on to win, this is pure bad luck when that happens, i always hit the sp button when waiting for a closing trade

[Alpha322]

The fact, is the amount I lost yesterday was part of the sum that I've made (net profit) through trading Betfair for the past few months

Always amazes me how people appear to think that losing money that they have won is not as bad as losing money that they have not won.

To me losing money that you have won is just as bad, it is a loss and should therefore be treated the same, once you have won the money it is your money.

It is a bit like the Mugs that are in the bookies 24/7 betting on every race saying after a win "I am betting with the bookies money now anyway"

Ha ha true point it is the money they lost last month. As a trader at least you can see everything in front of you even your learning fee but thats another thread

[malcolmk33]

Well, I can assure u that it does hurt like hell to me whenever such losses occurred. I did not say it doesn't. The point I was trying to make was, I was using those gained money to venture on new strategies. Like most would agreed, there must be thousands of ways to skin a cat, so I'm always on the lookout to trying out new angles in trading the market (I wouldn't discount anything if I have not really tried it to see if it might work.) Unfortunately, I was taking my stride a step too far this time. If one could learn something from such ventures, cutting out the rough edges every now and then, (ditching bad ideas never seems to be a problem to me) it might help in achieving steadier progress in future. Moreover, big losses is also part of the learning curve of any traders, I believe. Just some food for thoughts.

[superfrank]

Horse Racing / Belle 22nd Aug : 1m6f Hcap
-£2,430.29

let it go in-play with a lay position on a relative outsider which led from start to finish, iirc.

in-play liquidity was poor (Irish race) but still should have got out and accepted the loss.

[Zenyatta]

Over the first couple of years I had trying to trade with BetAngel/Betfair, I lost over 15 000 in total (yes, you read correctly, thats 'fifteen thousand' , and am now only recovering that. Biggest individual losses would be in the range 400-500 I think.

Using BetAngel, I actually did a lot worse than chance for a long time. It's remarkable that using the most advanced software available and staring at the markets for months, I could only seem to chuck money away faster than chance.

I did hit the jackpot on other gambling (non-Betfair related). It took a national lottery win of 35k just to recover all the losses on Betfair (15k) and have a good additional pot (20k surplus) to start over. Even a dog sometimes strikes truffles....

[freddy]

as for the biggest loss, it was best part of 1000-00 from a Betfair site crash.

i was not amused

Take it the selection went on to win, this is pure bad luck when that happens, i always hit the sp button when waiting for a closing trade

Yes so do i now, but this was before we had s.p
and it's not fool poof unfortunately anyway, if Betfair forget to turn the market in-play and your bet is matched after the off time, then they will void it leaving you exposed .

[JollyGreen]

I've just traded the first two races successfully but I am feeling truly awful so I am going to stop and return to bed with the laptop. I did lay the fav at uttoxeter at 2.02 and it went 2.40 pre-race so I felt a bit better.

My biggest losses all occurred when Betfair had a site crash. I was in a great position on a runner having laid it for £3000 at 1.86 and watching it drift to 2.12 where the trend started to break down. I had placed some closing orders on the way up and some were matched when suddenly the screen froze

I called Betfair and heard "Welcome to Betfair the World's biggest betting exchange..." Aaaaarrrggghhhh! I watched the race and the horse came with a late run and just got up on the line!!

That was £2,300 down the drain!

Then a similar thing on a race over the jumps one Saturday. I had laid a horse at 5.8 for a large liability using multiple £500 orders. The price was holding pretty well and I was looking good until everything froze as before. I tried my internet which was fine, I checked other programs which also were fine. I phoned Betfair and guess what? "Welcome to Betfair the World's biggest betting exchange..." Aaaaarrrggghhhh!

It was a complete crash so I could do nothing. I had no idea what my liability was but I knew it wasn't healthy as I watched this horse plod along getting the arse ridden off him. Plenty fell in front of him and he kept on for the win. The result was a £5,850 loss and that's my biggest ever. I've had a few more in the £2,500 range and five loses of this ilk in total!!

[CaerMyrddin]

My biggest loss was on the €600 range and the second one was in the €400 range. Both of them were on the footy but so were my biggest greens.

The first one, I was scalping a favourite pre-off (had no clue what I was doing as I look to it now) but wasn't able to get filled before the off. There was a goal on the first minute and it went against my position. I was really nervous then and made the costly mistake, I didn't know what to do and on the second half I decided to back the team that was in front so that I would have a green book should they won. They conceeded in the last play of the game...

Curiously what made me a better trader was a big win I had that changed my way of trading... Go figure!!

[giulio2010]

My mentor lost almost 100K with her boyfriend ( 96K or 97K I don't remember perfectly) and I the biggest lost was 4200 on a tennis game..I think was the end of 2008, it was a game of Gilles Simon against a 16.-17 years old youth..I have laid Gilles simon on one set down and 2-3 match points against him...I don't remember everything as I thought was the end of the world but still hurt and gilles simon went to win the game without realizing how, because all happened too fast...The funny thing was that I have backed him 1st......