My first strategies

I've been dabbling in this for a couple of days now and I can honestly tell you that most of the time I have no clue which way the market will go. But I have found some situations in which I feel less lost and I've made a couple of strict rules for myself that I have no problem following.

I like the 20 - 10 minutes before the off period. While there are still gaps. Especially in the Aussie and the US races.

I wait until some money is matched to get an idea of what the true starting odds will be, as I know nothing about the horses so the unmatched prices tell me nothing. And then I simply make use of the gap. Trying to back high and lay low. I've noticed that the the bets you lay in that period tend to get matched easier then what you back. So I start out with the back bet, if that gets filled I lay it. At least I know that I'm out quickest possible. Which is the way I like it.

If things start to happen and it gets volatile I get out if I'm not matched yet. Just too big of a risk to get caught in a market that's rapidly settling itself to its true price at that moment when I have no clue what that true price is supposed to be.

Ok, rules.

1. I never let it go in running. Ever. I know nothing about horses, jockey's or racing so that's easy enough for me to stick to. Especially since the last 5 minutes before a race are a bit too volatile for me I mostly have taken my profit/loss well before the race starts.

2. I only enter the market if I have a plan. I don't bet for the betting itself.

3. When I put a bet in I've already decided where I'm putting the reverse bet in. If the market turns against me I'll take my loss quickly (in the beginning one bad bet would wipe out 6 or more good ones, now I try to not lose more value then I make in a bet, a penny saved is a penny earned). If the market goes heavily in my direction I'll move the bet up/down a lot to make the most of it but as soon as it heaves back to my preset profit I decided on I'll take it. If I believe it will go further I'll put in a new bet.

4. If a bet I put in doesn't get filled quickly, or I get the feeling the market is acting not accordingly to my plan I take it out again.

I have the feeling that being able to lessen your losses is as much as a factor in consistently profitable traders as being able to read the market in the first place. I'm sure there are people out there who have all the knowledge and skill to make money but blow it all away by not being able to cope with/ take losses and thus taking much bigger hits the necesary.

A new obsession

I've found a new obsession: Betfair trading. I always have an obsession next to my 'regular' life. Drives the people around me crazy so I decided to blog this time and make it optional to hear all about it :-)

I've been playing online poker for the last 4 years. Poker has been good to me.

I deposited 100$ at Partypoker and found out that limit Holdem (which was more popular then no limit at that time) was a really easy game in which you could bluff most people out of a hand easily. Within 2 days I had lost that 100$ and decided there might be more to it.

I forbid myself to deposit for a month and only use play money and get more knowledgeabe about the game.

So I found the 2+2 forums and bought a book. And another book. And another.. I now have about a meter of pokerbooks on my shelf.

After a month I deposited another 100$ and I've never looked back. Within the month I withdrew my initial 200$ and have been playing with profits since.

I've made okay money over the last couple of years. Probably around 10k or so. So 2500$ a year. Of course I extended the games I played to NL, SnG's, tournaments etc etc. Nothing earth shattering but the cheapest hobby I've ever had! I own a business which demands anything between 60-80 hours of me a week so my playtime is limited too.

I'm a bit fedup with poker. It's not a definite thing, I'll come back to it sooner or later, but it's started to feel like work.

So now I've found Betfair trading! It's new to me. It's possible to "beat it" and you can do it almost 24 hours a day.

I've been roaming the internet to find information. I've noticed that although there are quite some blogs about and a couple of forums no one is really eager to divulge the way they do it. Very much unlike poker where you can see all the pro's cards nowadays on television and everyone writes a book letting you know exactly how they do it!

This intrigues me and with the amount of money changing hands everyday gives me the feeling that there's still a lot of value to be found for someone who's willing to put in the hard work and can deal with the psychological part of trading.

So join me in my new obsession! Hopefully I have the traits needed to be one of the people who can consistently make money out of this. If not this blog should in the very least proof to be an invaluable "what not to do" guide to other budding Betfair traders! :-)