Getting the hang of it.

Bankroll: $226,95

As you can see new all time high! :-)

I'm starting to get the hang of the greyhounds. Or better said I've developed 2 tactics that work but there's nothing subtle about it. But hey, they turn profits! This will at least give me some confidence with the dogs instead of feeling like I'm only donating. From there on I can work on honing my skills and maximising. It's all about making as much as possible in the timeframe available. Check out this video form a poster at www.racingtraders.com called tomas.tomass to see what I mean with making the most of the time available :

http://www.racingtraders.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1298

He's a maniac! I wish he would adopt me and raise me as one of his own :-)

What I've found to be an essential tool for greyhound racing is the William Hill Greyhound radio channel which you can find here:

http://live.williamhillradio.co.uk/radio-main.php?st=HR

First of all they will tell you what the favorites are before each race. This is good as the markets form only a couple of minutes before the off and you have to be quick. Having someone telling you where to look whilst you can keep focussing on the movements is better then having a website open all the time and having to check that. Also you hear what a lot of punters are hearing, so whatever the commentators are saying can become a self fulfilling prophecy and thus interesting to listen to.

Secondly they'll let you know when the race starts exactly. There is some lag involved though so if you close your position when they say: "the bunny is on the move" or something like that you should be ok. Really close it then as you have probably only a couple of seconds to get out.

Busy day at work tomorrow and have to be there early so no greyhounds for me. I'll be home in time for another good session of US horses though. With a bit of luck I can get myself well on the way to the $ 250,- mark after which I'll raise my stakes again.

I still have to get involved in those UK races and start using that www.attheraces.com sub I paid for. Tuesday I should be able to free some time for that. The biggest challenge is to get my girls to leave me alone. The computer is in the living room which I like cause I can be behind it and still be in contact with my family. But when higher concentration is needed it's a real pain in the arse. Especially since my laptop is broke so I can't move to the bedroom. Once that is fixed again it should be easier for me to find some peace and quiet. Downside is that the screen would be too small to look at the stream and have enough space for the betting software. Hopefull just the audio will do the trick for me.

I was messing around with the profit loss on Betfair and seeing how I was doing. I realised that I have been spending way too much time on this for over 3 months now and only the last 14 days have shown me some consistent profits. Which could always end up being a fluke but let's stay positive here for a bit. Thing is that this isn't for everyone. You have to have some sort of stubborn perseverence combined with discipline, good money management and a healthy adversity to pure gambling to make this work for you. And then you need a ridiculous amount of practice in which you'll have to deal with disappointment and loss all the time.

And I do this as a bloody hobby!?!

Good day, Betfair sucks at starting times

Bankroll: $ 209,36

I had a good day making profit on both the dogs as the horses.

I should have $ 10,- more but I got caught out with Betfair not having to correct starting time and suspending an US horse race more then 2 minutes before their starting time!

Anyone who knows of a good internet stream or radio that will tell/show me when the US horse races start would be my hero. Paid subscription is fine too as long as the monthly fee isn't ridiculous. A stream that does pre race commentary too would be ideal! I found a page that offers a lot of streams for differen't tracks but that would mean I have to switch stream every time I switch track. Not going to work for me.

It's my own fault though, I checked every race on here: https://www.ebetusa.com/racing/ which will show you correct starting times and some early odds to go by. I was talking over MSN to a new friend who also trades US horses and I simply forgot to check this one. But it's a pain anyways as it's just more hassle if I have to check the clock all the time instead of having the big one in my face flashing red.

Also the biggest reason I was ticked of is because it was a bit of an ego thing. If this wouldn't have happened it would've been my best day ever. But the way things are looking now I should be able to beat my record a couple of times next month. Will probably need to too with my new challenge tackeling the UK horses coming up. I have no doubt that's going to cost me some learning money.

Once again someone has told me he's making consistent money on the dogs every day. Funnily enough he was asking me what the right way to go about US horses is. So maybe it's just different ways of approach that's the key. The advice I got though it to not bet the favorite but look at 2nd and 3d favorite as it's a bit easier. Liquidity shouldn't be a problem as I'm still doing minimal bets until I turn consistent profits.

Maybe I'm just trying to swing trade too much on the dogs but it's hard to not to with so much ticks going up and down in that market. I'm just more of a swinger then a scalper. Which is what worries me about the UK markets because I have the idea that scalping is the way to go there.

First cashout!

Bankroll: $ 200,18 after $ 25,- withdrawal!

Made it :-) Best thing is, earned the last couple of $$ on the greyhounds so double victory there.

Next stop is $ 250,- after which I'll raise my stake to $ 25,- I think I'll have to make a push for $ 500,- at least before I consider cashing out, maybe even $ 1000,- I'll have to see how fast the bankroll grows.

Main thing is that I have to go buy that dishwasher for my girlfriend asap without crippling me betting wise. That will buy some more space to pursue my betting carreer :-)

Close to my subscription!

Bankroll: $ 223,38

I was hoping to nail it today and cash out but I'm still $ 1,62 short of my $ 225,- after which I'll cashout $ 25,- and get myself a GBP 9,99 www.attheraces.com subscription. This will give me pictures with my UK horse trading and will hopefully also provide enough pre race commentary info that will earn the sub back 10 fold.

I don't think I'll have time for the dogs tomorrow afternoon, which if you think in terms of getting that subscription quickly is a good thing :-) And I'm working late shift and thursday is mostly a busy day on the job so I'll be too late to do the US horses. Friday I have a day off so hopefully everything I'll loose on the dogs during daytime I'll make up and then some in the evening.

The downside of the subscription is that there's no escape for me anymore from the UK horses and I'll have to get in there for real now and make something of it. Up till now I've been avoiding it a bit because it feels like the "big league" and if I fail there that's the end of my trading. There's no point in continuing trading US horses if it doesn't lead me to the market where I can truly get as much matched as I'll want anytime soon. The US horses are good to me at the moment but it is getting my toes a bit wet and not a lot more. The liquidity simply isn't there to have a future.

Quick update

Bankroll: $ 211,52

Had another good session with the US horses as you can see.

Dogs have been costing me money as usual but I still have the feeling that I'm getting closer to profitablility with them. Just need to scratch some stupid moves from my game and I should be ok. And practice practice practice of course!

More later this week, maybe after work tonight, just a quick update now.

New short term goal

Bankroll: $ 200,53

My yesterday afternoon date with the dogs I had to raincheck as I had to spend some quality time with my youngest daughter. It was such nice weather we went out for the afternoon and visited some friends, my grandmother and did the shopping for dinner. Then I cooked for my girls (I have 2 daughter aged 2 and 4 and of course my girlfriend) and sat down for some serious US horse trading.

Nice to have passed a milestone bankrollwise. Yesterday trading was a bit weird though as I expected another night of good US horses trading but all the money was at the greyhounds that apparantely was shown live on Sky. Once I caught onto that I got hit by a general api error and couldn't place any bets for almost 2 hours. Doh!

The markets were a bit weird all night and I'm happy I got away with a small profit. Especially the total lack of liquidity on some markets was terrible. In one race I got a backbet in on a horse way above it's value (was the 2nd favorite) so I was already celebrating. Especially as it was more then 4 minutes before the off so plenty of time to get it matched as profitable as possible. Hardly any bets where matched anymore! And I had to bail at a 7$ loss! Go figure! Which reminds me to next time write something up about the websites I'm now carefully starting to use to give me an extra edge. To be honest though, at the moment all they provide me with is extra loss..

So the new short term goal! Seeing as I don't have acces to Sky or Setanta being in Amsterdam, Holland I've decided to get an online sub for the internetTV/video section of www.attheraces.com I don't do inrunning so the slight lag compared to the tv feed won't hurt me, although I have to be a bit carefull if I completely base a decision on what is said on tv. For the GBP 9,99 I only have to make a couple of good decisions based on their info to make it worth my while. So once my bankroll hits $225,- I'm taking out $20,- and getting the subscription.

Bad start, nice end

Bankroll: $196,45

Today started out real bad. I made a small profit on 2 races and then I accidently shut down BetAngel and started it up again. I have the default stake at $15,- and I now use $5,- stakes instead that I spread around so I have no more then $15,- to $20,- on the back or lay side at a time.

So instead of taking my time and checking if all the settings were as they should be I just jumped right in. And instead of having a quiet look at the market first and then decide what was best I was ticked of with myself shutting down the software and losing time having to start it up again.

At the time it seemed like a great idea to fire in 2 quick bets one tick away from each other and hope to exploit the gap. Thankfully I´m the kind of person that immediately gets severely punished everytime I pull stunts like that. Not getting away with it ever at least teaches me the lesson straight away.. You can probably guess that my bets where instafilled and the gap that was there was gone and the market shot up and I was looking at over $18,- loss if I would green up now.. Not good. Not good at all. I took a deep breath and decided that being pissed of was for later and damage control was for now.

I watched the market heave up and down (but all the time well above where I was hoping it would be) and I soon decided I was up shit creek and should just accept my loss. If there was space to make or save money I could always do that after redding up and putting new bets in instead of hoping to save this particular bet. I redded up at a loss of $ 12,65. So my night was pretty much down the drain after the 3d race.

But I sucked it up. Didn't get mad. Didn't decide to make up for it pronto but just focused, stayed confident and got stuck in it.

Here's my P&L for the US horse racing:

As you can see apart from the one stupid big one very little losses compared to the winners. And the amounts lost also much less then I would have had not too long ago. This is the first night that I traded so many races and I was well and truly in the zone. I did a lot more bets then I usually do. Exploited the markets going up and down during the same race and was generally confident about my ability to deal with what was going on. I think one of my biggest wins over myself tonight was that whenever the market turned against me I'd stay level headed and just quickly device a strategy to solve the situation. And sometimes I'd be confident the market would come around again because someone just dumped a lump sum and it wasn't a major shift. Other times I'd realise I simple misread the market in the first place and should take my loss and use that knowledge to get in at the right point.

I did a couple of races on the Aussie market just for good measure and then decided to call it a night. Here's the P&L for that:

So all's well that ends well but I could have made a nice big step to bankroll building if I weren't so impatient and hasty at times. (more speed less haste Tim, more speed less haste..)

Tomorrow I'm going to give back some of my winnings as the greyhounds and I have a date with destiny and I still haven't nailed the way to profit on those buggers yet.

One step forward, two steps back

Bankroll: $ 148,73 Added $ 45,- which I had doing nothing on Neteller so now it's: $ 193,73

I just realised after typing the titel that I'm showing a higher bankroll then last time but it's been some ride!

Quick P&L since of the differen't markets since my last post:

Greyhounds : - $ 7,68
UK & US horses : $ 2,70
Aussie horses : $ 6,96
Football : - $ 4,-

The random football bet was just trying out laying the 0-0 and planning to get out after 20 minutes. And seeing as it was Liverpool - Real Madrid you can see how that went wrong. I do want to add more sports to my toolbox at some point. Probably when I have a bigger bankroll and don't mind losing a bunch of minimum bets.

Greyhounds are killing me. My dog is lucky I don't take it out on the complete species :-) There's nothing left of my initial confidence that it was easy money. I checked my profit and loss on the dogs since I had that first good session and I've lost over $17,- to them. That's including those initial profits. Problem is that I can see the profitability just staring me in the face. I think I'm having trouble with it being a less then three minute window where I have to learn to trust my instincts and insta react. And to have instincts that are good I need more practice. So I'm at peace with the fact that them mutts will surely cost me some more before they start making me some.

Most of my money earned on horses is from the US horses as I can, and do, play them almost every day and I'm starting to get to know the markets pretty well. Mostly when I lose money is because it's not a good night to bet on them due to liquidity etc and me really wanting to have a go as it's 99% hobby and 1% possible additional income to me. (which doesn't mean I'm not fanatic about not losing) So biggest challenge is not trading when the markets aren't optimal and I'm sitting behind my computer eager to go. Any new trader looking for a start. Just check out the favorite. See which way the market is going (in time it get's easier and easier) and abuse the gap. Because of the gap it's much easier to see which way the market is truly going as one side is rather still and the other side is moving towards it. Then you have to think which side you want to bet on first. Very important! I got killed today by a race starting 2,5 minutes earlier then Betfair thought it would and thus suspending betting while I still had a back (thank god for that!) bet matched but not layed yet. And of course the bloody horse didn't win so I lost $5,- So when you are betting US horses beware! There are sites out there that give correct times. Check www.racingtraders.com for that as I saw it mentioned in one of the treads on the forum.

Aussie horses are fine providing there is liquidity and the response time is doable. Sometimes it's just too slow and you put yourself in bad spots because you can't place/cancel bets fast enough.


One last tip when doing gap trading. You want to make the most out of the gap as bets coming in on either side will swoop outstanding money on a couple of ticks quite often. So what I do is if I have for instance backed for $15,- I'll put in three $5,- lay bets at different points. So 1/3 is matched quickly, 1/3 is matched when there's a nice heave of the market and the other 1/3 is best case scenario. If the 2nd and 3d don't get matched within reasonable time and I have the feeling the market isn't going the way I'd like it to go I quickly bring them to the front. Try it as it will give you a significantly higher return instead of putting the whole 15$ in front and then kicking yourself as a bet gets put in swooping away 12 ticks. This also shows the downside of US markets, someone can come in at any time and swoop away a huge amount of ticks the wrong way leaving you in the kaka.

Reactions

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For now I've set reactions to unmoderated until the unavoidable spam starts to arrive, then I'll put it back but at least I'll be sure I'll get all reactions.

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BetTrader growing on me

Bankroll $142,01

I have to take back some of the stuff I said yesterday.

Today BetTrader acted a lot better and maybe it had something to do with some api slowness.

I decided to go back to minimum bets for a bit until I get this software firmly under control. Something I should have done in the first place ofcourse so only myself to blame for my losses lately. So just to have some sort of target I'll rebuild to $150,- at $4,- stakes and then go back to my initial staking plan. Should take me long enough to get to grips with BetTrader.

The Betfair graphs pop up really quick and I didn't have a single one not showing up unlike last night. So when I open a race, or switch my attention to a different horse I just quickly pop open the Betfair graph and see what price range has been traded on. After that the BetTrader graph is fine to show me the trend.

Also hedging seems to be a lot faster but it still feels just not as good as BetAngel's hedging function. Can't put my finger on it. Maybe the fact that BetAngel fires out a couple of small ones instead of one? But in general I press hedge, it gets hedged fast. One really weird thing though. I changed the hedging to "quick" and I assume that means it will take the first price available instead of putting it at the point where you maximise but might have to wait a bit. Thing was that the quoted hedge price was something like -$0,17 which I could deal with with only 40 seconds or so to go. But when I pressed hedge (so I pressed the -$0,17) it got hedged at -$2,75!!! OUCH!! Cause prices where matched a bit higher up the ladder and I'm pretty sure I could've gotten out much closer the the -$0,17 then the -$2,75. So now I have to find out if the price quoted, is not the price you'll get when there are gaps. If that is so it makes it rather complicated for me and I'll have to manually try to get out when the market turns against me instead of hitting the hedge. I hope this was a fluke or I did something wrong cause it sucks if you have to make a split second decision and can't count on the numbers displayed.

I had a go at the doggies again today and I got in and didn't realise that my default stake was still $15,- on my laptop as I had changed it on my desktop. Oops! So much of todays loss is that first bet that went wrong and sent me down $6,- or so. Having a string of small wins and then cock it up with 2 big ones through stupidity is not the way to fame and fortune I can tell you from personal experience now.

I'll say this for the last time as the BetTrader folks have said they'll take care of this in the update but not having the full market stinks. The WOM just doesn't tell you the whole story, neiter do the top 3 prices. Just by watching the money build up behind (or the lack of that) and seeing the spoof amounts further down and where people with slightly larger funds want to be filled at gives me so much more info on what's happening and how much I can expect to be in the shitter if it goes wrong. Lets put it this way. If you have 2 big amounts and a small one on the back side but you see the money above it move up. And the first 3 amounts on the layside aren't that big but they are closing up on the back money and they are getting a lot of support with other money right behind them and no gaps, my bet is the price is going punch through those 2 big ones. By just seeing 3 on each side you'd get the opposite impression. Some goes for the matched amounts shown on the ladder at the odds they were matched at. It makes gap trading so much easier if you know whereabouts the hidden money, I mean the people that don't put money up to be filled but simply jump on top of the lay/back at a certain level, kicks in so you can do a risk vs reward ascertation.

If above is a bit (or totally for that matter) vague just leave a reaction saying that and I'll try to explain it better.

As I said yesterday though. BetTrader just feels easier to work with and I like some of the shortcuts and little GUI tricks they have. Once you get stuck in you can act really fast on a relative small screen without having to go through a bunch of tabs etc. If I only would stop bleeding money while using it I'd be a happy camper.

Tomorrow no doggies or UK horses as I have to be at work early. I'll be hitting the US markets though. I think I'll do a session where I use BetTrader for an hour and then BetAngel and see which one I feel more reluctant to close down and switch. I do have to get the ladders showing the same way! I think you can change that in BetAngel and not in BetTrader. I mean that the back and lay side works different. In BetAngel if I click on an amount of money I match that. In BetTrader I cue up. So back lay is turned around and you have to click the other side instead of the same side. Confused? So am I!

Tuesday it's back at the dogs. They have cost me a bundle! Not nearly as much as my own dog has cost me so it's all a matter of perspective but my first assumption that they are easy extra money has bitten me in the bum with a vengeance. As it should. I don't want to give up on the dogs, I can do them every day and those markets just rock. I'm still convinced that if you get a grip on the market you can make some nice extra money every day on those mutts. But it all happens three minutes before the off every race and it's a relentless rollercoaster. Next time I'm doing it with BetAngel and the full market as I felt really confident when using that and now on BetTrader I didn't feel in control ever.

Much too late once again, I'm off to bed!