Archive for March, 2009

First race of Cheltenham 2009

Typically with a large racing meeting like Cheltenham I look to get off to a steady start. I am happy to reach break even or a small loss just to get used to things. First race this year started off unexpectedly well with £175 green across the card, so my confidence has taken a boost. Had a good week last week and a decent Monday so confidence was high already. Now the first race is under my belt hopefully I can settle into a decent pattern for the rest of the day. Either that or this is hopelessly placed optimism.

Whatever it is I hope you have a cracking Cheltenham.

After a couple of weeks behind the desk in full trading mode, a good Saturday and Monday behind me I am about as ready as I ever could be for Cheltenham. I just hope it is ready. Last year was really tough and was a big struggle based on the previous year. It felt completely different. I’d love to offer up a prediction for this year but I am afraid I can’t. I’ll probably have a better idea of how it feels tomorrow evening though. I’ll post up if I have any thoughts. Don’t take no post as a negative, just use it as an indication that I am too whacked out to post!

One thing you will will notice with the markets at Cheltenham is that there is a lot of money around. This tends to squash price movement and this can be a problem for people used to more volatile markets. If you think about this, rather than viewing it in a negative fashion, it also has some beneficial effects. In more volatile markets it is not uncommon to see a price move from say, 2′s to somewhere approaching 3′s. That doesn’t typically happen in the bigger markets, so you can take on more risk if you wish. It’s a high stakes game but one that works wonderfully well if you get it right.

My first objective is to try and get a £100k turnover race through as quickly as possible this week. If I can do that early in the week, I can set myself up for a crack at a record race later in the week. None of that is guaranteed of course, I could end up with a record loss, but there is no harm in trying!

Bet Angel has quite a range of features, In total there are seven main areas. While it may seem daunting to use all of them , or you may feel more comfortable sticking to just one screen, you are quite likely to be missing out on some perfectly good strategies if you ignore any of these key areas.

It’s important to understand why this is. When we designed Bet Angel it was because of need, it wasn’t a marketing exercise or an effort to replace other income. That work continues to this date, in the background we are always testing and prodding the markets for new ideas or to improve performance.  This week we are stress testing the latest version during one of the busiest weeks of the year. You have the comfort of knowing we carry the can first, if there are any issues!

People often ask me and other traders what features do they use the most? The simple fact is that each day I can find a use for pretty much all of it. Different markets across the card, the day or the week often require different approaches to maximise the opportunity.

With the Cheltenham festival this week mixed up with a variety of other types of racing, is a perfect time to try some of the other features on Bet Angel. Even if you are not used to them its worth experimenting with them, because they all exist for a reason.

Further to the introduction to Guardian I highlighted recently, here is a video showing you some multi market trading. In the video we skip backwards and forwards across multiple markets letting Bet Angel manage the trades as we go. Doing this will allow you to get more trades through the market and increase your potential profitability.

If you are  a regular reader of the blog you will know that I didn’t do a great deal for Febuary for personal reasons.

You will be interested to know however, that I still did almost as well as I did in Feb 2006! Based on the fact I only really did the last week, that shows you the sort of growth that has taken place since then. On my return to work at the end of the month things were pretty settled and fairly normal so I am looking forward to March with much interest. Of course the feature is the Cheltenham meeting. It was spoiled a bit last year by the weather and that made it super tough. I hope that this year is a bit easier. March should see an uptick in your fortunes. I like this time of year as the garden starts growing and it’s a good reminder that spring and summer are not far away.

The problem I find, having been in the market for nearly nine years, is that I can’t help comparing results with prior years. No matter how clever you get, it is always difficult to compare as many things occur that influence results and shape your results. So try not to get hung up on a bad week or month, they will occur for any number of reasons. It’s more important what you achieve over the year. Like wise, don’t think you are a god because of a great month.

When you start to think you have it cracked you start to get complacent and that ultimately leads to failure. Seeing others fail or clearly head off down the wrong path acts as a constant reminder to me to keep pushing forward and to be self critical.

Ok, slightly off subject but if you are at a lose end and looking for something to do; or, like me, have three children that want constant entertaining why not have a go a geocaching?

I discovered the joys of geocaching while fiddling with my Iphone. It’s basically a worldwide treasure hunt using GPS. I was amazed to know that there are around 8,000 locations within 50 miles of my house. So on Sunday I went out with the children to discover a few of them. It’s amazing where some of them are located and you soon realise that you have been walking right past them while hundreds of people have been stopping off and signing in.

For more information visit http://www.geocaching.com/