Posts Tagged royal ascot
Back to earth with a bump
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on June 23rd, 2011
In line with my objective to take more time off this year, I had a well timed break after after Royal Ascot to head off for a BIG wedding abroad. What a fantastic experience it was and how I wish I could have extended the trip to the post wedding bash on the edge of the mediterranean. Wimbledon was calling though, so I had to make do with what was a fantastic few days instead. We packed so much in and hardly slept each night, so it felt more like weeks than days.
I arrived home to the rain and a rain delayed Wimbledon. I immediately felt like I could have got away with a few more days! I also kept pondering whether working in the UK is all it’s cracked up to be. With modern technology, it’s quite possible to work anywhere I want. I can’t help thinking I should do exactly that.
Originally the wedding was last week but moved to this week. This was lucky, or else I would have missed Royal Ascot. As it was, Royal Ascot went very well in the end. I think I may have done a slightly better job over the week, but not that much better. I managed my best ever day at Ascot, my second best week on Betfair and if you include Betdaq, my best ever, ever, week. I say “if you include” as I am sure that while working on both exchanges was definitely complimentary overall, there were a few races where I just couldn’t focus on both intensely enough and had to sacrifice one or the other.
I was nervous about Ascot having had such a rough time last year, but on just one day this year I beat my entire total for the same week last year. How? I dug down and learnt from last year and changed my approach. I’ve seen so many ‘experts’ vanish without a trace I never taken anything for granted in whatever I do, especially in this market! If you ever want advice from somebody on anything, time in the job is a great qualifier.
Some great memories
Royal Ascot / Open Golf Thursday
Posted by Peter Webb in Golf, Horse Racing on June 17th, 2011
Another good day in the bag for Royal Ascot, but I left it late today. I didn’t get a real blockbuster race till near the end of the card. I had to work much harder than yesterday and I took my foot of Betdaq, as working harder meant I couldn’t keep focus on two exchanges effectively. I did broaden my activity out on Betdaq though to other races and they worked well. So after Ascot I’m going to continue my work there.
I did have a hiccup mid afternoon when my Internet connection went down. Quick as a flash I went to my back up connection and continued, but I never found out why it was only my main machine that failed. A quick reboot between races brought it back to life.
Overall, The weather made the markets a bit jumpy and there were some real moves around. The biggest was when the trainer of a horse came on and said his horse was unlikely to win because of the ground. See the graph below for what happened next. The weather has been incredibly poor this week and heavy rain has set in again this morning. So I think we could be in for another tricky day today unfortunately.
I got off to a great start on the US open golf, so it looks like it is going to be a very good week indeed. Here is a list of the top ten +ve movers overnight.
Rory McIlroy – 23 to 3.8
Charl Schwartzel – 80 to 14.5
Sergio Garcia – 90 to 25
Y. E. Yang – 170 to 24
Graeme McDowell – 70 to 28
Bubba Watson – 55 to 38
Louis Oosthuizen – 250 to 32
Brandt Snedeker – 70 to 38
Jason Day – 46 to 36
Stewart Cink – 100 to 50
For a full list of movers, visit the forum.
Royal Ascot – Day two
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on June 16th, 2011
That went well! I have to give myself a 10/10 for yesterday. After a quiet start with a few errors in my P&L I slowly got into stride and managed to really hit top speed by the end of the day. In the end I managed to achieve my best ever daily result at Ascot which was incredibly satisfying. I can’t pretend today will be a repeat performance, but I will try hard.
It’s difficult to pick any highlights out of the day as it all went pretty well. I didn’t do that great on the Prince of Wales stakes but managed to turn it around and still get something from the race, so that felt like a win. The reason I just did worse than I should have, was because I took a little too much risk on board. But that’s no bad thing, as it shows I was on form if I pushed it too hard. Today I touched the edge of the market.
We are just south of Ascot and the weather here this morning is just dreadful. That is bound to have an impact on the racing today. Hopefully things will cheer up a bit this afternoon.
Anticipating Ascot
Posted by Peter Webb in Bet Angel on June 15th, 2009
Well the biggest week of year for flat racing is almost upon us and I can’t wait. Some friends and I took all the children to Legoland yesterday so we passed by Ascot on the way, the racecourse is only just up the road from me. I couldn’t resist popping in for a quick peak. I could practically hear the roar of the crowd and the thunder of hooves when I looked across the racecourse.
Excitement is high, but also apprehension. I am always up against increasing results from previous years so each year gets harder for me as I have to find better ways to put money to use in the market. You don’t need to be successful very often before you run out of space! It’s curious that having more money to use in these markets is a curse not a blessing, contrary to what some may suggest.
Taking this into account and talking of using less money, somebody reminded me this morning that three years ago I did the ‘Royal Ascot trading challenge’. I used a bank of £1500 and had to double it on the week. It went a bit better than that as it only took three days to double. I’ve re-posted the results of that original challenge below.
While there is always uncertainty surrounding these critical meetings, in terms of possible performance. One thing is certain, I definitely wont be using £1500 as a maximum stake this week!!
Royal Ascot challenge images from 2006: -
