Trading results 23.08.2012 25.09.

2012
I'll post here my daily pre-race activity for horse-racing and I think it will help me with my discipline. Due to the latest changes in my program and because I returned to my job, I only trade the best races for my style, usually the evening races. I am much happier now, having a tight schedule with few time to think about trading during the day. stakes explanations: 1 point=1 tick = 1

23.08.2012 Today I traded 11 races. I had 18 selections for today but only 11 passed my final filters. Average profit/race: 2.3 points Max. profit/race: 6.7 points Max. loss/race: 2 points Total p/l : +26 points

24.08.2012 I traded 13 races. The going was soft in some races and the liquidity wasn't too big. I don't like these conditions because the prices can have huge swings. It got my stop losses several times today with a loss on two races of 6 ticks and once on the right side with a profit of 10. I traded 4 hours and each loss came after a break and this is something I must improve, perhaps if I'll use very small stakes until I feel completely concentrated. Average profit/race: 1.5 Total p/l : 20.14

25.08.2012 Not much to say for today. I traded 12 races, in 3 I had small losses, max. 2 ticks at the off. I must stay away from races where there are big swings especially on the favorite. One of the losses happened because I didn't noticed in the 18:00 Redcar race a steamer from 14.0 to 8 which made the first two horses to drift. I have a 4 ladder interface and it was fifth.. Average profit/race: 2.1 Total p/l : 25 points

26.08.2012 9 races today. It could have been better but I tried to catch some swings that didn't happen. Sundays are better for scalping and for smaller stakes. I also lost 5 ticks in two races because I entered too early. Average profit/race: 1.9 Total p/l : 17.8 points

27.08.2012 It was a great day. Not many suitable races, only seven but with good results. I'll trade fewer races, only those with a bigger edge for my system. Today I was lucky enough to catch some big drifts in three races. Usually I open more races and try to scalp a few ticks but I see it cut my profits. I want to get to a point where I trade only 10 races with 3 ticks average profit/race for at least a month. I changed my trading a lot and taking big swings reduced my level of stress. Right now I'm still far from that discipline and I hope in a month this will improve. Average profit/race: +4.3 points Max. profit/race: +12 points Max. loss/race: -2 points Total p/l : +31 points

28.08.2012 I didn't have too much time for trading and a was very lucky in the last race with two big swings. I'm curious for how long I'll be able to maintain my current performance. Usually after one week I begin to be overconfident. Now I changed my stakes and exit points and I can lose only a small amount on any trade. Maybe this blog will help me finally to stop moving the stop loss and stop chasing losses. So far it does it very well. Average profit/race: 5 Max. profit/race: 12 Total p/l : 25

02.09.2012 Sorry for not updating my progress for the last few days. I took two days break and started this weekend with more enthusiasm . I've not taken any notes so I'll just update a print screen. I have big plans for this month to trade at least 25 days the same way I did last week.

04.09.2012 Today I traded 8 races, two with a loss but the rest were easy to scalp. They also had some big swings on the favorite. Average profit/race: 3.3 Max. profit/race: 7 Total p/l : 27

07.09.2012 Finally the AW races started and they are very good for my system. I'll concentrate mostly on the evening races when I have more time. Average profit/race: 3.9 Max. profit/race: 8.6 Total p/l : 19.6

08.09.2012 Today I traded 14 races. I'm refining my selection method and begin to choose my entry points better. I noticed that in two races every day lose something and right now I have to accept the losses sooner. A book I read have a great impact on how I organize trading. I record every race with Camtasia, write about every race in a spreadsheet and I have a business-like approach. The book is called Enhancing Trader Performance, written by Brett Steenbarger. I can see that I have almost 100 books about trading and discipline and I already read most of them. They all helped me to some extend but without practice they are useless. What I have to do now is to continue trading only following my method every day. It can give me the results that I want from 5-15 races/day. So I have a password for every page that has tennis and greyhounds in their adress (tennis.betfair.com, betting.racingpost.com/greyhounds/cards and others) because I can't be very consistent with other method right now. I'm not at my computer during the day and I have no time to follow a tennis match for 3 hours. I still watched US Open on TV but without any bet. Thanks for following my progress. Average profit/race: 3.6 ticks Max. profit/race: 13.6 points Max. loss/race: 13 points Total p/l : 51.3 points

09.09.2012 I think Sundays are the worst days for trading. I started to write a cognitive journal with what went wrong in my trades and some patterns are obvious. In the last minute the volatility of prices is too big and I can see that sometimes I open trades after the drift is almost over. These are some things that reduce my profit and I'll continue this journal for at least two weeks. Today I found 7 mistakes that I made and I wasn't aware of them until now. The result for today isn't great but I learned a lot with recording my screens and watching them later. In the replays I could spot in one race that the fifth horse went from 14 to 7 very fast and I could explain why my open trade on the second favorite was difficult to close with a profit. So I'll continue with this good practice. Average profit/race: 1.1 ticks Max. profit/race: 5.2 points Max. loss/race: 4 points Total p/l : 7.1 points

10.09.2012 Today I improved the race selection process. It's faster and after the selections are made, I don't check them only ten minutes before the start of the race. I try to worry less about the result of the day and to focus on other things. I re-wrote my system rules with some adjustments and in the future I'll try to reduce the number of losing races to one or two every day and the maximum loss/race to 4 ticks. Average profit/race: 4.2 ticks Total p/l : 25.7 points

11.09.2012 Only 5 races today because I missed the races in the first hour and a half. The last adjustments reduce the number of races and also the risk per trade. In two races there were small losses and I've been overcautious to make many scratches. The book I read now is "Trading from your Gut" and maybe it will improve my exit strategies. Average profit/race: 2.3 Max. profit/race: 9.5 Max. loss/race: 1.2 Total p/l : 11.8

12.09.2012 I can see my results are more consistent with less risk involved. My approach is to be positive when I open trades because odds are 1.17 to close with a small profit (based on my archive stats). Also the average winning race profit is higher than average losing trade. The profits are limited to the size of the stake so it's impossible to win hundreds every day but right now I'm satisfied from the effort vs. reward point of view. I have to maintain this positive attitude. Average profit/race: 3.3 Max. profit/race: 4.8 Max. loss/race: 0.3 Total p/l : 33

13.09.2012 Even if I know that I made some progress it's still difficult to take losses easy. They were caused by my lack of attention and entering the market without any signals. To say it simple, I was bored and needed something to happen so I created a situation to feel a challenge. That's the reason for the small number of races, to stop myself from over-trading and from doing stupid mistakes. Average profit/race: 1.25 Max. profit/race: 4.7 Max. loss/race: -6 Total p/l : 15.1

14.09.2012 By looking at my progress on this page, anyone can see that after a week I begin to lose discipline and I become unable to follow my system. Last time I took a two days break and came back with good momentum. Today the first two races were extremely stressful, the first had a 6 points loss and the

second 7.9 profit. I wasn't able to follow the rules so I stopped trading. My schedule was empty and I decided to test another method that came into my mind when I was trading in the past and I didn't have time to develop. It is based on scalping on Betdaq the gaps in prices and for me is a good way go back to the basics with few money being matched and less competition. I had 10 into my account and now the balance is 37 . It's a great ROI and must admit that three times my trades were closed in-play because Betdaq doesn't have take SP option in geeks toy but my bank was never in danger during those trades. The only problem is that I have to trade on every race and it consumes a lot of energy. The biggest bet being 5 the profit is also limited. Tomorow I will try to get back with my system and between those races I'll try to scalp on Betdaq to grow my bank to 50 . Average profit/race: 0.95 Max. profit/race: 7.9 Max. loss/race: -6 Total p/l : 1.9 Total p/l Betdaq : 27

14.09.2012 By looking at my progress on this page, anyone can see that after a week I begin to lose discipline and I become unable to follow my system. Last time I took a two days break and came back with good momentum. Today the first two races were extremely stressful, the first had a 6 points loss and the second 7.9 profit. I wasn't able to follow the rules so I stopped trading. My schedule was empty and I decided to test another method that came into my mind when I was trading in the past and I didn't have time to develop. It is based on scalping on Betdaq the gaps in prices and for me is a good way go back to the basics with few money being matched and less competition. I had 10 into my account and now the balance is 37 . It's a great ROI and must admit that three times my trades were closed in-play because Betdaq doesn't have take SP option in geeks toy but my bank was never in danger during those trades. The only problem is that I have to trade on every race and it consumes a lot of energy. The biggest bet being 5 the profit is also limited. Tomorow I will try to get back with my system and between those races I'll try to scalp on Betdaq to grow my bank to 50 .

15.09.2012 I wasn't very prepared for trading and in the first race had a 2 tick loss; only because my lack of concentration and I decided to stop for the day. On Betdaq the liquidity was higher and with fewer gaps. The result was a 5 loss from the yesterday profit. The rest of the bank I transferred to Betfair with a simple method. I backed on Betdaq a horse with 6.0 and layed on Betfair at the same price. With three such trades all the funds were moved. I couldn't just withdraw them because of the 25 bonus that had to be left in the account. The only possibility was to lose them and win the same amount on Betfair. I've done this to avoid future temptations of such trades and I decided to trade only following my primary strategy which is much more consistent. Yesterday's 6 hours exhausting trading reminded me how difficult is to trade without rules and how destructive it can be over time. Max. loss/race: 2 Total p/l : -2

16.09.2012 Four races traded today. I couldn't arrive on time for the first 6 selections. The result is good with 3.1 average profit and this is what I want. The trends were easy to follow and comparing this with last Sunday's result of 1.1 average profit, I must be satisfied. Average profit/race: 3.1 Max. profit/race: 5.4 Max. loss/race: 0 Total p/l : 12.4

17.09.2012 All the five races gave me at least 6 ticks profit each. I've been very patient and forced myself to wait for

the best time to open trades. It's amazing how I get a bigger profit when fewer races are chosen. Average profit/race: 7.2 Max. profit/race: 6.5 Total p/l : 36.4

18.09.2012 I traded 6 races and all were profitable even if the stop loss was triggered a couple of times. Writing my results every day gives me the discipline I searched for. Average profit/race: 6.1 Max. profit/race: 10.3 Total p/l : 36.5

19.09.2012 15 selections but only two traded... It was impossible for me to have the right mindset today. Average profit/race: 3 Max. profit/race: 7 Max. loss/race: 1 Total p/l : 6

20.09.2012 I will go in a vacation for the week-end and continue with Betfair on Monday. Today I traded for eight hours and I really need to get back to the disciplined person I was last week. I told myself no greyhounds and only a few races that fit into my system. But it's very difficult to ignore the markets when I don't have anything else to do. This type of scalping is very exhausting and it's not good for me. This break comes at the best moment and I think after a few days off, both my attention and energy will be at a higher level. Total p/l: 85

24.09.2012 Back to trading and had a moderate performance today. I did some scalping in other races that are not included in my strategy. Average profit/race: 2.2 Max. profit/race: 13.3 Max. loss/race: 4 Total p/l : 19.8 Total/day: 55

25.09.2012 6 races traded following my system and others with more risk involved. I traded for almost six hours and it's very exhausting. Tomorrow I'll try to reduce the time for scalping. Average profit/race: 4.3 Max. profit/race: 14.4 Max. loss/race: -4.5 Total p/l : 26.2 Total/day:60

2 comments:
AnonymousSeptember 12, 2012 11:41 AM Hi Zerg, I read your blog since one week and I want to congratulate for your results. I tried to understand your methods on horses but It's not very simple. Can you send details of your trades please ? Have you Skype ? Thanks Franois Zerg TraderSeptember 12, 2012 8:34 PM Thanks for checking my progress and hope it will help others as well. My trades are based on movement of price of the horses bellow 5.0, both drifters and steamers in the last 10 minutes. The entry point is when I spot an opportunity of change in price and my decision is based on a combination of WOM, graphs and other horses prices. The exit point is 3-5 ticks higher, sometimes I scratch or take the loss. It is not really a defined method as it is based more on my experience. I think anybody can see patterns if they spend enough time watching the pre-race market. You can ask me more specific questions and I will try to answer them. Good luck