December Already?

Today I've had to remind myself it's December! The last few months have flown by and it's crazy to think I've been in Madrid nearly a year now. Due to the Spaniards not blinging out the shops like the English do with xmas decorations, the festive build up has caught me by surprise. I have a lot planned out for 2010 in my own trading and other ventures and I'ts an exciting time.

I've now trained 10 people who have attended the courses (some 1-1 and a few groups) and I've got 2 more seperate courses with 3 people left in 2009. Then I'm flying back to my home town for a lovely xmas roast. Wow it's been too long without some yorkshire puddings and gravy. Can't wait!

Denmania!!

November threw up some crazy markets at times and everyday you are reminded of how tricky this time of year is. With the amazing amount of variation in the markets it makes for a rollercoaster ride. Stay positive, cut your losses quickly and don't try and force your profits is the best advice I can give you. The highlight for me in November was seeing Denman back to his scintillating best. After years of trading the pre-race horse markets, I've become quite fond of horse racing as a spectacle. With the odd little flutter now and again to keep things exciting :) Denman has been a horse I've followed ever since it's first run and was very happy to see his impressive performance in the Newbury Hennessey Gold Cup. It was simply awesome in my opinion carrying top weight, and when he's in a flow like that and pinging the final 5 jumps he is just unstoppable! It's going to be one hell of a gold cup I think as there is a chance that both horses could be the best they have ever been come March. I know who I'll be on, or maybe I already am ;)

It's great for horse racing in general to have superstars like this to keep generating an interest in the sport. As traders we need top class animals to attract the much needed money in the markets to trade effectively all year round. I have backed Denman most times he has run and couldn't resist leaving all my money I traded on him that day. Even though i took a hit from £525 to £255 late on, but it's impossible to complain. And thanks to Julian for cheering him on with me hehe.







I feel I have made the jump I was looking for this year in my profits, and have definately pulled in some great results on days that I simply wasn't producing this time last year. After a nice 3-day break Sun/Mon/Tues I've had a very solid 3 days being in the zone......bring on Saturday!

New Trading Vid With Audio

I have created a new video on camtasia that is made exclusively for the members at www.betseventytwo.com People with an account can now see a 1 hour video of 5 different races I've traded. With narration over 4 of the races and a few audio tracks to finish off with a great race in the market before the Breeders Cup. This will show various techniques on how to make money on the pre-race horse racing markets. Scalping/Swinging/Trading 2 horses simultaneously/When things go wrong, and how to minimise losses. It's a complete video with on-going commentary throughout my thought process. Hope you enjoy!

The Main Man

Last but most certainly not least I'd like to announce who I trade with on a daily basis. It's someone I've been working with for years and u'll keep hear me saying how much of a benefit it is to have a trading buddy you can take on your trading journey with. I made a post on how this is a great edge to have and something I would reccommend to anyone. 2 brains are better than 1. Cheers dude and let the adventure continue!

Sam Wilson @ http://samwilson82.blogspot.com/

We have a few ideas for 2010 so keep an eye out for some interesting news in the new year.

P.S I'll reply to your kind comments made on the last 2 posts v soon.

Change Of Lifestyle

No I haven't decided to give up trading and work at McDonald's over the winter, the title was more referring to how much of a change to my lifestyle the courses have given me. I forgot what it was like to work more than 4-6 hours a day hehe, and I'm doing my best to keep up with the personalised emails so please bear with me. It was a strange thing for me at first having people surrounding me while I trade, answering questions and talking through live what I was doing. Being stuck in a room in solitude for years, then trading in complete opposite surroundings has taken me a little time to adjust. But the more people that have attended the courses, the more comfortable I am with being able to deal with doing 2 things at once. I'm definitely not female and multi-tasking wasn't in my toolbox a few months ago :)

Staring at the markets for double the length of time from analysing the markets with clients is definitely an eye strainer. So I'm not going to lie about it being a challenge for me to still being able to trade successfully whilst training, but its a challenge I'm enjoying right now.

I'd like to thank all the people who have attended up till now and I really do appreciate the kind words that people have given. I hope the clients have enjoyed the experience as much as I have, and I'm very happy to have met some great people. I'm now feeling very positive that I've boosted their ability to be able to read a market more clearly, and hopefully opened there eyes up to a lot of new angles to make money on Betfair.

I'm trying and get my website up and running soon, but unfortunately my flatmate who's building it keeps travelling around Spain working so fingers crossed it shouldn't be too long until the launch. The website will explain everything in detail instead of having me send out the word document to people who are showing an interest. The website will have a members section where people who have attended the course can chat openly about their trading with other like minded people. Having seen my style and techniques gained from my course, clients will be able to talk in detail whilst still being on the same wave length with everyone else. Discussing their everyday experiences on the markets, and possibly having Skype buddies to talk to on a regular basis - like I currently do with a mate.

Some of the people attended have happily given out their email to ask any questions about the courses from their point of view, explaining their experience and what they got out from the course.

Here's a few of there emails for now, but when the website is up I will have a testimonial section where people can easily see what previous attendees thought.

• Nick Darlington - ndarlington@gmail.com

• Gary Dufley - g.dufley@sky.com (http:/itwouldbeeasierhavingajob.blogspot.com)

• Pascal Costa - pascalc23@gmail.com
  

• (http://aboutdiscipline.blogspot.com)
  

Bit Of Paradise

The first guy who attended my courses told me about a property he's selling on the East coast of Spain. It's in-between Valencia and Alicante on a little mushroom coming out of Spain. The views are jaw dropping from the top of the mountain and there is nothing else to see for miles apart from the sea and the smile on your face.

Showing an interest he kindly invited me to stay out there for 5 days to check it out. I got back Friday and the place was paradise. I'm going to check it out again in Jan to have a second look and to have a place like this to escape to 3-6 months of the year is something which I've thought about for a while. I'll make a post if I take the plunge and get the place. Here's a few pics:

NFL

2 clients on my course told me about the potential NFL/american football has for trading. It doesn't attract massive amounts in all the boxes but the swings are just massive! I thought I would try it out tonight with the 2 guys on Skype and things went very well. I didn't have live pictures but was simply making money off the over reaction in a price move. Where people chased the price up in desperation, like I have mentioned before what happens in the horse racing markets. But the over reaction seems to happen in amazing frequency! 1 move I saw went from 1.25 to around 1.62 in about 10 seconds. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out on small stakes that comes to a nice return. Also the gaps in the prices all over the price ensures so many opportunities. Here's my surprisingly good profit made on my first NFL game. Something I'm going to look at a lot more seriously in the coming months.

Trading In General

I've had a lot of time off recently from actually trading on my own, and I've noticed I've been a little rusty. But I believe when you can make money consistently, you won't easily forget how your money making finger brings in the £££. Riding a bike for example where you just need a little warm up before things feel normal again. I know I'm back to being sharp as I took a bad in running loss of -434 on Saturday the second race, and clawed most of it back by the final race. Finishing on -38.55 which a fightback like this feels just as good as a big profit on the day. It's quite hard to have the confidence to comeback from such a loss, as you are forced to push a bit to make it back. So some losses crept in at the end when I knew I was close, but also It's amazing what positive thinking and the right mindset can achieve.

I'm also going to add another trading video from 1 of my races on Saturday which a quick £68 was made from being aggressive and jumping in front of a real bet. As races are going off so often, opportunities like this occur frequently when people are chasing out their positions. Click the link below:

LiveBetfairTrading Vid - 3 Minute £68

Swinging 2 Horses Trading Vid

I've just uploaded 1 of my trading video's I recorded from a race on Friday 16th Oct. It was one of those markets that I saw quickly develop into a typical swing trade, and I managed to get on both moves on the top 2 favourites. I didn't get on too big either, just in case they turned against me. If you get it wrong on one, then your fighting a hard battle to get out on both selections. You can see me hovering over at certain points ready to get out at any time, but patience and trusting my instincts I held my nerve and got out for maximum profit on both.

You will see how I'm viewing the market pretty much opposite to the way the market is looking like it's going at first. Being contrary to the crowd is what I try and do as much as I can, this is where the real opportunites lie as if you are getting it right, you are making your big swings off the majority of everyone else reading it wrong. I felt the fav was trying to be held there down by some dodgy few 1k's, and the second fav wasn't going up in a hurry. I waited for some more signs and just felt confident I could see these both turning. When you see yourself in the green I know it's hard waiting for a bigger return, as profit is profit at the end of the day. But in my opinion if a market is looking to go further it makes no sense to me not to wait. If your wondering how some big profits are made on 1 race, I hope this gives you a small insight into how its done.

I'm possibly going to be offering something to clients where they can access my video's online whenever they want. Being able to look at a large amount of content I will always update on a regular basis. I'm researching ways to archive my recordings somewhere on a database that has a massive amount of storage. Also providing a webinar maybe every week to explain the video's in detail to the clients.

I'm not too sure if it's worth my while, so I'm looking for people to give me the go ahead If I see a demand for this. Please let me know via comments or by email.

Also If anyone knows of sites where several gigabites can be stored for good value please let me know. I'm currently using www.screencast.com It's a great site but can only store 25gb at any one time. This might be fine but I'm looking for alternatives??

I'll be putting random vid's on the blog maybe every few weeks so keep an eye out.

The link above doesn't appear to go full-screen so I'll look into this and try sort it out. Fow now the link to view it properly is :

LiveBetfairTrading Vid - Swing Trading 2 Horses

Rewarding Week

Last week was a great experience for not only the client, but myself after finishing my first 6-day course. It was very rewarding to see the client improve on a daily basis and being able to read a market more affectively. Putting the know how with the doing it yourself is obviously a different ball game, but I believe I have definitely provided a very useful insight into how its done on a successful level. I'm looking forward to helping my next client out on Thursday 22nd.

Each client will benefit from the course in different ways, and this client benefited mostly from the analysis of the videos I was doing before and after the live trading happened. As mentioned on the last post it gives an invaluable discussion into why I was placing orders and certain times, according to factors in the markets that was making up my decision process.

I'm currently rendering 1 of my video's so I can upload 1 of the races onto my blog. So this will be my next post when I have edited it and given some explanations into what happened.

I started slow last week, reaching about £300 by Wednesday. But I finished strongly seeing some nice swing moves on the Thursday, and getting very stuck into some solid scalping done on the Friday.

Saturday was a tricky day, it just seemed to be a little poor considering there was some big races on the cards. I got a race very wrong and stupidly losing quite a big -222. But I think that just kicked me into gear where I went on a quick fightback and pulled in a respectable profit after the loss. With my style I am prepared to take a few losses in a day, as I know I am pushing on for big profits. Also looking for swings where I'm often trying to predict the turn in price in a market, I know I'm not always going to get it right. That in my mind I can deal with them with confidence knowing I can quickly turn things around.

It's nice to get back into trading 5-6 days a week again due to having so much time off with internet problems. It's a relief that it hasn't seemed to have affected my focus.

My Setup

Finally I'm all set up in my new pad now, I've got a new desk and chair which you'll see on the pictures below. Things are ticking over nicely and I've currently got my first client on a 6-day course which started on the 12th October. I'm fully booked up now till the second week of Nov and have had bookings for Nov/Dec. So if anyone is interested in attending a course before the new year, just let me know via email and I'll try and squeeze you in.

I'm recording my trading now everyday using Camtasia. It's been an interesting experience looking over my trades and analysing them for someone else. Giving the client step by step guidance of what I was thinking at every moment. Giving an insight into my thought process behind each decision and discussing my entry/exit points to how I view the overall trends of a market. It's proving a very helpful tool for the client to learn from and I believe will only benefit my own trading. I will be putting a few video's on here soon of some of the more interesting markets I come across. Although the eye strain of hours in front of the computer is making my head a little spaced out =/

You will see on my pictures below how I setup my screens.

Left - Laptop I use for my secondary backup and it's where I have my Slingbox linked up to watch the racing channels. 5 seconds delay isn't too bad and having my trading colleague on Skype with live pics, he can let me know of anything important I need to know. This is plugged in via Ethernet cable to the router.

Middle - iMac 20" I use for my primary backup and it's where I have my Skype calls from. I also have a Betfair page open at all times in case of my PC ever going down on me. I use this on wireless.

Right - Dual screen 19" Wide screens I use for my main trading machine. It's a quad core processor, 4GB RAM computer that I only use for trading and keep clean of junk. ie. pictures, films, and browsing the web. It's a dedicated trading computer and I recommend this to anyone.

Right monitor - I have my 3 ladders up with the separate charting docked up beside that to the left. The bookies live prices underneath - www.thebettingsite.co.uk.

Left monitor - I have my unmatched tab on the right of the screen, with the cancel all button clearly on show. Then the market overview graphing coloured lines on the left. At a glance you can see visually what the prices are doing in correlation with each other. A tool I've recently started using religiously.

I also use guardian to be able to graph all the markets well in advance of the first race. The Betfair graphs can be misleading due to having no time information on them. With guardian you can easily see what the recent trends of the market are via the market overview screen. Instead of a long-term look at what that particular graph has done. This computer has to be connected via Ethernet to the router.

Phew!

Bit of a late post, but I thought I'd let people know im back up and running at home. My internet line has finally been sorted, and I'm very relieved to say the least! I'm amazed how long it has taken, especially when I'm using the same internet service provider as before - Jazztel. I was starting to fall out of love with Spain from the stress this has given me, but I'm happy to say my passion has returned to this chilled out City I am lucky enough to live in. I try not to let things bother me that are out of my control, but they really were testing me with this! This is the life of a trader though, where we are faced with unfortunate incidients from time to time.

I must be living closer to the exchange where the signal gets sent to, as the speeds I'm getting are faster than my old apartment, which is a pleasant suprise:



It's great to know that trading is very much possible in most countries in Europe. It gives me options to live basically anywhere I choose, but for now I'm very happy in Spain. These are very impressive speeds through a phone line, and I dont think in the UK you could get these speeds through our old copper wires we still use. The demand for super fast internet is very high in the UK, but we are well behind the times with our old systems we still have in place. I know we have cable/fibre optic but we have got some cathing up to do with most of the world. Lithuania/Latvia and Sweden are rated the top in Europe. Check this out on the top countries per download I recently found http://www.speedtest.net/global.php.
Have a look where us British rate next to other countries in the world. It might open your eyes to what other people can get their hands on!

I think it's impreritive for you to trade successfully on a regular basis with a fast, solid connection. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, but I know enough to know what you need to trade with no problems.

Downloads speeds aren't massively important, I think anything from 6 mb/s or higher is sufficient. Also anything from 400 kb/s or above on your upload rate should also be fine.

However ping is very important to us pre-race traders - This is how fast a signal is sent and received from the source. 100 m/s or lower is perfect, but again anything upto 200 m/s is fine. Obviously the lower the ping the better!

I use a website called www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk for quick speed tests.
Anyone reading this should test there speeds, and if they are lower than the rates I suggested, I would recommend you look into getting a faster line if you want to take trading seriously. There are many stressful things we tackle daily trying to make money on Betfair, don't let your internet speeds be an extra burden. Simply search for the best line you can :)

Also I really wouldn't recommend trading off a wireless connection if possible. Plug an ethernet cable straight into your modem/computer just to stablise the line, and reduce any drop outs that could occur. The line will be more solid and with a fast internet line you should not occur any freezes and refresh errors. If there is, it will be probably coming from Betfair's end and meaning everyones suffering the same as you.

Looking forward to getting back into the 'groove'

Quick Update

I've answered all the questions on my previous post, so have a little gander at your replies. Many thanks again for all of your interest shown :)

Well the Spaniards at Jazztel have finally realised theres a problem with my line, and are sending a guy out to the apartment on Thursday to check it out. So fingers crossed by then my internet should be up and I can get back into a 'groove' again. Frustrating when you are depending on other people to sort out your problems, but that's unfortunately the life of a trader when your dealing with the internet and computers as your livelyhood.

Luckily I have managed to get some trading done on my mate's line. However it is a bit temperamental and feels and bit 'sticky' at times, but it's actually fine to trade from and beats all the internet cafe's I've tried in the past.

I'll post Sat's results below - I enjoyed the day, there felt like a lot of 'spoof' money around but enough genuine money to get some great swings. Reading people trying to manipulate the market is a skill, but often the spoof money is quite obvious to see. Look for the money actually getting matched, not the fake money queing up looking like it wants to be taken.

My results show 2 big losses where I got the market pretty wrong. But as I've mentioned before it's how you recover from those losses thats most important. I felt I was lacking a little discipline at the end of the day, but knew I was trading well and quickly made back the losses I made. I know its frustrating to lose money and that terrible feeling of 'getting it wrong'. But you have to give yourself a slap and get on with it. Trading is a massive mind game which you have to be in control of. The sooner you don't let the loss affect you, the sooner you will get the losses back. You really can afford to take a few losses in a day and still come out with a nice profit. Think of a loss as a sign to concentrate and focus more, not a sign to get annoyed with the situation and in turn affect your profits.

Quarter Of A Century!

Today's my birthday and I've reached the big 25! If someone told me 5 years ago that I'd be living in Madrid, working as a full-time trader and earning a tax free living I would have laughed in their faces. I'd probably tell them to put the idea back up their ass where it came from. But I'm relieved to say the idea is truth and it's far from a figment of someone's imagination. I can honestly say trading has changed my life for the better and it's given me the confidence and freedom to enjoy the things in life I feel are most important. The list certainly does not include working for someone else, working long hours and having little control of my financial future. I'd struggle to find a job (if you can call it that) which outweighs the benefits trading offers. I'm in no rush to find an alternative method of earnings just yet :)

I've had a very busy 10 days and apologies for no updates to my blog. I moved apartment last Sunday and it's been a very eventful time. The funniest of happenings came when we had to walk 20 mins through the centre of Madrid with a sofa strapped to our backs. 4 of us tackled many hurdles on the way. Playing chicken with a car on a narrow street was hilarious, which somehow we won! Also the ballards on every street in Madrid came into their own when you have more important things to worry about. I've newly named these little bastards knee whackers, for obvious reasons.

As a trader working from home, it's imperitive to adjust to your new working environment as quick as you can. Also it's very important to have a solid internet connection installed instantly if possible. This area I haven't had much luck with :( I'm still awaiting my line to be switched on at home and these lazy Spaniards are frustrating me to say the least! I'm writing this from an internet cafe nearby, but unfortunately the connection isn't stable enough to trade on. From past experience I've told myself never to trade on a connection that is spiking all over the place. I've lost money in the past working in tricky conditions and I'm not making the same mistake again. So hopefully shouldn't be too long before back to trading.

The time off from trading however, has given me the opportunity to finish off the information regarding my training courses. I have written a word document which describes the courses in detail and gives a structured breakdown of all 4 packages I'm going to offer. Including the prices individually for 1,2 or more people who attend for each package. I live with a graphic designer who is going to help me get my website up and running as soon as our internets up and running. The website will have videos, screenshots and a lot more material to look at. The content is all there for the courses and I'm ready to start training from October onwards. The only reason I have hardly mentioned the courses, is because I want everything to be clearly presented on a nice professional website. But due to the interest shown I wanted to have something that I can send out to people to have a look at.

Here's a paragraph from my word document:

"I’m going to teach you how to control the inevitable losses you will make and control your money through money management advice. Also how to effectively turn small profits into nice monthly profits over time. With strict staking plans to ensure you are comfortable playing with gradually increased amounts. Planning out your journey over several months to reach the goals you are dreaming of. I aim to dramatically expand your knowledge of what it takes to go full-time working as a trader on Betfair."

My courses will be on a 1-1 basis, or with a small group of people. With large reductions individually for people attending the course with 2 people or more. The client will fly out to sunny Spain and get a very hands on experience. I want to provide a very intensive course where the client can understand what a full-time trader goes through on a daily basis. I will also briefly list here what the 4 packages will entail:

• Work with a full time professional trader for 3-6 days. Intensive training course with a clear set out lesson plan. Adjusted for the clients needs.
• Listen in and watch two traders working as a team on Skype, combining brains and ideas throughout the trading day. Ensuring discipline, control and confidence at all times.
• A walk through of all the necessary hardware and software needed to trade efficiently on Betfair’s exchange. Looking at ways to improve your own home trading set-up, and making your desk space an on-going cash machine. Being happy with your surroundings can create a very successful working environment.
• BetAngel or BetTrader: 6 months-1 years (depending on package chosen) worth of access to the best trading software out there.
  
• Personalised Training DVD of the entire course from start till finish, with no editing. Made with Camtasia software, the videos will show every second I trade over the duration of the course. Providing the client with a priceless piece of training material to continually look over and study. The videos will have audio recorded after, with in depth details and explanations of all my days trading activities. This content could be anything from 10-35 hours worth of training videos!
• On-going mentoring service - Providing the client with a mentor that has been through the mistakes a trader makes when learning. Trying to reduce the mistakes the client might possibly have in the future. Having someone at the end of the phone to chat to about anything. Guiding you through those tricky times of losses and how to overcome them. Also providing the client with continual training video's sent to them every month.
  

If anyone would like the word document sending to them, please just email me via the link on the right of my blog. Bit of a long post sorry for the long read =/