Experimenting

With the markets being a little mad around this time of year, It's given me a chance to experiment using different techniques and trying out things I haven't tried before. When i say this it's sounds as though I've being planning out secret methods over xmas that will make me more money in the future, then implementing them when I dabbled in the markets again. But I assure you this is not how I am improving as a trader. It has come from a natural process of being active in the market and experimenting new things while it's all happening live. Mistakes will come on the way, especially when you are upping your stakes and trying to reach new levels. If you have a very hands on approach to change like this, you can tackle subtle differences in new market conditions.

The real work and idea process of experimenting comes from a very practical side I believe. You can think all day of new strategies and approaches to make you your fortune, but you simply have to evolve your own trading styles whilst your actually trading. The markets are constantly changing and no one can try and predict with positive certainty what will happen. When your looking at the markets day-in day-out, your brain picks up on slight changes in the market. Such as recent trends and adapting to how new players choose to behave. My advice is to not think too much about your trading style/methods/ideas or however choose to word it. Try and tune in more with your subconscious while your trading and really listen to your instincts. I'm beginning to get more aggressive in the markets and it's paying off for me, although I'm still taking some big losses on the way.

Week's Analysis

I started off on Tuesday this week and it was the first time I had a proper dabble in the markets in weeks. I was amazed to have such a good day on the Tuesday and my new found aggression seemed to work in my favour.

My discipline let me down at crucial times on the following few days which led to poor decision making and over trading. If your head isn't 100% focused when the markets are a bit twitchy, then small errors turn into large losses surprisingly fast. Ask yourself what you could have done differently if you could replay the day over? Address the issues where the losses came from, try and understand what went wrong and how you can change your style into stopping these mistakes happening again. I know exactly what I've done wrong if I've struggled on the day, and if you're willing to evolve you have a great chance of succeeding on Betfair. Camtasia is awesome! Record and watch everything back, you can't hide behind excuses when its staring back at you in your face :) Saturday came with a boom, but it was far from straight forward. I started terrribly and tried a bit too hard early on forcing a few positions which didn't go as expected. But an hour later i turned a -230 into a +230 on the day which was boosted my confidence.

Antepost

Saturday was a solid day's trading and it gave us all a chance to see some of the Cheltenham hopefuls. 1 of the horses I really like and I've been very impressed since seeing it run around 4 races ago is a horse named Diamond Harry. I have been looking to back this for a Cheltenham race for a while now, so when I saw it going for a chase debut I had to back it antepost for the RSA chase at 14.0. To me this was a great trading opportunity that was almost certain to shorten after an impressive jumping performance. This horse I believe could be something special so keep an eye out, and I think he's more physically suited to chasing rather than hurdling.

My antepost selections have worked out great this year for Cheltenham and I can't wait for March now. Big Bucks will take the world of beating in the World Hurdle and I was fortunate to get a tidy £500 on at 2.2 a few races ago. I might be very tempted to leave it all on, even though this was not my intention when I placed the bet.

This week's p/l from Tues-Sat:

Trading Courses

I'm really looking forward to getting back to teaching after my time off over xmas, and the first course of 2010 starts on Tuesday for 3 days.

I have had a lot of interest over the coming few months and to make it easier for all I wanted to set up specific dates I can teach groups.

I am still offering other packages, for instance if you wanted to come out to Madrid with a few mates or even a 1-1 course. But these types of courses will have to be booked up on certain dates when I'm free. Simply offer some dates and we can sort something out.

The dates are as follows for the organised group packages:

Fully Booked up until -

February -
23rd - 27th

5 - day course: 2 spaces available

March -
2nd - 4th

3 - day course: 3 spaces available

23rd - 27th

6 - day course: 3 spaces available

April -
1st - 6th

6 - day course: 2 spaces available

28th - 30th

3 - day course: 3 spaces available

May -
10th - 15th

6 - day course: 3 spaces available

25th - 27th

3 - day course: 3 spaces available

I have to stress that although there are most of the spaces still available. Many people have shown an interest and could be booking up on all courses over the next few weeks. I am only reserving the spot when the course is fully booked with me. I am filling up my packages very quick so feel feel free to reserve a spot.

Many thanks