Memory Test

Happy New Year to all....here's to a prosperous 2011!

The launch of SportsTradingJourney has gone really well and there's many exciting things happening over the next year. Many thanks to the community of people who have become active members of the site. All the best!

January is known for being one of the poorest months in the horse trading calendar due to the lower quality of racing on offer. Added to the fact the colder weather is often still apparent around the country which inevitably has an affect on how the markets operate.

However over the weekend on Saturday, we had the rescheduled Boxing Day meeting at Kempton reinstated which is always a great day for racing and the markets alike. It was a bonus having such a high quality meeting on show this time of year.

The two big group 1's were great races and the liquidity on the day I thought was pretty good overall. Binocular looked very impressive in the 2m hurdle and the Champion Hurdle @ Cheltenham is hotting up to be a fantastic race with some up and coming prospects looking to take on Binocular the champ. Kauto Star in the other big group 1 race - The King George didn't ever seem to ever travel in the race and looked to be struggling for pace. Long Run wasn't hanging around though and he successfully dethroned Kauto putting in a very solid round of jumping. He he looks a star for the future and has loads of years left in him. Yet again we have another exciting Gold Cup lined up this year @ Cheltenham, but I think people won't be just focusing on the top 2 big guns at the Nicholls yard this time!

I really enjoyed the days trading and felt like I got into the zone. But unfortunately I had to stop just before the Kauto Star race was kicking off due to bad memory. With this I actually mean bad/corrupt memory in my computer, also known as the RAM.

I have recently bought a new computer off my bro and its super quick, but I noticed a few programs were randomely doing a windows crash on me every so often. It only happened now and again so I didn't think much of it until it happened again whilst I was trading on Saturday. Luckily I only had a few positions in the queues early on the Kauto Star market and I easily cancelled all my bets on Betfair after the crash. So no harm done......But I knew I had to get to the bottom of the issue as a reliable computer is imperative to a traders success.

After a bit of research I found a bit of software called Memtest86. This tests if your RAM is performing how it should be doing and detects if theres any errors and issues. If the test shows up any problems then you need new RAM...its that simple. Dodgy RAM can do some weird things to your computer and this is the last thing you want as a trader. So if your computer is acting strange and closing down applications/software or not booting up windows for example..... do the following:

1. Rip this bit of software to a CD.
2. From the bios menu when your computer is booting up (hit delete to access it) click on the option that says boot at the tab at the top.
3. Select the primary boot drive to be from the CD.
4. Restart the computer.
5. Your computer will now run from the CD and automatically run the memory test for you.
6. Leave it a few hours and see if the program finds any errors.
7. After the test is completed reset the boot up menu to be from your hard drive not the CD.

If you have no errors then bingo your RAM is reliable and there must be something else wrong with your compujter. But if the test finds some errors then do something about it as soon as you can. Don't risk trading until you have it sorted as its simply not worth it.....Better safe than sorry and all that jazz :)

I'm currently waiting for my new RAM to arrive in the post.

Here's a p/l shot of the days trading leading up to the crash. An annoying end to a nice day but no complaints on the total.