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.

NEW Website Launched!

I'm pleased to announce the launch of the Sports Trading Journey website! Please feel free to have a look around and sign up to the FREE membership plan. After joining you can will be able to check out the 'Ultimate Start-Up Package', which is a series of 11 videos I've created that contains everything you will need to set yourself up as a trader. Some more free videos are available to watch and plenty more will be updated over time.

All the information about what the Sports Trading Journey is all about is viewable on the site, so if your tired of waking up to cancelled meetings and an overload of all weather tracks, go check out some videos.

I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into trading again after spending more time on the site than in the markets recently. But I'll ease myself into it all over the next few weeks while the weathers still a little temperamental. My rusty trigger finger will have to get polished off but a break from it all I've found in the past is never a bad thing. Fingers crossed to a few warmer months....OK maybe I'm dreaming.

The best advice I'd give over the winter is to reduce stakes and be less active in the markets. The moves can be erratic and the fill rate can be terrible! There is a huge percentage of traders fighting against each other for positions and the markets don't always react in a controlled manner. So being clever about when you enter/exit and control your staking is so important. Being patient and picking your opportunities wisely is the way to go.

Just remember loads of opportunities will be around the corner soon. It's a time to plod by and lower your expectations this time of year, preparing for the coming new year and having some epic snow ball fights!

Denman's Third Hennessy?

I've always been a massive follower of Denman and he returns to action once again today at Newbury. He attempts to make history by winning his third Hennessy Gold Cup in the 15:05. Denman's a year older, 8lb higher in the weights but this year the preparation has gone very smoothly apparently. He will have to be at his best to beat a very competitive field today and with Sam Thomas back on his back (rightly so in my eyes) things are lined up for a fantastic race!

I've been watching the market over the past day and there's an interesting drift on Denman. It's traded at a low at 4.72, but around the 5.8 mark this time yesterday. It's currently trading at 7.4 and even touched 7.8. I believe this price could look massive at the end of the race as I think Denman's going to be back to his best fresh. Jumping in his relentless fashion and almost bullying his rivals into defeat. If he starts to find his rhythm, anything over 7.0 on Betfair is going to get smashed in price. Could be a nice back to lay in running but I'm personally having a cheeky double. Go on the tank!

I'm doubling Denman with Big Bucks, another horse who I have closely followed over the years and has done me well. Today should be a walk in the palk for him and he should be a class above his competition over 3m hurdles. He's very short in price though and currently trading at 1.30 running in the 14:30 Newbury. That's why it's worth a double and no single bet. He often hits a flat spot in his races but always finds more :)

As a trader I don't often have a punt, but now and again I like to get involved. Today seems a nice opportunity to get a decent double up.

Fingers crossed!

Ello Ello

Howdy all, It's about time I get back to blogging and update a few things. I haven't posted in a while coz I haven't done much trading for myself recently. I've been busy finishing off the educational videos for SportsTradingJourney and it's taken me a lot longer than I first thought. It's the planning, editing and producing stages rather than the actual video creating that eats up the time. So the only way I was going to get this site finished before the end of the year was to focus 100% of my time on it. It's well on the way now and I'll be opening the doors up very soon. Thanks for your patience to everyone who has shown an interest.

Motherland Return

I moved back from Madrid a few months ago which was pretty crazy. I stayed there a little longer than first planned, but it was well worth it! I still have the travelling bug inside me and I can see myself jumping on a plane to another country sometime in the future. The experience was awesome and who knows where I'll be checking out in the years to come but for now my feet are firmly set in the motherland. I'd recommend to anyone to live in another country for the pure shits and giggles of it all, and I'm looking forward to doing it again someday.

Geeks Toy

Most of you in the sports trading world will be aware of a trading program called The Geek's Toy. But if you haven't heard of it by now where have you been?? Link here: Geek's Toy

It's taken the trading industry by storm and not just coz the software will remain free for 2011! It's due to the fact that The Toy easily competes against the other product vendors that charge a fee for their use. Recently GeeksToy.com have been running a charity fund raiser for charity need. This message is a bit belated I know but check out the good work thats been taking place as I'm sure he'll be running more fund raisers like these in the future.

I was beta testing the new release of Version 1.1 with Advanced Charting & Market Overview before the official release came out, as I've been thinking about using the Toy for my day to day trading for a while now. The only main feature the Toy was missing was the charting, and ladies and gentlemen it has arrived! There's a million and one settings in the Toy and all customizable to set up the software perfect for your needs.

I've used another product vendor for years now so I wasn't easily going to change over to a program just coz it's free. I wanted a program that added something extra and everything about the Toy makes it an easy decision to change products. After playing around with it for sometime I think it's actually faster, more customisable and generally a more slick product in general to use than anything on the market. The product being free is just a huge bonus and my hats go off to the Geek to creating this bit of software that is only going to get better!

"Probably the best Betfair Trading Software in the world!"

Back To It

I'm looking forward to getting down to business again and I'll be easing myself back into things as this time of year can be a bit tricky. Mainly due to the change of seasons - from flat to jumps and the weather will throw a spanner in the mix soon. But it's a great time to get stuck in the markets and learn the ropes for when the nice summer meetings come into action next year. In December there is some nice meetings on though, especially around the end of year so they should be some good trading fodder.

I've had a few bizarre comments regarding Sam Wilson I want to clear up. I don't speak on behalf of Sam but I want to mention he's definitely not an alias of mine I'm pretending to be. A silly bit of speculation that if you checked a few of his videos you will realise we are 2 different people. Makes me laugh really as I don't know how pretending to be someone else would benefit me.

People come and go in the blogging world and I know a few ex bloggers who stopped coz the amount of ridiculous comments from unwelcome anonymous contributors. My words of advice for these people....If you have nothing useful to say....pipe down and focus on your own trading.

On a lighter note I'm going to introduce something new to my blog next year. I've been thinking about what ideas I could implement to make things more interactive with people. I'll explain in more detail about this at the start of 2011 :)

Happy Trading!