Chinese New Year !!

Hi Everyone,
Just an quick update !! At the moment, the Highgate in-running office is undergone further expansion due to heavy demands from new traders wanting to take the plunge and become a full-timer (may be it is because of the recession and rising unemployment ), and as i manage the main in-running trading room, there are a lot things need to be done--like buying new TVs, setting up the computers (i build the computers myself) , wired the Internet connection etc etc.
As you can imagine i was quite busy for the past week or so, not to mention the Chinese New Year is just around the corner, in fact, it is on the 26th of January :-))
i will start posting a daily blog again when the Chinese New Year celebration is over !!
In the mean time---- Kung Hei Fat Choi !!!!

Million dollar traders

Just finished watching a new series called Million dollar traders on BBC2. it is about some wannabe traders learning to trade for the first time and trying to become a successful hedge fund manager !! Although the programme is about shares trading, the concept is just the same as horse racing trading.

while watching and laughing at the novice traders did some horrible trades and did their bollocks, i couldn't help thinking about their blunders was a true reflection of my early trading days on Betfair--littered with mistakes and more downs then ups.

There was one instance in the distant past, i laid a horse called "Music to my ear"to win good money who was in the forth place and a long way behind the leaders with one fence to jump, then holy shit happened, all three leading horses fell at the last-- i threw the remote at the TV.

These days, big losses are much easier to take as i have made a reasonable amount of money already and have no financial worries whatsoever.

As for today's trades, i completely lost the plot towards the end of the day :-(

Love him or Loathe him ???

It was all about Jamie Spencer for me today as the top jockey gave me two wins that made up most of the p & l on a decent day at the office. I got some good prices about Dishdasha in the Great Leighs opener and brought up £2k for the day when Safebreaker took the 3.35. I was still backing that one at 1.2 on the line ! Thank you very much layers! :-)

I backed Dishdasha early when he was travelling well out at the back in a view to "green up" before the home turn. as it turned out, the horse always looked the winner behind the leaders and the rest were going nowhere, so i let the bet ride and submitted two more clicks when the horse was about to hit the front.

As for the Safebreaker race,I played a totally different game ! this time was more about patience, cause i needed to gauge from Jamie's riding style to give me the "signal" whether the horse will be able to maintain the lead when he hit the front, Luckily , i guessed it right and kept clicking :-)
I have said before it is important to study your jockeys (as well as your horses) and Jamie is definitely one of the more deceptive riders out there today. Sometimes he may look to have plenty of horse under him to the untrained eye but the horse then finds little. Other times he appears to be niggling the horse along but then it finds loads and wins! You will have to study him yourselves and see if you can spot the difference.

Lost £25 on football though :-(

Only loser needs discipline !!

Made some terrible trades in the middle of the afternoon, losing five races on the trot, over 2k disappeared in a matter of 30 minutes :-(

There is a broad consensus of opinion on a losing run that a strict discipline is what you require in such situation. However, IMO, good self control can only limit the damage but it will never get back what you have lost !!

It is the amount of knowledge and skills that you possess enable you to make the right decisions again and get out of the shit hole :-) So, you guys, when you hit a losing run you must stop making excuses and blaming on the lack of discipline. To win at this Betfair game - knowledge is king !!

Foggy in-running !!

What an exciting afternoon ! trading in-running through dense fog at Great Leighs. unfortunately, it wasn't a good day for me.

i dropped 1k when the usually reliable commentator Ian Barlett called the wrong winning horse during the closing stage at 1-55.

Normally, i don't take much attention to the running commentary because i only trust my own observations. and if the commentator were Derek Thomson i probably would have checked the jockey silk against the colour on the paper before i clicked.

Oh well, just a small loss today, not much harm done !!

It's getting warmer !

Fingers cross, it looks as though the recently cold spell is finally losing it's grip. we could have a full racing programme on Saturday. Trading with one or two meetings a day in a trading room is quite a boring job:-( cause the gap between the races is too long and one cannot take a lie in on the sofa (wearing pyjamas) in between races just like home.
The enforced rest has probably done me some good -betting wise. Now, all we need is some kind weather !!!

Power cut !!

There was a power cut in Highgate just before the first race at Kempton, half of the street in Archway Road had no electricity. Luckily, some pre-race traders were able to close their position before the off by phoning up Betfair. so no one has suffered any losses by the outage. i waited for an hour in the hope that the power will be back on in time for the last few races later in the afternoon, needless to say, nothing happened, another frustrating day :-(