Day 5

Day 5 was a good day, however not thanks to the football. The football card was very poor, so I turned to the horse racing markets, which I sometimes do when I'm in the proper mood as it requires a lot of concentration and you must be absolutely stress free. Here's the results:

 

Regarding the horse racing trading, all of it was done pre-live. I never go in running (well, not anymore after a few mad chases in the past have led to big losses). I actually try to be out around 3 to 4 minutes before the start, as the prices start jumping around.

In the football I took a few punts: Barcelona game under 3.5 and a couple of bets on teams to win that didn't come off in the obscure Slovakian league and Polish cup. This is one of my main problems, I often get bored and get involved with games I shouldn't. The Chesterfield - Tranmere profits were the result of some pre-live scalping, and the Barcelona CS profit also came from scalping, this time at HT.

Current bank after day 5:

Remember when I said in my opening post that there are no set targets for this challenge? Well, that remains true if you look at it from a long term perspective. However, I've decided that I should at least have monthly targets: mainly because it helps me keep losses in perspective. So, I've decided that for November the target will be doubling the bank. I would say that for the moment we are right on track.

Day 4

Got involved in a few JPT games yesterday. Just some HT scalping on every game... except on the Sheff Utd game, in which I decided to trade. Some traders refuse to get involved with cup games and I really should have known better. Here's the P&L:

Here's the current bank situation:

Another poor day for football trading today. I'll try to keep myself from getting involved in those cup games, except for some scalping.

Day 3

Pretty much a scratch day yesterday. A very small profit. St. Johnstone - Aberdeen, which would have been my main bet as mentioned in the previous post, was postponed due to fog. I traded a few other games:

Not much to say. In the Bari - Verona game, I had dutched 0-0, 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 and 1-2. Verona scored inside the last 10 minutes to make it 0-1 and that would be the final scoreline... I was quite disappointed: I had been looking at the stats through the second half and Verona were clearly on top - besides, Bari were missing a few important players. I could have taken a ROI of around 80% with 15, 20 minutes left, but I decided against it despite my head saying it was the best option. Greed had the better of me there, and greed is never good when trading.

Anyway, 3 days, 3 greens. A good start. Here's the current bank:

Now if I thought yesterday was a poor day for trading, today is even worse. No doubt the international break coming up doesn't help. Not the best week to start the blog I guess! Tonight the only games of interest may be in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and the Serie B in Brazil. I haven't studied these particular games yet, so wether I'll be trading will depend on my analysis and on the liquidity of the markets.

Day 2

Well plenty of action on Sunday as it turns out. And Beira-Mar won! Good day all around.

It was another good day, but this one could have been excellent. As you can see I finished red in two games only; I foolishly believed Lyon had what it took to turn it around or at least equalise against Sochaux - I don't regret that one though. The main disappointment was in the Leeds game. I had dutched a few scores - but they were obviously not going to come in after it stayed 0-0 for the majority of the match, so I started scalping a couple of scorelines. Guess what - I got caught scalping 0-1 when Leeds scored, and unfortunately I laid the 0-1 first rather than backing it. I cut my losses as soon as possible but it was still an unpleasant red there.

The best result of the day was dutching the correct scores in the Athletic - Barcelona game. I had the 2-2 covered at the start along with a few other scorelines. A ROI of 117% there. Sadly I opted not to lay Athletic after they made it 2-1, as I felt their odds were still too high - it would have been a low liability punt in which I could have used some of my green. A successful one had I gone for it as Barcelona equalised shortly after.

I've got my eyes on dutching a few scorelines or perhaps backing some unders in the St. Johnstone - Aberdeen match later tonight. Not much else seems interesting today.

Current bank at the end of day 2:

Day 1

Things have gone well on the first day. The bank has increased by 8,5% and despite a couple of what I thought were unlucky (Liverpool - Swansea) and poor trades (Man Utd - Sunderland) I end the first day in profit.

Today's action has begun already and Real Madrid are thumping Osasuna, however I'm not getting involved in that one. There won't be as many trades for me today, maybe a few in the evening. My current bank balance after day 1:

The team I support, Beira-Mar (Portuguese top tier) will play at 4 pm GMT, which is why I won't be trading as much today. No other particular reason. They need more luck than I do to get a result today...

This blog is supposed to be an attempt from my part to become a better and more disciplined trader. There is no set target: I am starting with a very small bank of 20 Euros and having some fun.

I will be trading football markets only, in which I will use a series of strategies that have worked well for me in the past - including some pre-live action. Bank management is essential, so I will try not to risk more than 3% of the bank per trade - this is probably the most important part of this challenge, as I have been guilty of chasing losses in the past and letting my emotions get the better of me.

Today is a Saturday so what better day to start a football trading blog?

Here is the current status of my account:

I'll keep you posted...