Sports Trading Diary Entry 6 190312

Sports Trading Diary Entry 6 190312

Poor weekend for me football trading wise – to read my conclusions as to why, see below.

Daily update of my sports trading progress.

I started sports trading (mainly football matches) on Bet Fair at the beginning of February 2012.

Follow my progress in my daily (almost!) updated sports trading diary entries.

Firstly though, I missed out on a fabulous offer for new sports traders to get a free £25 bet – the first time they start sports trading on Bet Fair. So to make sure you don’t miss out on this wonderful offer;

Claim a risk free £25 free bet at Bet Fair, click Bet Fair £25 bet. Make sure when you join the site, that you use or see the code HU4XE6MTR in the relevant voucher area to get your risk free £25 bet.

If HU4XE6MTR doesn’t show in the relevant box when you are filling in the joining page, you might not get your £25 free bet and that would be a shame to miss eh?

Saturday 17th March and Sunday 18th March 2012 turned out to be my poorest two day’s football trading since I started trading football at the the beginning of February 2012.

I started Saturday 17th March with a Bet Fair trading balance of £311.64. This was the result of a very lucky accumulator win at Cheltenham during the week; which I kept half of and transferred the other half back to my bank account.

I was optimistic that I would continue my daily percentage increases over the weekend with football trading and add to the total that I had built during the week. That was until I made ‘school boy’ errors with football trades that I should have exited from for a small loss, instead I decided to stick it out with these football trading opportunities, what could go wrong, I had after all been pretty lucky during the week, surely my luck would continue?

The football trade started with me backing a home team who scored first in the opening 10 minutes of the first half. This football trade looked to be going well, and then the home team scored again and made it two nil – even better.

I decided to back them again and doubled my football trade, instead of trading out for the ‘green up’ profit that I was seeing with my first trade. I decided to wait until half time when if things had run to form, the profit would have been even higher.

So everything is going great, it’s a few minutes before half time and the away team have a player sent off – even better for me, I’m backing a team that’s two nil up and now playing ten men!

I’ve backed the home team twice already, I’m seeing a big green up figure of potential profit and now that the away team have a player sent off I decide to back the home team again… I’m now backing the home team three times for the total of £75.00 and expecting to see a big green up profit, I decide to sit it out until the end of the match for the full amount showing in my ‘potential’ profit area.

Sitting it out until the end of the match is gambling with the profit I’m already seeing, but it’s a good risk I think; as the team I’ve backed are up two nil and playing against 10 men.

So the second half starts and the away team score very early in the second half, it’s two – one now. My green up figure disappears as the football trading market goes into over-drive. I decide to wait whilst the football trading market settles down and then trade out.

I think to myself that it’s bound to settle down and leave me with a green up figure, as I’d managed to get my first football trade on the home team on odds of 1.55 when they scored their first goal. Which was pretty fortunate in the first place and so everything is going to be ok.

Whilst waiting for the football trading market to calm down, calamity of calamties; the away team score a second goal and equalize. It’s now 2-2 and my green up has completely disappeared and I’m looking at a massive ‘red’ loss figure showing me if I trade out, I’d lose over half of the £75.00 that I’d backed the home team with.

At this point I’d missed several chances to trade out and green up on this football match and was pretty angry with myself, but a little voice in my head said ‘calm down, everything will be ok’. I had after all backed the home team favourite, and they on paper are still favourite to win and are now playing against a team reduced to ten men…

I stupidly decide to back the home team again with another £25.00, making my total investment in this football trade £100.00. The odds are now so good that when the home team score again as they should and win this match against 10 men, I’m going to be seeing a massive profit on this football trade.

So the match trundles on and the market settles down with the odds reflecting a draw, but with the home team being favourite to win as they are playing against ten men. I could have traded out at any point between 60 and 75 minutes and showed a smallish loss for this football trade and moved on to the next one.

So of course now the law of sod comes in to play. The home team throw everthing at the away team, but can’t get the ball in the back of the net. The away team’s penalty area is under seige for 30 odd minutes but the home team can’t score.

The match ended 2-2. The home team failed to score a third goal against an opponant with only 10 players on the pitch and I lost £100.00!

Looking back I made several stupid mistakes, and missed several opportunities to trade out for a respectable green up profit. I then had the chance to trade out for a loss when the away team scored their first goal and could have also traded out for a loss in the second half for a smaller amount, but nothing like the full £100.00 loss that I ended up with at the final whistle.

I committed the first sin in football trading – leaving things up to the players on the pitch!

I committed the second sin in football trading – being greedy!

I decided to call it quits for the day as I was in no mood to concentrate on football trading, so I switch my computer off and the familiar beeps and bongs when a team score don’t ring out from my computer on a Saturday afternoon for over 6 weeks.

I wake on Sunday and decide and my Bet Fair trading balance is showing £211.64. Yesterday wasn’t a dream, I really had lost £100.00 on a football trade that I could have easily profited from or traded out from when things went against me for a smaller loss.

I decide that the reason is due to me playing with higher stakes when football trading that I hadn’t earned or gotten used to naturally – due to my Bet Fair trading balance being inflated due to luck at Cheltenham and not due to Football Trading.

I decide to withdraw another £50.00 from my balance back to my bank account and therefore leave my Bet Fair trading balance at £161.64. I think to myself that this is a more realistic figure for my trading balance, had I not have won at Cheltenham and inflated it with winnings not ‘earned’ football trading.

Sunday was a strange day for football trading. Obviously being the weekend and with a young family, we had family stuff to do. I only managed to get involved with a couple of football trading opportunities in the day and a couple more in the evening due to other commitments.

I end the day £164.14 a small profit on what I started the day with of £2.50, but a profit all the same. I intend as usual to have a £1 each way accumulator on the day’s racing, so in effect I will start the day today with a Bet Fair Trading balance of £162.14 – a big difference to what I started with on Saturday, but for some reason I feel confident today that I have learned a valuable lesson.

So it’s now Monday 19th March 2012 and I’m starting football trading again hurt from the weekend’s tough lesson, but determined not to make the same mistake again. The in-play football coupon for today is limited to say the least, but we’ll see what the day brings and onwards and upwards with football trading.

Sports Trading Diary Entry 6 180312