May 25th 2010

New Bank: 551.22 euro
Profit: 9.13 euro
Today‘s Yield + 1.68%

You might wonder after achieving another decent day why I am disappointed but it is the nature of the beast I suppose or all to do with human emotions. I will try to explain how it came about today.

The day started off well with 3 winning markets in the bag when I decided to get involved with former number 1 Dinara Safina’s battle with 40 year old, out of retirement Kimiko Data Krumm. Safina had won the first set but ended up losing the 2nd set 64 where she lost the last 4 games in a row. This was the stage I got involved with the market by backing Safina @ 1.7 and she duly broke Krumm’s serve straight away in the 3rd and I greened up on Safina @ 1.35. I decided to wait and see then how the match developed before I went I again but I totally lost my nerve/bottle or something along those lines.

It was now 43 to Safina (still a break up) and Krumm could barely walk with Safina trading @ 1.05. I could see it though; Safina was big time feeling the pressure and throwing in double faults like confetti. I knew she was a lay at this stage but couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I just sat and watched, hoping Safina would pull through so as I could collect my green but of course Krumm won the final set 75.

I left it at that for the day because I was already in profit for the day and I felt if I carried on I would do damage as I felt like I had lost. I have been in this position before where as I felt I was owed something but it has always ended in disaster, for me anyway. I spent the rest of the day watching the tennis but thinking about what caused me to freeze.

Personally I think it was because I was afraid of losing, of losing money in a market when I had already had a good start to the day. Also I think in my mind I had already earned the green I had on Safina, it was mine even though the market was not settled, I had accounted for it so didn’t want to give it away!!!

Remember STAY PATIENT

May 24th 2010

New Bank: 542.09 euro
Profit: 17.93 euro
Today‘s Yield + 3.42%

What a day of tennis it was today and it was also a very good day for me profit wise and discipline wise. The only match that I looked like I losing today was the epic 5 set match between Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet. Although Gasquet is the better clay courter, Murray was the fav ( around 1.6 ) and I agreed and put my money on him simply because Gasquet is dreadful over 5 set matches and has a dreadful record playing in his home country at Roland Garrois so that was my reasoning with going with Murray.

Anyway Murray lost the first two sets with Gasquet playing sensational stuff with the backhand that has no match in tennis hitting winner after winner. As good as Gasquet was in those first two sets Murray was very poor, an awful serve particularly the 2nd serve , his forehand is poor , he is to passive sitting miles behind the baseline waiting for errors. At this stage it didn’t look good and with Gasquet now trading around 1.35 I had wrote my money off. But it was my attitude to this that pleased me. Before I would have started backing Gasquet to get me out of a hole and as we all know you are really only increasing your exposure. So I told myself forget about it , it’s a losing day, there will be many, don’t start chasing just try claw it back over the next few days by remaining calm.

Gasquet broke again in the 3rd set to be 3 games away from winning the match and trading @ 1.1 when the real Gasquet turned up. Yes the one who can’t battle and fight, who fatigue’s quite rapidly and just mentally has lost the match. So with that Murray turned the 3rd set around and then romped the last two sets to beat Gasquet from two sets down for the 2nd time in 2 years.

On to tomorrow now and the message is more of the same and keep the DISCIPLINE.

New Bank: 524.16 euro
Profit: 17.41 euro
Today ‘s Yield + 3.44%


The second grand slam of the year, the French Open started today with a feast of tennis now for the next two weeks. With regards the title, on the Men’s side I just cannot see Rafael Nadal being beaten and he should be regaining his beloved title in two weeks time. On the Women’s side though the draw is wide open and the title is up for grabs by at least 5 women and if I had to pick a winner I think Jelena Jankovic would be the play.

Anyway onto my day today and I am very pleased with my performance and result and managing to avoid any upsets. I had one loss today but in a weird way I am quite proud of it because I have had real problems (and I am not suggesting these problems are now eradicated lol) with going all red or taking a loss.

It occurred in Jo Wilifred Tsonga’s 5 set victory over Daniel Brands and I got involved after Tsonga lost the first set. He then took the next two but when he lost the fourth set I went all red and it looked as if I had made the right decision as he went down a break in the last set before he turned it around for the victory. I was already well into profit for the day when I went all red so I suppose this made the decision easier and I hope if I was not in profit for the day that I would have made the same decisions.

Profit = 6.75 euro
New Bank = 506.75
Yield = 1.35%

Here is yesterday's report and I will do another blog this evening because at the moment my head is bouncing from a very bad hangover!!!

Today's Profit 17.08 euro
Yield 3.32%



I had another excellent day today and even though this was the case I kept having doubts all day as to whether the way I was doing things was the correct way. I don't really know why this was the case as things went well but a lot of this game is in the head and this is the part I am struggling with.

I have decided to take out the profit I have gained since I begun the blog a few days ago ( 31.04 euro ) and I am going to try change my strategy going forward again with a bank of 500 euro.

Also thanks for all the comment I have recieved and those that I haven't replied to I will over the weekend.

New Bank: 513.96 euro
Profit: 9.40 euro
Today's Yield + 1.86%


On the whole a good day, certainly profit wise it was. I was a little edgy with some of my trading though and also a little too eager in some cases to get involved and enter the market. I have to drum it in to myself to wait for my opportunities and give myself the best chance of gaining a positive result. Overall though, the majority of what I done today was good so that is pleasing.

All my trading came from the tennis today, WTA action from both Warsaw and the rain hit tournament in Strasbourg. None of the football interested me today and there is one thing i am very good at is not getting involved in meaningless matches or friendlies. If only I could have applied that to every department of my betfair career in the last few years then I would be writing this blog from the Bahamas.

New Bank: 504.56 euro
Profit: 4.56 euro
Yield + 0.9%

The first day of my blog has got of to a good start which is of course pleasing. 3 winning trades, the first two coming in the often volatile world of WTA Trading or for those who don’t follow the sport – women’s tennis.

The first winning trade came in Maria Sharapova’s comfortable straight sets win on her comeback from yet another injury and since she shocked the world in 2004 by winning Wimbledon as a 17 year old she has always been one of my favourites. I hope she continues to do well physically because mentally apart from the William’s sisters there is not a lot that will live with her in the mental department. With the French open just around the corner, I hope she does well here, although I know she has no hope of winning it as her movement is just not good enough on clay.

I also picked up some profit in the Spanish Cup Final between Seville and Athletico Madrid , when I got involved in the over/under 4.5 goal market after Seville scored quite earlier in the game which usually see’s a lot of volatility in these markets before it settles back down.


On today’s profit and loss screenshot ignore the profit gained from before the top two matches as that was profit gained before I had an eureka moment today and decided to start a blog , so to keep everything transparent it wouldn’t be fair to include it.

My blog

If you are reading this for the first time, welcome and thank you for taking the time to read my blog. My blog is a trading one about my attempts to make a profit from the betting exchange Betfair. I enjoy reading the blogs that are out there, be it ones where people post the daily profit and loss or ones that just talk about and debate the pros and cons of sports and trying to profit from it.

My blog is going to include profit and loss updates about how I got on with also other sports related stuff from time to time. The blog will also be for me, to see how I get on and to see if I can learn as I go forward. I read a lot of blogs about people trying to crack the horse racing markets by trading them daily and although I have absolutely no interest in horse racing nor do I know anything about them I still enjoy reading how people have got on and their mindsets and in turn hope my blog will be enjoyed.

While reading these blogs I started to get the feeling that I could try and trade the markets and see how I get on. I won’t be trading the horseracing markets for reasons I have already said but there will be a lot of other sports that I am interested in and so I will try my hand at all these. I have experience of the exchanges but have never really concerned myself at having a set plan or goal hence the blog now.

My plan now is try to trade certain markets everyday that I am happy to get involved with and hopefully build the bank up from there. With each post I will also upload a screenshot of the day’s gains and losses and also if there were any things where I felt I could improve on, any overriding emotions and also other general musings. If you do stumble across this blog in the future I hope you will continue to monitor it. Any comments are welcome, and all comments both good and bad will be published.

Hard Work And Patience

is going to be the story of my effort to achieve my dreams through betfair. I will update this evening on how exactly this blog will work and my idea's etc.

Bye for now