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General Betting

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M4RK1988
04 Aug 10 12:37
Joined:
Date Joined: 06 Jun 09
| Topic/replies: 394 | Blogger: M4RK1988's blog
Hi,
I've been trading for over a year mainly on horses and a little football, and been through good spells and bad spells. I recent months I've been as much as £1500 in profit, but now I'm about -£1000. I know I can trade well, but my discipline and patience isn't very good, especially if I have a couple of losing days I try to make it up too quick by doing silly things, going in play being the worst. Once my balance is below £100 I normally blow it on football, because I like to trade with £100 and £200 stakes.

I have just started to follow a compound interest system to try to stick to reasonable targets and make consistent profits. Starting with £348.60, making 5% per day until the end of the month, ending with a balance of £1,427. Only done one day so far but ahead so far...

Day 1 - P/L Target £17.34, Balance target £364.14
Actual P/L £34.19, New balance £380.99.

Day 2 P/L target will be £18.21, and balance target will be £382.35, so I could make just £1.36 tonight as still be on target after my good start yesterday.

By Day 29 the P/L target would be £67.98 with a target final balance of £1427.48.

You can go on further but the targets soon become unrealistic, by day 365 I would have a daily targer of £895,269,840.91! I'm only going to the end of the month then bank some and start again if all goes well. I will update this to show how I'm doing, good or bad!

Hope that's all clear enough, and sorry if it's boring, just filling in some time at work!

Anyone else tried anything like this, and did it work, and for how long?

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Replies: 32
By:
dlarssonf
When: 04 Aug 10 13:38
5% a day is too much.  It won't happen believe.  Forget about days.  Don't think of your bank and daily targets.  Instead aim for something realistic like trying to average 0.5% , for example per market,  Note I said AVERAGE.  So take your winning markets and your losing markets and try average a positive % etc.

5% a day won't happen although you will be reluctant to accept this
By:
M4RK1988
When: 04 Aug 10 15:15
I wasn't too far off that yesterday, traded 13 markets with a profit of £34.19, averaging £2.63 per market, about 0.8% per market.
Like you said I'm reluctant to say 5% is not achievable. I think 5% daily is achievable for now with the balance I have, but probably not workable beyond a month.
IF I make my target this month, I'll either bank some and start again at about £500, or maybe drop my daily target to 2.5%. Far too early to think of that though!
By:
Maurice365
When: 04 Aug 10 21:00
are you basing your justification on one day's result?

a good day yesterday, a bad day tomorrow
5% is far too high
daily targets won't work because when you have a couple of losing days you go chasing. which, everyone knows, is like ripping your own head off and sh*tting down your throat.

dlarssonf is 100% right
By:
Avocado
When: 04 Aug 10 22:02
I don't understand people who bet every day. I haven't had a bet since the World Cup semi finals because there has been nothing that meets my criteria since then. It seems like people just bet on random stuff on here rather than waiting for good opportunities.
By:
paddys revenge
When: 04 Aug 10 22:05
what you doing on here every day then?Laugh
By:
Avocado
When: 04 Aug 10 22:10
I'm just reading the forum. There is some quite interesting stuff on here sometimes. I've usually got this forum open while I'm watching TV, working, playing computer games etc.
By:
M4RK1988
When: 04 Aug 10 22:13
Thanks for your views, I can see what you both mean, I've lost plenty when I've been chasing. I'm hoping I can be more disciplined by trying to follow the line on my graph, having something to stick to. I'm hoping to get a run of consecutive profitable days going, my record is 11 so that's another thing to aim for.

Anyway, gone way off track tonight! Increased my bank by 49.9% on day 2!
£96.44 on horses and £93.44 on football.
I've reached my day 10 target on day 2, just need to scale it back a bit and settle for small wins, not get ahead of myself.
By:
paddys revenge
When: 04 Aug 10 22:19
avocado, like me mrs is watching big bro, im picking thru the forums, there are some genuine folks on here offering good advice

M4rk, 5% a week is a better target to aim for, a day is just dicing with a fall, then you end up chasing and well you know what happens then, no rush mate
By:
Avocado
When: 04 Aug 10 22:22
What kind of stuff do u bet on paddy? I'm off to work now but will reply later if you reply to this
By:
paddys revenge
When: 04 Aug 10 22:27
Goals markets only mate, unders and look for a short trade prior to KO
By:
paddys revenge
When: 04 Aug 10 22:27
Even 1% a week is better than what the banks are offering!
By:
Avocado
When: 05 Aug 10 00:31
Yes, cr@p interest rate at the moment from banks. I was getting 5 percent interest from my savings a few years back but i hear it's only 1 percent now.
By:
M4RK1988
When: 06 Aug 10 17:07
Still going pretty well...

Day 3 - P/L £12.34 (+2.2%) Balance £583.21
A little down on my 5% daily target but not a problem after my day 2 profit, I'm still well up on what I should be at this point.

I know people aren't convinced but I certainly feel like this is helping me improve, especially on discipline.

Target for this evening when I finally get home from work is £20.07.
By:
Lori
When: 06 Aug 10 20:28
Chasing a target is the number one way to destroy discipline, not aid it.

Good luck anyway, just bear that in mind.
By:
kohaku
When: 06 Aug 10 20:54
5% p.d is pipedreams

I would be more than happy with 1%
By:
Rocket to the FACE
When: 06 Aug 10 20:57
1% would be brilliant
By:
M4RK1988
When: 06 Aug 10 23:30
Maybe if I had a balance of a few grand, 5% p/d would be unachievable, and I would be happy with 1%, but with my current balance 1% is only £6.30.
If I stuck to that I would be done in a couple of races most nights.
I know how I must look to you all, but seriously I think 5% isn't a big ask at the moment. Once 5% becomes over £50 then I might not achieve that consistently but for now I'm quite confident I can do it.

Day 4 - P/L £45.47 (+7.8%) Balance £628.68

I'm up to my target for day 12 already so a nice bit of breathing space if I do have a bad day.
By:
Wedged
When: 06 Aug 10 23:45
Hi Mark, I agree that 5% is ok with a smaller bank, but just like with a big bank, you won't clear that target every day.

But also you contradict yourself - you say you want to make your target each day and this in turn will help with your discipline, yet you have already blown that away by surpassing your target by 200%.  So my question has to be 'what is the point of the targets at all?  One day you make 7 days worth, another you might lose 4 days worth.  Why not just place the bets you want to place each day?

GL though (and perhaps post your bets?)

Wedge
By:
Bet of the Decade
When: 06 Aug 10 23:50
Are you trading M4RK1988?

Also, if (and hopefully when) you et to a target of £1400 what will you do?

I think one of the key issues to working successfully is having the right bank level - e.g. a bank of £1k through realistic and thoughtful trading could return a profit of £15 maybe £20 per day.

An extra £140 a week tax free any good? I guess it depends on individual circumstances.

Good luck mate, following with interest.
By:
M4RK1988
When: 06 Aug 10 23:58
Thanks Wedge, I'm more focussed on my overall balance targets at the moment, I don't want to strictly stick to 5% because some days I can do better, and I don't want to get too worried if I'm a little short. I have a graph with a line for my current balance and a line for my target, I'm just concentrating on staying above that line for the rest of the month. If I do have a bad day and still stay above the line, I won't do what I used to do and do something silly to try and get straight back to where I was. That's where I think having this target might help.

I'll try to post a couple of bets tomorrow, I'll mainly be trading on the horse racing. I back first, hoping to lay at a lower price so I'll see if I can post a bet as I place it and see how it goes.
By:
M4RK1988
When: 07 Aug 10 00:04
Bet of the Decade, not 100% sure what I'm doing after this month IF I make the target, I'm thinking I could reduce the target to maybe 2.5%, keeping achievable targets, or bank some money and start low again with 5%. I'll see how it goes IF I get there.
By:
M4RK1988
When: 09 Aug 10 11:27
A mixed weekend since I last posted, had my first bit of indiscipline...

Day 5 - P/L £214.68 (+34.1%) Balance £843.36

Day 6 - P/L -£154.27 (-18.3%) Balance £689.09

The frustrating thing about yesterday is I was up by about £80 at 8pm, then because I was bored I bet on all 7 Brazillian matches, almost all were low scoring 0-0s, 1-0s or 1-1s which are no good to me.

Still, looking at the bigger picture I'm £224 up on where I should be on day 6, with an average of 14.3% profit each day.
I need to keep calm and carry on!
By:
Lori
When: 10 Aug 10 13:00
Do you ever have winners when you have bad discipline?

One of the worst gamblers I know whines constantly when he loses that it was bad discipline and is always quick to believe he did the right thing when he wins.

You can, and will have good wins on bad bets and bad losses on good bets. The winning and losing is very close to irrelevant a lot of the time (Though try telling me that when I lose to a late goal/try/putt/180/six/etc for the few minutes that follow Laugh )
By:
M4RK1988
When: 11 Aug 10 10:10
Very rarely Lori!
A few weeks back I was trading pre match football odds on a late night match with big amounts, trading on HT/FT, 2.5 goals and correct score markets. Fell asleep and woke up in the morning £900 worse off! Could have done with a bit of luck there.[>o]
I have had one bit of good luck recently, backed a horse with £5 at 100, forgot about the race and it won! Winning like that doesn't help though, I normally end up losing it within a few days.

I've had 3 bad days in a row now, on Monday everything I backed seemed to go up and up, really makes me doubt myself when I have a night like that. Yesterday made profit on horses but lost it all and more on football, I wish I could exclude myself from football markets! Again I bet on 4 games at once. I need to try to pick just one game at a time and if it's 0-0 I only lose about £50 instead of £200! Anyway, the gory details...

Day 7 - -£98.67 (-14.3%) Balance £590.42
Day 8 - -£76.43 (-12.9%) Balance £513.99

Now only £1.61 ahead of my target balance for day 8 so any more losses and I'll be off target.
Planning to only bet on 1 or 2 football matches tonight and choose carefully, It's clear that whenever I do too many at once I lose.
By:
M4RK1988
When: 12 Aug 10 13:31
Going from bad to worse this week!
Last night did just 4 horse races, lost big on all of them. Everything I picked rose, sometimes more than double what I'd backed at! Gave up on that and moved onto football hoping for some luck but lost a bit there too.

Day 9 - -£193.38 (-37.6%) Balance £320.61

No football tonight so I'm hoping to get back on track on the horses. I've proved I can trade successfuly in the past, 30 odd profitable races in a row must mean something. I just can't understand why everything I've picked this week has gone up and up! Anyway I'll try again tonight, I'll keep updating this for now but as I'm losing you've probably all lost interest.
By:
Wedged
When: 12 Aug 10 13:50
I've proved I can trade successfuly in the past, 30 odd profitable races in a row must mean something.


It doesn't i'm afraid.  Genuinely hope your luck turns around though! If you really want to make the 5% a day, try dividing your days target by 5 and go for that amount each bet - should be very small amount allowing you to (naughty) increase stakes for the next bet and take a few more bets to get there. ?
By:
freddiewilliams
When: 12 Aug 10 14:02
afternoon wedged...ive just been for a run......will u be going for a run or two today......

mark
if u backed 4 horses last nite...with a view to trade and u let them drift out to double......u dont know how to trade
By:
Wedged
When: 12 Aug 10 14:15
Hi Freddie, I'll be going for a run in about 2 weeks!  Didn't mean to abandon the thread for so long but I needed to make some proper money first for a few things.  Keep your eye out!
By:
M4RK1988
When: 12 Aug 10 14:52
"if u backed 4 horses last nite...with a view to trade and u let them drift out to double......u dont know how to trade"

I know I should probably use stop losses and get out after a couple of ticks etc, I'm guessing that's what you mean, but it seems like whenever I get out with a small profit, the odds continue to drop and I could have made more. Also plenty of times the odds go up then drop below my entry point, but overall I admit I would be more profitable getting out quickly rather than waiting and waiting.

Going to try and be happy with any profit tonight no matter how small, I really don't want to deposit more money so I need to protect the £320 I have left.
By:
dlarssonf
When: 12 Aug 10 15:17
Going to try and be happy with any profit tonight

this is near the most sensible thing you have said.  I told 5% was totally unrealistic - now FORGET targets, trade, back/lay whatever it is you do, total up after a month,  a 100 bets but forget about having to be in profit on any particular day.  IT DOESN@T WORK.  Think long term
By:
egner
When: 12 Aug 10 15:55
.......interesting thread....good luck mark[;)]
By:
M4RK1988
When: 18 Aug 10 12:14
This isn't going well!
Football continues to be my downfall, I've been frustratingly close to winning good amounts on about 5 matches in the last 4 days, just needed another goal in all the games, but it wasn't to be.

I wish the self exclusion feature was more detailed, I would like to be banned from betting on any football outside England!

I need to teach myself discipline somehow, not sure if it's something I can learn or not but I certainly need it. Got a couple of books on betting and trading, I don't normally read books but I think I'll have a read.

Horse racing is still going ok, but I'm ruining it with footall. Latest figures...

15 days completed, balance £224.83 (should have been £757.02 by now)
P/L since start: -£121.97
Horse racing: £333.46, Football -£455.43

Need to be careful not to blow my bank as I have done in the past wen it gets low.
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