Schooled

Today's tick size was £1.

I am going to take more positives today than I will negatives. Considering how new I am to this I'm quite proud that I managed to trade the whole evening with just one loss. The issue, however, is that the loss was comparatively massive. Time for a P&L methinks.

Horse Racing: -GBP0.26 Total P&L: -GBP0.26 Horse Racing Showing 1 - 7 of 7 markets Market Start time Settled date Profit/loss (£) Horse Racing / Chest 26th Jun : 7f Mdn Stks 26-Jun-09 19:15 26-Jun-09 19:17 3.23 Horse Racing / Newm 26th Jun : 1m Claim Stks 26-Jun-09 19:00 26-Jun-09 19:05 1.35 Horse Racing / Newc 26th Jun : 1m2f Hcap 26-Jun-09 18:50 26-Jun-09 18:56 0.78 Horse Racing / Chest 26th Jun : 7f Hcap 26-Jun-09 18:40 26-Jun-09 18:45 1.56 Horse Racing / Newm 26th Jun : 6f Mdn Stks 26-Jun-09 18:00 26-Jun-09 18:04 -7.56 Horse Racing / Donc 26th Jun : 1m4f Hcap 26-Jun-09 17:40 26-Jun-09 17:45 0.38 Horse Racing / MrktR 26th Jun : 2m1f NHF 26-Jun-09 17:25 26-Jun-09 17:34 0.00 Profit and Loss is shown net of commission.

Can you spot it? Bah! The most infuriating thing about it was that it was completely avoidable. It was entirely my fault that the loss had a chance to materialise.

Before I started trading, as usual, I fired up Bet Angel's Guardian sub-program to check out the timings of the evening's racing. I highlighted the 18:00 at Newcastle as a race I simply wouldn't trade. There was a 20 minute gap between it and the race before - as a result it was inevitable that the liquidity of the market would suffer. And it did.

I stupidly went in for 'one quick trade' when there was hardly any money in there and bang, £10,000 gets placed and I got shot 20 ticks the wrong way. ARSE.

As is my policy when these big bets come in and throw the market in to chaos, I immediately closed my position for a prolific loss. Had it gone the other way I would have closed the position too. I've been told these sort of swings will even themselves out over time - not always going against you.

But it is annoying. I performed well by my standards on all other races - I suppose it's good that I kept my head and managed to make the money back.

A thought I have taken from the day is that there's not always going to be a trade there, no matter how hard you look. I'm going to be more conscious that not making a bet is just as important as making one. Not trading for the sake of trading is the way forward... never to commit myself unless I see a clear opportunity. A wise man once said that a few trades of high quality is of far more benefit that many trades of average quality.

Tomorrow I have to refit my office so I'm going to Ikea. I hate it there with a passion and I swear I'm allergic to flat pack furniture. We'll see if I manage to get any trading in tomorrow.