The road to full time
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I was wondering where you been Darri.
I think some of us older memebrs as well as a good few new members would benefit greatly from your experience so a big welcome back from me. -
Hello! Damn its good to be back. But before i go further into anything i want to explain why iv come back and why today. I watched @Martin-Futter post a video saying thank you to the traders. When he talks about the origins of BTC and why he and @Ryan-Carruthers do this. I feel like a bit of a sell out, honestly i left because i decided i wanted to forget about trading and concentrate on the myself and people around me. But really instead of supporting BTC at a hard time i quit. So watching the video made me think about coming back.
Iv had a very rocky road in my trading journey and its only been since iv been a BTC member that i turned myself into what id like to think is a professional trader. So id like to turn martins video around and instead say THANK YOU BTC for the resources you give us and the improvement to life that personally iv gained. Iv never hidden the fact my initial bank growth was risky and lucky but catching you guys before i blew it was the best thing that happened. I learned how stake, manage a bank, adapt to trading mentally and indirectly how to improve as a person.
Iv since gone from strength to strength. Iv been helping traders from this site via email to guide them on their own paths too in a way of giving back and repaying btc. Given the current circumstances we all face right now iv been fortunate to be in a good position to make it through and in fact invest in other opportunities that have arisen because of the progress iv made in trading. Trading has opened so many doors.
I think back to how i became a trader joining betfair because of a freebet and seeing that they were actively training people how to make money seemed bizarre for a bookie. But that led me to find BTC. In the past 2 years iv become a better person. Iv had a rocky past with gambling an issue id like to talk about in a future post, but the alternative to pure gambling you guys have helped with has changed my life.
So im joining back again today because of that video and because of the impact you guys have had on me personally. The hard work of tracking results, updating blogs, private coaching are all bonuses because the stats pay for the sub alone. But from someone who is now doing this as an actual job i see all that effort and dont underestimate the hard work you guys put into making this such a great resource for traders of all levels. I hope we meet one day and if we do the pints are on me guys.
So thanks BTC!
Ill be doing an updated post on the layout going forward for this thread. Iv been rocky in term of always keeping it updated but now iv got the time to restart an hopefully give a bit of value to traders. But enough brown nosing and rambling ill update the new layout later on as iv got a lot to catch up on and see what new around btc. All the people i was in contact with before it would be good to catch up and update on whats going on. It feels nostalgic to be back and im excited for the next part of trading.
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thanks Darri that's great.
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@gary-brown Yeah when i uploaded the post about my stakes i said FHGs are 5% and LCS/LTD 2%. FHGs are set and forgets, its staking plan willbe reviewed after 30-40 games. The LCS/LTD is 2% purely because of weekend trading. I dont like the feeling of potentially being involved in a fair amount of matches at 1 time with a decent size of my bank. All staking plans get reviewed after each batch of 30-40/ typically a month.
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Hi Darri just looking at your results spreadsheets and was wondering do you use different stakes for different strategys such as LCS or FHG strategy.
I guess for your LCS your using the 2% stake is that the same for other strategys. If it is different I guess you have a reason why.
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@darri said in The road to full time:
@gary-brown yes mate, i was basically full time before i went on that contract job which was only so i could experience it plus it was easy money. But now able to go back to this full time and im excited for next couple years ill keep this blog/thread updated.
fantastic news. Yep please I love your posts and and I am learning from them and so are a lot of other members as well. Good luck with everything Darri that's great news for BTC.
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@gary-brown yes mate, i was basically full time before i went on that contract job which was only so i could experience it plus it was easy money. But now able to go back to this full time and im excited for next couple years ill keep this blog/thread updated.
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im I reading this correct. Darri have you decided to go full time now mate?
If so congratulations!!!
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I really enjoy discussions on going full time as its something im working towards in the future.
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@ryan-carruthers The celtic game was a big factor, i changed staking from there. It was also the time i started to research sports trading. Like i said my initial intro to trading was lucky and my bank grew and im just extremely lucky i managed to correct it before the luck run out as it was so aggressive, from it tho i had a decent bank and with a bit of tweaking its probably a bigger size than most traders would be able to start with. I think i clocked a video you or martin did with the title LTD in it came up through a youtube search and from there i joined BTC. Iv been a member since december 2018. I think in march or april while i was studying i used to loop your videos in the background whilst i worked on coursework. I think a big turning point was your videos series of the 30 day challenge? day in the life? It was from there i got the idea of researching further and now my entire thread is littered with me harping on about further research.
The one thing im good at tho is listening and actually taking in info. Sometimes people have to make mistakes to improve, i was just lucky because i managed to find a resource of which i could study from and avoid losing, but if it wasnt for the celtic game and the amount i staked (i pulled out of the trade when i realised) i wouldnt have changed quick enough. Not everyone is going to get trading but there are so much material out there now that can give entry level traders a huge head start.
Im really excited about the potential for the next few years and the decision to go full time was not taken lightly. Im going to put everything that happens on here.
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@darri
Interesting, what was the turning point? Or was it something you saw here for example?
There's nothing looking back I would change or could think of to be honest, that I go god I wish I had of done that sooner trading is a very personal thing so its very dependant on the individual and how you feel at that time I think.
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@ryan-carruthers before i was just a full time student doing this as a bit of fun, it was an alternative to betting that i needed as i was heading down a dark path. I grew a bank very quickly and was extremely lucky at first. I remember looking at the screen on a celtic game for a over 1.5 goal market i wrote it down t remember that day. The amount i had on scared me and i felt i was slipping into gambling again. So i started to take up a bank management approach and started staking sensibly. 2-5% for any strategy iv over time set these as its what im comfortable with.
Obviously iv posted and documented what iv done to improve over the last 2 years. All this means im now making 1.5x the amount i was making when i worked full time per month. In fact some months its been more but iv just reinvested that either on betfair or football index. Id say thats the main reason im full time. I have a safety net in place which can support me for 6 months if one day i went bust. Following on from what you said part of the money i take when i withdraw goes towards that so it too is also building started as only being £0 and slowly has been increased. Obviously what is also happening is my bank is consistently growing so each month my net profit is increasing. But im still just withdrawing the same amount i set out at the start so that my main trading bank can grow. Iv a target of a bank i want to hit at which ill review and start to increase my withdrawals.
Is there anything since you turned full time that you would have changed or adapted to in terms of trading? Is there a hindsight thing that stands out that you wish you had thought about or changed quicker?
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@darri So my first thought is how did you process the decision to go full time what did you consider?
I don't actually have any trading targets - I withdraw money on a quarterly basis and usually withdraw everything over my set bank amount, leave 10/15% in an account as a buffer then the rest into my bank.
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So iv hit the ceiling in terms of what bank growth im aiming for per month. I always aim for a minimum of 10% bank growth per month. Iv been very consistently above 20% ever since i started taking trading seriously. As you can see i hit the 27% mark for this month. These are all with defensive staking plans, im a very low staking trader compared to others as when it comes to scaling up as your bank grows i dont want emotion to be creeping in with big stakes. Of course this also ties in with the idea that now im going to be very selective with my trades, bonus considering now we have serious problems because of the virus. The next couple months could be testing for the industry both sports wise and trading.
Obviously the first question to others is are you joking your 25% up after 1 week continue and maybe make 50% or more. Remember guys im doing this full time this is actually my income here. I think in the early days this wouldnt even be a discussion id trade the whole month. But now its not as much an issue to scale the bank to self reliant heights.
Here is a question for all levels of traders, what would you put as a long term target per month/or quarterly per year to make? Be good to hear what @Ryan-Carruthers @Martin-Futter and any of the other pro traders collectively aim for either per month or per quarter? What % would you use as income and what would you leave in to build up bank? These are personal questions just if anyone wants to approach them feel free. Im early stages and only take out a set amount each month which is what my wages were before. The rest i leave in but is there a good model you guys have for it going forward?
Iv had a very nasty gambling habit since i was 16 infact i think i got addicted far earlier to the game at the arcade where you could bet on horses it was like a table top game, it was sowing the seed for football and horses to come. Because of that im quite deep in on betfair so im a good bit off the upper level premium charge. So this question goes out to the pros who dare to speak about it, how do you plan for it and how would it affect how you trade?
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@james-woodroffe thank you mate! very much appreciated, hope you managed to find something out of them. Yep @Martin-Futter that blog post is a fantastic read!
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@darri thanks for this amazing thread mate. I’ve spent the last 3 hours I think reading the whole lot and after also reading Martins blog today on turning obstacles into opportunities, I’ve hit the reset button on my trading and my psyche. Cheers mate very much appreciated that this was here to devour and just take everything in.
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@martin-walker i used to post that every update but got a bit of a bad response, people tend to not like seeing people post actual money. As i said ill still do it, iv got a couple of ideas about future posts and ill be using that screen for it. Take a look back in this thread i did it alot and maybe wasnt as well received when i was on a building the bank stage.
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@darri the betfair p/l sheet would be interesting. You literally never see anyone post one
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Ok guys just before normal service is resumed tomorrow i thought id get everything i had planned in place. In the links in my signature you have my trading guides. Ill be adding to them as i go on. The trouble with a forum is my posts that i gave a bit of detail in vanish in the chaos never to be seen again. So instead everytime i write a decent post ill also copy onto there for people new and old to find again. Im not big headed or a guru just highlighting some of the steps that i feel helped me, be from other traders or self taught methods.
I also have a basic results sheet (scared to show the amount detail of main one) which i will update as regularly as i can, either at night or the morning after. Busy weekends will typically not be updated till monday. A quick note on the trades, what youll find is im trading alot of the same games so actually amount of trades isnt reflective on the actual amount of individual games im trading. To answer a question the LTD goal expectation is less than the LCS because of the type of trade and additional filter tweaks.
I hope this shows a bit of transparency and accountability for when i post things. Im still going to use the football threads for both FHGs and my best LCS picks. What you will see here are all my trades. I will still show the occasional betfair p/l sheet but other traders always harp on about showing real money puts people off. Whereas showing points shows a level playing ground and is an equal playing ground as 2points or 2% can be applied to any bank beginner or experienced. Ill still post updates on that and my weekly update will just detail whats on the sheet and any things that occurred similar to other weekly/monthly updates iv done before.
Let me know if this is ok and if you have any suggestions you guys would like included, that are either helpful, transparent or fun to read.
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@keith-anderson thats true mate i usually jump on a few peoples trades when im short of time but think ive been a bit unlucky on a few, im well up on your ones and darris so would be hard for me to stop that
