Patience, Consistency, Discipline.
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A bit of strange title I know but something I want to keep reminding myself of, each time I'm on here.
So this is my accountability journal/blog for my journey ahead.
The end goal is to be able to work for myself. I have been exploring ways to do this for a few years.
Looking into all kinds of ways to make a decent income online without working crazy hours, so I can spend more time with my family and have the flexibility to live life on my own terms.
I've tried a quite few ways but not had any great success so far.Anyway I currently have a youtube channel which has been monetized that I plan to build up to be a decent income stream (nothing to do with trading). I want to have at least a couple of income streams to give me that extra security if anything does go south in the future.
The second income stream will hopefully be betfair trading, I have been trading for well over a year now, tried a couple of courses learning how to trade horses pre race and in play had some success but not consistently enough. I would do well for weeks then 1 or 2 bad trades would cost me most of those profits.
Also tennis trading in play which I enjoyed but struggled to get the hours in required. I have learnt alot about mindset and discipline over this time, also made many mistakes along the way, but feel I am ready to kick on now.
Fortunately found BTC which after a month of being here seems to suit my approach to how I want to trade going forward. I also really like how helpful this community is along with the ryan, martin and adam.For my short term goals:
- Become consistently profitable each month on betfair.
- Learn automation and add multiple strategies.
- Build my bank.
- Upload 30-50 youtube videos per month.
Long term goals:
- Have multiple profitable strategies
- Create my own strategies
- Add in play tennis trading to my portfolio
- Earn over £500 per month on youtube
- Reduce my work hours or go part time
- Earn a full time income online.
Current progress after 1 month of being a member. Results for February
Ryans LTD 42 trades £10.29 Profit
Tomasz lays 19 trades £6.94 Profit
Martins Back 1.5 goals 54 trades £2.50 Profit
Overall £19.73Posted 54 youtube videos on my channel.
Decent start hopefully will continue in the coming months.
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@Craig-vaulks No worries at all, great to have you back
you missed us all? Wicked we will happily help.
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@Ryan it's good to be back.
So currently I have a couple set and forget stats which are FHG and FH Draw. I have a couple of others I am currently testing which are O1.5 goals and FH U1.5 goals.
For in play trades I am looking at backing strong home teams and also SHG'S.
Will be looking to develop a late goal strat and maybe 1 or 2 others in play.
I may ask you or martin about a filter I have set up for late goals and maybe see what is the best way to go about it. Will post it on the football thread about it when I have time. -
@Craig-vaulks Great to have you back matey!!
What are the strategies you are going to run with?
Anything you are stuck with?
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I have finally returned after a lot of things going on in the background, I am now getting back into trading again.
I did not want to stop trading but the forces that be had other ideas so I could not commit fully to making decent progress.
I am hoping to pick up where I left off, trading football, I may trade the occasional tennis match when time allows but football will be my priority for the foreseeable.
I have a couple of decent set and forget strategies that did well in the past which I will continue to use and test. I will also be using a few in play strategies some I have used before and some I plan on testing.
I will update when I can most likely each month. -
@Ryan yeah they seem pretty decent. I'm sure there are plenty of other people better qualified than me to make suggestions for in play stats.
But for me I know there are plenty of sites you can go on such as bet365, flashscore etc. I just think it would be useful to make it more in tune for people who are trading and also easier to view/identify potential trades by having the stats of easier to view, for all the live matches rather than having to click on them 1 by 1. As for useful stats obviously most traders will be looking for potential goals. So things like shots on target, off target, corners, possession and dangerous attacks. Something that could also be useful is a momentum style tracker to see how the match is going and maybe the times of the shots on target. Not sure how viable some of these things are but I would find them useful when looking for SHG'S and many other in play strategies. Just an idea anyway. Not sure how many others would find having something like this useful. -
@Craig-vaulks Really good set of guys over there as well, have spoken with them a few times over the years and always thought they were decent and good guys.
I'll add that to the list of features, in play stats, what stats are important to you?
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@Ryan yeah I've been using goal profits. The main reason was to try out some new strategies that they had tested just to see if any were worth taking on. I prefer it here because the community is much more helpful you cover more than 1 sport. Also the ease of saving your potential matches to spreadsheets to keep track. The filters are much more useful as you can add betfair prices to find value much easier. Also the added potential of backtesting in the future will be a big help. The only other thing that was useful at GP was the live in play stats for the football as it would let you know potential strategies to use for that match and also with that they would let you know which key players were in or out of the team . The players who had the most goals and assists. Not sure if this is something that could be looked into. Could be a useful tool.
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@Craig-vaulks Welcome back!
May I ask why you prefer it here to where you was?
Happy to hear the suggestions for the software as well
we are always looking to make it better.Have you submitted them through the support form in the software?
It's here if not
https://form.asana.com/?k=V4sICWddOgH3CMQ96g0XSA&d=1120854233877885 -
@Craig-vaulks can't believe you ditched us for another software!
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So I have returned after a few month's away, didn't realise I was using a different email when signing back up for this never mind. I have been away mainly to concentrate on my YouTube channel which is making progress slowly.
I've also been trying out some different software which was ok, to see how they worked and try a few different strategies. But I do prefer the BTC software and community. I have a few thoughts around possible useful additions to the software @Martin and @Ryan. Let me know if your interested in hearing them.
Anyway I am back trading, will only be using a few strategies for the time being as YouTube is going to be my priority in the coming months.
Strategies I will be mainly using are backing FHG, SHG and FH Draw. 2 are set and forget.
I will be updating my progress when I have the time. -
@Craig-vaulks sounds like a bit of a rollercoaster but glad it all turned out well in the end!
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August trading
So this month has been very mixed again. I had a very poor start to the month, not the best results with football trading. I also had the bright idea to return to trading horses pre race, after a decent 1st day trading a few races, the next couple of days I reverted back to my bad habits, not taking losses and going in play needless to say a decent chunk of my bank had gone due to this.
The frustrating thing is I know I could do ok trading pre race if I could just accept the losses when I know I should. I came to my senses shortly after and stopped before I made a even bigger mess.
Back to the football trading I currently have 5 main strategies 3 are set and forget. I am still using my own FHG and have added back the draw and FH draw. Along with SHG's and LTD. I also do the occasional away and home comebacks.
So a decent opportunity came along when a strong team had gone 2-0 down at half time I layed the winning team and also backed the stronger team.
Anyway the team came back to win 2-3 in the last minute. I had originally removed my liability at 2-2 but betfair failed to suspend the market at the end of the match. Which had me concerned as they can sometimes cancel all in play bets.
However they kept all my bets for the stronger team as I only put those on at HT. Fortunately this gave me a an even bigger profit, making up for my losses I had over this month and putting me well up for the month.
My other strategies have done better in the 2nd half of the month. So far backing the draw looks very promising 200 fixtures in after 2 months and has hit 13 points profit this month. FH draw is a couple of points down but I have given it a slight tweak which early signs are good. My FHG strat was not bringing up many fixtures (think there was a issue with the software but has been fixed) untill the last week of the month but has done well in that short time.
I have had very few LTD matches but the SHG trading is looking very promising.
So lessons have been learned this month, stay away from pre race horses.
I will be sticking with football and may trade the occasional tennis match but looks as though I will have to leave tennis for the most part as I don't have the time.
Very happy with how this month has ended, feel as though I have good momentum going into the next month. -
End of month update for July
Not the best of months for me as I have had a losing month first one this year I think, so cannot complain too much. Some of it was down to poor trades and and over staking at times so can see where I have gone wrong. Also it has been a fairly quiet month especially for football so little opportunities to recover from a couple of rough weekends.
For my set and forget strats.
My FHG has made profit again but very few selections compared to previous months still very happy with this strat look forward to seeing how it performs in the winter leagues.
This is the first month of testing back the draw and FH draws they both look like they have decent potential but too early to say so far.
For my Inplay strats.
The SHG's have been mixed, mainly because I am experimenting with the 1,2 and 3 goal markets to see how it works out but overall every game in my filter has had a SHG in it, I just need to work out the best way to go about this market.
My LTD has performed ok a couple of poor decisions have been costly but overall it has been a good strategy, I just need to make sure I stick to the plan staking and exiting.
So overall considering I have made a loss there are plenty of positives and hopefully things will improve in August. -
@Craig-vaulks said in Patience, Consistency, Discipline.:
@Martin yeah just a little frustrating as I know I could have been a little bit more disciplined with stake sizes and not taking profit when I should (being a bit greedy).
Anyway I see it as a good time to reassess and narrow down what strategies can best suit me.New strategy testing does throw a spanner in the works as I have found.....but I now start on ridiculous low stakes as to not damage my profit makers with new ideas, then move up or move out depending on how it goes! I also now used FIX bank rather than increasing stakes, Winnings and losses remain consistent.
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@Martin yeah just a little frustrating as I know I could have been a little bit more disciplined with stake sizes and not taking profit when I should (being a bit greedy).
Anyway I see it as a good time to reassess and narrow down what strategies can best suit me. -
@Craig-vaulks 1st losing month in a while, sounds like you have been doing well! Hoping it picks back up in August!
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An update for July.
Not the best of months for me looks like I am going to have my 1st losing month in a while. A few poor trades and experimenting with other strategies have been a bit more costly than I would of liked.
I do think I need to reduce the number of strategies I am using not only for purely keeping it more simple but also from a time consuming side.
So going forward I will be concentrating on 3 set and forget strategies and 2 in play when trading football.
These will include my FHG strat, backing the FH draw and FT draw. The 2 draw strats are very new and I will be using minimal stakes to make it easier to keep track of results. The FH draw strat has made a promising start although it is still very early days.
My 2 in play strats will be backing a SHG and also LTD.
My tennis trading is still going well profit wise but I am struggling to find the time to trade the matches mainly due to unpredictable start times and length of time I need for each match.
It may be something I will have to put on the backburner and only trade the occasional match when time allows. Obviously it depends on the time of year/locations as to when trading tennis is more suitable for me.
So overall still happy with my progress despite a poor month. Reducing the number of strategies and using ones that best suit me going forward will hopefully help.
