Frustration leads to Indiscipline

Despite my earlier posts, my search for discipline seems to, to all intent and purposes, to remain ranked low in my phyche. Why?, well because today I succumbed to it yet again.

As I am not planning to start trading until 20th April, I've enjoyed watching the racing and having a flutter, and like any one who has a bet, my luck allocation seems, at times, to be a little out of kilter with what apparently seems to be countless seconds. I even had my first ever blank Cheltenham Festival, as for a bit of interest this year, I backed everyone of Chocolate Thornton's and Russell Johnson's rides and they didn't have a winner between them in the four days!!

Anyway, today was William Hill Lincoln day and this is one of those races where I have never backed the winner, but undeterred I had a bet as well as a few other bets on the other TV races. It then started happening again, my horses were getting placed but not winning, and I was a few quid down and doing a bit of cursing so come the Lincoln, I backed Zaahid and laid Expresso Star. You've guessed it - Expresso Star won and Zaahid came second.
Not a happy bunny!

Indiscipline you see! I've said to myself countless times not to lay horses as they invariably win. I had a stint on Betfair around three years ago where I used to lay horses in the televised races, and I never made any money, in fact I ended up down as even in the trickiest of handicaps, I always used to find that no mater how many prices I offered up, I always seem to lay the winner. There might be 16 runners in the race and I'd take bets on 5 or 6 of them, but you could almost guarantee that one of the 6 would win. So why did I lay Expresso Star today?

I laid it because I was frustrated at things not going right, so I opted for indiscipline, and so laid a horse despite me promising myself that I wouldn't lay to chase, and now I'm angry, not only at the loss I suffered, but my lack of discipline - again!

Now - Where is that place again Kwai Chang Caine?..................Do you have directions?.............Is it on the new street view on Google?..........

Looking for Pointers

Over the past week I have spent much of my time reading other blogs looking for pointers, lessons to be learned etc, and it's good to see other traders having the same roller-coaster ride that I expect to experience. There are some spectacular traders out there, Adam Heathcote and Peter Webb to name just two, but there are also many small traders who are just looking to make a living, and that is my initial goal too.

When I start trading on 20th April, my three mains aims will be discipline, discipline and discipline :-) and, to help myself along in the early stages, I am going to throw some discipline into the pot as well. In fact to be honest, I think I could do with a couple of weeks in the camp that Kwai Chang Caine (Michael Carradine) left at the start of the Kung Fu series of the seventies, because discipline, Grasshopper, is a must in this game.

An Introduction

In April of this year I will take the leap of faith and step into the lions den of trading on Betfair full-time. I have been planning this step since July 2008, a time when I initially stepped into the den and due to my inexperience and ill-discipline I was tossed in the air like a rag doll, mauled for a while, before being chewed up and then spat out. An experience that I never want to re-live.

I am hoping that this blog will serve as a reminder to myself to do things right and not let me make the mistakes that I made last time. I hope for an interesting and a profitable journey, as this will be the main source of my income. Pressure I know, but pressure I hope I can cope with.

My bank to start with will be a £1000, which is the same as last time, hopefully, it will last a little longer than last time if I am true to the lessons I have learnt.

I will update this blog at least once a week, and I will always post on a Monday, so if anyone wants to contribute to this blog, then please feel free to do so.