14th January

Started last night but settled today so:

Tennis:
Lu v Almagro - bookies predicted a close match, I thought Almagro should win but he started slowly and Lu has got a good serve, so rather than taking a position on the match, I decided to trade on movements on players which meant that the serves of both players had to be reliable, as the trading involved individual points rather than the players service games. Due to the high volatility I decided to not use the full stake that I use on other trades - my trade stake is usually 15% of by bank and for tennis when I am trading movements in prices I chose to use 1/4 of this size so my stake was one quarter of £150.80 i.e. £38. I felt really comfortable with this and realistically I couldn't lose much of my total bank. However with the big swings in prices on each point the profits were really good - I managed to rack up £13.59 on just this one match - it also allowed me to not get involved with the market when the prices got below 1.20

Del Potro v Gulbis - now I know Gulbis beat Djorkovich last week but I wasnt sure how well he played and how well Djorkovich played (I have doubts over Djorkovich and how well he will do this season - Djorkovich beat Davydenko at the Masters finals but that was after Murray effectively allowed Davydenko to play the final by beating Federer in a game that he didnt need to win but it took too much out of him to play Davydenko the next day - had Murray lost to Federer in the group match he would have beaten Djorkovich and then played Federer again in the final - any way I digress) So Gulbis beat Djorkovich, but I didnt put too much meaning into this as I dont rate Djorkovich and Gulbis is playing Del Potro - now Del Potro after he lost at Wimbledon he went on an amazing run of matches - not losing in something like 24 matches and winning title after title - he's young, tall, strong and Argentinian and only lost to Murray in the US Open and did enough to reach the Masters final which is open to only the top 8 players. I wanted to watch Del Potro's match but it didnt start until half past midnight but I did notice he was trading at 2.40 to win 2-0 and given what I had just said thought it was way too high and placed a back bet on it. 15 minutes later I traded out at 2.18 (before the match started) for a profit of £4.78 - I went to bed happy that I had got a head start for today.

Snooker and Horse Racing:

Bored and lacking clearly skill in these markets - I lost £39.14 and £23.19 respectively - I really need to avoid these sports.

Football:

3:00 pm and Jordan were playing Thailand - love these type of matches, not too much liquidity in the market but enough to take a position for 90 seconds to 3 minutes and know there is enough money in the market to lay for a profit. Boring 0-0 with Jordan pressing most of the time but with no real attacking prowess to break down a well organised Thailand defence (I dont know these things before I watch the match but I form opinions as I watch). £46ish profit.

Valencia v Racing Santander. Valencia took the lead and looked like they were the most likely to score again and I backed them with the lead at 1.24 for £154 to win the first half - well that's the amount I queued up - I was watching the build up of a Racing Santander attack and thought that they might score - I cancelled my bet but £7.27 got taken, I layed at 2.25 for a £5.02 loss. Oh I had traded the Under/Over 2.5 goals market for £6ish profit prior to this - so not too bothered and with my win on the Jordan, Thailand match I was in profit for the day.

Traded the draw down to full time for £17ish profit and there was extra time (by this time Southend was live on ITV against Chelsea), Southend had taken the lead and I didnt want to go anywhere near it - I watched it for a while and when I noticed that Valencia had scored in the 30 minutes of extra time being played in this cup match, I tuned into see Valencia not really being pushed hard by Racing Santander and I backed and layed for one trade then backed again - this time though with gaps in the ladder and trades already been traded at 1.13, I backed at 1.14 (current matched price) and at 1.15 i.e. one above on the ladder. The market came down to 1.13/1.14 and I kept my eye on the match with the idea to lay off the liability if Racing Santander looked in imminent danger of scoring, they threatened but left themselves open at the back, Valencia scored and just before they scored someone filled up £113 of my open 1.15 back bet - traded out at 1.01 for a £36.02 profit.

Southend v Chelsea

As I just mentioned Southend were leading and I didnt want any piece of the action, well that was until they went 2-0 up and from watching the match there was no way Southend were going to get back into the match. I backed at 1.07 and 1.08 (as above), the price fluctuated between 1.09 and 1.07 - so I backed at 1.08 and 1.09 and then laid off at 1.07 whilst leaving one stake's worth of trade open - due to the fluctuations, had Southend gone down the other end and got a corner or something threatening, then I could lay off for worst no profit but most likely £1 to £2 profit. As it was the market had stabilised at 1.07 and I could green up for £4ish - with little risk to the open I bet I considered it for a minute or two and Chelsea scored - so I layed at 1.01 for a profit of £13.06.

As I closed the Chelsea match off I turned over to the Barcelona match and with 2 minutes of extra time being played in the first half and 1 minute already gone I backed at 1.05 and the ball wasnt at either end it was in the middle of the park with the midfielders not doing much other than tussling with each other and giving away throw ins I felt 1.05 was reasonable, Barca went down the left and got a corner with 15 seconds left of the half left and not wanting to be done again I layed at 1.08 for a £4 loss.

Totals:

£67.27 - 6.56%