Bad trading leads to big loss

Daily Result: £385.15

Ouch! Bit of a shocker today. Dropping nearly £400 is an awful start to the month. Did the money on the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final between Australia and New Zealand. Which is all the more crazy as my first bet was a £1000 back of Australia - and they won at a canter!

It actually all started to go wrong the night before. I'd normally limit my backs to £500 but suspected the Australia price would shorten overnight as the Aussies woke up and had a pre-match punt (they're not allowed to bet in running online - though the dedicated find a way round it). So I took 1.37 and turned the computer off. Big mistake. I woke up in the morning, checked the price, and although it was the same it had dipped overnight. The problem was I'd forgotten to leave my lay in the system. Doh!

Things got worse when New Zealand won the toss and invited Australia to bat. I was already aware the pitch had something in it for the bowlers. It appears the proper shrewdies knew this too - to a greater extent than me - and pushed the Australia price out to around the 1.5 mark. I'd been caught on the phone, missed the early toss news and was left looking at a loss.

That's when I made my next mistake. Despite being wary of the wicket, rather than bailing from the position, I decided to let it run, hope Australia made a few quick runs and then either bail for a much smaller loss - or a profit. A plan that had gone more than just a little tits up by the time Australia had lost two wickets for 4 runs within 3 overs. Which all left me over £155 red the pair. (And also meant I didn't switch to the tennis which had been my intention.)

Unfortunately that turned out to be the start of some poor trading on my behalf - and a little bad luck too with my timing. Just one of those days where everything I touched seemed to make things worse. I should have just given up when Franklin came onto bowl something like his 4th spell. Australia had been knocking him around the park and had forced New Zealand captain Fleming to take him out of the attack. So Franklin comes on. I back OZ waiting for the anticipated run fest. And not only does Franklin get a wicket with his first ball - but the over is a maiden too. And as it was nearing the end of the innings, and Franklin got the set Hussey out, the market reacted accordingly. More red for me.

Anyway, had a substantial red either team at the innings break. Fancied Australia to win so watched the first few balls and got on them. Right move, wrong timing. New Zealand made it to 16 before a losing a wicket and I had acquired more red as the Aussie price had started drifting quickly and I'd decided to more or less leave the game alone and accept the red. New Zealand then collapsed to 35/6, and with it their price to 1.0x, which just rubbed in my poor timing. Should have made a good profit on this match. Just got it wrong.

Kept the prices up in the background and got on with some other work. Ended up getting involved again when I noticed the Oz price drifiting due to a fantastic 103 run partnership between Oram and Vettori. Managed to reduce my red either side but then got caught on the wrong side of a trade and ended up leaving it even bigger! Which just rounded off the day in the way it started really!!

So.......... a bad start to the month. Crap really. But sometimes you just have to take a loss on the chin. I know I can't win every time. Some days you'll just get everything wrong and I accept that. So rather than moping around I'll try and take some positives out of the loss. And there are some.

Firstly, I started the blog around 6 months ago and have made a profit each month so far that I'm happy with. A big loss (and I've had bigger losses since starting the blog) is always a useful reminder that this isn't just easy money. It's not just a question of turning the computer on and collecting cash. Things can go very wrong. Losses focus the mind sharply and this one will.

Secondly, and the thing I'm most pleased about, is I mantained my discipline. Kept to my bankroll and money management rules. Didn't allow the loss to go over my maximum allowable £500 - which it could have been so easy to do. The truth is if I'd deposited more money I could have simply bought my way out of trouble and ended up with a small profit on the day. The trouble with doing that is that eventually I'll end up doing my absolute bollocks in. If I'd deposited several thousand of my profit to date, put it on Australia, and then seen that 103 run partnership I'd have been bricking it! And maybe would have bailed for a far bigger loss rather than risk losing the whole lot. So bad as the loss is at least I didn't lose the plot and managed to keep the loss to a managable level.

And the third positive? Well, at least I have the rest of the month to win it back!

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