Poor trading leads to landmark loss

Daily Result: £276.06

Bollocks! An unhealthy loss today. And unlike earlier losses this month I am a little annoyed with this one as, despite a good start, I ended up trading awfully. So badly that for the first time in a very long time, and certainly since I started the blog, I've now had three losing trading days in a row. A bit of a landmark I'd hoped to avoid to be honest. And one which I guess means I've hit a bad patch! Making it doubly annoying is the fact I could have quit ahead today and didn't realise until too late that a loss would have made 3 in a row. :-(

The irony is today started really well. I've hardly traded at all recently and as the South Africa v India ODI started I felt fresh and enthusiastic. On the ball. Was identifying good opportunites in the early stages of the South African innings and taking advantage. (I'll discuss one of these as a detailed example in a future post). Things were going well and I was in a position where I could be nearly £100 green the pair.

I wrote a lot of notes for this game and it's clear to see where I went wrong. The loss of the big two, Tendulkar and Dravid, in 3 balls in the Indian run chase is what finally did me. That's where my chances of a profit for the day ended. But I was already in a dodgy position by then and rather than run through all the mistakes the wider picture is clearly that I just got involved too much today. Was too keen. Was opening positions to try and nick a few ticks for the sake of it where I should have perhaps just been watching.

I've noticed a few times recently that players / teams I fancy to win have won comfortably and yet I've lost money. Today was another case in hand. India's away form is woeful. The ball was clearly going to run on to the batsmen and Sehwag was out injured. And just incase the message wasn't clear enough the South Africa odds were 1.4x before a ball had been bowled. I knew all this and fancied the Saffers to win comfortably. They did and yet I lost nearly £300 - despite being comfortably green earlier in the match.

My conclusion, and something I've been wondering about for a while, is I just tried to get too cute. Be too clever on some of my trades. Try and squeeze a few quid too many out of the market. When really all that was needed was more of the same. Good solid, run of the mill, trading practices. I'm all for trying new ideas out, and I do all the time, but today I just got it very wrong. And then when it did start going tits up I failed to react in time. Though it was really those two wickets in three balls that cost me there. A little unfortunate maybe but a good trader should always be taking into account the old adage about adding two wickets to the score and today I didn't.

Anyway, just to compound the loss when it was clear the game was the South Africans, and they were trading in the 1.0x range, I layed them, adding nearly £100 more red to my position on them hoping for a mini-Indian recovery and a reduced red. A profitable move sometimes but with the main Indian wickets down, and well on the way to be skittled for 91, today was not the day to try it. Though by then I think I may have even been guilty of a little chasing having realised a loss would make it 3 losing days in a row.

So a good start to the day turned into a bit of a disaster. I tried to get too clever, was getting tired and losing concentration towards the end and then, on realising a loss would make it three days in a row was even maybe guilty of the cardinal sin of chasing. Not the best days trading then. But I'll put it behind me, learn from it, and be fresh and alert for the next game on Sunday.

And anyway, I can hardly be too down. The Ashes starts in a few hours and although I'm not going to trade it I'm going to watch the start. Come on England!