Small profits add up

Daily Result: £44.1

Not the greatest of profits today but a green is a green and better than a loss. And each small profit reminds me of a line from Market Wizards book I mentioned recently where the trader points out that combined they add up surprisingly quickly and shouldn't be sniffed at. Ok, he was referring to mere $10,000 profits but the principle is the same! :-)

Made the money today on the snooker final and the American football playoffs, as well as continuing to add to my 2nd test position between South Africa and Pakistan. In between going out to buy carpets and a surprise visit from relatives my trading was pretty stop start. Which was most true on the snooker where I had to equal out for an £80 red each way when visitors turned up. I'd switched positions from Junhui to O'Sullivan after Ronnie pulled it back to 2-2 but couldn't risk just leaving it unattended for a few hours. Missed the rest of the first session but managed to turn it into a £20 profit or so during the early part of the evening session.

As for the NFL playoffs again it was a case of a quick look in. More importantly we ran through all our wedding stationary options tonight as we need to get some proper invites done now. But inbetween I managed to get involved for a few plays in each game and make around £25 or so. Again, not a lot but even £30 a day is £900 a month. Manage that and by August, add it on to my exisiting profit, and it's virtually job done on paying for the wedding. So these small profits are all important. They do all count.

It's been my approach throughout the blog to try to bank smaller consistent profits rather than enjoy big wins at the expense of bigger losses too. As an approach it's simply less risky. Of course it sometimes means you feel you could have made more on an event. But it also means you know you didn't lose as much as you would have done when you do lose.

The classic example is probably something along the lines of it being around evens the pair in a tennis match. You're £400 green one player and £600 red the other. You rate the players' chances as evens, both are injury free and playing well, and you think the prices are about right. What do you do? My usual action during the blog has been to level out for a red, especially if after a point or two I've felt there's a touch of value in one of the prices. Or at least reduce the positions drastically.

Sure, it's not as exciting as hanging on for the big win (for me) but I'm not in it for the excitement and try to keep my losses below a set level. Variance in poker is what busts a lot of players who don't have a disciplined bankroll strategy and end up playing for stakes and buy ins that are too large for the money they have available. And especially on the blog, where I have a set target in mind within a set time frame, I'm happy to try to maintain a more consistent growth in profits. It's all factored into the money management rules I set out at the start and, for me at least, is preferable to having huge spikes in my P/L figures where I win and lose big.

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