Booking a loss and choking?

Result since last update: £688.9

Well, it had to come. Looking back through the blog I haven't had to record a losing trading entry since May 11th. And I guess as that was well over a month ago I'm pretty happy. Can't win all the time and all that. Besides which the loss isn't quite as bad as it seems at first glance. Because I'd already mentioned last week that there was a £337 red to come through. Just so happens that yesterday was settlement day. :-(

The £337 loss came on the 1st eviction in Big Brother. I've explained how this came about previously. A bit unlucky but as a veteran Big Brother trader I know all too well these things can happen. The main thing is I took a contrarian view to the market, got it right, was in a good position to go all green with the market coming round to my way of thinking but unfortunately was not up at silly o'clock when the Emily stuff kicked off. Them's the breaks. Annoying but not much I can do and the whole incident is behind me. My outright market winner book continues to be very balanced all green. And I've got a fiver all green on male / female winner. :-P

The other loss came from the Artois Championships. Made some money on the Ginepri v Gonzalez game but dropped £440 on the Bogdanovic v Roddick match. Quite interesting really. Looking back through last year's tennis results I've had a bit of a mare on a few Roddick games.

But the real point of interest is my trading behavious during the game. I can't make my mind up whether I simply choked or decided enough is enough I'm leaving it. I won't go into the ins and outs of the game. Had a nightmare with overrules, net chords, Hawkeye appeals and even a shot off the net post going against me! But the bottom line was I got on Roddick and he lost the first set.

Bogdanovic was playing really well. Much better than I've ever seen before. And was also finding the line with an alarming regularity. Thing is though after he broke Roddick he never really looked like doing it again. In fact, Roddick was going for games in a row without dropping service points. Rather than simply trading his serve though I just sat there for the most part. I was concerned it was only a 3 set match so one more mistake on my part and I could be facing a maximum loss if I got on the wrong side of Roddick again. The no action strategy, while keeping a small green on Bogdanovich, nearly paid of with the Englishman narrowly losing a tie break in the second set that would have seen him win the match.

But Roddick eventually came through. And after he'd levelled the match 1-1 his odds were so short I just felt it wasn't worth getting on him even though I believed he would win. Instead I hung on for another tie break that didn't come. With hindsight I don't think it was a case of bottling it so much. But rather one of I've got a loss. One more mistake and I make a maximum loss. Just accept that red. The guy is a set behind and could lose. It didn't work out like that though and I booked another red. A 5 set match and I'm sure my approach would have been different.

Turning to cricket I have around a £400 all green position. Missed the early draw action as discussed previously. Missed a lay of 1.13 this morning as well as I didn't get up when the alarm went off! Looks like we'll be getting some play today though. Hoping for some quick wickets to leave a better trading opportunity for the rest of the match.