My apologies for this being a bit later than I expected as, already short on spare time, I also accidently deleted some of my notes made during the month and had to read my posts again to compile this summary.
I have to say that I am a little disappointed with the overall profit level as it is almost identical to
June, although the manner of the profit achievement is a bit more progressive. Whereas June started off relatively flat and rose quite well from the mid to the end of the month, July was a more steady profit line with more emphasis on a reasonable start and less as the profit line increased more slowly towards the end of the month.
The two biggest spikes, one profit and one loss, were both for the same reason, that is a large amount of money came into the markets and threw the odds down some 8 – 10 points. Fortunately I was on the right side on one of those occasions, though the wrong side on the other, so they effectively wiped each other out. I guess, if I ever make a go of this, it will be a hazard of the “trade”, forgive the pun.
I back traded just over £3,200 during July so with a net profit of £6.15 my return on investment was just short of 0.19%. I could have halved the two near £2.00 losses with quicker decision making and reaction time and really should have performed much better at the time of the near £3 loss. So, like June, I could have nearly doubled my profit for the sake of better management and discipline in a 2 or 3 races.
On the upside the profit line continues to rise which, despite the small figures, is good and pushes me towards increasing my staking level. However I am going to resist the temptation at this time as I have concerns over my capability to react quickly enough when needed and my ability to deal with losses with an “unclouded” mind, though I have made considerable progress with the latter.
I am sure that psychologically my trading has improved but I still get bouts of being too cautionary which I believe affects my trading greater than it should. Very often my cautious nature stops me making an entry and I’ll sit there watching the odds going in the direction I predicted wondering what might have been or I’ll exit too early upon a hesitation in the market, missing another opportunity. I still have a long way to go in the “mind over matter” business.
Another fault I have, connected to the above I expect, is that I don’t attempt enough trades. I have a couple of colleagues that attended the same
Bet Angel Academy course that I did and we still keep in touch. Recently one of them sent me his trading P&L on a spreadsheet. When I first glanced at it I thought it was for the month, just over £6K back traded. It turned out to be just that day! Still my ROI was better by 0.03%, so there’s another positive for me.
Overall I guess that July has been ok, I think I may have learnt more from July than June, awareness for one thing and looking at the 2 months the damage that can be done by a few poor decisions. Just over £12 profit for around 175 races, with roughly £13 in losses from just 6 of them. That equates to 3.5% of races accounting for 52% of potential profit, in anybody’s opinion that has to be very poor!
So I’ll bore you for at least another month at low stakes, until I can control my identified failings. The problem is I guess there are going to more unidentified failings yet.
Thanks to those that commented to posts during the month. I have had some really constructive points made to me and I’m not afraid to receive constructive criticism either. Please feel free to leave comments, advice etc.
Oh, and by the way, although it may not seem so sometimes I do really enjoy this trading lark.
Happy trading and…
ROLL ON AUGUST!
Cheers
My decision making, although wrong at times, was much faster than usual and I also found it more exciting, with a couple of heart pumping moments when I realised I’d layed twice. A case of in, out, in, out, in, in, whoops!, out out! Must have a word with the wife ;-)
