Managed to get some work done on the new Bot today.
Nothing major, just started to define the interface that I'm going to use for both Betfair and Betdaq classes so that my application can use the same (or similar) calls to both exchanges, 3 exchanges if you count Betfair Australia.
Have got the Batfair and BetDaq API's working with the Account Balance functions.
Doesn't look much yet but there's quite a lot of time gone in to setting up that very basic form. Interfaces, classes, learning a new language, specifying out a database design...
Should be finished by Easter... (not sure which year though)
After a good month for profits in July, August is currently about as impressive as a damp squid.
My P&L has been up and down like a thing that goes up and down, and currently stands at about -£12. No doubt tomorrow it will be +£12 and then on Friday something in between...
On the plus side it's hot and sunny and will continue to be hot and sunny.
Have been making a few big decisions the last few weeks.
As much as I like trading, and can even make a bit of beer money from it, and as much as I like coaching (even though the money isn't great) I reckon I need a higher income. My permanent residence will be in Basel from next June and it's quite expensive there.
I don't speak German and Basel University doesn't do rowing, so I reckon I might have a problem getting coaching work.
I've decided the best bet is to go back to doing what I used to do and become an Analyst Programmer again. There's plenty of drug companies out there who need systems developing and data analysing.
Ok, I know that means no one will talk to me at parties (or anywhere in fact) if they find out I work in IT, but I already have a girlfriend so that's not a big problem unless she dumps me, and I can always fall back on the standard sports trader line of 'I'm a porn star' if anyone asks me what I do.
I've loaded up the latest Visual Studio and read a few books (from 4shared obviously) and is interesting to see what has happened since I jacked my last job in a few years back. I find that it's all got easier, with .Net and C# apparently making it quite simple to do a lot of the stuff I used to rip my hair out over a few years ago trying to work with COM, so I'm quite looking forwards to getting back to some development work.
Time to bite the bullet and learn C#.
It'd be nice to stay freelance, but it'd also be nice to have £50K a year guaranteed, so I will probably end up taking the easy option and going back into regular employment if I can find it.
In the mean time I'm going to spend the next few (6-9) months writing a new Bot program.
If anyone has any ideas what a good bot program should be able to do let me know.
I don't mean details of strategies or systems, just what features, options, settings, triggers etc. a good bot needs.
I will still be trading, and no doubt once I do find the elusive holy grail I can give up working forever, but until then trading has to be a hobby.
Gotta love the rain here in Spain, it's been sunny all day and then suddenly without any warning 6 million gallons of water just fall out of the sky...
No doubt tomorrow will be 35 degrees of sunshine again!
Managed to get a couple of hours of trading in this afternoon and made a few quid, was mostly with W's today.
The annual week of rain that comes every August has now finished (a week later than usual this year) and it's back to clear skies and 30+ degrees sunshine
Was going to do a bit of trading this afternoon, but fell asleep.
Weather has been wet for the last week so I've spent a bit of time indoors getting to grips with .Net and trying to remember how to write classes and interfaces properly rather than just churning out spaghetti.
I've committed to one last year of coaching up until the end of June 2011, but have decided to leave the UK for good as soon as that finishes.
The problem if I end up in Basel (which seems most likely) is that I don't speak any German and I'm unlikely to get a job, which is actually a good thing, as I don't like jobs... But I will still need some sort of income.
As much as I have every confidence that I'll be making £100,000's a year from trading by then (yeah right) I reckon I'll probably go back to doing some free lance programming and database work to top up the income and pay the beer money.
Instead of sleeping all morning and watching day time TV like I do at the moment I can spend the next 10 months learning German and catching up on all the programming/developer stuff that I've missed/forgotten in the last 3 years.
Luckily I know the perfect programming project that I can get working on...
Maybe I'll be able to fit in the odd hour of manual trading too.
Hopefully the sun is back tomorrow and I can get out on the bike for a few hours.
Hope you had a good weekend, I made a MASSIVE £2.37!
Luckily we went in to Barcelona for the day where it was sunny.
Nothing much to report on the trading front. I'm still not making anything with the pre race horses at the moment, well I do make a bit, but then I tend to lose most of it again... At least I'm breaking even or making small profits, but it's usually not worth the time I'm putting in.
The bot is making more than me at the moment despite using smaller stakes. The key being boring discipline boring waiting boring rules boring sticking to the plan boring hours boring watching and boring waiting...
Find an Edge
Define the Rules
Wait patiently for the Opportunity
Stick to the Rules
I'm going to video a couple of hours of markets a day for the next few weeks without trading and spend some more time analysing and checking my so called edges.
I'm coming to the conclusion that pre race horses is probably not where I am going to make money trading manually unless I can find something more profitable and more consistent than what I'm currently doing.
I thought this trading was going to be a piece of cake when I started and watched all those videos showing how easy it is to make money...
18 months later I can break even and occasionally make small profits...
Haven't really done much this week, and what I have done hasn't gone great...
Too many distractions and I've lost £24 thanks to some crazy dog markets when I wasn't focused and I got on the wrong side of some big moves, which hasn't happened for ages, so I guess I needed a reminder to be careful.
On the plus side, I have decided what to spend last months winnings on
Was thinking of getting a second set of wheels for the mountain bike and putting slicks on them, but when I priced it up to get descent quality wheels and tyres would be about £300 and I can get a Specialized Allez Sport road bike for £600 which will be lighter and geared better.
Screwed up my July P&L earlier by putting the wrong date in (fat fingers) and thought the bot had screwed up and left me under £500, was a bit disappointed about that, but luckily it hadn't... I'd just missed off £47 of profit from the start of the month.
Quite pleased about breaking the £500 as it is a nice milestone to get.
I was hoping to increase the profits more over the last few days but ended up losing £5.65, not a big deal, and finished the month on £531.89 which is a massive improvement over previous results.
I have to admit that a big part of that is the bot and I only made about £100 from manual trading.
The manual trading still needs a lot of work, I need to stay focused and disciplined as although I did make a profit on the manual trading, good profits sometimes, I also lost over £300 from stupid mistakes that took away most of it.
Hope to keep this level of profits for August and beyond.
