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January roundup.
2008-02-01 14:08:00
Well, I did say once a month didnt I... The Tennis.. We started the year in Qatar, it's always good to catch as much early action as you can before the Aussie Open, or indeed the rest of the year and there were a few notable points that came out of this one (all my opinions of course).  Firstly, Ivan Ljubicic looked out of sorts, looked slow and inaccurate, based his entire game on his serve - nothing unusual there, just more so than normal. He'll need to sort himself out to stay somewhere near the top of the game.. Andy Murray won the tournament, but more than just playing great tennis, he was also looking considerably leaner and fitter than I've ever seen him.  Clearly putting on some muscle and losing any shred of fat he had last year...  his speed around the court was unbelievable at times. The Aussie Open was fantastic this year.  Loads of great matches, even on the first day which is usually awash with one sided, boring matches.  Plenty of matc...
More About: Roundup , January

A punt.com Christmas message & review of 2007.
2007-12-24 17:50:00
Well, it's been a while.  Apologies and also thanks to those that have so clearly continued to check back to this page for new entries in the time I've been away.  Another year has passed us all by, and what a year it has been..  I don't think I've ever crammed as much into 12 months as I have done this year.  Many trips away, all over the world, New Zealand, New York, Portugal (twice), Sweden..  all for pleasure I must add and not work.  Some may think I've taken it easy this year, and although at times they could be right, in the times I have worked - I worked very hard, and not always with satisfying results, though certainly with many lessons. Although I've spent many times on the blog bemoaning the solitude and boredom of working alone and being something of an outsider, I do know how lucky I am to be in this position and to continue to be in this position.  This year has had some stark reminders about how fragile an existence the pro...
More About: Christmas , Review , Message , Punt

Out of head and onto blog = empty head?
2007-10-25 23:26:00
Just a quick post this evening about something I've been noticing more and more each time I make a blog entry.  What I'm writing is not necessarily staying in my head once I've written it.  Not exactly an ideal situation, and not what I had in mind when I began the blog at all!  What I'm writing here is supposed to help me as much as it seems to be helping a few of the readers, lately it's been more of the opposite.  What seems to be happening is that once an idea has been published, it's leaving my head, and has to be re-learnt again!  I actually seem to drop the ideas on a personal level once I've put them online!  Crazy.  I need to give this some thought, why is this happening?..  First thought: perhaps the blog is appealing a little too much to my ego than it should.  Am I feeding my ego too much here? A lot of people think gamblers and big egos go hand in hand..  the stereotypical high roller is what they picture the ...
More About: Blog , Head , Empty

Keeping the work / life balance, pressure avoidance.
2007-10-14 23:29:00
..Or should I say, the gambling / life balance.  I've always known there was an importance to maintaining a good balance to life, but I hadn't realised the real reason why, how the mechanism works, until this week. The importance of how I live my life away from the computer and how it affects my gambling and trading has always been obvious to me.  Having a life away from gambling keeps perspective and reality in check, staying healthy and fit maintains trading stamina and a clear head.  The importance of how and when I should take time away, and why that matters has been less than clear, in fact, not something I've spent much time considering.  I've always been into figuring out how our heads work, how the various thinking mechanisms tick, inputs and outputs.  Though obviously nothing is ever clear cut with the human brain and our emotions, we're hardly a rational species at times.  But happenings this week made a few things clearer as to why it...
More About: Life , Work , Balance , Work Life Balance

The fixed tennis match, that never was.
2007-10-11 11:44:00
It's a funny thing, the power of suggestion.  How someone or something can suggest it is one thing, only to be something else entirely.  Multiply this effect when basing judgement upon prior experience.  Now add in to the mix a few hundred people, all thinking or wondering the same thing with all the persuasive and herd like properties that carries, and you have a nice recipe for chaos and pandemonium. Yesterdays match between Elena Dementieva and Patty Schnyder was one such affair, but crucially, only for those of us participating in the Betfair market.  You see, in the real world, there was nothing about this match that suggested anything strange at all.  The match was conducted fairly on all real evidence.  It involved the usual amount of closely fought service games, double faults, tension and breaks of serve that you would expect from a match between these two players.  Dementieva running out the winner in straight sets 6-3 6-4. Yet on Be...
More About: Tennis , Match , Fixed

Wanting to win...
2007-10-04 20:00:00
...is similar to wanting to be rich.  A desire to win, or be wealthy, is fine in theory, but how is this going to be achieved?  How many people that want to be wealthy actually take the brave step of starting their own business and putting their energy into the process.  A desire to win is not enough, in fact, in gambling, it can be a hinderance. The key is what you focus your desire on.  Wanting money as a gambler can be a disasterous idea.  It can make you forget, or not focus on, the things that really matter - how to win, how to improve, what really went wrong and what you've been doing right.  Furthermore, it can make you chase the money, betting too big for your bank, or getting overly attached to the money that you have lost.  Massive mental errors (and losses) could potentially occur. The correct thing to desire, is to 'get better' at what you are doing.  Regardless of whether you do in fact 'get better', this attitude alone wil...

Someone at Betfair having a laugh.
2007-10-04 16:14:00
In case you were wondering, it's a tennis match, Wang v King.
More About: Betfair , Laugh

A good read...
2007-10-03 20:09:00
Just thought I'd point a few readers in the direction of a really good blog written by someone making some great strides in the right direction with their trading.  Well done Mark Iverson, keep up the great work with your blog.  A lot of what he writes reminds me of the issues and learning curve I went through a few years ago, one great thing readers can take form his blog is the importance of staying in 'learning mode'.  Remain aware and vigilant regardless of winning or losing, learn from what you did right and analyse things that went wrong - Mark's good at this, let's hope he continues to keep doing the same, the financial rewards are definitely deserved.
More About: Read , Good

"Money you don't lose is just as real as money that you win." - Roy Cooke
2007-10-03 19:30:00
"Money you don't lose now, is money you don't have to win back later." - Larry Phillips. "The dollar you keep from losing on a losing day is the same dollar you add to a win on a winning day." - Mike Caro. Fail to understand these quotes and you will fail as a gambler.  They work on so many levels; Not losing, not doing anything in fact, is just as powerful as winning.  Money management is not something you can dare ever dismiss or put aside and come back to.  Don't let your ego stop you from admitting you were wrong - cut that loss, move on. If there's no bet in the match, don't 'try' to find one, you never 'have to' have a bet. It's fairly important to stay routed in reality - obvious to most, but not to gamblers at times. It's worth thinking over these quotes a for a while, how many times have we all followed bad bets by more of the same?  Or got involved when we shouldn't have?  How much has this cost? 
More About: Real

US Open lessons: Inconsistant thoughts.
2007-09-13 14:57:00
The US Open is over again for another year, Roger wins it... again, and I'm down a bit for the tournament, but up mentally after a good 2nd week.  The frustrations of trading and gambling never cease to amaze.  You can learn everything there is to know about a market and the sport, but if susceptible, the same mental errors will jump up and take you by surprise.  Mental consistency.  This must surely be the holy grail of trading, that elusive thing that can turn an up and down (but mostly down) loser into a less variable - winner. I've spent long days and months learning a lot this year.  Technically I'm as good as I've ever been, and I'm confident I have some sort of explanation for almost anything going on in a tennis market.  I know my strategy almost inside out, and I know when to execute.  But none of this matters, if I'm not thinking consistently and in week one of the US Open , I paid for it! Had someone been watching my trading dur...
More About: Thoughts , Lessons

Blog downtime and Las Vegas.
2007-07-26 10:39:00
Apologies to those of you that may have tried to visit the blog recently and found it unavailable, there was a power outage at Typepad HQ, so everyone using their platform suffered.  Hopefully that's all sorted now.. I've not been betting much over the last 2 weeks, taking that holiday has changed my gear somewhat, so I've been relaxing away from the computer a bit, getting addicted to facebook and getting a haircut. Which leads me to an interesting chat I had with my barber who is going to Las Vega s on his holiday.  He knows what I do, so my visit was full of questions about gambling and casinos.  I've always known that professional gamblers and the general public have very difffering ideas on gambling, but it was a very interesting conversation that highlighted them all pretty much.. Questions about the best tactics on Roulette !?  Which games he can win on, whether I would play Slot machines !  Now, I know there are people out there convinced the...
More About: Blog

Back from a well deserved break.
2007-07-15 21:12:00
First post since arriving back from my week away, which was much needed / deserved and enjoyed.  I missed the Men's Wimbledon final and the Women's mostly too as I went out on that Saturday afternoon, Venus and Roger winning as expected. It's always a little strange taking a break immediately after 2/3 months of solid work - mostly 6 days a week, sometimes 7.  I've been placing large bets for all that time and to not have a bet or even look at the internet for that time is very strange.  It felt like I was missing something for the first 2/3 days at least, but as relaxtion mode kicked in, I began to enjoy not doing it.  Now that I'm back I have an odd mix of feelings... I'd definitely like to be back in the sunshine and not working again, but I'm also fresh and ready to get into the hard court season. I also have that nagging feeling (having spent 7 days with some great people all with 'normal' lives and jobs) that I'm a bit of an outsider and perhaps...
More About: Break , Back , Brea , Well , Serve

Wimbledon Update
2007-07-07 14:42:00
A quiet week on Punt.com - I've been busy!  Making money for a change, these last 3 weeks have seen me make back all (and more) that I had lost in the previous 6/7 weeks which is a real confidence builder for the rest of the year. The big thing for me have been my findings as posted in the over staking entry (2 below this).  Trading to a size where I'm ok to lose, no anxiety and buzz.  There's also been a couple of max bet situations that have arisen, namely Serena's match v Hantuchova where she cramped and then it rained.  I took a view that she would be fine after the rain and pretty much ran this hrough.  Over 7000 commission points were gained from this win alone. The rain has affected things massively this year.  From a trading point of view, the flow of matches has been interupted, it's meant virtually restarting the match each time.  Running positions has been a bit risky.  It's a real shame as well that many top quality matches...
More About: Update , Wimbledon , Bled

Tennis lookalikes.
2007-06-30 18:29:00
Rain at wimbledon.  It's boring.  So, some tennis lookalikes to pass the time, some are a bit of a stretch, but work with me... Novak Djokovic & Screech Powers of Saved by the Bell. Justine Henin & Champion Jockey Tony McCoy. Roger Federer & Golfer Johan Edfors. Shahar Peer & Bagpuss. Ana Ivanovic & Bad Guy "Jaws" from Moonraker.
More About: Tennis , Look , Kali

Over-staking, the route to fear and over-trading.
2007-06-28 23:20:00
I want to expand on something I posted in my chart patterns entry where I mentioned that I got too heavily involved on Roddick at short odds.  Firstly let me say that I don't have a problem getting on something that's short odds, if it represents a good bet / position, then I'm going to take it regardless (though I do drawn the line at backing at 03 or less usually - it's needless effort for little reward).  What I did in the Roddick match however, has made a dangerous mental trap much clearer to me, and this weeks trading has been much more fruitful because of this. I had the realisation that had I not overstaked on Roddick at those odds I would not have felt the urge to mess around with the position later on - cutting my loss, then beginning to trading at a higher frequency without much thought to make back the loss. This might seem pretty obvious, but the actual nature of the problem has really hit home for me this week.  Over-stake past your threshold and yo...
More About: Trading , Fear , Route , Taking

Wimbledon 2007
2007-06-27 08:46:00
It's here!  Wimbledon is by far the most fun tournament of the year for me.  It's close to home, it happens during the daytime, it's on terrestrial tv and interactive and the green of the grass is most refreshing. I was lucky enough to go and watch the first days play, my second time to Wimbledon.  Apart from the rain it was great.  We had centre court and ground passes, though I have to say if you ever get the chance it's well worth getting a ground pass on it's own, or a court 2 ticket.  You are extremely close to the players, sometimes on both sides of you (stood between courts). Not too many thoughts on play so far, I have one play on the outrights and that was entered into a couple of weeks ago.  I have Henin at 3.7 on average, I began backing her at 3.9 and kept doing so.  The major obstacle in her way is Serena Williams, who she meets in the Quarter finals if they both make it that far.  I was able to watch Serena on Monday, she ...
More About: Bled

Foolish zen.
2007-06-20 18:26:00
A long time ago I subscribed to Fool.co.uk's daily news letter.  I don't normally read them much these days, they arrive in my inbox and I just delete, but one came by the other day that I thought had some good words in it.  Those that have read here for a while will know my liking for all things zen, especially relating to trading.  This article by them - Zen and the art of portfolio maintenance, has some points relevant for investors and traders / gamblers alike.  Namely, seeing doing nothing as doing something - in other words don't over-trade.  It's not a long article, but is worth a quick glance..  Quote:  "It's a busy, fast-moving world. Sometimes, you feel the need to be dynamic, to keep pace with life; in short, to do something.  As far as investments are concerned, this is a fundamental mistake many of us make regularly...."

Chart patterns.
2007-06-20 11:03:00
Thought I'd post up this pretty chart pattern from Roddick's match with Bogdanovic last week at Queens.  I think this snapshot was taken near the beginning of the 2nd set, Roddick being broken early in the 1st and the market formed a near perfect trending price as the set continued.  It's not often you see it this perfectly formed.  Apologies if I have the match details wrong, I don't have any match notes from the time and I should have posted this up straight after it happened, but better late than never.  What's important is the pattern itself.  (Click on image for full size) As the set progressed each high was higher than the last and each low was also higher than the last - as both players held serve and Bogdanovic got closer to securing the set.  It's easy to look back on this as a "traders dream", but when you are in the midst of it happening, the ease with which you spot the pattern is affected by your position and the effect ...
More About: Patterns , Chart , Char

Expect the unexpected.
2007-06-16 14:34:00
There comes a time, inevitably, when you get on a bad run.  Mistakes are made and occasionally you are plain unlucky, or so it would seem.  Either way, it's in the face of a bad run of results (and the losses that come with it) that you need to remain positive in the way you view markets. It's easy to get down, particularly when there's a serious amount of money involved.  You can dwell on it too much.  Dwelling leads to a need to make back that lost money, but it also leads to confusion and fear of losing more money.  It's the later we're looking at in this entry. Fear can do funny things to a trader.  It masks sensible thought patterns.  It clutters your head with conflicting messages about market activity, distorting your views.  You second guess everything and suddenly your trading plan is being questioned or even worse, forgotten about. It's quite incredible the difference between a confident trader and one who is racked with fea...
More About: Expect , The U