It’s all over. Day one…
Felt a bit different to how I expected, but still – things turned out okay.
Pressure to Perform: Day 1
One thing I forgot about when posting up the challenge yesterday; doing something like this is like having a spectator over your shoulder, breathing in your ear!
The day started off moderately, the first race being a loss, the second not much better. But still, once I’d settled down into plugging away things weren’t so bad. As I said in the original post here, it’s all about consistency. Picking up profits, bit-by-bit, managing the downside and not exposing myself to too much risk. My trading style has pretty much always been this way; I’d much rather take smaller consistent profits than have a roller coaster profit and loss sheet with big peaks and troughs.
I didn’t take a couple of trades throughout the day on purpose. Purely because I didn’t want to risk putting myself under excessive pressure while ‘performing’ like a monkey for you lot 😉
Starting with just £400 wouldn’t leave much margin for any kind of sizeable errors, so I stuck to the plan. Longer-term readers will know; I’m anti-target setting for the day. But I exceeded the original post’s vague target of 10-15% so it’s considered a reasonable start.
First Day Results:
The strike rate was pretty hot, more so than usual for me. Although I probably gave away a little potential by doing that.
Not sure quite how I’ll come at it today just yet. I’ve managed to knock a cap off my front tooth which looks pretty bad. Emergency dentist booked in for early afternoon so I may catch a few fewer races.
Markets traded: 25
Profitable markets: 23
Losing markets: 2
Average market: £3.46
End result: £86.61
Bank Increase: +21.65%
Individually (bottom to top, left to right):
On the whole, not that much I can say to critique myself. Other than what’s visible in the results I pushed a little harder as the session went on, not necessarily a bad thing but given the overall market average I wasn’t really any better off for it. I think way too many would-be traders do this, pushing for that feel-good result. Sure, the £2 and £3 results aren’t exactly that exciting, but when you team that up with rarely losing you can see how profit builds nicely. Taking those small wins consistently is a far more realistic approach too.
In my mind, and I appreciate it may not be best for everyone as we all operate differently. I will always respond positively (in general) to consistency, I just don’t like the feelings and emotions that large ups and downs bring out in me. I guess I’m only so aware of this due to the amount of time I’ve been doing it though.
21 thoughts on “£400 Bank Challenge: Day 1 Results…”
Morning Caan,
I think those results are fantastic.
Sure, you are an experienced trader and you can read the markets but, it illustrates what can be achieved on a small bank. In terms of your percentage gain versus what you’d get investing the same £400 in a bank, it’s a no-brainer.
I think I read on the other page that the most you used was £50 – if you were 100% sure on a position, would you use the full bank? I should clarify that I mean:
Open position with, say, 20% of the bank and then add to that as the position continues to profit.
Looking forward to see how this pans out for the remaining 2 days.
Keep up the good work,
Chris
Would I use the full bank? No. Not unless I deemed I could not lose at all, which is very rare.
“What could go wrong” Well Caan nothing so far, nice first day.
Stock up on Monkey nuts for day 2.
Thanks… dreaded dentist shortly so will probably miss a few!
I take my hat off to you Caan it takes some serious balls to do such a thin a task with such a small margin for errors. Surely you cannot get a result like this every day? Andy
Thanks Andrew, who knows. I don’t expect to no 🙂
Good post and encouraging. I tend to calculate my gains in % as I feel to expect to win a certain amount in cash figure is too much pressure. Its not as though we are going to run out of opportunities to trade so why rush.
I think targets in general are a bit negative. Percentage wise things change as the bang grows too. If I’d started with a 40k bank, no way would I be able to make 8k just like that.
Very true, I hadn’t thought of that when the bank gets very high. Something I’ve not experienced but happy to continue learning on my smaller bank.
Can I please ask what average stake size you were using to make the wins under £3?
What was the largest stake sized you used?
Are you limiting your liability as well?
Are you mainly scalping?
I know questions, questions! But if we don’t ask we don’t learn.
Considering your aim was to make 30-45% roi over 3 days, you smashed it out the park.
I read the racing is poor today.
All the best.
10, 20, 30… up to 50 in places. The reason for the stakes is so I can have multiple orders in the market, scalping too etc. Ye’s a decent first day, expected it would be less to be honest.
Obviously you’re trading with a smaller bank thank usual, but does it feel different or make you perform better/worse knowing that you are going to publish results at the end of the day?
Nice idea and results so far by the way
As you may have already seen Laurence, from later blogs, there was certainly the thought in my mind which added a little at times.
Actually I’m a little surprised. Yesterday I felt really pressured to produce some results, once I got over the 10% it was a little easier but still uncomfortable!
Good results Caan. I wonder if you spend time trading other markets. With the US Open running now i find good opportunities for trading. How secure do you feel when scalping horses vs tennis and football?
With the smaller bank it was best to just focus.
I started with a bank of £100, I just ended up backing with £100 for a tick scalp once or twice a race with offset by one tick, couldnt lay anything and get a good profit. I guess if I increased the bank to 400 I would be able to scatter stakes and what not. I’ve got really good at scalping steamers though. I guess what you practice at you get good at.
Experience certainly counts for a little. Having the ability to split and spread stakes is also a bonus as you can offset and scale in/out depending on whats happening.
will be interesting to see how you do, i have to start with £20 and keep adding £20 each fortnight will try for pennies a tick
Can you tell me what strategy traded to make the profit please?
Are you a matched bettor by any chance Darren? It wasn’t one strategy, more a case of reading the market and implementing all that I know around the right points.