£400 Bank Challenge: Day 1 Results…

400 day 1

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.

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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):

market by market

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.

Related: See the £400 Trading Bank Challenge Criteria

21 thoughts on “£400 Bank Challenge: Day 1 Results…

  1. 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

  2. “What could go wrong” Well Caan nothing so far, nice first day.
    Stock up on Monkey nuts for day 2.

  3. 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

  4. 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.

    1. 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.

      1. 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.

  5. 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.

    1. 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.

  6. 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

  7. 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!

  8. 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?

  9. 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.

    1. 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.

  10. 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

    1. 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.

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