If you read my last posts, you’d know I’ve been facing some issues due to a snap decision to move, which has left my internet connection unstable. I even mentioned making a conscious effort to go out to prevent myself from trading, knowing that it was the best approach given my previous experiences. However, yesterday, while staying home to handle some personal paperwork related to the move, I made the ill-advised decision to test the connection and trade—a decision I would soon regret.
Initially, everything seemed fine through the first few races. But then, a sudden stutter in the connection just before the start of a race prevented me from closing out my positions until the race was already in-play. While the impact seemed minimal at first, it encouraged me to continue trading in an attempt to get back in the green—mistake number two!
As you might have guessed, the connection then completely dropped, leaving me massively exposed, and I ended up losing about a week’s worth of profits. It was a rookie error, and I feel like an utter fool for letting it happen…
There’s not much I can do about this other than learn from it—it’s just part of being human, I suppose. I haven’t experienced a loss like this in well over a year, so it was quite a shock. Despite this setback, I’m determined to not let it mentally deter me. I remain confident that I can still exceed the £100k mark this year, although recent events have admittedly made this goal more challenging.
Fortunately, I’ve managed to borrow a friend’s internet connection to use for a few days until my new connection is installed, so I shouldn’t face this issue again soon. As the saying goes, “A lesson not learned in blood isn’t worth learning.”
I think it’s important to share this experience here. When I started blogging a couple of years ago, I committed to being completely honest and transparent about both my losses and wins. Hopefully, your day went better than mine yesterday!
Related Article: Betfair Scalping A Beginners Guide – Video Tutorial
7 thoughts on “Rookie Error: The Inevitable Betfair Trading Blooper…”
Hi Caan, I’ve just started following you yesterday on FB, I hope it’s not a jinx I’ve put on you!!!!!
I’m a beginner to all this really, so i’m going, as you advised, to read up on all I can to get a feel for trading. Hope you get your profits back soon.
Alan
Im sure i will Alan, the biggest challenge for anyone in this situation is to not react badly and get disheartened as it will have a knock on effect. Were all human at the end of the day 🙂
Ouch Caan tough one to take but like you save have to just move on and today is a new day. Good luck with your quest to £100k this year 🙂
sorry to hear that Caan,its been much the same for me this week,i started trading about four weeks ago in simulation mode and was making around 30.00 a day scalping with 10.00 stakes so this week i decided to trade with real money and boy was i in for a shock as trading in live mode is like night and day compared to test mode,the races were much more erratic and harder to get trades matched than it was in test mode so needles to say iv been in the red all week,the lesson to learn from this is if your a beginner like me then trade live but with very small stakes like 50p until you no what your doing like Caan
We’ve all been there and dumped a weeks profit in a race thru some cock up or other and then have to plod thru the week knowing you’ve worked for nothing. My cock ups piss me off on the day but the next day I’ve completely forgotten it. Good to see you logged off and took time out rather than overreacting and trying to chase it back, that in itself shows the sign of someone who knows what they’re doing and will get it back soon enough.
Looking at your averages and consistency you’ll easily hit that £100,000 might be worth looking to reduce PC3 now rather than later
Hey Caan,
This can happen to anyone really – it’s always worth having a laptop or spare machine with one of those internet dongles just logged in as a backup but even then it may not save you. I’m sure you’ll get back on it!
Just to clarify – am I right in thinking if approx. 2k is roughly a week’s income would that mean you would receive 1k for the week AFTER the PC ? Just a bit confused how that works since most blogs etc. mention profits but don’t really go into PC deductions ?
Great blog mate and don’t worry you’ll get straight back on it !
Cheers
Hi Graham,
sure it was a rookie mistake and i knew it. Ill have it back
Your right 2k is about a weeks money for me give or take a couple hundred usually. The PC varies currently i am on 20% so after generated commission thats usually 16 – 18% more deduction on the weeks earnings on a wednesday. However once i go over the 317k gross profit on the lifetime on my account minus the gerenated comms i will be on the 60% band, meaning they’ll take the extra.
Caan