Challenge Complete - Well that escalated quickly

CHALLENGE COMPLETE

Honestly didn't think i was going to complete the challenge so soon, mainly because i wasn't really counting on trading all last 7 days, but i'm glad i did it now. This last day went reasonably well, my only red was due to internet going down for a few minutes, when it came back the odd had gone against me a lot of ticks which costed me the biggest red of all challenge, but no big deal, we just need to keep it cool when this things happen and don't let it get to our heads, just continue trading the same way and the red will pretty soon be more than recovered.

I didn't want to set a deadline for the challenge in order not to chase some averages or eventually reds but i got to admit i had set in my own mind to end it until the end of October, so i have to say i'm pretty happy to end it in 7 days.

So what now?

I'm not sure but i'm probably starting a new and little bigger challenge soon, it is not the same thing going from 10 to 150 as it is going from 150 to 1000, the main reason being that i cannot raise my stakes much more in the underdogs, i did trade favorites for about a month or so but i can't really say i know what i'm doing so i don't think i will start a challenge doing something that i don't really have much experience, but i do intend to learn how to trade the favorites much better, but that will probably won't be happening that soon.

So i'm probably going to be doing the same thing i've been doing so far, i might trade a bit more in live probably.

Well this concludes this challenge, hope it was enough to motivate anybody who has a hard time starting with small banks, but i hope this was enough to show that it is possible to build our own bank from scratch if you believe in yourself and keep improving your trading.

Challenge - 28/08/2013

Hi,

Another great today, which lead me pretty close to completing the challenge, if the average keeps up i will probably complete the challenge in 1,maybe 2 trading days, with that said it's time to be extra cautious since i would definitly not be the first one screwing up with the finish line so close.

Awesome day, 100% green once again which i confess it's a bit strange, don't get me wrong i'm not complaining but my green/red % as been very good, best i have ever had for sure, hope it continues for a day or two more. :)

28/08/2013 (Day 6)
 +37,44€
Actual Bank: 137,15€

Challenge - 27/08/2013

Hi,

Another pretty reasonable day today, although i did get two somewhat "big" reds today, for no particular reason, the market just went fast against me and i wasn't really fully focused throughout the entire day so i was just too slow to react/close, but it was no big deal.

Another good step ahead in the challenge, stayed a few cents down from reaching level 10 but there's no real rush.

27/08/2013 ( Day 5 )
+28,13€
Actual Bank: 99,71€ - Level 9

Challenge - 26/08/2013

Hi guys,

Had a great day today, 100% green which is always good.

I wasn't even supposed to trade today with my daughter kindergarten closed for holidays i didn't think i was gonna have the time and patience to baby-trading-sitting, but she behaved and i did jumped into trading.

Started the day with 4€ stakes and ended with 5€ stakes which is the highest stake i will probably use for a long time, keep in mind that i use multiple stakes at the same time...

As i said day went reaaly great, i more than doubled my bank, and also made a video for the last 3 races.
The video isn't great, i had previously noticed then when i'm recording my trades i usually do some mistakes that i don't normally do, like being too passive in the market for example, so this time i tried not to fall into this and i ended up going too much agressive... Geez... Well i'm normally passive in the markets with this tecnique because i feel that i can make a few ticks p/ race if i play on the safe side, but in the video i wasn't exactly passive but i won't say i was too much agressive either, it's just i think if i wasn't recording i would have done some scratches and cut a few small reds much faster, and opened more trades, but there's really no way to tell for sure i guess... Video is still uploading, will post it tomorrow, or edit this post later.

Edit: Here it is.

Just jumped from level 2 to level 7 in the challenge which is pretty good if you ask me, 8 more levels to go...

Current Bank: 71,58€ - Level 7

Challenge - 25/08/2013

The day was going ok today despite the low number of races until i reached one of the last races, i usually only enter the market in the last 3 minutes +/-, but i usually like to leave the ocasional early specalutive stakes very distant from the actual odd at that moment, so today i did it in one of these last races and proceed to went to the wc, after that i stayed chatting with my girlfriend for a few minutes, when i remembered the race was about to start it was too late, the market had already went up against me and i was 5 or 6 ticks in red, with 3 stakes.... Well wasn't that stupid... Got a big red that costed me around half the profit i had for the day... 3,84€

Other than that session went ok, still managed to end the day with 5,25€.

Almost reaching lvl 3 from the challenge. :)

Current Bank: 28,39€ - Lvl 2

Challenge - 24/08/2013

Traded a bit more today, although i could have traded a lot more but i skipped a few races every now and then, session went reasonably well, had only 2 reds in 21 markets. Raised my bank a little bit more.

Challenge - 23/08/2013

Could only trade a few races today, not really much to say, i just feel a bit rusty for not trading much lately... Still had a pretty good start since it was a 100% green day.

I'm not going to overextend my posts mainly because i'll probably get bored quickly by doing so, if anyone wants to ask anything in particular go ahead and leave a comment.

Build my Own Bank? Challenge Accepted

Hi there,

I'm not exactly getting back to trading because i haven't actually left, as some of you who might actually read my previous posts know i just had very little to no time to trade since mid june, although i still traded every now and then, but just a few races every few days, not even enough to warm up... I will have a bit more spare time in September and October so i'm going to try to trade and post a bit more this next few months.

So the actual reason i'm resuming the blog is that i have been talking to a few friends in the last couple of days/weeks about horse trading (other sports aswell) and or small banks and how hard it is to get started with such a small bank.

Well i'm not even sure how many times i've done this(starting with a small bank) before but i'm pretty sure they were at least 3 times and in all of them i did get to raise my bank a fair amount without the need to invest more money from my own pocket wich is always good if you ask me (despite the lack of motivation to trade with such a small bank), so i think i do have a little bit experience on slowly and steadily growing small banks. This doesn't mean in any way that it is easy or that i can do it everytime but i would like to think that i do have a reasonable probability of being sucessfull.

I normally don't like challenges as i think it might lead to some unwanted self forced mistakes trying to chase those few extra ticks, but this time i'm going to go ahead and set up a small and achievable goal to try and motivate myself and some "small bank traders" who might follow the blog from now on...

Be aware that i'm still working and also have my daughter to take care, so i'm probably only trading 2 or 3 days a week, just for a few hours, this will depend on many things but just to let you know that it won't be a full time thing...

I'm going to be doing what i used to do when i started the blog a few months ago, scalping the underdogs in pre live, back/lay, using 2€/3€ stakes, might do a bit of live if i spot any good opportunities, so here's how it's going to be:

Starting Bank: 10€ (10,72€ to be precise)
Objective:150€ 

Lvl 1 - 15€
Lvl 2 - 20€
Lvl 3 - 30€
Lvl 4 - 40€
Lvl 5 - 50€
Lvl 6 - 60€
Lvl 7 - 70€
Lvl 8 - 80€
Lvl 9 - 90€
Lvl 10 - 100€
Lvl 11 - 110€
Lvl 12 - 120€
Lvl 13 - 130€
Lvl 14 - 140€
Lvl 15 - 150€

I'm not defining a deadline to achieve this, firstly because as i said i don't think i will have as much time to trade as i would like to, and also not to induce myself in any sort of time pressure to achieve some goals/averages or whatever... Well i guess that's all for now.