Week-End Reflection.

The reasons for commencing this blog were :

i. To allow me to analyse my betting.

ii. To put down my various thoughts on matters of betting and sport.

So time to analyse, having had a losing week at the end of the blog's first week. This may be a positive, as I tend to disregard losses and just look forward, whereas the blog ensures I can't do that. This hopefully should give more discipline to my betting.

The reasons for the week's loss stem back to a dramatic change of momentum during a women's tennis match on Tuesday (Scheepers/Hradecka). These things happen. My weakness was in chasing a quick recovery during the rest of Tuesday, resulting in a large loss at the end of that day. The remainder of the week was then simply a recovery situation.

It is so much easier to bet effectively when you are ahead of a target, as you can calmly pick off opportunities. Whenever I'm behind, I struggle. I over-bet, constantly looking for opportunities, and increase my risk.

Today, my first bet of the day was a loss on cricket. I know that I should avoid cricket, my lifetime P&L would I'm sure look horrific. It is more a sport for layers and traders than backers. So why bet? Simply because I was behind on the week and was chasing a recovery.

So how do I move forward? I'm still unsure that a rigid target is helpful, as it can cause the chasing mentality I've described above. But I continue to aim towards earning a full-time living, so need some method of controlling my progress.

In the short term, I'm amending my weekly target to take into account my three days of part time work and also my starting bank balance, but that still averages £700/week over the month. In time, I may need to look at laying rather than just backing, and also having more of a trader's mentality.

And more importantly, I'll try to remain calm and consistent. Wish me luck.