Amongst Friends

Feeling fine tonight, in the knowledge that many of us are together in a club of Grand National losers. My own loss was a 'housewife's punt' of £16.00 - I know less about racing than the average housewife, and none of my three horses troubled the finish line. I've been out all day ( shopping in Birmingham ) and watched the race in Selfridges technology department. Oddly enough, no-one there won either.

Had a think about my '£2k challenge' and have decided to abandon it after one month. After a loss of £22 on Friday evening due to a defeat for the Irish champions, Bohemians, and with just a couple of footy bets placed today to offset my National punt, I was left with two scenarios coming into Sunday :

A. I am £141 behind target. I need to recover this sum over the next week or so, in addition to my daily target amount.

B. I have made £291 in a month, whilst enjoying a hobby.

I think the difference in emphasis illustrates the problem with targets in the environment we operate in. A couple of bad days suddenly put the target sums under pressure. The obvious way to pull back the shortfall is to increase stakes or risk. This is also the best way to lose money. You are psychologically at your weakest following a loss. In scenario A, the likelyhood is that you will chase to recover your position. In scenario B, you have a better opportunity to shrug your shoulders, switch off the laptop and start again the next day.

I'm still not sure how I'd operate in my old 'full-time' situation - if you need to pay bills and a mortgage from your income, how do you give yourself the best chance of meeting your required level of income? But as a hobby, the most enjoyable and sensible way of operating is to place bets as opportunities present themselves.

So my ambition remains the same - build back up to a £2k bank which I can then use cautiously to make a steady profit. But I now have no target date for achieving this milestone. And therefore no unnecessary pressure.

I'll link to a post which gives a thoughtful and sensible view on this same matter - Cassini's http://green-all-over.blogspot.com/2009/03/trouble-with-challenge.html.

Oh, and the piccy is of Selfridges, Birmingham, for anyone not aware of 'blob architecture'.