March - Magic

Magic, as in ‘how to make money disappear without a trace’.

Probably my worst month since starting the blog. There are many similaries with my feelings at the end of January, and much of that post (here) still applies. Unfortunately, whilst January was a small green month, March was a whacking red, wiping out February’s profit to leave me with a small deficit for the year. Three months to make nowt!

I think my mindset is currently best compared to climbing a steep hill. You spend your early attempts at the bottom of the hill, climbing a little and rolling back to your starting point. With more experience, you climb further up the hill, but still roll back a little, meaning that progress is slow. As time goes on, you reach higher up the hill, and get acclimatised to the thinner air near the peak. But the section approaching the peak is tough, and having climbed most of the hill, it’s frustrating when you can’t quite reach the top. So you take risks, and end up rolling all the way down to the bottom.

I generally review my performance by sport, but this month tells me little about my strategies or strengths. My only profitable sports were basketball ( 1 bet ) and tennis ( where I was extremely cautious ). My losses were on football and racing. The racing losses were mainly incurred on one Saturday when I lost the plot and went chasing, with horrible results. I really should be past this stage, I’ve learnt that chasing doesn’t work, but just occasionally a grumpy mood coincides with early losses, and then it’s meltdown. It’s what I now call a ‘DLF Maximum Fuck Up’. My saving grace is that I only maintain a bank of a few hundred quid nowadays, so I avoid financial carnage, if not mental carnage. Football was disappointing, just too many strange results, and I became tentative as the month went on, leading to too many all-reds being taken ( what I now call a ‘Citi Moment Of Panic’ ). I took Rangers’ recent 4-1 thumping at St Johnstone as my sign that ‘silly season’ is now with us, so forget the form book and just look for what each team has to play for.

My only progress came in the last few days of March, when I took a day’s break before making my second cash deposit of the month. I came back with low expectations, kept my bets small and tried to avoid setting any sort of profit target, just playing the opportunities as they arise. I made £119 back over the last four days of the month, without spending hours in front of a screen. I’ve tended to think of a £30 day as a failure, and have been aiming at bigger wins. Yet I’d be ecstatic if I made £900 in a month at the moment. I need to bridge this inconsistency during April.

I’ll attempt to spend a little less time in front of the laptop in April, particularly if the temperature improves. I need to get back to enjoying betting, it’s my hobby. Scratching around for positives, I can say that the month has only confirmed everything I’ve learnt over the last few years. However, inability to follow your own rules is a quick way to the poor house. All March has proved is that success or failure is all in the mind, and I’ve got to be mentally tougher.

On a positive note to end, my fantasy football team is doing ok, off the back of some cracking points scored by my two star players. Wayne Rooney and Cesc Fabregas……..