Firedave trading Betfair with Bet Angel

Don't forget to leave a comment on Delivering Happiness posting if you want a chance of winning an advance copy of the book. I'll keep on reminding each day until the 14th as I know the posting has slipped down the page now.

So what is all the fuss about? How much would you spend on a watch? At first glance I thought he was just wearing a casio. It turns out that he has a custom built watch costing in excess of $500,000!


Designed especially for Nadal by high-end Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, the Tourbillon Watch RM 027 sports the lofty price tag mentioned above, as well as a number of other one-of-a-kind features:

RM 027 is said to be the lightest mechanical watch to be ever made. Its movement base plate is made from Titanium and Lital alloy, a high lithium content alloy containing aluminum, copper, magnesium and zirconium with a density of 2.55. The alloy mixture also includes Lithium which is considered as one of the lightest elements is expected to provide strength without added weight. The watch is considered one of the world's lightest mechanical tourbillon wristwatches with a movement weight of just a mere 3.83 grams. - Pinoytutorial

All I can say is that he did win the French Open wearing it.  He is now out of queens but with 3 sets and first games on grass he still looks in great form. A bit of a shock that he is out...I was definitely on the wrong side of the market! I'd be happy with a far cheaper Breitling if anyone would like to donate one my way!

Having just announced that Roddick was in blistering form, it came as quite a shock as I watched his price of 1.03 drift out and out to 1.25. At this point I was looking to change my position and wrestled back my loss.  Was Roddick really about to be beaten by Sela?  For anyone who trades tennis at all, they could've, should've made a killing. Watching Roddick's game completely fall apart was just amazing for the trader - plenty of opportunities to make money. I managed to turn my loss into my best profit on the week.  What shocked me most about the game was the fact that Roddick never really tried anything different. He was content to keep hitting the ball in and wait for mistakes, which were just not coming. Yes, he did lose. In 2 sets.

Nadal is on court - already have a nice bit of profit...but the rain is coming. Nearly forgot to mention the best joke of the day. When play was suspended the commentator said he was going in to get an anti-Istomin!

Don't forget to leave a comment on Delivering Happiness posting if you want a chance of winning an advance copy of the book. Rollup, rollup! Only 3 of you have entered to win so far.

Don't forget to leave a comment on Delivering Happiness posting if you want a chance of winning an advance copy of the book.

I remember when Queens was sponsored by Stella Artois and was red and green. This blue that was introduced last year for sponsors Aegon just doesn't seem quite right!  Having watched the first couple of rounds of tennis on the grass there have been some interesting revelations. Djokovic doesn't look comfortable, he'll keep on winning whilst the games are this easy but he won't win this tournament, and he doesn't look likely to win Wimbledon in his current form. Nadal looks awesome - and as he is now world number 1 he will definitely collect more than his 0 points from last years non-entrance to Wimbledon. He maybe at number 1 for a while!  Roddick looks quite likely to take the spoils at Queens with the form he showed but Nadal could prove too much for him.  Murray isn't looking great to me - as I said yesterday, his knee is a concern.  I would doubt he can keep his title here.

Some interesting price movements on Djokovic's match today, although he was clear favourite, and got an early break the money always wanted to try and drift. I didn't go with any of these drifts as they were ludicrous but it meant I only notched up a small profit on the match overall - if when the price came in to around 1.05 I looked to lay occasionally I would've benefited much more often. This must be due to how uncomfortable he looked on court as he always was going to win this match.

Don't forget to leave a comment on Delivering Happiness posting if you want a chance of winning an advance copy of the book.

Today had some good trading opportunities, especially on the tennis. I went pretty conservative when I saw Murray gripping his heavily strapped knee and got out whilst I was ahead. I needn't have worried as he then went into cruise through the latter parts of the match. I would've been kicking myself if I had just held onto my position whilst watching him struggle. There were definite opportunities for Navarro to take the initiative and he will have given Murray something to think about.

The geegees were pretty good for me today as well, these weren't as often as usual and I completely forgot about a meeting I had to attend this afternoon which somewhat spoilt most of my afternoon. I was pleased with what I managed to get out of the day though.

Competition to win an advanced reading copy of the book Delivering Happiness: A path to profits, passion and purpose will be at the end of the review...if you would like a chance to win a copy then please read on!

If you have not heard of Delivering Happiness, I suggest you check them out at  http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/ for a bit of background on the review.  The book can be purchased from amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/deliveringhappiness

This book follows Tony Hsieh's journey in the business world, from badge making from home with a high IQ to his selling of Zappos to Amazon for a figure above a billion dollars. The journey for happiness involved some ups and downs in business startups, the hunt for money, the loss of money, the hunt for the secret to corporate long-term success, and some input from partners and employees along the way. Zappos' leadership eventually decided to emphasise sterling customer service as the key to their own corporate culture.  The idea was to infuse ten larger values (with numerous sub-meanings and applications) into every aspect of every department of the company.

There are plenty of great tips on building culture. Paying new employess $2000 to quit. It also gives some insight to the company training program which encourages employees to constrantly grow and develop.   Make your employees happy and they will be more productive and stay with you.  This isn’t the first book I’ve read where poker is used as an analogy to business and life choices but I was pleased with the way Tony presented this topic.  The way the book reads is that most decisions are made quickly without a level of preparation that might have been expected for such a successful person.  This came across in Zappo's case, smart people with the ability to quickly change direction after recognizing a mistake can be successful without the need for detailed analysis.

In general the book is a very light read. It is destined to be given out to employees for free, and to serve as a sort of corporate diary and the documentation of the corporate methodology. The last few pages are a little more thoughtful, where the author tries to relate his business experience to a philosophical discussion of life, the universe and everything.  The biggest idea to take from the book for me was that whichever sector your business sits in make sure it really goes for it. In the case of customer intimate sector, Zappos upgrade customer’s delivery to overnight for free. Doing this extra is going to make the customer happy and they are going to talk about the service to peers and help the companys bottom line.  I’ve now added a new phrase to my business language “Bet the farm on it!”

Competition

Alright, here’s the deal.  I sent away for an advance copy of Zappos CEO’s book Delivering Happiness.  I was lucky enough to be selected as a recipient of an advance copy.  I was unaware that they were sending two copies of the book…one for me and one for a blog reader (you).

I would like anyone interested in winning an advanced reading copy of Delivering Happiness to leave a comment. To qualify you must be signed in and leave a way for me to get back in touch with you.  The comment can be about anything site related, delivering happiness, Zappos, upcoming book releases anything.  Your name needs to be legit and filled out fully.  The comment must be placed on this posting otherwise it will not be included in the draw.  All comments will then be placed in a hat and 1 lucky winner will receive a copy provided by Tony Hsieh himself.  The draw will take place a week from now on the 14th June.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote. The poll is now closed and the results are in. The question was

Would you be interested in additional charting functions for BetFair?

A few didn't think it would be of use or didn't know but the majority were open to something being provided mainly if it were free. For me to go down the free route, I can and would do this but like my blog give the opportunity for adverts to be displayed. This means that the application would be free to use but also generate some revenue for writing the application. I haven't taken much time over the last couple of months working through the charts as I wanted to get an idea of how popular they would be, and as only a small percentage of my readers have voted I guess that the majority are happy with the functions provided by their choice of trading platform of BetFair website.  I will endeavour to get a first release together over the upcoming few months and provide screenshots of what is on offer for your perusal!

I have been asked to do a book review as well - I am always open to do these if you have a book waiting to be published and would like some extra exposure. This book in particular is called "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh. He co-founded LinkExchange which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO.  I will be doing a review of this book next week and running a small competition to give away an advanced reading copy which he has kindly donated for his upcoming release.  Rules and how-tos will be coming up next week!