Firedave trading Betfair with Bet Angel

He looked great! Poor Andy Murray, the weight of Britain's 74 long years on his shoulders and he didn't put up a bad fight. I was somewhat surprised that all the commentators in the BBC London office were backing Andy. The most clinical tennis I've seen from Federer this tournament. From a price perspective things got interesting in the 3rd set - the only time it looked likely that Murray could've got a set (and probably should've apart from Federer's fantastic point saving!)

In my opinion, a slightly higher first serve percentage was probably the only difference here. Andy was defending like a champion but just held back slightly. Making Federer play the extra one or two first serves would've made him on the back foot. I reckon he'll get his grand slam, maybe even this year - just not the Australian!

Trading starts for me tomorrow on the horse racing. I didn't trade any of the Australian Open as I don't know how the price moves that well in tennis. I did record a lot of the matches prices and volumes for analysis and will be taking a keen interest at Roland Garros in May. It looks like it might be a bit easier to take scalps out of the tennis markets.

Sorry for the lack of activity (Was August really the last time I posted?!) After thinking long and hard, I can see a lot of potential in trading on Betfair and have decided to pursue this full time. A decision that hasn't come about lightly, as I have been working as an IT consultant for several years now. Having been keeping an eye on the ongoing releases from Bet Angel, and watching the markets (primarily horse racing) I have decided that now is a good time to go for it. This changes how this blog will work and I expect the activity to increase greatly. In my first month, (February) I expect to be posting at the end of each day. I will explain my decisions for the day and will probably post the amounts I am using.

A lot of the trading I have done to date has been evening races and weekends. This has given me a slight skew on what to expect. To reduce this uncertainty, I am going to trade for 3 months as a trial to see whether trading is something I can manage long term. I am absolutely, unquestionably sure it is possible to make a decent living from trading but not sure if I am able to do it. This is why I have put the safety guard of a 3 month trial in place. For this, I am using a starting bank of £1000 and will only ever commit 2% for trades. In a %6 drawdown the day will come to a close.

From a target perspective, I won't be expecting to replace current income in the trial period. This would be in my opinion, asking too much for a relatively new trader. I will be concentrating on positive days rather than reaching a certain amount. The 3 months would have to show a positive trend for me to continue past April.

If anyone has a good target for 3 months then please let me know. I am wondering whether a percentage of bank would be a good way to set this but not sure what a reasonable target should be. I do and will however, set one before I begin.