Wow Saturdays are hard

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billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

Newbie here, after practising midweek in practice mode and doing ok (average £40 a day) i thought i would apply my scalping technique to today's races. Jesus is it a different kettle of fish. Spikes everywhere was too fast paced for me and i gave up. Time to go back to the drawing board and find an edge. I wont be trading today (still practise mode) just analysing all the different factors in the market and getting my head around why/when/what is happening.
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MemphisFlash
Posts: 2126
Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 10:12 pm
Location: Leicester

billyboyrifle wrote:
Sun Feb 11, 2018 6:09 am
. I wont be trading today (still practise mode)
let me give you a bit of advice, unless your using your own money your not trading your PLAYING with the software!!!!
billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

Damn when i see the word advice i thought you were going to give me the key to unlock a wealth of opportunity :(

Duely noted sir
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

If you did OK midweek but not on Saturday..... The advice is simple, don't do Saturdays.

As Memphis says though, practice mode is very different.
billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

Cheers lads.
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

In all seriousness, scalping is all about finding the right market at the right time. Chances can come up on any day.

I'm always baffled though why new people try scalping first, opportunity is like hens teeth and you need lightening reactions to avoid getting shafted. Do yourself a favour and look at things where situations take longer to develop and you have time to absorb what's going on with and around your selection.
billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

ShaunWhite wrote:
Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:47 pm
In all seriousness, scalping is all about finding the right market at the right time. Chances can come up on any day.

I'm always baffled though why new people try scalping first, opportunity is like hens teeth and you need lightening reactions to avoid getting shafted. Do yourself a favour and look at things where situations take longer to develop and you have time to absorb what's going on with and around your selection.
Many thanks Shaun, i thought i would try scalping first as all the resources i have read state its one of the easiset. Im now wondering how outdated this info is as it looks as though the exchange has completely evolved since these tutorials were developed.

Thanks for your time in responding
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ShaunWhite
Posts: 9731
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2016 3:42 am

No probs billy, glad to help.

If you take a look at the Chart of the Day thread you'll see things are pretty hairy for scalpers at the moment. Nice and steady one minute then whoosh.

It's not made any easier by the time of year, there's not a great deal of money around so when things move they tend to have quite a bit of momentum. I'd suggest keeping to the better quality races but frankly these can be just as bizarre. Don't be put off though because you can use it to your advantage.

Keep your stakes smaller and expect a bit more 'noise', don't let your losses run too far and hopefully you'll have a few that go your way 10 or even 20 ticks. It'll certainly be more relaxing than scalping 1,1,1,1,-6 and repeat.

Be mindful of the crossover points too, those zones where the BF step size changes, you don't really want to be sat where a sudden move against you takes you into larger odds increments. 2.0 can be a bit of a danger zone too but read it right and it's a lucrative area. Peter's YouTube videos on Support and Resistance might be useful to you. Although the recent moves show little respect for it, it's always relevant to some extent.

Every market is different though and as always, if you're not sure just keep your powder dry for those times you find a market that appears to be behaving in a way that might suit you.

Everyone will have a different opinions about how best to start, but my best suggestion is to keep it small, expect to lose a little, but try and learn as much from the failures as you do from your successes.
billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

ShaunWhite wrote:
Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:50 am
No probs billy, glad to help.

If you take a look at the Chart of the Day thread you'll see things are pretty hairy for scalpers at the moment. Nice and steady one minute then whoosh.

It's not made any easier by the time of year, there's not a great deal of money around so when things move they tend to have quite a bit of momentum. I'd suggest keeping to the better quality races but frankly these can be just as bizarre. Don't be put off though because you can use it to your advantage.

Keep your stakes smaller and expect a bit more 'noise', don't let your losses run too far and hopefully you'll have a few that go your way 10 or even 20 ticks. It'll certainly be more relaxing than scalping 1,1,1,1,-6 and repeat.

Be mindful of the crossover points too, those zones where the BF step size changes, you don't really want to be sat where a sudden move against you takes you into larger odds increments. 2.0 can be a bit of a danger zone too but read it right and it's a lucrative area. Peter's YouTube videos on Support and Resistance might be useful to you. Although the recent moves show little respect for it, it's always relevant to some extent.

Every market is different though and as always, if you're not sure just keep your powder dry for those times you find a market that appears to be behaving in a way that might suit you.

Everyone will have a different opinions about how best to start, but my best suggestion is to keep it small, expect to lose a little, but try and learn as much from the failures as you do from your successes.
Thanks for taking the time to respond Shaun, all advice in my eyes is invaluable.

I had a good day today, traded 13 races and won 10, left scalping for the majority of races as i am now getting more of a feel for the markets and when scalping is right to action. I have been following order flow and not worrying too much if the price goes against me, but being calm, noting a stop loss in my head and riding it through. This has increased my win %. Dont get me wrong i didnt win alot as still on small stakes, £15 being my max, but until im confident i can win more trades then i loose thats when i will stary upping my stakes.

Im in a lucky position that i work shifts, so i can normally get at least a few hours of trading practice a day. I have tried dabbling in automation but thats not for the faint hearted, timing is everything at the moment to me and getting that right with automation is too hard.

Thanks again bud,

Billy.
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MemphisFlash
Posts: 2126
Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 10:12 pm
Location: Leicester

did you trade or did you PLAY!!!!
billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

MemphisFlash wrote:
Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:15 pm
did you trade or did you PLAY!!!!
I TRADED. :).

Have done for last couple of days and not even out my freebee period
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Dublin_Flyer
Posts: 688
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2012 10:39 am

Well done on your progress Billy,

Have you done your homework on your trades that were bad as well as the good ones? Reason for entering market, getting out, did you judge it right, could you have made more or lost less getting out at the time? Why did you think it was a good point to get in or out, did you overreact on either get into market or get out point?

Are you screen recording yourself? It might be useful, you could find you're after missing a spike because you're sidetracked/reading some BREAKING NEWS on Sky about Guardiola or Mourinho talking random sh1te, and you've gone from a nice green into a dirty red while your eyes were taken away for a split second!

Something as simple as the missus/mister asking do you want a bacon sambo with your tea. OF COURSE I WANT.....OH sh1t I'm in the red now!

Of course many people want a bacon sambo if it's offered with tea, but you get my drift I hope!

Small spreadsheet of the days races, after each race you trade, rated/listed/group/graded race, handicap/non-hcap, amateur or apprentice etc, put your reason for getting into the market if you traded it, or avoided the market, and getting out reason.

Take a days races and rate your trade from 1-10, 1 being fluke, 10 being legend, 11 being Peter Webb wishes I was his son!
IMPORTANT: Rate yourself as soon as you close your trade, no hindsight allowed at this point!
This isn't a game, it's for yourself alone.

Small spreadsheets like that might help you find your feet as to where your talents may or may not lie at the time, or where you need to focus, or you may already have talents you don't even know!
Mark-H
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 6:35 pm
Location: North West UK

I second the suggestion to screen record yourself. Peter produced a video titled Simple Tip To Improve Your Trading where he lists the reasons why you should record your trades...not least because you will be able to look back on them at a later date and see just how many mistakes you made at the start!

Personally, I gained a huge amount of insight into the markets when I plugged in the excel spreadsheet by Switesh. It records the market movements of the top 10 in the market, so you can look back at the race some time in the future, and see when odds movements happen, what triggered it and where any support or resistance lay.

spreadsheet.jpg

Using the spreadsheet, compare a high grade race at Cheltenham with a mid-winter, mid-week NHF and you will quickly gain valuable insights into what causes a market to move.

Of course, you ALSO need to avoid analysis paralysis!

But most of all, have fun,

Mark H.
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billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

Dublin_Flyer wrote:
Sat Feb 17, 2018 4:09 am
Well done on your progress Billy,

Have you done your homework on your trades that were bad as well as the good ones? Reason for entering market, getting out, did you judge it right, could you have made more or lost less getting out at the time? Why did you think it was a good point to get in or out, did you overreact on either get into market or get out point?

Are you screen recording yourself? It might be useful, you could find you're after missing a spike because you're sidetracked/reading some BREAKING NEWS on Sky about Guardiola or Mourinho talking random sh1te, and you've gone from a nice green into a dirty red while your eyes were taken away for a split second!

Something as simple as the missus/mister asking do you want a bacon sambo with your tea. OF COURSE I WANT.....OH sh1t I'm in the red now!

Of course many people want a bacon sambo if it's offered with tea, but you get my drift I hope!

Small spreadsheet of the days races, after each race you trade, rated/listed/group/graded race, handicap/non-hcap, amateur or apprentice etc, put your reason for getting into the market if you traded it, or avoided the market, and getting out reason.

Take a days races and rate your trade from 1-10, 1 being fluke, 10 being legend, 11 being Peter Webb wishes I was his son!
IMPORTANT: Rate yourself as soon as you close your trade, no hindsight allowed at this point!
This isn't a game, it's for yourself alone.

Small spreadsheets like that might help you find your feet as to where your talents may or may not lie at the time, or where you need to focus, or you may already have talents you don't even know!
Thanks for this bud. Yes i am screen recording myself using EZvid, but im not a fan, it was the first bit of software i came across that would record more than 40 minutes, but the rendering of the video after uses heck of alot of CPU. Any suggestions on another piece of software would be great.

I am also as you state recording my races on a sreadsheet, but not a great deal of data, race type, win,loose,why,time, volume matched. But i will start adding more variables, i would like to input the data into MS Access so i can query the data more effectively and find good correlation betweene winning and loosing trades, hopefully my backround in IT Infrastructure can help me with this.

Well its Saturday today and i can cram in 7 races before work. Im more confident that i will be better than last. Wish me luck

Bill
billyboyrifle
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:58 am

Mark-H wrote:
Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:32 am
I second the suggestion to screen record yourself. Peter produced a video titled Simple Tip To Improve Your Trading where he lists the reasons why you should record your trades...not least because you will be able to look back on them at a later date and see just how many mistakes you made at the start!

Personally, I gained a huge amount of insight into the markets when I plugged in the excel spreadsheet by Switesh. It records the market movements of the top 10 in the market, so you can look back at the race some time in the future, and see when odds movements happen, what triggered it and where any support or resistance lay.


spreadsheet.jpg


Using the spreadsheet, compare a high grade race at Cheltenham with a mid-winter, mid-week NHF and you will quickly gain valuable insights into what causes a market to move.

Of course, you ALSO need to avoid analysis paralysis!

But most of all, have fun,

Mark H.
Thanks Mark? We must of been typing at the same time, wow i didnt know there was a spreadsheet already out there, is it just a case of plugging in via Guardian?

I will do this today. Now time to hunt the S/heet down.

Many thanks for the advice Mark

Bill
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