Money Management

I have spent the last few days scouring blogs and betting forums to try and pick up some tips on how to manage my betting bank.

Talk about opening your eyes. My previous attempts at trading have been laughably naive.

I regularly risked over 50% of my betting bank on any given event and fell into every trap available for the novice trader.

This strategy (or lack of it)led to some decent wins, but also regular visits to my current account as my betting bank ran dry.

Everyone has their own threshold to risk, and in the past mine has been gung-ho to say the least.Things have to change this time around.

They say the quickest route to success is to model someone who has been successful in your field, so my own plan is unashamedly based on the advice given on the excellent Betfair Trader website (see links)

My starting bank of £300 may be modest for a lot of heavy hitters but is an amount I can afford to risk without impacting my life in any major way.

The plan is to limit myself to a maximum liabilty of 10% of my starting bank per trading event.

If any profits accrue, over and above the £300, I will take 50% of the profit out of my account and let the remaining 50% swell my betting bank.

At this stage I don't plan to top up my betting bank if I hit a losing streak.

Clearly this staking plan is not going to give me overnight success, but hopefully a steady stream of small profits will see myself sunning myself in a more exotic location than Bournemouth for my 2012 summer holidays

Here we go (again!)

Is it really possible to consistently make money trading on Betfair?

I know from past experience that I can make profits in the short term, but a lack of strategy and discipline have always eventually caught up with me.

Well after a long time out of the game, i've decided to re-open the trading room.

Business will commence at the start of April when I can fund my account with a reasonable starting bank.

The plan is to record all of my trades on this blog and to keep me honest I will publish monthly profit and loss statements direct from my Betfair account.

If possible I will publish my position in advance of matches, although with a large in play focus this will not always be possible.

So what are my targets?

The dream is to fund a decent holiday for myself and my daughter next summer purely from trading profits. In my head this equates to c.£100 profit per month.

I can't work out if that is a conservative target or wildly optimistic and I suppose only time will tell.

Hopefuly any readers will get a few decent tips along the way and some enjoyment from the roller coaster that is about to begin again.