Comfortable?

A little more on correct score betting tonight. Although I listed a great many possible methods in my overview of this market, it's fair to say that I don't follow many of them. I've flirted with all of them in my time, but we all eventually settle on those trades we feel are a good fit for our style or which we feel comfortable with. And by that, I mean choosing a method that matches the level of risk/reward that we're comfortable with.

I suppose if I had to pigeon-hole myself, I'd place myself squarely in the middle when it comes to risk aversion. I'm happy to put myself into risk situations under certain situations, but am not happy to place large chunks of my bank on the line at any one time.

I do not, and indeed never have, re-credited my account ever since I used matched gambling to acquire a bank in the first place. So there is no way I'm going to start using my work income to fund my betting, so placing myself in a position of too much risk obviously causes alarm bells to start ringing loudly.

Having said that, as a trader, I do use a greater percentage of my bank than I would if I were putting straight bets on, and I'm comfortable doing this so long as I can always see a way out. I'm happy to accept a certain level of risk, but only if I have completed detailed research of the matches of interest, and only if I know my full liability and am willing to lose that amount. I always want to know my entry point and my exit point.

Right, so onto tonight's trading where I duly ignored these criteria just so that I could re-try one of the methods listed in my correct score overview. This was the time-limited lay of 0-0, which frankly is a rather rudimentary method which has lots of problems and downsides. Consequently, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Why I decided to suddenly give it another whirl this evening, I'm not quite sure. It may be because I didn't go out tonight, and so have been stuck in my hotel all evening. Perhaps I've gone a little stir crazy.

I did indeed research all five matches that I bet on tonight (I won't dignify them by calling them trades), and was satisfied that all would have goals in them. I determined my risk on each match to be a maximum of £130, and if no goals were scored within the time window I'd chosen for each game, then I was looking at a maximum total loss of £650. Now, frankly this is way bigger than the normal level of risk that I'm comfortable with, even though I was confident that it would never get that big. Indeed, as things turned out, I had five perfect bets, with goals being scored in each match within the chosen time frames. The Leeds match was an unbelievable goalfest.

Throughout the evening, however, I felt no enjoyment from my betting (which I usually do) as the risk was just too large. Betting/trading is a hobby for me, so it's important to try and enjoy the time I spend doing it. This didn't happen this evening.

Consequently, I don't think I will be repeating this little diversion away from my usual methods, but sometimes it can be good to remind ourselves just why we use one method over another. Perhaps you're the type of person who is happy with a large level of risk, in which case this method could be okay for you, but beyond feeling uncomfortable, there will also be times when large losses would indeed be encountered and, depending on your bank size, could put a considerable dent in it.

So I will say thank you to the time-limited lay of 0-0 for tonight, and only tonight. I will not be revisiting this method again, and will return to my normal level of risk.

Football: £252.55 | Tote: |  Total P&L:  £252.55 

 

Football Showing 1 - 5 of 5 markets

Market Start time Settled date Profit/loss (£)
Football / Blackburn v Sunderland : Correct Score 20-Mar-12 20:00  20-Mar-12 21:53  50.51
Football / Brighton v Derby : Correct Score 20-Mar-12 19:45  20-Mar-12 21:51  50.51
Football / Sheff Wed v Walsall : Correct Score 20-Mar-12 19:45  20-Mar-12 21:48  50.51
Football / West Ham v Middlesbrough : Correct Score 20-Mar-12 19:45  20-Mar-12 21:44  50.51
Football / Leeds v Nottm Forest : Correct Score 20-Mar-12 19:45  20-Mar-12 21:04  50.51