When it comes to betting blogs, it seems people are divided between those who like to display their P&L and those who don't - and by the same token those who like to read about P&Ls and those who don't. Those bloggers that do not display their P&Ls, for some reason, seem to hold a good measure of dislike - hatred even - against those blogs that do show precisely how they have fared. I'm not quite sure why, but a good many of the betting and trading blogs out there, some of which are well-establish and well-written blogs, tend to look down their noses at us P&L blogites. But why exactly do P&L blogs attact vitriol?
The main accusation is that P&L blogs are boring - a damning accusation indeed. But is this really so? If a blog displays ONLY an individual's P&L and nothing else - perhaps accompanied with "tonight I made/lost xxx" - then I would probably agree that this doesn't make enthralling reading. However, I don't know about you, but I don't personally know of any such blogs, although I'm sure they'll be some somewhere in the world. All the P&L blogs that I am aware of mix things up a little. The P&L is most assuredly there, but there is also opinion, views, the usual highs and lows, trialling of various methods and so on and so forth. The P&L bit is only one small aspect of each blog posting that I read; and as just one additional facet of the overall blog, it doesn't seem to detract from each individual post. Far from it. I think it helps to pull a blog into sharper focus.
Okay, so what else do people hate about blogs that put up their P&L? In truth I'm not really sure. What I do know is that there are a lot of bloggers out there who are disingenuous on this whole subject. There are some blogs who, even though now long established non-P&L blogs (no names, no pack drill) actually started out regularly presenting their P&Ls to their readership each day or each week. However, after a period of time, they mysteriously stopped doing so and changed their blogs into non-P&L versions. And now that they are a long way down the road of blogging, they now take it upon themselves to casually attack P&L blogs as though they are the devil's creation. Why is that? Is it because their own P&Ls became something of an embarrassment to them, so they sneakily stopped displaying them, covering over their poor performances by brazenly stating that P&Ls are "boring" or not worth reading? Maybe. I don't really know.
As mentioned, my own blog does regularly have my P&L posted up, and I will continue to do so. Along with these summaries of each day's trading, I also try my best to mix things up a little and have tried to post up entries hopefully to entertain and inform any readers. I try to share and disseminate information and methods that I feel will help, or offer my views of outstanding events.
My blog is still relatively new. It only really got going at the back end of last year and I have less than 20,000 recorded visitors to my pages. It may be, therefore, that as a newbie, I don't fully understand the true nastiness of showing one's P&L, or perhaps I'll just "mature" and grow out of the practice once I've seen the light. Then again, I may not.
Personally, I like to look at other people's P&Ls. Not only does it show me the level they are betting at (which as a nosey person is interesting to me), but it also adds an additional dimension to what they have to say about their experiences of that particular day, pulling it all into focus. Afterall, the money is what it's all about, so why on earth shouldn't we be interested? I don't mind if someone is successful or whether they are enduring a long series of negative days or weeks. Blogging is not about being successful, it's about sharing our views, opinions and experiences of betting or trading, whether they are good or bad. But let's not talk about profit and loss as though they are dirty words. Mention of it is not vulgar or crass; it's what each and every one of us is interested in.
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Well, after me singing the praises of the P&L, it's slightly embarrassing that I don't have one to show you tonight! Instead of trading this evening, I went down the pub to watch the Man City match, which was only okay-ish. Nothing special to watch. I wish instead that they'd shown the QPR v Liverpool match, which sounded amazing. I'm just about to watch that game on MOTD.
Once again, I don't want to discuss anything where the sentences have the words Spurs or Arsenal contained in them. Got it?
Hi Soccerdude, agree with pretty much everything you've said. I think the vast majority of us are curious and want to see how much everyone is making, even though it's probably not the best thing to be doing because it can make us feel inadequate.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's any coincidence that those blogs which have shown the most regular P&L profits have been the most popular (Psychoff, Adam Heathcote and Mark Iverson spring to mind). Of course, they also wrote a great deal of interest too, so that helped.
The problem with P&L blogs is that some of them only have the P&L and not a lot else and almost all of them never show a losing day. If you are going to do it regularly, you have to show the bad days too, otherwise you are essentially lying to the reader. I can actually name several blogs that only ever post green screens and I know of at least 3 that are still going which have pretty much nothing to say other than a brief line or two (not gonna mention them here but they do exist). Most of these blogs dissappear after a short time (could be why you don't notice them), I imagine because they are not only boring to read but boring to write.
I always used to post up my bad days aswell as my good days, so it does annoy me when you get P&L blogs that never show losing days. I stopped posting them a while back now because I realised that being focused on monetary amounts is detrimental to me, so I don't even look at my P&L till the end of the month now.
Great post.
ReplyDeleteIn my case I can only say that I stopped posting my p&l due to the income I was generating becoming more than just a hobby. I didn't want people who knew me 'in the real world' looking at me differently because I'd lost or won x amount in one day. in addition, as I became more serious I also didn't want to draw attention to the Inland Revenue about how you could make money on the exchanges.
Afterall, if someones onto a good thing, there can be a sense from some quarters that something needs to be done about it.
For what it's worth though, I love reading blogs that post p&l's!
All the best
Mark
Well, I have to confess that these are two sensible reasons you've given for not posting a P&L, and both are something I never considered when writing my musings.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
Great post. I understand both sides and i read both P/L blogs and non P/L blogs. I really don't see the point in going on someone's blog and berating him just because he is p/l or non p/l oriented. Its a free market, people can read whatever suits them best.
ReplyDeleteI like p/l blogs better because its an instant indicator of the blog quality. This is not in terms of profits created and shared with the audience (this can always be fake), but in terms of the competence of the blogger. A profitable trader / bettor has a lot to offer in terms of wisdom as well as profit creating tips.
Thanks for your comments, I.S.
ReplyDelete