Final Ramble of the year

Once again time is against me in the lead up to Christmas but I did manage to get everything back up to date on my train journeys today. Pity my team couldn't produce the goods - our good start to the season is beginning to seem like a distant memory.

Looking at things at a very high level December has been an excellent month. The 2nd best of the year so far and if things continue over the final week of the year we could beat May's figure of £1,981. Clearly I don't want to tempt fate but it's been great so far, however I am sure I'm due a correction at some point soon.

Star performer again is Systematic Betting who have had a spectacular month with 54 points profit to date. Closely following behind is Northern Monkey with another tremendous profit. Also good to see Piecost turning things around. The Football Analyst looks like a good thing now as well - still delivering a profit during a tough time for football betting.

My only real concern lies with 3 services Mr Gekko Bets who have fallen back again after showing signs of recovery, The Market Examiner who are finding winners but just not enough to eek any profit out the service and I'm wavering with the service and finally Equine Investments Main Account which has started the all weather season abysmally with 8 losing bets in a row. When you see services like Northern Monkey delivering consistent profit month on month for next to nothing subscription you expect more when paying well over £1k subs. Luckily Equine Turnover is still producing (just).

Anyway the bottom line December to date I'm £1,515 up which takes my ytd gross profit over the £5k mark. If you asked me in the middle of October whether I thought I'd get to that position I would have laughed my head off.

This is more than likely going to be my last post until the New Year. I'm away for most of the break so won't have the opportunity to keep posting. Sorry things have been sporadic over the last month - it really has been hectic - I do intend to keep going in 2012 and will post as regularly as I can.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has commented on the site and also to you who just view - its great to know people read what am writing and I do hope it gives you an insight as to how hard it all is but also helps you with your own plans. I find it very therapeutic and it helps me focus on the task at hand

Anyway enough prattling - have a great Christmas and here's to a prosperous 2012.

Cheers!

Profitable Weekend

Decent weekend saw the recent slump turn around. Haven't totted up my figures yet but feels like I broke even this week. Hoping to bring everything up to date this week - travelling to the Newcastle game on Wednesday so have some train time to fill. Really need to set some plans out for next year as well.

Sorry Thursday

Thursday continues to be a poor day - if not the poorest day of the week - with another big loss today - with Steve Lewis Hamilton, Systematic Betting and Equine Investments all performing poorly.

The dismal day was brightened as Northern Monkey and Piecost continue to perform well.

1/2 a length was the difference today though with Rebeccas Choice at 8/1 just behind the winner for SLH and then Sunglasses / Petit Ecuyer at 1.10 messing it up for us on Systematic by banging in to each other. The margins between great success and poor returns remain tight! A slight change in fortune could've netted upwards of £1,000 today...

Dust ourselves down and tomorrow is another day!!

Forex, Smashing Prices and Rant Potential

No not Castlemaine XXXX - the piss poor australian lager of my youth - which is apparently still going strong in Oz!

But Forex!

I constantly get bombarded with Forex offers and don't pay much heed to many of them but as the year draws to a close I'm looking to spread my wings a bit and diversify away from betting on football and horse racing.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff looks nigh on impossible in terms of systems / trading techniques etc. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

I know I should really be updating my stats etc but I'm writing this quickly between ordering Christmas presents / preparing for meetings / making eggnog etc.... Full service will be resumed shortly.

Anyway on the betting front - today ended up being a good day with Eastward Ho delivering for Systematic Betting at 6/1 for me (13/2 tipped). I mention the prices as Mark, quite rightly grumped about someone smashing into the price on Betfair and getting 10/3 just after the tip was released - bit daft really when the SP was 5/1, BFSP 6/1. I'm not sure why anyone does that - the price on tips for later races always seems to dip sharply soon after the tip comes out and then bounces back relatively rapidly. Anyway each to their own.

Equine hasn't started the new season very well unfortunately and I was slightly concerned when I heard about a new service offered which is producing a number of winners in a short space of time. Will need to investigate before commenting further... but if that is the case then it really does make me wonder what I'm paying substantial subs for...

AWOL

Sorry I've gone a bit AWOL recently - was at a wedding over the weekend and all Christmas related activities are beginning to catch up with me so am trying to get back up to date.

Excellent start to the month though - highlight being Red Tanber winning yesterday for both Systematic Betting and Steve Lewis Hamilton. Was hoping Venetian Lad would follow that today but can't win them all!!

Will aim to bring everything bang up to date by the end of the week!

November Review - Part 1

The month didn’t end particularly well with a couple of losing days but no massive damage done and a decent month in the end with £641 gross profit posted. Net profit therefore was £205 which gives me £6.83 a day – well below my “modest” target of £20 per day. Subscription fees continue to punish the profit at my stake level and clearly there are things I can do to change that.

Obviously luck plays its part and I suppose it evens out in the end but missing 3 winning bets one Saturday cost me £200+ profit on the month. C’est la vie.

So November my 6^th winning month of the year so far and total profit for the year stands at £3,545 which on paper looks and sounds lovely, the reality being that unless December proves to be a stormer I will finish the year in a net negative position. 2009 and thousands of pound profit seems like a long time ago.

Anyway here’s the number for each service;

Steve Lewis Hamilton: -£224 (-4.5pts). Admittedly 1 winning bet missed which would have made a difference but still a negative for Steve with another disappointing month to post. Think the fact that we’re into the NH season proper now makes the result much more frustrating. A lack of bets doesn’t help matters but I think its worth keeping the faith. One winning bet would’ve turned things into profit. My level staking approach paid dividends with 1pt bet Prophete De Guye delivering and 3pt Tempest River flopping. I’ve just re-subscribed to SLH until 1 April 2012 so we shall see how the rest of the season goes.

Equine Investments / Equine Turnover. Small losses on both these services as they kicked off the AW season proper on Saturday 26^th. Hopefully both can turn a substantial profit throughout the winter. I need Equine Investments to do tremendously well to break even. I’ve mentioned before my staking level with the main service is not sustainable with subs how they are, this joined with an impossible task of getting bets on at recommended prices make the service unsustainable for a punter like myself. A great service with handsome profit over the long run so cannot be criticised too much but not one I will continue with at renewal point – I just can’t make it pay. Equine Turnover has performed magnificently this year and I do plan to keep going with that one but it’d be fair to say pressure on prices appears to mount as each passing tip delivers.

Northern Monkey: +£190 (+19pts). Another very good month for Wayne at Northern Monkey. I had to laugh at his end of season review where he mentioned he wasn’t very happy with annual performance. Give yourself a break man! Happy as larry, could not be happier… Highlight of the month has to be Sugar Beet. It’ll be quieter over the next few months but tipping at its best for very low cost.

Football Elite: -£101 (-4pts). Disappointing month for Football Elite. I’d say this was a service that was on my watch list. Matt sent an interesting email at the end of the month which overall I couldn’t disagree with in terms of volume of bets and long term profit. I think the question is – how long do I want to wait before I return a decent profit? Again my level of staking is the issue here – not so much relative to the cost of the service – which is a very reasonable £15 a month – but in terms of volume of bets and odds achieved. It probably feels like you should be betting £100+ on each tip to feel the benefit of the service. However whatever the level of tipping over the last two years including subs I’ve made a loss and it does reach the point that you have to draw a line and move on – can I wait another year or two to turn a profit. I don’t think the nature of who I am will allow me to do that!

4PA: +£14 (+0.7pts). A poor month for 4PA with a flourish of winners in the middle helping us scrape over the line in the black. I’ve flipped my betting on this service with and am following the basic system bets over the account bets. Any account bet that isn’t a basic system bet I’m covering to minimum stakes. Clear evidence from the stats to show that this is the right thing to do and good profit can be made from simply following the basic system at £20 a point. As you will know I’ve re-subscribed for three months to see how things go and to allow me to try and do the basic thing myself. Well last weekend it never happened as I had no time and this weekend will be the same as I’m away for a wedding. So there is value in paying £400 a year for a service that can deliver +£2.5k a year on profit. Now questions are – could some one provide the tips at less than £400 a year and if they did would that be ok to do considering it’s a SBC tool. Answers on a postcard. PS – if anyone from SBC is reading this – I’m not going to do it so don’t have a go!