PERFECT PRACTICE

DATE: 14/01/2012                     TRADE PLAN: PERFECT PRACTICE

• MARKETS: UK & Ireland Horse racing- pre-race. (Both BETDAQ & BETFAIR)

• To qualify each event must have a minimum volume of £150,000 at 3 minutes before post/off time. ( Betdaq users may have to use some discretion here).

• We will be observing the general market overview from at least 5 minutes out from start time.( We will be looking for market behaviour, trends, etc give it a good old looking at! Remember one up, one down-sometimes! Steamers and Drifters).
• We will only trade from 3 minutes out to as near to 30 seconds out as possible.( The thinking behind this as follows: to start to build a routine, a sort of sportsman's muscle memory(google) and the painful start of self discipline because you will notice market movers and you will want to join in! But this time forces you to start and think about your entry point into the market. You would be surprised how many cock ups I avoided by adopting this technique, avoiding getting in too soon).
• Trade selection: Usually the highest volume/ fav.
• Entry criteria: Depending on market movement whether we Back or Lay first ( One important point to bear in mind here, it is a good idea to notice whether you have a tendency to back first or lay first? Just have a think about that one!)
• Entry point 1: Ask or take a price? Again depending on how fast the market is moving. A safer option is to ask for a price by joining the money already waiting for a match. (Don't forget if you feel the market is not going in your anticipated direction, just pull the order)
• Entry point 2:Consider previous market movement, that is use the FULL MARKET DEPTH feature to identify previous highs and lows etc. (This is to help us to avoid 'laying at the top' and 'backing at the bottom' etc. Can we identify a trading range, If the market is trending either up or down don't just jump in, look for the pull backs for your entry point, no market travels in a straight lines)
• Trade management: Watch the price action, as EVERY TRADE STARTS AS A SCALP UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE, ( This is not easy but with some perfect practice it can be done, so as our price is matched our focus switches to the opposite side of the ladder. If by watching the price action/ticker we feel the trade is not going as planned, we scratch immediately, if the trade does go in our favour we follow with our mouse poised ready to take any profit offered to us. If the trade jumps against us again we scratch at the best price available, immediately. The whole point of this exercise is to keep in control and protect our capital! This element of the trade is really difficult to explain effectively as screen time plays an enormous part.)(Scratch at net zero as often as you like)
• Exit point 1: If we incur TWO successive ONE tick losses, we close out and red up across the book.Then move onto the next race, not a problem!( The reasoning here is to stop us from re-entering the market to 'win' back our loss and building up an even bigger loss!)
• Exit point 2: The scratch trade described earlier
• Exit point 3: As dictated by our reading of the price action
• Exit point 4: The timer has reached our cut off point of 30 seconds from the off time.( Obviously the thinking here is to remove the temptation of an in-play 'gamble') Close out and move on- Capital intact!
• Capital and staking: Use what ever you are most comfortable with, enough said.

The overall strategy is based around gaining some sort of emotional control, self discipline and capital protection.

I think that covers most elements of the trade plan. I'll do my best to expand and improve it as time allows.

Do give it a try.

RT