Horses for courses

At last - a winning day. And maybe it wasn't just coincidence that it was the first time I had eschewed the traditional method of trading (looking solely at the numbers) and based my bets on the information presented in the Racing Post. After spending two hours studying the form before racing started, I had four horses that I wanted to back and half a dozen that I wanted to lay. It was a busy afternoon, trading on every race at six meetings. But the study paid off, with three of my four fancies winning, and all six of my lays losing. Although it did provide me with some nervous moments, as a horse I had a liability of £300 on was backed down to 2.7 as it led until the penultimate fence. Maybe I am not cut out to be a pure trader. I regularly read the market correctly and successfully carry out up to 10 successful trades on a race. But on the stakes I am using (between £5 and £25 per trade), I am making less than a fiver a race. And then one market goes against me and I lose everything I have earned in the past hour. I think that my best option is to incorporate a study of the horses into my trading. The only downside to a very profitable day's work were some losing football bets. My head tells me to stop betting until the form is a little more reliable, but football gambling gives me far more of a high than trading on the horses, so my heart won't let me stop. I also had two unsuccessful corners bets. Both my heart and my head tell me to stop. But I can't. Running total: £868.73