I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas

To sign out. Well, 3 months have been and gone and I'm disappointed to tell you that I failed in my bid to hit £5k. I was only a couple of hundred short but only trading 2 Saturdays (badly) this month meant that I couldn't hit the magic mark. Oh well, I'm sure I'll manage :)

That's it for me this month. Working the rest of the week so will get back on it at the weekend. This month hasn't turned out as I had hoped in terms of my overall profit. With more time to trade I'd hope secretly to finish the challenge by the end of the month but I've struggled somewhat over the last week or so, just one of those things I suppose. Today's cards give an insight of things to come over the coming months with Ayr being abandoned leaving only 2 cards to trade. I usually wouldn't have bothered but with it being the last time I get to trade for a few days I managed to keep myself disciplined enough to trade them. A few short priced runners today which always limits how much I can take out of the market due to the minimal movement in price and I'm never that good at getting them right so only went in with relatively small stakes.

Had an average day but just noticed the new version 1.2 Beta 4 of AGT Pro has been released. Wow!!! Is there anything this product doesn't have? It already has more than enough for me (or so I thought). Some of the new features include (copied directly from the the forum announcment):

1. A brand new customisable in play interface including a brand new unique in-play ladder style interface that can be set vertically or horizontally depending on your preference. This can be activated via the Main Info Bar menu.

2. A new race timer for horse racing { With some help from Cran.}, which can be optionally switched on in the Grid, Ladder and in-Play interfaces via the menu.

3. A new "Payout" staking type, which places bets based upon Backers Stake + Layers Liability.

4. New "Cloud" settings in the Main Info Bar menu. This enables you to back up and restore your entire settings & profiles to our server. This will enable you to easily transfer them to another PC, or recover them easily if your hard disk fails. There is also an option to share one of your profiles for other users to download as well.

For me personally, I like the idea of the In running interface and I'll be giving that a bash tomorrow plus I think the Cloud idea is a nice touch. All in all a class piece of kit. It's competitors really need to start upping their game. Will be interesting to see what occurs over the coming months.

For now though, a big thanks to the Geek for this bloody good tool and I'll have to check to see if there's anything special I can put in his stocking when I do my rounds this year. (that sounds a bit sinister)

The wedding was great. So much so in fact that we didn't come back until Thursday! The only thing with these type of gatherings is that my other half starts asking questions like "mmmm, I love weddings, why don't we think about it?" and "do you ever want to get hitched???". I'm not against marriage per se, however, I'm one of these that see's having a child together as a much more binding contract. Plus I'd rather spend the money on something more practical. Like a deposit on a new house or something like that. But, I suppose I'll have to give in sooner or later but that's for another day.

As a result of my extended stay, I fell behind with a couple of jobs I had planned so had to undertake them when I got back over the weekend and as a result trading had to wait. I had a free week last week so went about trying to close the gap on the £5k target. It was a pretty bad start that continued until Thursday which saw my P&L looking pretty battle weary and about £500 in the minus! Mondays & Tuesdays only have a limited number of races so, in my haste to try and close the gap tried to make the most of the racing on offer and pushing too hard leading to silly losses and even sillier chasing. I got caught in the bubble that sees a loss of rationality and although I knew I was doing it I couldn't help myself. It wasn't until Thursday came that I managed to take stock, regain my composure, reset my mindset and go about turning a minus week into a positive week. It was tough, especially in the back of your mind you know you're working just to get back to a level playing field but I was damned if I was going to screw it all up now. Not when the finish line is so close.

Anyway, I did it and although the total is nothing to get excited about I'm quietly proud that I managed to address what I knew was happening and then have the fortitude to knuckle down and start making progress on making it good. And as a result I'm still on target to finish on the 10th as I've got a clear diary for the rest of the month.

So, that's it for me for now. Not long now til Dec 1st Hope you've all got your advent calendars :)

Still here and so long as I keep my head I should be able to complete the challenge. I can't believe it's been 2 months since my first post!. Been in the markets this week and managed to make a few quid but that should be me now until next week as off to a wedding this weekend.

Hope you're all doing well. Only 44 days left until I amaze the family with my excellent gifts, ha!

Happy Guy Fawkes everyone. There's been no such fireworks this week for me (sorry but I just had to get it in). I've managed to get a good chunk of the weeks cards in as I've had a bit of time on my hands and as of the end of today I've made what equates to a decent weekly wage. We're off out tonight to go and watch some fireworks. I love this time of the year. Get the big jacket on, timberlands, woolly hat and enjoy the smell of burning bonfire whilst eating some dodgy hot dogs :) Before I leave I just want to remind you not to go putting fireworks up your bum. It's not big and it's not clever.

And here's something a bit easier on the eye.



Another update next week.

WOW!!!!! Where has October gone!!!??? Another month on and I'm still here. Just got to make another month and 10 days and hopefully I'll achieve my goal. I've got to admit I didn't expect to complete it in full but as things are going I might just be able to do it. Just hope I can hold my nerve. I've managed to get a bit more in over the past week in between spending time with the kid. We went to The Manchester Museum on Friday at the Manchester University. It was pretty good considering it is free entry and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a free day with their kid. Very educational and enjoyable, especially the Egypt section and Vivarium.