My motivation
As you know I have been around for some time. I’ve really enjoyed my journey through sports markets and the key for me has been the challenge of actually doing it.
There is hardly ever a moment when I am not thinking about or actually probing some aspect of the markets. I’m always challenging myself to either find something new, explain what I’ve found or examine what is happening. Sometimes you can find things that seem radically unintuitive, so the search starts for an explanation. Eventually a massive lightbulb appears and you branch in a new direction.
I’m still learning thirteen years after I placed my first bet on a betting exchange. So my advice to you is to always be curious and have an open mind. Yes there are lots of blind alleys, but the more you walk up, the closer you will get to the breakthrough.
Back when I started, had I realised the potential of what was about to unfold, I may never have actually done half of the other stuff I do now, as it can be a big distraction. To put this into perspective, have a look at Saturday; the busiest day of the week. We had the Australian Open women’s final, FA CUP and some quality racing. That’s an irresistible pull. So on Saturday I put just short of £0.5m through the markets. It’s currently a quieter time of year, but you should be able to see how my actual activity in the markets dwarfs everything else, so doing it is still very important to me.
I do the odd bit of education and I’ve often fielded requests, for example, to do education events Saturday; I fully understand why. But I hope the above shows you why I can’t easily do this. That’s why I tend to do education events early in the week when things are quieter and opportunities much thinner on the ground. I’ve also decline invitations to sports events solely to ensure I can be active on them. I’m sure the time will come when I do accept, but for the moment I’d prefer to be on the other side of the screen. When you have worked most of your life for the opportunity, it seems a bit silly to not do it!
When I post on this blog it’s a record of my journey through the markets, or something interesting that’s happened or that I see. I hope it’s of interest to readers.. While I may slip in the odd plug for Bet Angel, I hope people can see that that’s not the primary objective, nor can it be my main motivation.
So, my motivation is grounded in the markets and that will most likely always be the case, everything else is secondary to that. Underlying this is a quest for further knowledge. At the end of the day, I really enjoy doing it and long may that continue!
Category: General
Hey Peter!
It’s quite impressing what you have achieved until now. I admire your dedication and expertise. I always read your blog and it’s an inspiration.
I was wondering if you are (maybe already for a long time) being able to influence the markets with your huge betting volumes (specially horses that are more volatile and it’s more difficult to predict the real value on a price).
As a trader you have to find the waves to ride them, but maybe you got to the point that you produce those waves yourself.
What is your experience on this?
Wish you the best.
Klaus.
Hi Klaus,
Unfortunately, in my experiance, large amounts of money are a hinderance in the market. This is why I have been negative on sports ‘funds’ or people looking to bet with other peoples money. The more money you have the harder it is to get away a decent position because you do influence price. Which you would think would lead you into the position of perhaps using money to influence price, but that never really works either as arbers and ‘smart’ money can pick you off before you realise what has happened.
If you watch the market closely you can see people trying to influence prices, but I would imagine a lot of people trade against that because it is so obvious at times.
My general objective is not to be seen by the market, so I tend to adjust my stakes according to prevailing liquidity. As a result, I tend to scale into and out of positions.