Summer has almost gone
Seeing Wolverhampton on the card again made me realise another summer has almost passed into the spreadsheet of history.
One of the realities of sports trading is that summer is peak season across a number of sports for me, so it’s a valuable time to get into top gear. I mourn it’s passing. But my attention will now turn to Tennis for the US Open and back to Football for the winter months. Racing, of course, is an all year round sport, though busier in the summer.
During the summer my focus in purely on doing as much as I can in the markets, so other stuff has to take a back seat. This includes normal holidays, this is one of the sacrifices I’ve had to make to pursue excellence. During peak period I can earn 3 or 4 times as much as I can during the quieter months. So a holiday in the summer is very expensive. I remember somebody ribbing me about relocating my trading during the summer to a holiday home which they thought was a bit sad. But a decent five figure result that week shows why I do it. I guess it’s all relative, if you don’t earn much you won’t miss much.
But.. experience has taught me to grab every opportunity that comes, in previous lives I was not mature enough to realise that and it cost me dearly. That fact aside, it’s easy with trading to put in a full shift without affecting a holiday. But a holiday in the winter it’s easy to afford and one week in the summer, it is effectively a month’s break in the winter. So the choice is obvious, really decent luxury holiday in the winter! You can afford a much better holiday in the winter and for longer when you compare like for like costs and advantage. Guaranteed sun is only an overnight long haul flight away and once you have done it once you realise having a completely clean break when things are quiet is real quality way to enjoy time with the family.
As we turn into winter I tend to do more on the analysis front and the footy season is going to allow me to carry forward knowledge from the World Cup this summer. The (Football) World Cup was interesting in that the ‘wrong’ strategy worked for me. Something I thought would perform poorly actually performed really well during the world cup. So that’s giving me a clue as to how I can implement that strategy during the domestic season. That will be the first thing I test.
So I’ll always suggest you make hay while the sun shines. But if you are starting out, don’t get depressed, it’s all relative. So plenty to be getting on with, just lower your expectations if you have been over worked during the summer. In some respects. the winter brings a less ‘manic’ and more predictable angle to your trading. Still loads of opportunities around to get stuck into and as I mentioned earlier racing is pretty much a 365 day a year sport. So that should keep you busy.
Category: Trading strategies
