2013 Season Review

So it's that time of year when I look back on how things have gone for my trading. When you consider how I ended the year, which was beyond my expectations, it's easy to forget how I started it. I was not far away from quitting trading completely back in February. I remember being very frustrated at the fact I could not afford to compound my profit and would not be able to do so for the foreseeable future. This twinned with the fact that the trading syndicate I'd traded for a few months earlier, had turned my head towards bigger possibilities, meant that I felt as though I should have been making much more than I was. This affected my mindset when trading, to the point where treading water was no longer good enough and I became impatient and started making mistakes. I had discussions with a couple of people about potentially investing in me but they fell through and that was almost the final straw for me.  I spent the longest time away from the blog that I'd had since I started it. I was ready to give up trading.

Instead, I re-grouped, got my head straight and ploughed on, more determined than ever. With my mind back in the right place, I produced my best ever month of profit in April and shortly afterwards, I was contacted by an individual who really changed everything for me. I've thanked him before on the blog but I'm going to thank him again because without his faith in me, I would never have been able to reach the kind of figures I have been hitting since May. This person's investment in me, enabled tennis trading to become my main source of income and to finally allow me to compound and go it alone successfully. Without that help, I would still be treading water.

Let me just be clear to anyone out there who may have the wrong impression though; the increased size of my bank was not the sole reason my profit increased. I did not change a single thing about my trading when the investment arrived. The extra cash did not mean I made more trades or got involved in more games or used a higher percentage of my bank to trade with. The only thing that changed was the amount of profit I got from doing the exact same things. A bigger bank doesn't make you a better trader. It just means you win more when you win and lose more when you lose!

So what is 2014 likely to bring? Well the most obvious thing will be Ladbrokes Exchange. I have already started trading more on Betdaq since Lads became part of their network. In fact, I traded every match from the ATP World Tour Finals on Betdaq. Liquidity was decent enough, though most of the money was clearly seeded by Ladbrokes because large chunks would routinely disappear from the market as the points were being played. Not a big issue for my style of trading in most matches but nonetheless, the depth of liquidity on offer has a long way to go to match Betfair. But that's to be expected and I think things will improve as the year goes on. I'll definitely be putting more of my money into the market and felt a warm glow of satisfaction at the end of the tournament when I was able to say that Betfair got NONE of the commission from my profit!

My goals have shifted dramatically over the past 6 months. I'm now not going to be satisfied with earning a regular, average wage each month. So I want to hit the £250k mark as quickly as possible and then leave Betfair for good. There is no way that anyone is getting 50% of my hard earned cash, even if that means never trading again. Hopefully, Lads Exchange will have changed the landscape by then and all those years of losing actually won't seem so bad after all, as I will never have paid back that much in premium charges!

With Sultan Tennis Trading Academy now in full swing, things really couldn't be any different to how they were at the start of 2013, with it's doom and gloom. In retrospect, things were never that bad for me. I was  heading in the right direction but just began to feel  a bit weary and fed up of the daily grind of trading. That's why the academy is so important to me because I don't want to end up in that state of mind again and it helps to preoccupy me when my own trading becomes monotonous. It also takes away some of the solitude of trading and adds greater purpose to my work life.

If anyone is still interested in joining up to start the new tennis season, it begins officially on December 30th but I will begin trading on the 26th for the Mubadala Exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. I trade this every year as it's always a strong line-up with good liquidity; Murray, Nadal, Djokovic, Ferrer, Tsonga and Wawrinka take part this year. It's unlikely I will be taking on any more new members in January, so get in touch now to reserve a spot. In fact, if I find I am too busy in January, it's possible I will never take on any more  new members - so if the academy interests you, now is the time join.

That's it from me till after Christmas now, so hope you enjoy the festive period and remember to be cautious at this time of year: don't drink and trade!