The £29,000 Trade

The biggest topic of discussion this week has been the man caught courtsiding at the Australian Open, which I commented on myself (see previous post below). I almost missed a great post by Cassini on Green All Over on the subject, delving into Sporting Data Ltd in a bit more detail. Such is the prolific nature of Cassini's posts, even though I check every day for new posts, I would have missed this entirely had I not been on Twitter and read a tweet about it from another sports trader. Many of you will know this trader as Matt who used to write the superb blog Punt.com a few years ago. His tweet about Cassini lead me directly onto Matt's timeline, where I noticed he had just tweeted this:


Not an unfamiliar sight from the man (and not the first time I've stuck a screenshot of his on the blog) but nonetheless, it never fails to leave you open-mouthed at what can be achieved. The reason why I bring this one up in particular, is because with all the furore about Sporting Data and courtsiding, it could easily be felt by many that the average Joe has got no chance of competing in the sports markets. No doubt at all, these guys are stiff competition and have a distinct advantage over the rest of us in terms of man-power, time and capital. But what Matt shows is that it isn't impossible to compete against them - or alongside them. Having spoken with Matt, read his blog and followed his tweets for a while, I know that he doesn't do anything particularly different to what I do - he's just got years more experience and does it a whole lot better!

Being successful at tennis trading is tough - absolutely no question. To reach the level Matt has reached takes time and dedication that the vast majority of traders either can't or are not willing to, invest. But this is a GOOD thing - if it wasn't tough, we'd all be doing it until it reached a point where no one could make any money because too many of us were good at it. But people should not be put off trying to become part of the 1 or 2 or 5% or whatever the figure is of profitable traders, just because there are big money syndicates out there. The ones with all the statisticians and data coming out of their ears are only as good as their analysts. There is more than one way to skin a cat and I like to think that I'm proving it doesn't have to be all about number crunching.


As for the courtsiders, I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you don't leave your money in the market, it can't get taken! It's really simple. My money NEVER gets hoovered up by courtsiders. Yet almost every single match I trade, I am laughing, sometimes literally shouting at the screen "TAKE YOUR MONEY OUT!" at the often vast wads of cash left sitting around well after a point has finished, like stunned tiddlers at the mercy of sharks. When I see the size of some of the individual amounts getting hoovered, it proves to me that there are a lot of people out there with more money than sense. It's not how big your wad is, it's what you do with it that counts!

These markets are not completely sewn up if you know what to look for. Matt is the best example of this that I can think of. It also might interest people to know (and I'm sure he won't mind me saying this because he posted it on Twitter) that he wasn't in profit for the Australian Open until this mammoth win. This goes to show that it's all about being selective and that even the best traders don't win every day. As for my first week of Australian Open action, I'm pleased to report I'm also doing very well. I made roughly £28,000 less than Matt did on the Ivanovic win but hey, if anyone fancies paying for me to go to Dubai or Acapulco or Pattaya next month to push a few buttons in my pocket, I'm sure I can make up the rest pretty quickly!