Hello my flock. My children. My brethren. How did the trading go this weekend? For me it was a very mixed bag. I typically don’t tend to trade FA Cup matches due to me not being fully knowledgeable about all the teams involved, but there were some fixtures that were all-Premier League affairs, so I decided to pick a couple out and look to see what angles I could find. The games were Liverpool vs Wolves and Man City vs Chelsea.

Liverpool vs Wolves
I decided to pick out the correct scores of 2-0, 2-1, AOH and a little flutter of 1-2 in Wolves’ favour. Because Liverpool were also very strong favourites I decided to lay them due to their current form, and the fact it covered any other result bar a Liverpool win.

The match didn’t start the best as Wolves took the lead. But the red being shown wasn’t massive due to the fact I still had a couple of correct scorelines still in-play. Due to me not expecting Wolves to go 0-1 ahead, and being kind of rusty, I decided to get out of my correct scoreline trades. Later on in the match, when Liverpool took the lead, I decided to cash out of the “Lay Liverpool” trade.

Looking back at these trades, what a tragedy this all was. Instead of posting a big green for this fixture, I was looking at a very small loss instead. This could all have been avoided if I just planned a little better. Ideally I should have just sat on my hands and not been as reactionary as I was. I already had cover if my correct score never came in, so I’m not sure why I decided to trade out of my correct scorelines when Wolves went ahead, and then traded out of my “lay Liverpool” when Liverpool went ahead. What I should have done, if I was going to trade out early, is traded out of all trades rather than one and not the other. This would have at least given me a good green on the ‘lay Liverpool’ trade. If I was going to trade out late, then I should have traded out when Liverpool went 2-1 up. This would have given me green on the 2-1 correct scoreline, and green on the ‘lay Liverpool’ trade if I decided to stay in for that. Basically, I should have done anything but what I ended up doing. To me, this just tells me that I should plan properly before going into a trade, and know my entry and exit points. This will need work on going forwards.

Man City vs Chelsea
I decided not to trade the correct score market for this fixture, and instead opted to trade something a little different – the under 1.5 first half goals (U1.5FHG) market. This is because I thought it would be another tight match, similar to their Premier League game a few days earlier. Well it turned out to be nothing of the sort, and again I was kicking myself, as the correct scorelines I would have taken would have fell right into my lap. But, my gut was telling me to stay away, so that’s what I did. Thankfully enough, I managed to get out of the trade I did opt for at no loss (or profit).

The U1.5FHG market is something I have traded previously, and I have had some good fortune within this market. I may look at delving into this market again, but for now I’ll concentrate on the correct score market instead until I’m competent at that.

Chelsea vs Man City
Away from the FA Cup, I did trade the Chelsea vs Man City Premier League game which occurred on Thursday night, 5th Jan. I opted for the 0-1, 0-2, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and AOA correct scorelines. Typing them out just now, I did have an awful lot of scorelines chosen. I probably need to limit the number of trades selected going forward, but in my defence I think a few of these were hedged, rather than straight bets. The 0-1 scoreline was traded out of early in the first half when the scoreline was 0-0. The reasons being, I did think there was going to be goals in this game, and Chelsea were having the better half and looked more likely to score the first goal. If this happened, the 0-1 trade would have been dead in the water.

Shortly after Man City scored I decided to trade out for a healthy profit of £8.63, which went some way to atoning for my £15 trading loss the previous day.

Confession Time
All in all, I think my trading went quite poorly this week, with the Liverpool vs Wolves game a particular depressing low point. Yes, you could argue that at least I never suffered a massive loss, and came out of it relatively unscathed. But in terms of my planning and reactions to what went on in play – I am disappointed with how I dealt with them. In a way, I’ve been more enthused with previous big losing trades where I’ve traded well in, than I am with this particular trade. I’m not sure whether it’s the ‘missed opportunity’ of it all that has caused me to be like this, but there’s certainly some big lessons learnt to be taken away from this particular trade. The Man City vs Chelsea FA Cup game is another missed opportunity. But it didn’t feel right so I kept away from it. I think I’m being too hard on myself, and I need to understand that I can’t beat myself up about it too much. I feel as though I’m on a cusp of something big, but I keep having these setbacks. I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and I’m positive it will all come good in the end.