Another losing week, but I’ve got the perfect explanation for it – emotional hedging! Yes, in my infinite wisdom I decided to get involved in a few trades that involved my team, and if the bets won then I was quids in, and if the bets lost then that meant that my team was in a better position for it. Ideally I should have kept these aside from my main bets, but I decided not to bother and I also wanted to be transparent with you all. If I never did the emotional hedging trades then I would have been approx. £140 up. But as it was, I was approx. £102 down. Here’s a summary of my trades for week 12:

You can probably spot the emotional hedged bets. These are the Arsenal vs Forest and City vs Liverpool games. It total I lost around £242. I bet on Arsenal to win, which obviously never happened, and that Liverpool would not win against City. Looking back it was a bit daft to do this. Yes, Liverpool are a step closer to winning the title, but I’m £242 down. These events would have happened if I did or didn’t make those trades. So it’s a bit stupid for me to have made those trades. From now on, I’m not going to do any further emotional hedge trades. It’s pointless, because you get a nice feeling from your team winning but you also get the pain from losing money. So the nice feeling of winning is cancelled out by the misery of a financial loss. You’re at a neutral point. If I bet on Liverpool winning then I would have really, really have enjoyed the moment. I would have made money and also seen my team pick up three points. So from now, no more emotional hedging.

Here’s how week 12 compares against the other weeks:

Hey-ho. Another terrible week but I’m putting this down to my own making. Had I just followed my normal trades then I would have made a big dent into the money lost this season. I would now be looking at a total loss of £480, which is a whole lot better than the loss of £721 I’m currently staring at.

I’m getting a little bit nervous that there’s not too many weeks left for me to turn this season around. I’m looking at having to make around £80 a week in order to break even, as I probably won’t trade the last couple of weeks. This is daunting as much as it is depressing. I’m gutted the season’s end is on the horizon as it seems like another season gone by that I’ve kind of wasted. I don’t seem to have made much progress from the last two seasons in terms of profits made. Yes I made a massive mistake and that cost me dearly. And if I spotted it sooner then I might well have been making a decent profit. But these things I should have really been on top of and tested thoroughly. Who knows, I might have a decent season yet and a strong and profitable end to it. I’ll see.

I’m trading midweek, and probably won’t trade the FA Cup games. The other main leagues should be up and running, so I’ll be keeping an eye on them too. Good luck on all your trading this week. And may the Lord be with you, as ever always!