For the record

Week 51 - Crack open the champagne!

Well it's done. I have finally made it past the finish post. This week was just fine and I comfortably made the required amount of £120 without too much bother. What a great feeling it is to have completed the mission. The year has flown by! It just goes to show you that with the right tools and advice it is still possible to achieve good results.

I know some old time traders pour scorn and say it's no longer possible but I hope this has given everybody renewed vigour in their quest to make it pay. If you are focused and know what you are doing, it is possible. I wouldn't say that this suits everybody and some people just wont have the skills or mindset required, but it's certainly a great opportunity. Give it a try, I don't think we have seen the end of this opportunity just yet!

So there you have it, from a starting bank of £1000, or £2000 if you count the top up I needed to use stakes of £1000, I have lifted that to 100 times the starting amount in just under a year. I've prepared the deposit and withdrawal information from Betfair and scanned the first cheque I drew down of £50k. I'll need a little more time to get to £100k net of the premium charge but when that is complete in a couple of weeks time I'll post up that cheque of £50k as well. That should round off the challenge nicely. I'll be trading next week apart from the two days where there is no racing, but I probably won't bother posting the results now that the challenge is complete. Over the Christmas break I'll think about what to do for next year.

As for the £100k I now need to decide what to do with it. Any suggestions, sensible or daft, welcome. I had hoped to put more money into the market, but with my current trading style that seems impossible.

Have great Christmas everybody and thanks for your support throughout the year!

Week 50 - Agonisingly short

I tried really hard last week to finish things off but, mainly thanks to the weather, I fell just short. In fact it was agonisingly short, only £119! So by the time you read this I should have succeeded in going past my target in the first few days of week 51. I'll be able to confirm next week.

It's Just as well as there is only really one week left in the year. In week 52 there is a full card on Monday, not much on Tuesday, then it's the Christmas break so no chance to trade then. I'll be looking to keep my nose clean in week 51 and not make any serious mistakes. If I do that I'll be able to report 'task complete' next week.

Week 49 - Tough

How I wish I could have blasted through my target this week. It looks like it's going to drag into the Christmas period. Week 50 isn't looking great either! I hope I am not losing it just before the finish line.

I emailed Betfair and got them to confirm my deposits and withdrawals so that's all tidied up. I have the screenshots as well as the confirmation spreadsheet from Betfair. I also found my scan of the first withdrawal that I did on my account in the middle of the year. All I need to do now is wait for the total to rise a bit and then I can do the last withdrawal on the account for this challenge.

I did bump into a problem this week that I hadn't considered. The screenshots you see each week are the totals taken by looking at the 'betting profit and loss' section on my Betfair account. This total includes comission but not the premium charge! As a result my gross profit for the year will, errr.. should, go past the £100k mark but my net profit probably will not. I hadn't thought of that! For the sake of completeness I'll declare it a success on a gross level but continue to trade for a bit to reach £100k net. At that point I can draw down the last £50k, well that's the plan anyway.

Week 48 - Inching closer

Another step closer to the £100k, but this week was a struggle and required a lot of effort. I am moving forward nicely and still on target before the year ends.

I've been thinking about how to close out the total. I posted up early on the amount deposited to Betfair and the method used, so I think I've come up with a way to round things off. I am sure if I email Betfair they will be able to confirm all deposits and withdrawals from the account. When I reach the total I will draw down the remaining amount to £100k and put the details up on the blog for you all to see. I think that's a neat way to close out the blog.

At the moment it looks like my reach for the final total will drag into Christmas so I may not be able to pull all the stuff together till early in the new year. The reason, I'll draw the last payment from Betfair by cheque so I can copy and put that up here for you.

I am still pondering what to do for next year. I'll trade for sure, but I need to think of something more original than the current blog in my opinion.

Week 47 - So, so close now......

That week felt like I was much more in control of things and I've added another step towards the £100k. I am just £6k short of the magical amount now and there are only five weeks left in the year. I need an average of £1.2k a week to breech my target inside the year.

The year has flown by and I am already starting to think about what I do next, any ideas are welcome! I think it interesting to see the sort of comments that have appeared on the blog over the year. Some people are very encouraging whereas some are downright rude! There is also quite a lot of scepticism as well. That's a shame, as I am very grateful for the opportunity to have a crack at achieving the £100k and very humbled by the support and advice I have been given to achieve this.

I think you should be reflective when you look at the numbers I have been achieving. In total they look great but in fact they are made up from lots of little bits. I've 'gambled' on many many thousands of races this year to get this far and it seems to me that if you are prepared to put in the effort it's not impossible to get something out of these markets. Even if you average £1 a race, I think there are probably somewhere in the region of 10,000 races a year, so it doesn't take a massive leap of imagination to get even a small total.

I hope I have a couple of good weeks to take the pressure off else I'll be trading over Christmas to reach the total. Wish me luck!

Week 46 - Yuck!

That was the toughest week for some time. On the Tuesday I had a difficult day and even resorted to trading on the dogs to top up a pretty poor total for the day. I didn't really have any luck, things never went my way, the racing was poor quality and the weather was rubbish. Other than that a good week! I hope I see a return to form next week.