A little of this, a little of that

A good week's work in all, especially considering I was away for the weekend so missed out on the majority of trading. I wasn't particularly devastated though, as Cup weekends aren't my favourite, especially the later rounds where there aren't many ties but still too many to have a Premier League fixture list. Anyway though, the week went well, and I finished £23.36 in profit, which isn't bad from a bank of £100. The main source came from the 0-0 half time lays, which have not yet had a losing bet (though I conveniently managed to sidestep the losing bets over the weekend when I was away). I realise they won't always be winning, but as long as they're profitable long term like their results suggest, then that will do me.

The tests of my own are going well, finishing with small but steady profits for the week. With the dutching, I am having a bit of trouble figuring out which is the best method for it. At present I am looking to dutch around 4 or 5 results for a total of £5 stake at over evens odds, and usually I look at games which are predicted under 2.5 goals. For the majority of the matches, if it is 0-0 at half time I will trade out for around 50% profit on all outcomes. I'm not sure whether I prefer this, or whether I prefer to dutch matches with a clear favourite, as this allows me to go for a higher profit. Last night I tried backing many outcomes throughout the match so I was covered on most outcomes instead of just taking a small loss at half time like I should have. I ended up 20p in the green, but I didn't like how much red was left on the unlikely (but not impossible) scorelines as it was well over double my original stake. Luckily I didn't lose out on this occasion and I have decided I will not use it again.

My other system is still in early stages. It is just a simple laying method but at the moment it has no real structure but I am slowly developing it. Also this week I have had a rejuvenated appreciation for laying the draw (mainly due to the success of a version of it on my Laytheodds review) and have been dabbling with it a bit. Many people have many different things to say about laying the draw, and I'm still unsure as to whether it can be profitable long term. I know a lot of people are very successful with it, but I also know that many have lost a lot with it, so I am going to test it out for a while and see how it goes. Still only small stakes so it shouldn't hurt me too much. I have also put a small poll on the left of the page to gauge what the most common opinion of it is, please feel free to vote but only serious votes please, and try to only vote if you have a basis for your answer.

Another milestone in my trading life is properly documenting all of my results so that I can see what has been working and where I'm going wrong. Last week I started this and have three different sections; the first is recording my Correct Score Dutches, the second is looking at my Lays, and the third is 'Other'. Each one has a bank of £100 but in actual fact I am only using £100 overall (as you know), so I am just doing this for eases sake, hopefully it won't affect me. Good luck this week, happy trading one and all.