Play it Again, Sam

Today I was more patient and cautious. One immediately obvious difference was the number of scratch trades I was doing (opening and closing a trade at the same price), implementing a key rule in any form of speculative trading, namely getting out as soon as you sense things may not be quite right. I started the day by trading 7 races with no losses, not even a single losing trade, so all was good. Then it was like revisiting yesterday! Holoko Heights in the 18:50 at Kempton was the turnaround point. I opened with a bet of $60 @ 5.3 and about 5 seconds later the market gapped up to the top of the ladder. It then stabilized and the Weight of Money indicated a possible downward slide, but it didn't last long and of course I hadn't closed out. So I was once again diving to get out and incurred another 9 tick loss!! I managed a 2 tick winning trade to reduce the loss a little (from $11.19 to $9.15), but it was still a big loss in percentage terms. Two of the three races I subsequently traded ended with profits while the other was level (6 scratch trades believe it or not). It's hard to believe that one trade can turn so bad so quickly and wipe out a significant percentage of the benefits gained from an otherwise flawless pile of trades. Clearly I have a lot to learn.