Spetember - October

Another month over, (despite what some calendars might suggest), and with the autumnal equinox behind us, winter is on its way. But we like winter, or at least we like the sports that winter brings.

September is a transitional month. Tennis has its last major tournament of the year, golf is winding down, but football is in full swing, as is the American version with the NFL.

I am now into my fifth year of semi-serious trading on the exchanges. Hard to believe, but I have the spreadsheet to prove it. September was down on last year, but second best overall, so I'll take that. I'm slightly ahead of last years total at this stage, and with the anniversary of the Premium Charge now here, I am no longer competing with a 20% handicap. Plus last October, I actually made a small loss, so there's even more chance I can stay ahead in the next month!

The best news from last month is that my football betting is showing a profit. I wrote at the end of last month, "the Form ratings are showing a lot of promise as I mentioned a couple of days ago (+56%) but with only 36 games played, there's no getting too excited just yet. It takes me a good 2/3 hours a week to maintain all the ratings and whilst I only do the Form and Power numbers for the Premier League so far, if I find they are profitable, then I may be spending a few more hours a week and include the lower leagues."

The Form numbers continue to show promise, but I haven't the time to expand this study to the other leagues yet. It seems to me that with the book close to 100%, you only need a small edge to be able to show a profit. A little tweaking here and there, and the search goes on. It's an interesting challenge, as well as fun.

Good luck in October.