Just Add Water

Where The Magic Happens

A very entertaining read over at A Football Traders Path. One of those subjects I wish I had thought of writing about myself, because SoccerDude has, in my opinion, hit the nail on the head. For most of us, our setup is indeed somewhat irrelevant. Yes, you need a reliable PC or laptop, Internet access, and pictures for your sports of choice, but that's about it.

While you don't necessarily 'need' a stand-alone office, I do think you need somewhere where you are free of distractions, but anyone who thinks that investing in multiple computers and screens and the fastest connection is going to 'magically' give them an edge, is someone about to fail miserably. When I first started back in 2004, I still had dial-up Internet access! The point is that buying an expensive calculator doesn't make you a mathematician.

SoccerDude's piece achieved the rare distinction of being deemed worthy of being read out loud to Mrs Cassini, (she's not much into trading), who said it reminded her of 'that young guy who went on about water'. (Apparently I've subjected her to wonderful stories from the world of trading at least twice now. She'll be leaving me soon.) 

How could I forget? The importance of staying hydrated, from the Young Pretender Adam 'H2O' Heathcote in May 2010.

Here are his words of water wisdom from those halcyon days, advice up there with John O'Dwyer claiming an edge that appears with bank size or Mark Iverson's advice to keep a large calendar on your desk as you need to take the time of the month into consideration when calculating your edge. Sometimes. (You've heard of Kelly, and Half-Kelly - well, this is the little known Calendar Kelly).

One of the most important factors when trading is to stay hydrated. It makes sense and it's the same for anything else you do. I've always noticed that when I'm not hydrated, it's that little bit easier to get irritated or your decisions will start to worsen; ever so slightly your competitive edge is lost. So keep a pint of water next to you at all times. I always make sure I have water beside me, and the times I don't (when I forget) it soon starts to show in my results and slowed decision making. What's worse is that if you're trading and you don't already have the water beside you and you trade a bad race, the first thing that comes to mind is to make it back up on the next race instead of going to the kitchen to fill your glass, the number of times I do this; it's probably been my biggest sin. So choose the latter and get the water straight-away once you notice; it pays off in the long-run. I decided to write this post because I made that mistake today and paid for it.

There was a lot of support for Adam I recall, and his name still shows up regularly as the search term that results in hits on this blog. One of my all-time favourite comments was this one, on the subject of Adam:

Sorry, but you are clearly a miserable old man. Get a life pal, having read snippets of your blog you demonstrate extreme arrogance. Who the hell do you think you are? Take a look at yourself and learn from people like Adam. Your the type of bloke that would marry a Thai bride, sport a little beard and wear crocs. Write about something interesting ffs. Youre an idiot.

Whenever I feel a little down, I read those words, and all is soon right with the world.

I wonder how that trading advisory service of Adam's is doing these days? Oh yeah, I remember now: One subscriber to his 'service' wrote at the time I aired my doubts:

"Adam Heathcote is totally legitimate and a bloody nice guy. Reasons for setting up the service is, why not? It's nice to run your own business and it increases self worth, and it's a great price for what he is offering in fairness."

Same guy, (20 hours later):

"Can I post a full and frank apology. Got this all very wrong. The service being provided is truly truly, utterly horrific."

Cassini Towers (late in the month)

Speaking of magic, I did have a bet magically disappear last night. I stepped away from the Cassini Trading Command Centre (pictured left) to rehydrate, grab some food, check the calendar, take a power nap, go for a run, trim my beard, put on my Crocs, go for a Thai meal with my (non-Thai) bride, take a few days off to recharge etc. - all those things that top traders do, and on my return was unable to locate my Pakistan v Australia T20 profits. I even checked in my little used Australian Wallet, but nope, just cobwebs there. My meagre, but everything helps, profits had vanished. Where the magic happens. Since I don't often trade cricket, I had quite forgotten that in the event of a tie, all bets on the Match Odds market are void, and turns out that is exactly what happened. Only the fifth time that an international T20 has ended in a tie I am told (my cricket research team sits in the second row, towards the right), so the odds on a tied game are presumably pretty decent.