VIP Trader

The dreaded email from Betfair arrived today, from an email address of vip @ betfair, which presumably is meant to make me feel important! The slightly good news is that the new charges are effective from October 8th, so I do have this week and next to lose a load and drop of out reach, but otherwise it'll be a whole new ball game.

VIP is a person who is accorded special privileges due to his or her status or importance

With special privileges meaning I can now pay the Super Premium Charge, I really wouldn't mind being just an average Cassini. Well, not average average, maybe something more like slightly above average average Cassini really. Any 'real' privileges I may now qualify look less than promising.

On the subject of Reality Trading, 500 to 5000 reminded me that:

They had a TV show a while ago similar to this, it was called 'Million Dollar traders' and was broadcast a few years ago. Participants were given a trading crash course and then had to go and make money from a 1 million dollar start up.

I do recall this show, and blogging on it at the time (early 2009). I don't remember learning too much from it though, actually nothing at all, and as it only ran for three episodes, apparently I wasn't alone in finding it slightly less than riveting as entertainment. Lex van Dam came up with the idea:

If you want to see the proof, I created a BBC television series called Million Dollar Traders. The series was based on the premise that in a very short time period I could teach a group of complete beginners how to trade. I put my money where my mouth was and gave them $1 million to trade for a period of eight weeks. The result was amazing: the group as a whole did better than the professionals over that period. Unfortunately not everybody had the ability or mental toughness to trade, but what became clear to me was that you just can’t tell beforehand: the best traders of the group were a soldier, a student and as I just said a 40-year-old mother with two kids.

Incidentally, isn't an 'online TV' series something of an oxymoron? 

I hope a few of you made some money from my observations on the Tottenham Hotspur v Lazio game just ended. A perfect draw, the easiest of Unders, and again, the intra-league ratings perform well. Now that the midweek games are over, I can update the numbers and find more winners for this weekend. 

Simon commented:

Hi Cassini, 'Incredible' banter as ever. Some might not get you, but your recent posts have made me chuckle, I'm especially appreciating the quantity of posts lately.

About 3 years ago I had a blog for a brief stint although I can' remember its name, and you were kind enough to add it to your blog roll. Rather like the traders that The Sultan refers to, I obviously don't know when to quit. The difference this time, hopefully, is that I want to actually talk about sport as well as the odd story of me doing my dough after playing beer pong at some chick's house party. Anyway, the blog is at http://whenindoubtcallitout.blogspot.co.uk, please check it out and, if you like, add it to your blog. 

Yes, some people do take me a little too seriously, but that's a small price to pay to amuse the other 99%. I'm still kind, so I have added the newest blog incarnation to the blog roll. I have a feeling it will be mostly about tennis, despite the tease of 'other sports' and 'some chick's house party'. With the apostrophe positioned where it is, I'm wondering if Simon just knows the one chick? 

For those of you who took my advice on backing Obama to be re-elected, some pleasing poll numbers from swing states Virginia and North Carolina in the past couple of days. Unfortunately, this market will be settled after October 8th, so maybe my winnings won't be so great after all!