I apologise....

.....to one and all for not keeping up my blog page but (I have had countless complaints!) I do have a few good excuses to fall back on. Due to a financial change of circumstance, I have had to find a way of subsidising my meagre pension. Therefore, yet again, I have had to learn a new 'profession.'  I am now a trainee online Bookmaker!

 

One of my very good friends here in Cyprus is a Bookmaker and has a line of betting shops back in the UK. He suggested I take a look at Arbitrage trading. I rushed back home to my trusty laptop which worked hard into the early hours of the morning. I'm sure you all know the saying, 'if it looks too good to be true, it usually is.' After more than a month of research, I was still not convinced, or more accurately, I just could not get my head around the process until I came across an article which compared it to trading in commodities on the Stock Market i.e. you buy say a ton of widget's for £10 and with the next breath sell the widget's for £10.50p therefore making a small profit. So it is with any sporting event one cares to specialise in. In my case it is horse racing. So, as soon as the online horse racing Bookmakers open their books, it's a matter of looking at the odds on offer and comparing the bookmakers odds with online exchange betting sites odds, which are more generous than the online betting sites. Therefore since last September, seven days a week, my time has been entirely devoted to learning how to make a modest daily gain and I am still learning.

 

I have not bothered to go into too much detail above because although arbitrage trading in it's basic form is simple as described above, the physical aspect of betting on a horse to lose a race on a exchange betting site is far from simplistic. I paper traded (Used exchange betting sites without actually placing a real bet) for four months before going live.  It is physically and mentally exhausting sitting in front of a computer for up to five or six hours seven days a week, so it's not for everyone. "If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it," so I keep seeing it written. It takes a lot of dedication and discipline getting it right every time, which is not always possible but apart from the financial benefits at my age it keeps the grey cells working, the few I still have that is :-)

 

My second excuse, although it is a weak one, is back in February of this year, I had to return to the UK for a complete knee replacement. Ok, I know some people will be thinking I'm a cheeky so and so for returning to the UK for the operation. To those I simply say that it is my right by the fact I paid my dues to the UK Government for forty-four years. I was away for over three months before I was fit enough to travel back to my beloved Cyprus: my small piece of paradise.

 

OK, it's time for me to go for my daily swim in the warm Mediterranean Sea, then my afternoon siesta, after which my daily work begins in front of my computer.