I use MS Money [click here to download a copy] to keep records of my trading activity, income and expenses.
Setting up the program to work with trading as opposed to daily book-keeping is explained in my basic guide and I have provided screenshots and video instructions in my video tutorials.
2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006
2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011
January 2, 2011 at 11:09 am
[...] My Trading Accounts [...]
January 27, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Trading Using Different Currencies;
Hi Alan,
I am from Australia and many of the international bookmakers only trade in USD or GBP, making it problematic because all my capital is in AUD. Hence, if I convert $50,000 trading capital into USD dollars I could lose significant money on Currency Conversion fees & currency fluctuations.
Do you have any advice for getting around this issue??
Cheers,
Sam
January 27, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Dear Sam,
Thanks very much for writing.
There’s not really anyway to get around it – you have to make a decision about which currency to use & then deal with the consequences of that decision. If you choose to stay in AUD then you’re trading activity will be restricted to those bookmakers who accept that currency, if you choose to convert to a more widely accepted currency then you face some fees & the uncertainty brought about by currency fluctuations which may go with you or against you.
Perhaps you could use a financial instrument to hedge against the currency fluctuation but I can’t advise you on the specifics.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Alan Seymour
January 29, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Sam,
I think I have a solution for you. I previously worked at a bank in Australia selling fx, commodity and interest rate derivatives. Not that I would advise using a bank for your purpose however.
Your best bet is to hedge the fx rate using CFD’s (contracts for difference). I use igmarkets.com.au but there are plenty of other companies that do the same thing.
Here are the basic steps.
1.) Open a CFD account trading account, this is free and usually requires 100 pts identification, similar to any betting account.
2.)Enter into an open ended trade to sell $50,000 USD and buy AUD. (This is of course after you have converted your money to USD and deposited with various betting accounts). Traders would call this “shorting the us dollar against the aussie”. In other words your position benefits if the aud declines against the usd, and loses if the aud rises against the usd. Either way it offset any change in the exchange rate. Of course you will not benefit from favourable moves in the exchange rate but you will also not be harmed by unfavaourable moves.
3.)At this point whenever the value of the AUD declines against the USD you will generate a postive figure in your cfd account, and of course if the value of the AUD increases against the USD you will generate a negative value in your CFD account. Either way it offsets and your intial $50,000 AUD will be preserved.
4.) Whenever you decide to transfer any of the USD back to AUD reduce you CFD contract by the same amount. (ie, you send $10k USD back to Australia, reduce you $50k CFD contract by $10k) You’re profit or loss on the CFD will offset any change in the exchange rate.
Here are a couple things to consider.
-You are required to keep a deposit of 1% of the face value of your CFD contract with the CFD provider. $50,000 – $500 deposit. However you will earn interest on this deposit.
-If your CFD contract goes into the negative (ie the exchange rate moves in a way that creates a negative balance) you will also be required to have on deposit, the amount of this negative balance. Your CFD provider will notify you if this happens and this is called a margin call. Of course if the exchange returns to where it was you will have access to these funds again.
CFD providers have a small spread on each market. I believe IG markets charges 1 basis point (maybe 2). In other words if you hedged $50,000 with a CFD and them immediately closed the hedged you would generate a small loss equivalent to their spread. In this example 50,000 x .0001 or $5. ($10 if it’s a 2 pt spread).
Anyway, those are the basics. There are good tutorials on most CFD providers websites and if you have any questions along the way let me know.
cheers,
Rick
April 13, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Hi Alan,
First of all i would like to thansk you for putting this information on the web, it’s been invaluable for me to learn about Sports Arb Trading.
I have a question though. I am following your advice and setting up MS Money as you have advised but i am struggling with recording my bets and consequential wins and loses. Would you explain the process a little more please.
Thanks in advance
Andy
April 15, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Dear Andy,
Thanks very much for writing.
It would be quite a detailed explanation in text & I have provided as much as I can in this format in my introductory guide which is free to download:
http://sportsarbitragereview.wordpress.com/trading-journals-books/
I’ve also demonstrated the method in video format; these videos are available free with the cross market trading books bundle that’s shown on the same page.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Alan Seymour
October 7, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Hi, I am retired, couple of reasonable pensions so better off than many BUT I do need to pay up my mortgage . I am an experianced bettor/trader on football but still taking two steps forward and two back. Im looking at arbitrage now and intend to have a 6 month trial. I have a £5000 bank to use in the trial, if I can get reasonable succes with it I can up my bank to £30,000
I want to achieve ROI of £15,000 year, is this a too ambitious
target, finally will your site still be running in 5 years time.
regards, mick whitehill (ps having problems signing up)
October 17, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Dear Mick,
Thanks very much for writing.
If you increase your bankroll to £30k, then a profit of £15k should be fairly easy to achieve over the course of a year.
I don’t know if I’ll still be running in 5 years’ time, let alone the site
All the best.
Sincerely,
Alan Seymour
November 13, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Hi Alan
Arbsurfer/traderzone – When you recieve an arbalarm do you have to enter the sites by yourself and scroll down the pages to find the exact odds or goes all this automatically?
And when you scalp the bonuses at different boomakers do Arbsurfer show you excactly at which bookmakers you have to place your bets or do you have to do it yourself too?
Hope you understand mmy questions
Best regards John
December 15, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Dear John,
Thanks very much for writing.
Yes, you have to find the bets yourself. For arbs, middles & scalps, the software provides you with the bookmakers.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Alan Seymour
March 13, 2012 at 4:07 am
Hi Allen,
After scooping through your blog, i found that it’s quite amazed how you can earn about 8k/month as my main issue is: don’t you get limite by the bookmakers? Do you keep changing ID every few months?? is it harder for bookies to identify larger wager ie: let say the figures 21.15 so instead of betting 22 pound, we bet 220. I mean what’s your way around. I am just about to start this business, so if i start betting small to learn from the beginning but when i start wagering large, the bookie starts to limit my account to then it would be meaningless, woud it???
Please give me some advice on this, i’m desperate, thanks
April 28, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Dear Schofield,
Thanks very much for writing.
Bookmaker limits are unavoidable when they happen, but not all bookmakers limit aggressively and there are techniques that you can use effectively even when limits are in place.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Alan Seymour