Introduction

If you don’t record your results, how will you know how things are progressing?

Yes, you will know whether your bank is rising or falling but you will not know which types of bets and trades are working and which are not.

You may think one particular market is doing really well, but when you actually check back on your results it may show a different story completely.

Start From Day One

Recording results may be a laborious job, but it is a job worth doing.

At the end of each day, the last thing you want to do is crack open a spreadsheet. However, it is a necessary evil which will reward you handsomely in the end.

At the end of each month, it is quite sobering to look at your results spreadsheet and discover the true extent of your profit/loss.

The highs that go with a profitable month and the lows of a losing month are fully exposed right in front of you on your screen.

There's no more, "I think I made a profit" or "I may have lost a bit" because the evidence is there.

Until you have that proof there is no way you can move forward with your betting and trading, so start from day one.

How to Record Results

You do not have to go to any extreme lengths to record your results, just a simple spreadsheet will do. If you want to add bells and whistles down the line, that's completely up to you.

The results sheet itself does not need to be complicated.

All you need are columns showing the basic details, such as date, country, league, teams, odds, stake, profit/loss and a running total.

It's also useful to add notes about each trade so you can look back in the future. Perhaps there a red card which affected the result and that's useful information to have available.

You can either record profit/loss in money terms, in points or both.

Remember that the whole reason for recording results is to help with your discipline. As we all know, discipline is the hardest thing to get right so whatever improves it has to be a positive.

My Results Sheet

This is what my results sheet looks like (these are trades that I posted in the Goal Profits chat room).

I've been trading for a very long time, so I don't keep notes on this results sheet. When I'm testing a new system, however, I add detailed notes that I can refer back to.

The 'Strategy' column is very useful. If you use standard strategy names or bet types, then you can easily filter results to see how each one is performing.

You could even add more columns that record various stats that you used during your research, such as first half win percentage.

All these details will be helpful when it's time to analyse your results.

Click here if you want a blank copy of this spreadsheet, though you can make your own in minutes.

If you don't have Microsoft Excel, you can use Google Docs or Open Office for free.

Improving Performance

Your results sheet will help you identify leaks and mistakes that could be costing you lots of money without you even realising.

While it's important to keep your results sheet up to date, make sure you also look at it!

And when you're alerted to something going wrong, take action!

It might be that you decide to give a particular bet type a rest, look at ways to improve it or even drop it from your portfolio completely.

Recording results may show that you have a big advantage in one particular league which you can focus more on. Or it could be that you have found a big edge with one of your systems which can be exploited for extra profit.

The odds you are getting will also be a factor that can be used to improve your results.

Your records will identify the best range of odds for each of your bets/trades and having that information gives you a massive advantage.

It means you can focus on games within that odds range and that in itself will boost your monthly profit no end.

Setting Targets

It is good to set yourself targets, but don’t be too short-term with them.

There is absolutely no point in giving yourself a firm daily target to hit because it will lead to you chasing losses in an effort to reach it.

If you work towards 10pts profit per month, that works out at around 0.63pts profit per day (if you trade four times per week). With a £1,000 bank, it's an average of just £6.30 profit per day.

I repeat... an average of just £6.30 profit per day.

While you have that average daily target in mind, you cannot expect to hit it every single day.

When you hit a loss, it's going to take one or two winning trades just to get back to where you started. At times, you will hit multiple losses on the same day.

What you're not going to do is try to get it all back at once! That's when very bad things start to happen to your bank.

There are not always enough strong bets or trades to recover should you hit a loss and this is when your discipline kicks in.

You don't have to hit the average daily profit every day in order to make your monthly target, so if there's nothing else worth getting into, don't do it.

Look at how you have done at the end of each month - at the very minimum - and judge your performance. You need to give variance some time to have evened out a little.

Recording Results

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