Ready for the New Year

Finally. Got hit with a nasty bug last week and am still a bit out. Look forward to a few updates soon.

Been doing a few arbs and now that tennis is back in swing (pun intended), things are definitely picking up.

Also, look forward to my e-book coming out in the next week or so about arbitrage, how to do it and how to pull it off in the US.

See you all soon!

-marc

Yes, I am still ... still ... still here

Ok ok, so I am a slacker! I'm sorry to those of you that have been trying to keep up on the blog. Truth of the matter is that we went to California for 3 weeks and while I thought that I'd have time to do blogging and trading, it turned out that I hardly spent any time on the computer at all. Strange how wanting to be around family and friends supercedes my desire to be on the computer.

We have been back for just under a week now and I am just now getting to where we are sort of settled in. Between the holidays coming and visitors coming, I have a hard time seeing myself doing any serious trading until after the 26th. However, I do still have my software running and have been paying attention to what has been available.

First off, the software that I am using seems to be getting better and better. I am not sure if it's just because there are more sports going on right now or if they have added sports that were not there six months ago. Either way, I do hear the bell ringing telling me of available arbs a bit more often.

Secondly, I have received a lot of emails from people asking me about my "secret" for trading in the US. Trust me, I will get back to you all on that. It is going to be a step by step document and is going to require some time for me to write it as I tend to be very detail oriented when I write documents like this. Hopefully when I am done, you will all find it to have been worth the wait.

Thirdly, the risk free pool that I belong to which is tied into the software, has been doing fairly well for me, although the last couple of weeks have been slow. Basically this is a pool of professional traders that will do arb trading for you. The advantage is that they have access to all the trades and are overseas. The disadvantage is that they will take an administrative fee out when I go to collect my earnings in a year. Since I started with the pool on August 21 (with $1,000), I have made a profit of about $604.00. I will admit that's a little bit lower than I had hoped, but on the other hand, it's hard to imagine investing in any sort of fund with that sort of return. Basically I will have doubled my money in under 6 months at the rate it has been going, and I am told that January tends to be a stronger month than December. We'll see. . .

Lastly, really, I mean it this time - I am alive and well. Just REALLY busy. I will still keep everyone updated on any progress and to those that have emailed me, be patient. I will respond to you as soon as I possibly can. I apologize for any delays.

And lastly lastly, Happy Holidays to everyone! This is my favorite time of year. No other time does the sentiment of peace on earth and kindness for your fellow man come close to being on the top of everyones' mind as it is now. If you're fortunate enough to have family and friends to spend your holidays with, remember that there are many that are far less fortunate than you. And even if you don't believe in, or celebrate it, pop in a good Christmas movie and get in the spirit!

Yes, I am still here

Hey everyone! Boy oh boy have I been getting the hate mail! Ok ok, so it's not really hate mail as much as it has been "where are you?" emails. I do apologize for sort of dropping off the face of the earth the last month or so. Things have been hectic around here and to be honest, I have just not had the time to be on the computer.

I'll go back a bit and explain a bit of what's been going on.

First of all, living in the US, as most of you know, causes problems and I sort of wanted to see what the "fallout" would be from the new "repression law" regarding online gambling in the US. So I sort of cooled my jets a bit. I won't say much more on this subject because it's likely that I will go off on a rant and it will take you all 4 days to read and you'll get bored. Let's just say that I still find it hard to believe that our government is worried about people gambling yet we have homeless, poor education and violence unmatched by just about any other "superpower". But NOOOOOO let's go after the gamblers - those people are truly dangerous!

Anyway, enough about that. I was going to keep it to myself, but I have decided to post that I have figured out a way around the whole being in the US thing without moving out of the country and if you are interested in knowing what I figured out, please feel free to email me.

So with the above said, I still ran my SureBetPro software and found that this is a REALLY slow period for arbs. I keep being told that once basketball season starts, we'll see some good arbs, but I have not seen any in the last week. So besides, wanting to wait things out, I also did not feel particularly motivated to post "nothing big happened today" on this blog. Instead, I just did not post. I do apologize as I think many of you would at least like to know that nothing happened.

Then there's the whole stay at home dad thing. As most of you have read, I am a stay at home dad. I have found nothing more rewarding than to be able to spend my days with my son. He's 17 months old now and becoming more and more interactive and inquisitive. It has seemed as though when the arbs have been popping up, I have been playing with Eli and it's hard to get on my computer and make the trade uninterrupted at this point so I find myself with hours to be available to place the trades. And as I've said before, the thing about arb trading is that you have to be able to make the trades when they pop up.

Over the last few days I've gotten several emails. I am going to answer them here, publicly (I hope no one is offended), but I am thinking that most of you loyal readers have similar questions. So here goes . . . (BTW, these messages are truncated and edited)

Gary asked:

Q: In looking at some of the sites that give you arbs it seems like one should be able to consistantly get 3 - 5 %. I see from your blog that you are not there.... is that the reality?

A: I have not been able to consistently hit the 3-5% mark. I have found that many of the good arbs take place with bookies that do not do business in the US. I also have found that the 3-way arbs are the ones that result in the best return. 3-way arbs, however, are a bit trickier.

Q: Would you be willing to share what you have found to be the best source of ARBS that a U.S. citizen can take advantage of?

A: I guess one of the reasons I like the Surebet Pro software is because it is real time. I am also using the U Can't Lose service and have found it to be good as well. Only problem is that it is email. You can, however, have them text message your cell phone when they become available. I have also tried a couple of other real time notification services, and have not found them to be that good.

Hope that answered your questions!

Scott asked the following:

Q: This might be a difficult one, what is the average arb?

A: Since I started, I have averaged 3.128%, although it seems like lately they have been lower, so I expect the average to drop.

Q: Let's say it's 2%, for easy math. (I really don't know.) $500 with one bookie, $500 with the other. My total earnings is $10.00 Right?

A: The simple answer is no. Based on your scenario, your earnings would be $20.00 (2% of $1,000 total bet is $20.00). However, the reality is that you will not likely break down like that - and this is one of the frustrations with arb trading. I will give you a real world example:

In a recent tennis match, the way the odds worked out, and with $222.00 to bet, it was required that I placed $195.00 with one bookie and $27.00 with the other. Total was $222.00 with a return of $7.50 which came out to a 3.38% profit.

As you can see from the example, I had to have far more money with one bookie than I did with the other. It almost always works out such that your bet with one bookie will be anywhere from a bit more to substantially more than with the other bookie. Hope this helps.

Gary wrote (again):

Q: Are you still doing the arb blog? I know you're busy, a simple yes or no would be fine.

A: Yes :)

Allan wrote:

Hi, Marc,
I am very disappointed.

It's been a month now since you last posted on your blog. I have visited regularly to see if you have posted your latest adventures in the arbing world, but to no avail.

I hope that you are still arbing and will continue with the blog. It is an inspiration and encouragement to all would-be arbers like myself.

Allan (and all those others whom I may have disappointed),

I am sorry. I will do better in the future!

Lastly, in a week we will be going to California for three weeks. I will try to post regularly while out there, but if it seems as if I've dropped off the face of the planet, it's because I'm at Disneyland or something!

-marc

Not Even the Middle of October

And we have snow outside. Normally the first snow of the season does not stick but here I am today actually scraping snow off the windshield. Maybe it's time for me to clean the barn out so I can park cars in there. Always something I've wanted to do in 30 degree weather.

Anyway, last two days have been pretty slim for arbs. But the ones I did place netted me a semi-respectible 2.1%

I have also started getting the arbitrage alerts from ucantlose (banner above) and there are definitely better arbs to be had there. Only problem for me is that most of them appear with bookmakers that will not do business with us in the US. One was a three way arb but the other four that came in today were two-ways.

When I find a 3-way that works for me, I'm going to get the nerve and try to place it.

Things are progressing with Dennis (my mentor). I am thinking that within the next week, things will start looking really good in the online sports arbitrage world. Just have to keep my fingers crossed that nothing happens between now and then.

October has been a fairly slow month for me. I've made just enough to pay for the SureBetPro software, and I once again find myself in a situation where one of my main bookmakers is out of money so I am having to move money around. That can be tough because most bookmakers will only let you withdraw money once a month, or once every ten days for free. After that, they charge a fee. None the less, I'm managing and I am checking things out to make sure that there are not better bookmakers out there with better returns on my investment.

Even the riskfreepool that I am part of had a lower than normal week last week. Still it's better than almost any other type of interest bearing account, but it's nice when it performs well.

Thanks, once again, to those of you that have emailed me. I get SO much spam (all of them tell me I can be a millionare by this time tomorrow) that it's nice to get real email from real people!

In the next few days

I plan to create an arbitrage discussion board. While I like the whole blog thing, I thought that if we make this a bit more "public" for discussions, it would be useful to more people. I am currently investigating several different PHP applications and have the server built and ready to go. If anyone has any suggestions as to a good PHP discussion board software, please feel free to email me!

Ups and downs

Well the last few days have certainly had their ups and downs. One of the big frustrations has been that Ucantlose is having problems getting emails to me. I have been working with Carl (the guy who runs the site) and he's been great at trying to figure out what the issue is. He emailed me and told me he sent me 3 arbs this morning, but alas, they were not in my in box - nor had they been filtered out by spam filters - so who knows? I am sure we'll get it working. Just frustrating to know that I may have missed out on a few good arbs.

I've been pretty successful with my arb trading the last few days. My percentage has been bumped up to about 1.95% on average and they seem to be popping up a lot more. I had expected them to slow down during MLB post season, but that has not been the case. In fact, there have been more. The only frustration there is that the odds are changing really quickly. I have missed out on a bunch but have also been able to get in on some good ones. The trick has been to stay logged into the bookmakers. Plus you get a feel for which bookmakers are going to have the best arbs during specific types of events. Depending on the sport, you'll end up placing your trades with different bookmakers.

The mentor training is going really well. I am stuck at a bit of a stopping point right now as a couple of wrinkles get worked out, but having seen the system somewhat in action now, I have to say that he has developed a system that, while very simple, is also genius. Best of all, it takes advantage of all the things that are good about arb trading, MLM businesses and online business and wraps it all into one nice package. Once we get things rolling, I am extremely excited about where it can go!

Created a new account

Today I created a new account with the company above (ucantlose) to give it a shot. While the surebetpro software is working great, I keep seeing other opportunities out there and so I am going to try them as well.

In the meantime, I am still learning from the mentor and it has been an eye opening experience. This next week should be very interesting for me. I am anxious to learn more and more about this business. Will keep you all posted!