I have been asked repeatedly over the years if I was ever going to make my workshops available online. After many false dawns, I am very proud to announce that I have created an Online Workshop that fully integrates into my existing support packages.

In the end my ill health has caught up with me. as my hearing has deteriorated over the last 12 months I am finding it harder and harder to deliver a workshop in the size room I use. I have a solution for this, I have now got a smaller room!! The Albert Hall was just too fucking big! My workshops now cater for 8 lucky individuals.

Putting together an online workshop has posed many challenges and taken a huge amount of time and effort, I didn’t want to create something half-assed. A poor 2nd best. Btw, make no mistake that actually attending a workshop with me is, of course, a much better plan. I believe you would get more from spending a day with me than doing online learning. That’s obvious.

BUT, I have tried to stay true to what I show in the classroom, although those difficult questions being fired at me won’t be missed too much……

I don’t want to bang on about what the workshop is or isn’t here. I have created a brand new site that has a state of the art LMS platform on it that is able to deliver the workshops without clogging up my own site,
You see what’s on offer HERE

The early feedback is overwhelming positive, it comes with a full money back guarantee, and is a gateway into my network. What’s to lose?

I think the was Social Media has evolved over the last decade is changing society in a way I don’t think anyone expected. One one hand it’s a brilliant tool for business and consumers alike. Especially small business who want to attract new clients. If you do not have some sort of social media presence you are at a serious disadvantage.

In this post I want to have a frank discussion about Social media and sports trading/gambling/sport.

As you know, I use Twitter and to a less extent Facebook to keep in touch with people who have followed me. I need to say straight off I detest Twitter (especially) with Facebook not too far behind. In fact, I am very close to deleting Twitter completely. Not because I get abused, in the main I don’t have too much trolling. Although as a high profile trader I get my fait share.

Some of the shite that goes in is almost unbelievable. People who are trying to raise their own profile, for their own agenda follow you, the like your posts, they add your @xxxxxxx to they posts and agree with you. So it aligns then with you. Then others with an agenda, who may want to discredit you use fake accounts. Did you know many of the Trading Facebook groups are actually seeded with people who are paid to plant posts, to say negative things about competitors to drive customers their way?
Then you have people trying to impress you. They add your name to posts that are in conflict with others so that it looks like you are on their side. It’s a crock of shit. If i ever, ever have anything to say to anyone. I will say it directly to them, and they know it will be from me, as i will sign my name to it. Anything else has nothing to do with me,

I think I have a decent moral compass. I treat people with respect. Whatever their Race, religion or sexual orientation. I would not intentionally seek to offend anyone, although if I do, I would add I think it’s ok to be offended. It’s ok to take a different view to others, as long as you don’t cross the line. The way I carry myself on the internet is as in real life. If I wouldn’t say it to your face, I wouldn’t type it. I don’t hide behind different profiles. Never have and never will.

What inspired me to write this post was a discussion I was listening to on Talksport yesterday afternoon (Sunday 25th Aug). I was on a long car journey (5 hours) and as always, tune into talk sport. There was a discussion about the racist abuse that Pogba and Rashford were being subjected to for missing penalties. I just cannot get my head around this. It makes me angry, it almost makes me ashamed of my own race.
Let me say that again. It makes me almost ashamed of my own race! Why the fuck should I feel like that? Why am I letting a few lowlife scum get into my head and let them make me feel like this? I guess I am not alone. I have a voice. I have the means to communicate with lots of people. So I feel a responsibility to speak out. If we all turn the other cheek, if we cross the road when we see injustice, then how as a society do we stop it? If we do nothing if we say nothing, what will ever change?

We also need to start voting with our feet. I am so close to this now. I can’t be done with this. Will, it hurt my business? Yes, but I think this is more important than that. By walking away am I turning the other cheek? Have I as a decent member, responsible member of our society got a duty to speak out, to challenge this vile behavior?

Why can you create an anonymous account on Twitter and then use it to abuse and terrorise, to spread filth and hatred? Why cannot Twitter make you complete a “know your customer” profile before an account is granted?

This is an incredible tool, but I feel like I need to walk away from it. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. I encourage you all to speak out too.

I’ll leave you with this. If you are a racist, homophobe or cannot tolerate people who hold a different religious view to your own. Please don’t follow me. In fact, I’ll put it in stronger terms than that.
Fuck off, get the fuck away from me. I don’t want anything to do with you.

Just wanted to share my thoughts about trading and lifestyle and to let you know how it works for me, and some challenges I have faced.

When I started trading more seriously in 2004 onwards it was relentless. I lived and breathed it. If I wasn’t at work I was trading or doing something trading related. Everything else fitted in. That hard work paid off as I was able to trade full time after I was made redundant from my job in July 2006. Imagine having an ATM in your spare room, where you could help yourself to cash, without the balance of your bank account being affected. That’s how it was.

Friends call around, it’s so obvious you want them to fuck off so you can get back to trading, it makes them uncomfortable after a few visits, they stop coming. Friendships ended, Invitations dry up, family engagements become unpleasant. funerals missed, holidays forsaken, relationships destroyed, families broken. For what? This was my situation.

The pursuit of money, greed for want of another word. The question I ask myself often was was it all worth it? No, it wasn’t. if I had those 10 years again it would be very different. But at this point in my life, I can make different choices.

The expectations of what a “pro trader” is or isn’t are often open for debate on forums and Twitter. I have read some frankly ridiculous statements lately, About what constitutes a “Pro Trader”. How much they should earn to be classified as a Pro, whether or not they pay higher rate Premium Charge and even one first-class numpty trying to say that a true pro would never miss a Saturday trading. A true pro would be involved in the markets every single day, What a load of fucking shite!

You never hear me bragging about how much I do or don’t make. I have stated I am in Betfair’s’ higher rate Premium Charge bracket. You may see a few videos showing decent wins, and the odd screenshot too. But you will have also saw some videos of red screens from me. It’s all part of the game. You will have NEVER seen a Betfair PL shot of my account and you never will. Frankly, it is of no one’s business but my own. My credibility to teach other traders has nothing to do with how much money I make. My ability to explain how to do is much more relevant. Now I can wheel out 100’s of people that will happily testify that I can do that pretty well. The bottom line is this. Come to a workshop or don’t come. I hold 6 a year and that will never increase, currently, I have 20 people at a time. This is a number that works for everyone. It allows the interaction required, and I can comfortably answer every question asked. I often joke at the start of a workshop that no one is leaving until every question has been answered, even if we are still here at 9:00pm tonight! they are always full, without exception. I often turn people away.

In the last few years, I have made some pretty big changes in my personal life. I don’t want to detail them all, because they are personal. But there are some I want to share, because they may help someone reading this, both to understand a little more about me and what drives me as a pro trader.

My workshops and education have been a big part of things for 5 years now. I don’t write too much these days, and rarely make videos for public consumption. But I do have a vibrant community that I look after. I don’t trade every day, in fact, I have completely changed the way I work. I now have a diary where I allocate time slots to different tasks. So when I am answering emails – I answer emails, in that time allotted. When I am trading, I trade. But in the time I have set out. No more and no less. This structure means I get much more done, and I have my life back.

The result is I am very happy with my life now, I can do the things I want. I am happy to trade when I want to, and take time off to do other things when I want to. Trading supplements my life, it doesn’t dictate it anymore. Does this mean that I am unable to articulate how to trade to others? Does this diminish my ability? have I forgotten 14 years worth of knowledge and experience? Seriously?

If you feel you cannot escape from a life that is dominated by gambling or trading. If all you can think about is trading and money, please talk to someone, please reach out for help. I am happy to give my time freely to talk things through with you and try to help or advise some professional councilling. Trading is a fabulous hobby, and even a profession if you get good at it. But please keep in mind that there are things outside of this that are more important.Please keep this in mind. Stay safe.

Steve

Just to let you guys know that I am moving hosting sites. Had quite a lot of downtime recently so time to move on.

We are going to be down for a couple of days max.