Authors

Alan Bishop (Financial Trading)

Welcome to what I dearly hope to be a solid foundation of education, learning and financial market acumen for you, now and in the future.

I am the new financial trading author for laytheodds.com, my name is Alan-Charles Bishop and I am 36 years of age and 3 years ago emigrated from the UK to Malta. What I intend to do is to give you an open and honest insight into financial trading, how to trade, what software is good (and not so good), what websites offer excellent information, money management, risk profiling, automated bots, EA’s, Trading courses and much more.  In 1996 (yes long time ago!) I was part of a four man team who won a prestigious Welsh Entrepreneurial award, the Robert Owen Cup for inventing and completing a full 200+ page business plan. The Robert Owen Cup is the Welsh equivalent to the Entreprenuer of the Year Award.

What was the product I hear you ask? Well, you may well laugh when I tell you but it sells millions of units per year globally…its the universal remote control television holder and yes I do have media proof of this!

Unfortunately we were young and didnt protect it and a local plastics factory stole it, thats where I first started to really learn how the world worked.

My experience in the financial markets extends as a current stock, forex and money broker in a professional capacity in which I am qualified and licensed and more recently into the field of escaping big brother and its clutches from tax…legally.

I already write for several websites including the company I work for and for local newspapers (online and offline). I am also currently writing a book entitled “Divide and Conquer”, naturally this is based on the real world of finance and those who run it. I possess many years experience in that I started paper trading when I was quite young.

I have been real time trading with actual funds (my own funds and other people’s money) for several years. My passion really took off when reading my first degree in which a tutor who was an ex stock exchange trader taught me. His passion rubbed off on me and since then I have always been involved in the global economy.

I have made money and, yes, also lost money. This is just the way it is in real life trading and there has never been a trader who has never lost on trades, period.

I have been lucky to build successful working relationships within the financial industry and have quality information passed to me, these include systems, professional programs, courses and how the wealthy stay wealthy and increase their wealth. In fact i have directly witnessed this in my work.

I spend at the very least 12 hours a day market watching and analysing, it’s my professional career.  Naturally I love it and in turn I love to pass on my knowledge and experience, otherwise I would not be doing this. I certainly do not consider myself a guru or some other form of self styled high end teacher, far from it. What I have to offer is good quality information to help you with your trading arsenal in order to help you succeed in the markets as a great deal of what is taught mainstream is far from accurate and merely leads to entrap you. It certainly is possible to earn a living from investing, that is for sure, but you do need some capital to start. Certainly, do not expect to give up your day job when you have a thousand or two to invest with.

Long term it just won’t happen due to the pressures you will automatically be subjected to. However, you can start using a small amount and by using compounding, small leveraging (as an absolute beginner its best to use no leverage) and leaving the funds actively working for you, then you can build it into a substantial sum. This should be one of your primary goals when starting out along with capital management/preservation.

Aside from this, I also trade financials and football on Betfair and have been doing so for a few years successfully. Again, of course, there have been periods where downturns have been realised, but I hope you know by now, no trader wins 100% of trades every time.

So, here is to the start of what I do hope will become a very popular and active section.

Alex Rotenberg (Poker)

My name is Alex and I have been playing poker for about four years and semi professionally for about two years.

I first started out playing at the Brick & Mortar 10 / 20 fixed limit in Vancouver, Canada and then played at Absolute Poker before making Betfair my main site.

Fixed Limit Hold ‘Em player has been my main game until the past six months when I decided to make the transition to No Limit Hold ‘Em. On the side, I play my fair share of Multi Table Tournaments and Sit ‘N Gos.
My journey has been long and bumpy, with many highs and lows, with the most being learnt from losing sessions/weeks/months.

I would feel honoured to share some of my past and present experiences with the readers and if you would like to drop me a line, I’d be happy to reply to your comments.

Otherwise you can play against me at Betfair. My alias is “BrasilNut”.
Good luck!
Alex

Mark Layton (Lay Betting)

I have spent the last 20 years and more as a systems analyst and a software engineer for major bookmakers. During this time I have compiled a massive database for betting purposes (both Lay systems and Back systems).

My insight into the goings on at the bookmakers and with the markets has enabled me to trade very succesfully. I achieved a BSc in Geosciences at University, and started work as an Inspector of taxes for the Inland Revenue.

Racing was in my blood from an early age, heightened when Brigadier Gerard won the 2000 Guineas. I began compiling my own ratings at the age of 11. After a few years working for the Civil Service, I built up an Import/Export company which proved very successful, and allowed me to buy homes in the UK, France and Spain.

I took, and passed various Microsoft exams, including an M.C.S.E and a few M.C.S.A’s. I used these qualifications to further my career as a Systems Analyst and to compile and build a massive database for Horse racing.

I was a competent sportsman, which included playing as a semi-professional footballer, Cricket and Golf. I have now retired from working and spend my day’s trading on the exchanges, using the systems that I have built, with great success.

Lay Betting is a passion of mine and I hope to pass on a lot of this experience to the members. I have a lot of lay sytems that are profitable - they will be published on the site in due course. I hope the forum becomes more active, as a lot of information and ideas can be shared there.

Kevin Laverick (Football)

My professional career was spent as a Chartered Surveyor, for 20 years, during which time I built up quite a portfolio of property. They have all been sold now, well the money just isn’t in the market any more. I then spent 5 years as a Maths teacher at the local College before moving onto become Royal Mail Manager at Bradford, before retiring at 50. Certainly a varied career but the one thing that has been constant through all that time is my love of football.

I spent my early teens playing for various teams before being turned down for a professional contract at 16. I thought at that time that the world had ended but of course it hadn’t.

I continued playing at an Amateur level until almost 40 and then spent 10 years as a Manager of a couple of clubs before retiring from the game at 50. So I had retired from my professional career and my football career at the same time, 50. That was 7 years ago and a lot has happened since then.

I had a lot of time on my hands and now was able to do what I had wanted to do for a long time. Could I make a living from what had become my hobby—-betting on football. Only time would tell.

I had already built up my own football ratings and stats over a number of years and now I could test them out properly. My first year of stand alone just didn’t work out at all well, losing half my bank. The close season was spent assessing what had gone wrong and how could I turn it round. The next 2 years were profitable but I had only re-couped what I lost in the very first season.

The eureka moment came in season 4 when I combined my original ratings with other parameters I had built up over the previous 3 years. The combination worked and is now into its’ 5th season and still going strong. I feel confident about the edge it has got and I may even market the product and/or tips next season.

I am really going to enjoy my time on LTO because what I have been doing over the last couple of years is really getting into the horse racing, where I have been blogging on another site. I have also developed a number of back and lay systems for the horses, which on the completion of 12 months live testing will be brought to market.

When I retired 7 years ago I thought this is going to be brilliant, not having to work for a living, how wrong I was. I work more now than I ever did before, spending 10 hours a day / 7 days a week in my office. OK my office is right next to my bedroom and I keep my own hours but there is nothing easy about it, the bookmakers make sure of that.

Alex Buchanan (Sports Spread Betting)

Thanks for taking the time to find out a bit more about myself and the other brand new authors on LTO.

My background professionally is in IT, working in this environment for 20 years, initially in the Civil Service, then with IBM. I took the opportunity to leave around 4 years ago to concentrate at that time on a property business I had been running alongside my day job for a year or so. A very long and tough year that was!

I still maintain my property business, but this now accounts for less than half of my working week. The rest is spent working on my trading and gambling strategies, as well as writing articles and blogs on the subject, and assisting people where I can.

Having spent 20 years enjoying the camaraderie with my IT colleagues, but finding the work dull as dishwater, now I have hardly any face to face interaction most days, but the work is stimulating and exciting like I’ve never really experienced before. Even the wife has taken up a part-time job to get away from my exhilarated moods!

My area of expertise on LTO is spread betting, and I am building and maintaining a statistical database mostly relating to football at the moment, but hopefully broadening to encompass other sports soon. I think that access to this information while gambling is vital, assuming you intent to make money from your trades. Investing rather than gambling, as one of my fellow writers referred to - both very different in terms of approach.

As well as my interest in spread betting, I also actively lay bet, generally on Horse Racing and Football. I have been working on strategies in this area also for around a year, following a very gentle loss recovery system which works well.

My main sporting passion is football, but I have a healthy interest in horse racing, tennis, golf, cricket, snooker, which I play at league level, and pretty much any sport involving a pulse! There is nothing quite like the drama and excitement of a sporting event, and combining this with betting and trading is a heady concoction.

Don’t be fooled by the photo taken at Nottingham Forest. I have no allegiance to them at all, but I am trying to visit as many grounds as I can across Europe with a view to writing a book on the subject. Time will tell if that ever happens, but I’d like to one day. I follow one of the Glasgow giants, but I won’t say which one at the risk of alienating half of our Scottish readership!

Steve Carter (Horse Racing)

After keenly watching the Horse Racing on the television on Saturday afternoons I became hooked on the “Sport of Kings”…………. well having my pocket  money on the 20/1 winner in The Lincoln helped a little!!!!!!

I maintained that interest as a serious hobby throughout my working life, which, in the main, was within the car industry. When the decline in the car industry led to my being made redundant I started developing a Sales & Marketing Franchise which went well for a while but eventually, like many of these things, I found myself running out of money and it was necessary to return, like many of us, to “normal” employment as a Purchasing Manager for Lloyds Pharmacy and its wholesale partner AAH Pharmaceuticals.

During this latter period my horse racing hobby became much more serious and with it came a little more consistent success. This still did not remove the increasing dread of going into work each day, particularly that Monday morning feeling, and so I decided to take the plunge and make my horse racing passion a full time job, and moved to Spain to boot! That was just over 5 ½ years ago now, and a day does not go by where I do not strive to learn more and improve on my knowledge and methods.

One of the main reasons in joining forces with Lay the Odds is the opportunity to interact with like minded people, and to develop a community spirit whereby we could all benefit from the database of knowledge that Lay the Odds can offer, as well as the support that will be an integral part of it. Here is to our mutual future success………………..

Eddie Lloyd (Betfair Games)

Welcome all readers to what I hope will be a profitable relationship. My name is Eddie Lloyd and I have been keen on gambling for over 12 years now. I must admit it has not been a profitable 12 years and the first 6 were definately losing ones! How times have changed. I now regard myself as a professional. It has taken a long time to learn how to crack this industry but for the last two years I have certainly done so.

I have been invited here to write for the Betfair Games section as I have shown consistent profits for the last 2 years now and I must confess I love them! I have a few systems that have shown long term profits and I now have the privilege of sharing them with you!

I know that a lot of you will have either dismissed them or not even looked into them but I feel that there are many profitable angles to be had here and of course the beauty is that its 24 hours a day betting. Anyway enough of the wittering on as this is a biography I feel more about me is needed!

As I mentioned above I spent a long time losing money. I then went on to lose even more money on horse racing systems that didn’t deliver the bacon. It was all very frustrating but the will to succeed in what seemed an impossible industry to crack prevailed! I started studying how the markets moved and how previous trends affected the outcome. I then studied an Open University course in statistical analysis and applied this to my betting. I attended a Betfair course (they run them every year and I highly recommend them.) that taught me a lot.

With all this information in tow I was able to turn around my betting and with more research and a few staking plans, money management and the understanding of value and liabilities I was able to start profiting.

I now work part-time for William Hills and manage a local shop. The rest of the time I spend on my laptop making money from Betfair and Betfair games.

I’ll take this opportunity to thank all the other authors on this site for their valuable information and I hope that despite its lack of popularity I will be able to benefit everyone who reads this and help them make money on Betfair games.

Jack Oliver (Betfair Games)

Hi, I’m Jack Oliver, and I’ve just joined LTO as the author for the arbitrage section of this fantastic site!

I spend most of my working hours gambling and trading, but predominantly arbing. I follow many systems and strategies, and continue to earn great profits from these, but the mainstay of my portfolio, and the longest standing and most consistent mechanism I use, is arbitrage.

Guaranteed profits are what it is all about, and I’m here to help you understand how this can be done, with the help of some valuable assistance from various products and providers.

Look out for reviews and articles on the subject, and of course, you can visit our Forum section to discuss and ask any questions you might have.

In the meantime, if you are unfamiliar with arbs and how they work, take a look through the information in the arbitrage section of LTO, and I look forward to helping you increase your betting bank with immediate effect!