Betfair + trading

harryR

Lads just wondering about backing and laying off on betfair,trading as its known,say i back for example a 7/2 at a stake of 500e (return of 2250) and shortly after lay the same horse at 3/1 with a liabilty of 2000e..leaving me with 250e profit either way..is it that easy or do ya need to be quick in the exchanges for different prices ect?
cheers

markhiggins

ye its definitely do able but comes with serious risks. there are other lads on here with more knowledge than me but i do know you have to have a decent sized bankroll and lots of patience. The key is finding an event that you know the price will shorten in. I did it for a while with the price wise extra selection but the problem was you need to be putting down some serious money (well serious for me anyway) to make any profit worth talking about. And if for some reason the price begins to drift heavily you can be left with a big bet on a short price! id advise you to have a go at lower stakes and see how you get on before you start putting bigger bets on!

wb

Hi Harry - I do a lot of trading and while it can be profitable, it's not as easy as one might think. What happens when the price doesn't go you way? You will take an automatic loss. It's all about predicting which way the prices will go.

I only trade 10 mins before the off when the decent money is there and you will need some sort of API like betting assistant or betangel as the regular betfair screen is just to slow.

It's a whole different ballgame and it's hard to sum up in a few words! I wrote a 'trading diary' some time back on Let's Bet which you may find interesting although I didn't really update it as much as I should and haven't wrote in it in a while:

http://www.letsbet.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=6525

harryR

thanks for the reply lads..tried doing it without placing the money to see how i get on with garde champetre..could of backed at 3.7 in the exchanges before the off and just after the off could of layed at 3.35(and lower in running)would of left me in profit of 175e..going to practice with a small bank seen as ive plenty of spare time now.. wayne whats the software ya suggest?is it quicker for the exchanges yeah?

wb

I use Betting Assistant from Gruss. There's also Betangel.

Basically, they offer one click betting, refresh your screen numerous times per second, ladder interfaces, graphs automatic stop loss and loads of other bells and whistles.

I think Gruss offer a less fancy free version, but the full version is six pound sterling per month which is great value. I've used Betangel in the past and it's also excellent but a bit more expensive.

It can be pretty dangerous if you don't know what you are doing as bets are fired in instantly and it's easy to make a mistake - so if you download it, just use very small stakes until you get used to it.

mitsubishi

I am reading "mastering betfair by Pete Nordsted" at the moment. Very intersting I would recommend it.

wb

Hi lads, hope no-one minds me linking here but I put up an example of some trading on Betfair on my website showing some basic scalping.

Threw a few hundred into the account and traded a race earning around a fiver in five minutes. I mainly wanted to show that you can do some decent trades with a relatively modest bank. People think you need thousands in the bank to trade but this is not the case and you can earn a couple of quid with a few hundred in the account if you want.

Of course, sometimes trading can go wrong and you have to take a loss but it's generally easy enough to get a green book on a relatively stable market. A fiver is not a lot on the face of it but if you had earned a fiver on each of today's 26 races, it wouldn't have been a bad days work!

Woddle

Good link here about it http://www.youcantlose.info/

el diablo

wb wrote: »

Hi lads, hope no-one minds me linking here but I put up an example of some trading on Betfair on my website showing some basic scalping.

Threw a few hundred into the account and traded a race earning around a fiver in five minutes. I mainly wanted to show that you can do some decent trades with a relatively modest bank. People think you need thousands in the bank to trade but this is not the case and you can earn a couple of quid with a few hundred in the account if you want.

Of course, sometimes trading can go wrong and you have to take a loss but it's generally easy enough to get a green book on a relatively stable market. A fiver is not a lot on the face of it but if you had earned a fiver on each of today's 26 races, it wouldn't have been a bad days work!

So what do you trade on .....horses? I trade mainly football and it can be lucrative but it can go against you sometimes and a couple of losses can wipe out your winnings. But I'm learning all the time. .

wb

el diablo wrote: »

So what do you trade on .....horses? I trade mainly football and it can be lucrative but it can go against you sometimes and a couple of losses can wipe out your winnings. But I'm learning all the time. .

Just horses mainly. I've been watching the racing markets for years so have a good idea of how they work. Trying to get to grips with the football but it's not a sport I know as well.

wb

Hope no-one minds the link but I've wrote another article on trading on Betfair which includes a Youtube demonstration:

http://betting.betfair.ie/irish-racing/horseracing-trading-on-betfair-130510.html

Anyone who trades the stock market or shares indices may be familiar with the 'bouncing ball' strategy discussed in the article.

ValueSeeker

I'm already eyeing up the World Cup opener as a decent trading opportunity.

Take a look at the prices across the books on South Africa:

Oddschecker

Now note the 2 outstanding prices: 21/10 on sportingbet and paddypower. Not the same on the exchanges yet but they will be closer the time. Note that some books go as small as 13/8 (which IMO from my knowledge of the 2 teams, the fact that home nations always perform above their level etc, is closer the true odds)

Now in these instances, usually (not all the time), the 21/10 prices in the days up to the game will be cut and move closer to the prices offered in the other firms. The exchanges will follow suit.

I expect those odds to be about 2.8 to lay on the night BEFORE kickoff. Note that I say the day before as in football, in my experience, that is the time to trade out as the markets can often rise back up on the day of the game when the mad money comes in.

Verance

el diablo wrote: »

it can go against you sometimes and a couple of losses can wipe out your winnings.

This shouldn't really be so. Before trading, you should always decide what price to get out at if the market goes against you. Many people trade too soon when the market goes for them, as they can see a green book awaiting, and if the market goes against them they leave it run hoping it'll come back again. The most important rule in trading is leave your winners run and cut your losses as soon as.

Mellor

Verance wrote: »

This shouldn't really be so. Before trading, you should always decide what price to get out at if the market goes against you. Many people trade too soon when the market goes for them, as they can see a green book awaiting, and if the market goes against them they leave it run hoping it'll come back again. The most important rule in trading is leave your winners run and cut your losses as soon as.

That's not what he said.

The price has the potential to move both ways. Hopefully you pick one that moves right.

But say you do four. One moves right, you let it run and you make +3pts
THe other all move the wrong way and you get out as soon as and you lose -1pt on each

A few losses cancelled out your win, what he said

Verance

Mellor wrote: »

That's not what he said.

The price has the potential to move both ways. Hopefully you pick one that moves right.

But say you do four. One moves right, you let it run and you make +3pts
THe other all move the wrong way and you get out as soon as and you lose -1pt on each

A few losses cancelled out your win, what he said

Oh, is that what you meant El Diablo?

el diablo

Verance wrote: »

Oh, is that what you meant El Diablo?

Yep, that's exactly what I meant.