It this post I’ll look at another tool within Bet Angel which is handy for scalping and also a slightly different method of scalping than what’s been shown earlier in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.
In the previous blogs of this Basic Betfair Scalping series we looked first at the ‘Make Market’ button then using ‘offset bet with greening’. Both these methods involved placing both bets at the same time at one tick increments on the betting exchange. This time we are going to look at a Scalping method that requires only placing one bet and having Bet Angel place the other – only once it has been fully matched.
The feature we are going to use this time is the ‘Fill or Kill’ option which is located within the ‘Global Settings’ area discussed in the last blog. Once enabled Fill or kill works quite simply, you set the number of seconds then when you place a bet if its matched (filled) great, but if it’s not matched within the number of seconds you’ve specified then it automatically cancelled (Killed) for you by the software.
Used in conjunction with ‘offsetting’ this allows you to place an opening bet the offset bet ONLY gets placed by the scalping software when it is filled (matched). This enables you to do a different type of scalping that we’ve looked at so far.
So in this blog, we’ll be looking at a method known as ‘Directional Scalping’. You can do this in any betting market, but we are specifically looking at horse racing and football matches in these examples.
‘Directional Scalping’
As the name suggests ‘Directional Scalping’ is where you look to scalp something as it’s price moves along in one direction rather than looking for something that is stable in a tight odds range. Also instead of placing both bets at the same time, this method works better if you place one bet wait for it to be filled then have the software place the offset bet in the direction the price is moving.
So depending on which way the price is moving would depend on whether your opening bet would be a back or lay bet. If the price is moving downwards (shortening) you’d be looking to back first, if it was moving upwards (drifting) you’d be looking to lay first. The set up used here is the same ‘offset with greening’ 1 tick as the previous post but this time we going to use the ‘Fill or Kill’ option and set it to 10 secs.
When ‘Directional Scalping’ its best done using the ladder screen as you ll have a better overview of the market for this style of trading.
The first thing you need to do is find a selection that is trending gently in one direction or another, you don’t want something that’s moving too sharply as these can snap back at any moment and possibly leave you looking at several ticks loss.
By finding something that has a more gentle trend if the price does start to reverse after matching the opening bet (but before your offset is matched) then you should have plenty of time to exit and take a small 2-3 tick loss before beginning the process again if the situation allows.
Executing a Directional Scalp
In this example, we are looking at horse racing. Don’t forget that while we are looking for a direction, we are looking for high liquidity markets as well.
Liquidity is a key part of this trading strategy as we will only get small profits from small price movements. This means we want our orders to get matched quickly. In these images, we are in practice mode, but liquidity is essential if you are using real money.
In the image below we can see the 3rd runner ‘Page of Wands’ has been steadily shortening in price all day, you can see this from the Betfair chart and that its isn’t trapped in any trading range but is instead continuing on a downward trend so is perfect for Directional Scalping.
As it continues to shorten by offering a back bet at the best reverse price first if the price moves before its matched the bet will be killed after 10 secs with no harm done and another bet can then be placed if there is still an opportunity. We are using small stakes that match the available money being matched or offered in the market.
*If it was gently drifting you would be looking to offer a lay bet first and if matched have the back bet offset*
In the next image below, you will see the opening bet was matched and Bet Angel has now placed the ‘offset bet with greening’ 1 tick lower by placing a lay bet automatically at a potential profit.
Hopefully, this will be matched quickly and that’s the directional scalp complete, as above if the selection looks like it’s continuing to shorten the process can be repeated or if you see a similar trend emerge on another selection, each time looking to get in and out as fast as possible picking up another tick profit every time both sides are successfully matched.
You can open a trade at the current back or lay price. You just need to ‘lean’ on the general trend on the Betfair exchange.
As I detailed in the previous blog if it looks like the price is about to reverse and not match your offset bet you can click on the ‘P/L’ figure in the trade profit column, you can see in the image above I could do this now by clicking the ‘£0.00’ figure to scratch the trade and exiting the trade zero profit or loss.
Directional Scalping Football Markets
This type of scalping can be very effective on in-play football markets but timing is very critical.
The price will move in one direction as the time decays until a major event like a goal or sending off, but there are periods of time within a match when the speed of the price move increases/decreases, so you’re looking for a period when the price is actively moving but also you should be watching the match and looking for times when a goal is looking less likely before opening a trade.
Summary
Hopefully these blogs have given you insight and will help you get started with Scalping using Bet Angel. There are of course tons more tools and ways to Scalp the markets with Bet Angel so I may follow this up with another series of more advanced techniques including semi and fully automated methods.
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