Tag: strategy

Why does a strategy fail the moment you use it?

Why does a strategy fail the moment you use it?

You know the feeling, you work hard to research and establish a new idea or strategy. You put it to use and it works, so you raise your stakes and booooooooom, it instantly reverses and losses you a shed load of money. It can sometimes feel like the market has got it in for you or like somebody is watching you.

You don’t deploy a strategy to lose money

When you set out to deploy a strategy you don’t expect …

11/11/2017 | By | 4 Replies More
Finding a front runner – Exclusive offer & free trial

Finding a front runner – Exclusive offer & free trial

Click here to take up an exclusive free seven day trial of Pacecards

Trading in-running

One excellent strategy you can use on betting exchanges, is backing or laying before the off and trading out in-play. Many Bet Angel customers do this or a variation of this, , as part of a profitable activity in the market.

In-running tools

Bet Angel is great for this as you can do it manually or automatically using the automation. On the manual front we

16/03/2016 | By | 2 Replies More
A question of scale (part four)

A question of scale (part four)

I have finally completed my quartet of posts called ‘question of scale’.

Parts one, two and three have been looking at the question of scale in the exchange markets. Four looks at what this effectively means for me and it starts with a simple question.

OK, I’m going to give you £500,000 to invest. Where will you invest it and what return will you get?

Let’s put that in a savings account. Hmm, only 1-2% interest means we will …

05/01/2014 | By More
Sometimes you win, sometimes you……

Sometimes you win, sometimes you……

LEARN!!!!

I came across this phrase this year and I think it’s a neat one. It encapsulates the mental process you need to go through to be successful in pretty much anything in life.

What is talent?

It’s nice to think we are talented or some how ‘special’ but in fact a lot of talent comes through good old fashioned hard work. We have discussed it often in the psychology section of the forum. Generally there are no short cuts, …

19/12/2013 | By | Reply More
Good days, bad days and risk management

Good days, bad days and risk management

I have good and bad trades, good and bad days but generally I don’t have bad weeks and, in fact, as time progresses my chance of a loss decreases. Why, because of the way I manage risk.

Approach to risk

The way I approach risk is pretty much the same on a trade by trade basis or on a day by day basis. One major advantage you have in sports markets, is the large number of events taking place, so …

27/09/2013 | By | Reply More
Procrastination is the enemy of success

Procrastination is the enemy of success

Last year I had an idea, I added it to the list. For a lot of people that’s where the experiment ends, diet’s always start tomorrow etc.

But for me when I get a bright idea, no matter how crazy, I make a note of it and follow up. I tend to work on a few at any one time as most stay as crazy ideas, don’t work , I learn nothing or realise my thought process was wrong. But

24/08/2013 | By | Reply More
An Ace is worth more than a point

An Ace is worth more than a point

When you read that statement it looks a little strange. How can one point be worth more than another? But statistics seem to show that’s true.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been busy collecting data on a range of Tennis matches from the top level of how a match played, in games and sets, right down to individual points.

I’ve been carefully examining how one point affects another and spotted what seemed to be a bias on serving …

28/06/2013 | By | Reply More
Can you predict 1.01 defeats in Tennis?

Can you predict 1.01 defeats in Tennis?

Surface problems aside, the main news from Wimbledon this week was the ‘shock’ defeat of Rafa Nadal, shortly followed by Federer. Nadal was a shock, apart from the fact that last year he crashed out in similar circumstances, it was just a round later. Coincidence, predictable or a shock?

A couple of factors play into the hands of the Nadal shock this time. The first is that Rafa’s game leads him to get injured more often than other players, he’s …

26/06/2013 | By | Reply More
Darwin would have been proud

Darwin would have been proud

I try and actively monitor everything I am doing in the market, often this can pay dividends in unusual ways.

As a general approach I would recommend storing as much information about what you do as possible, even if you don’t need it right now. I’ve collected loads of data recently from Wimbledon and Euro 2012 but I have no practical purpose for it at the moment. At some point in the future I may revisit it, or find a …

05/07/2012 | By More
Nuts, lightly roasted

Nuts, lightly roasted

I’ve been experimenting with a new strategy recently. I’ve learnt from past experience that data mining can be statistical deja vu. So whenever I make the transition from theory to practical, it always pays to be cautious. So on this occasion I have hedged my position on separate accounts to understand how the main strategy performs but without putting myself at too much risk.

Immediately the strategy started working, with a couple of glitches, so the main account started to …

18/04/2012 | By More
Bank building

Bank building

February is the quietest month of the year for me. I do around 1/3rd of what I can during the busiest time of the year. So I tend to take some time off during February. A few years ago I was forced to take time off because of a death in the family and I’ve pretty much stuck to that since. The time off that is!

For me this period is about getting some relaxtion in and planning for the …

29/02/2012 | By More
Creative football trading

Creative football trading

The great thing about football markets is that they are very predictable, in an unpredictable way!

Goals are few and far between and occur randomly but with bias throughout the match. But because there are so few goals on average, that makes it easy to figure out what you should do when one goes in. There are only a small number of combinations to work with.

Lots of people focus on just one match, research it to death and try …

25/02/2012 | By More
FA Cup Fifth round

FA Cup Fifth round

Rather predictably we reach the fifth round of the FA Cup today with 99% of the market made up from Premiership teams. In round three that figure was 94.7% and round four 96.10%. What’s the betting we reach the final with 100%?

The fifth round is more likely to make that happen as there is only one clash this weekend where two premiership teams meet up. I think this looks the most interesting, Sunderland vs Arsenal, as it has the …

18/02/2012 | By More
Murray Matrix

Murray Matrix

Looking forward to seeing Andy Murray in action tonight.

Last night I bagged 25 decent winning trades from the overnight matches. I use Tennis Trader to work out key points in a match and what odds are likely to be traded around key points. By looking up these key points in advance I can set up a trade that will trigger at or around those points and offset to a value that will lock in a profit. All markets exhibit …

16/01/2012 | By More
Big over-reaction

Big over-reaction

Sometimes I just want to roll Gael Monfils up in a bundle and kiss him.

One of my biggest ever wins came on a match with Monfils in it. He overstretched himself and called for the trainer. I had just backed his opponent and his priced rocketed in and netted me a very lucky big profit, so I greened up. After a brief spell with the trainer Monfils carried on and looked like he had never been trouble and went …

05/01/2012 | By More
Back to open

Back to open

It looks like we are going to have some fun and games in the market today. I’d recommend adopting a ‘back to open’ trading policy!

For more information read up on this thread: –

https://www.betangel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4934&start=240

Loading

20/12/2011 | By More
Winding down..

Winding down..

We are well on the run in now for the Xmas break now and this are going to get a little quiter as the week rolls on. Quieter apart from at home because the kids are off school now! Racing comes to a close on Thursday and there is no racing on the Friday or Saturday.

Plenty of decent racing on the Saturday just gone and it proved a good days trading. Best result of a good bunch came from …

19/12/2011 | By More
Give your football 150% this weekend

Give your football 150% this weekend

I love those throw away phrases where people say they are going to give it 150%. Of course you can only give it 100%, or can you? Not when trading.

In a betting market the market is framed at 100%. A football team can only win, lose or draw a match. There is a 100% chance of that happening. But when trading, you are trading how volatile those odds will be and that is always over 100%, whatever sport you …

17/12/2011 | By More
Lay the draw – automatically

Lay the draw – automatically

Last week we backed the draw using the new automation feature in Bet Angel, this week we lay it.

Whether you use the new feature to implement something or test an idea, it’s a powerful tool to do either. Based on immediate feedback we have expanded the number of conditions you can apply to your automation which expand your capability further. Bear in mind that using the practice mode you can play around without risking any money and by using …

03/12/2011 | By More
Bombs away

Bombs away

Every now and again in the racing market an individual arrives that doesn’t make much sense. From a trading perspective at least!

The come into the market and back a selection for a large amount of money, then back again and again and again! I’m not sure the oft quoted description of ‘mad bomber’ is accurate, maybe there is a better description. But what is certain is the impact they have on the market. You could view this as a …

14/11/2011 | By More
United vs City

United vs City

One of the big matches of the season is up today, the Manchester Derby. I’m really intrigued.

This is the real acid test of who is going to be in the ascendancy over the season. Both have thrown down the gauntlet with very good early season performances and matching each other stride for stride so far. So this match is the first opportunity to throw both in the mix and see what comes out of the melting pot.

You have …

23/10/2011 | By More
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

When my first daughter was born I planted an acorn. Since then it has grown to the proverbial Oak Tree. This year it is 14 years old and yielded its first crop of Acorns.

My point?

When I was in a ‘normal’ job I was always planting metaphoric acorns. My hope was that some would grow to Oaks, and so they did. So I suggest you always keep planting Acorns. Not just in the context of building for the long …

05/10/2011 | By More
Back to back

Back to back

That’s woken me up from my slumber!

A very simple strategy would have made you money trading the racing today. Get a back order filled and wait.

Somebody was in the market a lot today, as we have seen before, with seemingly infinitely deep pockets. Race after race has had one horse or another completely smashed up with huge back orders. When trading you don’t need to catch many of these to make a huge difference. I am sure a …

30/09/2011 | By More
Cheaters never prosper

Cheaters never prosper

I saw this post on another blog recently and it shows up how statistics can actually reveal very little at all. This is obviously unintended in this case, but is a trap a lot of people fall into very often. Especially when gambling / trading.

https://www.soccerbythenumbers.com/2011/09/cheaters-never-prosper-connection.html

I first looked into the relationship with fouls and goals some time ago and the link is the attacking strength of one team over the defence of another. If your defence is under pressure …

24/09/2011 | By More
Back the draw

Back the draw

I’m going to put up some information on Saturday’s about football / soccer.  Some of it may seem contradictory for some of you and some logical, but it’s all based on years worth of research and application in the market.

For starters: –

If you backed the draw, pretty much at random, last weekend; you would have have netted a cool profit. I know, because I did exactly that and suffered a 60% thumping as a result! I was doing …

27/08/2011 | By More
Another new strategy

Another new strategy

Sat the in bath the other night pondering a number of things. Of all the things I do, looking for new things and trying to solve the puzzles that any market throws at me is the thing I find most interesting.

I came up with a way off thought based upon what I had seen from recent market data. Basically that the market has been tightening and less money than ever is lost to one side of the book or …

04/08/2011 | By More
Important Information

Important Information

Well day 3/6 on jinx week has passed without catastrophe. Yesterday wasn’t a great day by any means and I really fouled up on one race, but I’m still moving ahead on the week and hope for a better day today.

I’m always experimenting and there is no better way of doing that than directly in the market itself. I will always recommend this, as it’s the best way to really know what is really happening and how your actions …

12/05/2011 | By More
Losing it!

Losing it!

A good example of key turning point in a Tennis match recently. Whether you consider the distraction a key point or the reaction to it, It dug under the mood and psyche of the player and triggered off a bad run in the match. Sometimes not all turning points are based on stats or interpretation of them. However, they do help frame your potential risk and reward and that’s why we created Tennis Trader.

https://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/

You can’t take account …

20/04/2011 | By More
Waves

Waves

For some time I’ve noticed curious elements within betting markets. I love analysing and studying what happens in the market, and it’s all to find out that critical question, why?

Getting a deeper understanding is useful because it allows you to build a firm framework around your decisions. I’ve often seen people stumble on something that works and then come up with things to justify that. Eventually they will fail a little while later and slip out of existence, why? …

31/03/2011 | By More
Bump..

Bump..

Now Cheltenham is firmly behind us and the champions league football pauses for a few weeks, it’s time to come back to earth with a bump. On the racing front, the weeks before and after Cheltenham are often starkly different, so it’s time to dig deep and stay out of trouble.

I’ll be adopting a cautious approach in the coming week and not trying to push too hard to find an opportunity. Doing that gives you a tendency to look …

21/03/2011 | By More
Hypersmash.com