BetTrader growing on me

Bankroll $142,01

I have to take back some of the stuff I said yesterday.

Today BetTrader acted a lot better and maybe it had something to do with some api slowness.

I decided to go back to minimum bets for a bit until I get this software firmly under control. Something I should have done in the first place ofcourse so only myself to blame for my losses lately. So just to have some sort of target I'll rebuild to $150,- at $4,- stakes and then go back to my initial staking plan. Should take me long enough to get to grips with BetTrader.

The Betfair graphs pop up really quick and I didn't have a single one not showing up unlike last night. So when I open a race, or switch my attention to a different horse I just quickly pop open the Betfair graph and see what price range has been traded on. After that the BetTrader graph is fine to show me the trend.

Also hedging seems to be a lot faster but it still feels just not as good as BetAngel's hedging function. Can't put my finger on it. Maybe the fact that BetAngel fires out a couple of small ones instead of one? But in general I press hedge, it gets hedged fast. One really weird thing though. I changed the hedging to "quick" and I assume that means it will take the first price available instead of putting it at the point where you maximise but might have to wait a bit. Thing was that the quoted hedge price was something like -$0,17 which I could deal with with only 40 seconds or so to go. But when I pressed hedge (so I pressed the -$0,17) it got hedged at -$2,75!!! OUCH!! Cause prices where matched a bit higher up the ladder and I'm pretty sure I could've gotten out much closer the the -$0,17 then the -$2,75. So now I have to find out if the price quoted, is not the price you'll get when there are gaps. If that is so it makes it rather complicated for me and I'll have to manually try to get out when the market turns against me instead of hitting the hedge. I hope this was a fluke or I did something wrong cause it sucks if you have to make a split second decision and can't count on the numbers displayed.

I had a go at the doggies again today and I got in and didn't realise that my default stake was still $15,- on my laptop as I had changed it on my desktop. Oops! So much of todays loss is that first bet that went wrong and sent me down $6,- or so. Having a string of small wins and then cock it up with 2 big ones through stupidity is not the way to fame and fortune I can tell you from personal experience now.

I'll say this for the last time as the BetTrader folks have said they'll take care of this in the update but not having the full market stinks. The WOM just doesn't tell you the whole story, neiter do the top 3 prices. Just by watching the money build up behind (or the lack of that) and seeing the spoof amounts further down and where people with slightly larger funds want to be filled at gives me so much more info on what's happening and how much I can expect to be in the shitter if it goes wrong. Lets put it this way. If you have 2 big amounts and a small one on the back side but you see the money above it move up. And the first 3 amounts on the layside aren't that big but they are closing up on the back money and they are getting a lot of support with other money right behind them and no gaps, my bet is the price is going punch through those 2 big ones. By just seeing 3 on each side you'd get the opposite impression. Some goes for the matched amounts shown on the ladder at the odds they were matched at. It makes gap trading so much easier if you know whereabouts the hidden money, I mean the people that don't put money up to be filled but simply jump on top of the lay/back at a certain level, kicks in so you can do a risk vs reward ascertation.

If above is a bit (or totally for that matter) vague just leave a reaction saying that and I'll try to explain it better.

As I said yesterday though. BetTrader just feels easier to work with and I like some of the shortcuts and little GUI tricks they have. Once you get stuck in you can act really fast on a relative small screen without having to go through a bunch of tabs etc. If I only would stop bleeding money while using it I'd be a happy camper.

Tomorrow no doggies or UK horses as I have to be at work early. I'll be hitting the US markets though. I think I'll do a session where I use BetTrader for an hour and then BetAngel and see which one I feel more reluctant to close down and switch. I do have to get the ladders showing the same way! I think you can change that in BetAngel and not in BetTrader. I mean that the back and lay side works different. In BetAngel if I click on an amount of money I match that. In BetTrader I cue up. So back lay is turned around and you have to click the other side instead of the same side. Confused? So am I!

Tuesday it's back at the dogs. They have cost me a bundle! Not nearly as much as my own dog has cost me so it's all a matter of perspective but my first assumption that they are easy extra money has bitten me in the bum with a vengeance. As it should. I don't want to give up on the dogs, I can do them every day and those markets just rock. I'm still convinced that if you get a grip on the market you can make some nice extra money every day on those mutts. But it all happens three minutes before the off every race and it's a relentless rollercoaster. Next time I'm doing it with BetAngel and the full market as I felt really confident when using that and now on BetTrader I didn't feel in control ever.

Much too late once again, I'm off to bed!