28/04/2022
What is a basic indicator of how much money has been traded on a selection?
There are two basic indicators of how much money a selection has attracted so far.
1. Evaluate at a glance the density of the selection’s last traded price graph, the one with the volume bars. A “money-charged” selection has volume bars only a couple of pixels wide, its price line is smooth, without sharp bends.
2. Compare the selection’s back and lay prices.
If the gap between the back and lay prices, I usually don’t care about that selection. There are certainly scalping techniques whereby you aim to occupy that gap with offers that are 1 tick better than the other offered prices. However, this technique requires a certain level of dexterity and does not always work in markets with low liquidity.
 |
 |
A high-volume selection will have a dense graph and a minimum price gap.
Take a look at the screenshots taken from BFCharts. You can see examples of money-charged and “hollow” selections. San Martin de Tucuman, the money-charged one, has only one tick between the back and lay prices.
The other selection, Unbridled Tiger, has a whopping 17 ticks between its back and lay prices, 2.06 to 2.4.
If at least one of these criteria is not met, I don’t bother betting on such selections until other players support it with their money!
Why is my trigger not placing bets? Check the logs!
The most common question we hear from customers is: Why is my trigger not placing bets?
I tend to ask them to show me the trigger log. That usually leaves the customer clueless…
I have prepared a video tutorial on how to use trigger logs for testing and debugging automated betting strategies.
Here is a similar video tutorial explaining how to use program logs:
General advice on what to do if a trigger is not working:
- Check program logs for error.
- Make sure you have turned triggers on (the lightbulb must be green)
- Make sure you refresh at least one market. Triggers can only work in markets that are refreshing.
- Make sure the triggers themselves are enabled (check them in the Triggers Editor).
- If you have constants that limit the selection’s price range, or the number of runners, or the time at which a bet can be placed, check if those limitations prevent the trigger from firing.
If you need to test complex triggers over and over, we recommend doing it with Time Machine.
Repeating betting actions with triggers – a simple case with an example
You can repeat the same trigger action over and over, and let me tell you how in this video.
We will back the first horse in the list and keep placing new bets as soon as the previous ones are matched, each time increasing the bet size by 10%.
We will back the first horse in the list and keep placing new bets as soon as the previous ones are matched, each time increasing the bet size by 10%.
Download the trigger example placing repeated bets
You can see the result of such trigger in the video. Naturally, you can add more complexity to it, for example, only bet if the selection is the favourite, or bet if there is at least X amount in your account, but those are topics for some other video.
Variable scope and how to use it for different purposes
Trigger tools include a powerful instrument called user variables. With variables, you can remember some temporary states of market, account, or application, and then change them or use them in your betting actions.
I have put together a short article explaining what variable scope is, and described possible use cases.
Dynamics of Under 0.5 goals in First Half Goals 0.5
The Under 0.5 goals graph in First Half Goals 0.5 is very predictable: it will always slope down exponentially. Let's look at BFCharts graphs together:
This means, the price of Under 0.5 will be falling rapidly at the beginning of the match, then slow down towards the 45th minute or by the time the first goal is scored. In other words, the first 10 – 15 minutes of a game show the best dynamic for Under 0.5 goals.
The second selection, Over 0.5, demonstrates the opposite behaviour, growing exponentially and increasing in price at a higher pace toward the market closure.
Draw your own conclusions…
How to bet only in races with a predefined distance?
Have you ever noticed that BetFair includes the distance of a horse race right in the name of the market?
Sadly, that's the only place it includes it in, so MarketFeeder Pro has to spot these numbers in the market name and convert them in distance, in meters.
Distances of British and Irish races are traditionally noted in miles and furlongs, while races in other countries are measured in meters.
1 mile equals approximately 1609 m, whereas 1 furlong (the letter "f", as in 1m5f) -- is around 201 m.
In order to get a market distance, load a Win market and read the value of the market variable market_length.
For example, use this #triggerCondition to check whether a race is between 2000 m and 4900 m long (approx. 1m2f and 3m):
Selection's Trigger Expression market_length is between 2000 and 4900
Even if you intend to bet in a Place market, still load the corresponding Win one, to let the program parse the distance from the name of the Win market.
Why would you care about race distance? Because in short races, In-Play prices are much more frantic, and the probable winner will reveal itself almost at once. In lengthier races, on the other hand, you have enough time to do some scalping as they take longer to gain momentum.