Retirement Staking Plan
Description
The Retirement Staking Plan was devised by a Grandstand racing analyst Barry Hughes, and there is a common feeling that it is one of the smartest staking plans on the market.
You can easily find a detailed description of this plan on the web, thanks to it being free. For the purposes of this trigger example, I will give you the essentials below. Please note I am not giving any personal judgement of this plan and leave it up to you to decide whether it is worth trying.
1. Divisor
So you start by computing the average price of the horses that won the previous races that fit your criteria. For example, if you only choose Handicap races with favourites' odds 2.5 or higher, then note down the price of every horse that won in such a race. Sum up the prices and divide that by the number of races in your record (in other words, get the average price of the winner). Then multiply this figure by 2, and you'll get the key parameter of this plan, the Divisor.
2. Bank
Appoint a bank for your trading session. Choose the percentage of the bank that you will spend on the initial bet. This will be the unit size. E.g. your bank could be £1000 with a unit size of 1 (which makes a £10, as 1% of £1000 is £10).
3. Target
The target is calculated by the triggers automatically so you don't need to actively do anything about it, but it is important for the concept of this plan. The target is roughly the base of the further bet calculation. After your bet loses, its size is added to the target, and after it wins, it is deducted from the target. The more you lose, the greater your target is.
4. The plan
We will be backing (for laying this plan does not make sense). The size of the bet is always calculated as target / divisor. After a lose we add the lost amount to the target, so the next time the bet is slightly greater. After a certain number of losses in a row we start adding 1 to the divisor following each loss, to protect the bank from a quick wipe-out. After a win, we deduct the won amount from the target and reduce the divisor to the value that corresponds to the target.
As the bank grows, we increase the target by a certain percentage to adjust the bet size.
That's it in a nutshell. See an example breakdown of bets below.
| Selection | Win/Lose | Divisor | Target | Stake | Balance |
| Starting Bank | £1000.00 | ||||
| Horse #1 | Lose | 6 | £60.00 | £10.00 | £990.00 |
| Horse #2 | Lose | 6 | £70.0 | £11.67 | £978.33 |
| Horse #3 | Lose | 6 | £81.67 | £13.61 | £964.72 |
| Horse #4 | Lose | 6 | £95.28 | £15.88 | £948.84 |
| Horse #5 | Lose | 6 | £111.16 | £18.53 | £930.31 |
| Horse #6 | Lose | 6 | £129.69 | £21.61 | £908.7 |
| Horse #7 |
WIN @ 2.38, |
7 | £151.3 | £21.6 | £937.04 |
| Horse #8 | NP | 6 | £122.96 | £20.49 | £916.55 |
| Horse #9 | NP | 6 | £143.45 | £23.91 | £892.64 |
| Horse #10 |
WIN @ 5.0, |
6 | £167.36 | £27.89 | £998.63 |
| Horse #11 |
WIN @ 1.17, |
6 | £61.37 | £10.23 | £1000.28 |
Triggers
| bank | Starting bank |
| unit_size | Unit size as percentage of the bank |
| divisor | Divisor (average winner price multiplied by 2) |
| div_inc | How much to increment the divisor after a losing streak |
| bnk_perc | Percentage of bank growth at which to increase the target |
| min_price | Minimum price of the bet |
| max_price | Maximum price of the bet |
Sample Statement
This statement is a result of the Retirement Staking Plan applied to 27 races that took place on 16/06/2014 (through backtesting in Time Machine).
