Irish racing offers opportunities

The Challenge: to increase my trading bank by 5% per month.

The story so far...

Starting bank: €1,000 (beginning of May 2010)
Target for end August: €1,215.51
Today’s opening bank: €1,433.51
Today’s closing bank: €1,461.85
Today's profit: €28.34
Today's turnover: €14,063.98

***

I only traded the evening stuff so I'm pretty pleased with today's profit of over 28 quid in 12 races.

I spoke before about the Irish races and how little money there is in the market until five minutes before the off. This can be a pain when you are waiting to get matched but it also offers opportunities too. For example, you can get in ahead of the queue and leave lay orders on a number of horses at a lot of the crucial prices.

What's a crucial price? There are a number of them on Betfair. Take, for example, a horse you lay at 2.0.

The next step up from that is 2.02, while the next step down is 1.99. This gives the layers a crucial advantage here because the increments go up in twos above evens while they go down in ones below it.

So if you lay at 2.0 and the price rises it goes, 2.02, 2.04, 2.06 etc. If it goes down, it goes 1.99, 1.98, 1.97 etc.

So the potential loss if the trade goes wrong is not as great as the potential gain should the trade go right. That's why I always like to be a layer first at prices like 2.0.

There are a number of key price points on Betfair where the increment changes but you'll normally find a big queue to lay at those prices. That's where the low liquidity on Irish racing can help as you can get in early near the top.