Trading software

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Living dangerously (part 3)

It's been a while since I updated progress on my 'Living Dangerously' strategy where I lay high priced horses in the place markets based on my ratings.


It took a bit of a nosedive but has recovered and is currently showing a profit of €672.46 to a €2 fixed lay stake.

The stats are:

Stake: €2 
Bets: 1511
 Unsuccessful bets:32
Strike rate: 97.88%
Total profit: €674.17

The chart:
Overall I'm quite happy with it and the profit of nearly 700 quid is nice to have although I've resisted the urge to up the stakes, especially since I went through a bad patch. It got off to a flyer and it's interesting to see it on a chart because had I started doing this at the beginning of the bad patch where it lost 200 quid, it's possible that I might have scrapped it. That's why it's important to let the data build and not to get too excited by a good start, or too downbeat about a poor run.

I might raise the stakes to €3 if or when I hit €1,000 profit. It's a slow burner but I'm happy to let it run in the background. A grand is the medium term target - it would be nice to reach that figure by the end of June but you can't really plan like that as a few losing bets in-a-row knocks you back quickly as you can see from the chart. I'll report back again soon on progress.

Wayne



Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Racing Post review of my book

The Racing Post reviewed my book Sports Trading on Betfair on Sunday and I'm delighted to say that they seemed to like it a lot.

The full text of the review is below. Don't forget that a free chapter is available to download on www.waynebaileyracing.com/book
 
 

The Racing Post, Sunday 19th April 2015

A comprehensive guide for both beginner and expert

Wayne Bailey has been busy. Although still only in his mid-30s, the Dublin resident has crammed plenty into his years. A librarian by trade, his is an accredited Betfair trainer (someone endorsed by the company to show others how the exchange works at events in the UK and Ireland) who graduated from university with a degree in social sciences and information studies before completing a diploma in financial trading.
More recently he had studied psychology and the behaviour of the human mind and also spent time as a professional gambler, as well as writing a betting column for the Irish Independent. Somehow he has also found time to pen the wonderful Sports Trading on Betfair.

Bailey's background makes him the perfect person to write a book on carving out a living trading the often frenetic markets on the betting exchanges and he does not disappoint.

In 190-odd pages of A4, Bailey manages to cover all you need to know. Starting with a history of the exchanges and the very basics, the author swiftly moves on to more complex ideas such as scalp trading and momentum swing trading in a manner which, refreshingly, somehow manages the neat trick of being accessible for the novice trader while not patronising those with more experience in the field.
While the early chapters may cover familiar ground for those who have spent plenty of hours slavishly watching the movements of markets, they are still well worth a read because - as the author points out early on - "sometimes even traders are unaware of how important [a series of] numbers are and the difference they can make to their bottom line".

An explanation of crossover points and resistance points, while invaluable to any budding trader, will also prove to be of use to anybody who is looking at using the exchanges just to place a straight back bet.
A chapter on the various software packages available to traders is for once worth a look and not just a glorified advert for the author's favoured tool, and the sections on financial spread trading actually offer something of substance as opposed to just being space fillers.

Laying the field and in-running markets are covered in sufficient detail and while Bailey can hardly lay claim to reinventing the wheel here, at least he does it in such a way that he sows the seeds of the concept in the mind of the reader rather than laying down a list of hard and fast rules. As he is quick to stress: "Selectivity is the key."

With an information-solid background, it is no surprise to learn that Bailey is a meticulous planner - "keeping good record of your trades is imperative" he says, and even the most slapdash of wannabe traders will surely come away from this book in agreement with that sentiment.

Sports trading on Betfair is no get-rich-quick scheme. Nor does it promise to be.
Whit it is, though, is a comprehensive guide that will prove invaluable to those wanting to make their first foray into trading while also proving to be a great reference to those who have already done so.

This is not the first book on the subject and it probably won't be the last. But it does collect a wealth of material for which other books and courses have charged much more. If you can't make back the cover price by using the ideas found here, then trading on the exchanges is probably not for you. The best book of its type so far. 

Paul Eacott

***


http://shop1.racingpost.com/Sports-Trading-On-Betfair-by-Wayne-Bailey-p/sportbet.htm

Friday, April 17, 2015

Getting banned by bookmakers

Sorry folks, time for a little rant.

Some gamblers think the idea of getting their account closed down or severely limited by a bookmaker is a badge of honour but for me, it simply highlights how unfair this game actually is.

For those of you that haven't been banned, it's pretty simple. If your account shows a decent profit, it will end up on the bookmaker's radar. Once that happens, they will check you out and monitor your bets. If you continue to win money, they will no longer accept bets from you or else 'limit your account' which means the size of the bets you can place are, say, less than a fiver or tenner on the favourite.

Some friends of mine which I'd describe as 'casual punters' are often astonished at this. They are the type of punter the bookmaker loves - a tenner here on a horse, a fiver there on a match. Fun punters who are never really up in the long term, bar the odd lucky win. But if you happen to put in a bit of graft and earn a few quid, watch out. 

Bet365 are the latest bookie to knock me back - or Bet €3.65 I should say as that's about as much as I can get on with them these days. Here's an email they sent me a couple of weeks ago:



When they say that their services are still available to me, that's actually a joke. They didn't want to say I was banned I guess as it's bad for the image but as an example, here's what happens when I try to back a horse at 50/1:

When you put in your stake - say a tenner, the Bet Max box changes it for you. As you can see, Bet365 will let me have a whopping €0.27 on that horse. Any more and it just won't go through.

Call themselves layers? I say they should grow a pair.

On a horse priced 5/4, they'll let me have as much as €10.80



I miss the old style layers who used to bet their opinion (rather than following the exchanges) and would take a risk. Not too many of them left sadly. The good ones would use their winning customers to mark their cards so in some parts, such customers were welcome.

I'm singling out Bet365 here as they are the latest to limit my account but it's across the board as anyone who tries to get more than a hundred quid on anything will tell you. Again, if anyone thinks that this is some kind of boast, it's certainly not. I've had long term losing accounts which were limited after a string of wins over the space of a week.

Fair enough, bookmakers are businesses and they have to limit risk. I understand all that. But I hate when I hear them try to justify this behaviour by telling us that they simply like to have casual punters which like to have a fun bet. That's their market, they say. Oh really? Well, I know a man who lost over €30K with an Irish bookmaker and never got a tap on the shoulder to tell him to stop. It's pretty much ruined his life. If it were a level playing field, both the big winners plus the big losers would get their stakes limited.

It's the double standards that annoy me. If they are only interested in fun punters who bet a fiver or a tenner on a Saturday, that's fair enough but that's not the case. They also want the poor ba***rd that loses his wages every week and goes home to the missus empty handed. In short, they want it both ways and they have it both ways.

By the way, the total I won with Bet365 was in the region of €950 (over the space of one month). While just under a grand is a lot of money in any man's language, it's hardly JP McManus stuff now is it?

As I say, it's not just Bet365, they all do it. I've had accounts shut down over a few hundred euro, it's not always big money. And yet these same firms go and complain that the exchanges have ruined the industry! A funny bunch, the lot of them.

Anyway, life's too short to complain too much so I'll leave it there. Have a good weekend everyone.

Wayne

***

Wayne's book Sports Trading on Betfair is out now:

Sports Trading on Betfair




Saturday, April 11, 2015

Aintree Grand National 2015

Now, keep in mind that I haven't picked the Grand National winner since 1990 when I won £8 backing Mr Frisk at 16/1 with my lucky millennium fifty pence. Minus the price of a pint for me da, God rest him, who placed the bet for me on the Kim Bailey trained gelding. Anyway, as Johnny Logan would say, what's another year? Here goes:


http://www.independent.ie/sport/horse-racing/mccoy-win-would-be-a-dream-but-call-on-soll-for-a-value-bet-31133896.html




Wayne's book Sports Trading on Betfair is out now:

Friday, April 3, 2015

Sports Trading on Betfair (book): Kindle version now available

Good morning folks,

I'm pleased to announce that my book 'Sports Trading on Betfair' is now available on Kindle as well as in physical format.

Kindle version

Print version

Don't forget, there is a free chapter on my website available to give you a flavour of the book:

www.waynebaileyracing.com/book

Happy Easter to all readers.

Wayne