Thank you

Would like to say thank you for all the email / forum responses in regards to my last post. Although I may of come across as hopelessly stalemated, I have had some correspondence with a few really helpful guys. It's to be expected really, needing to sift through a number of time wasters before meeting someone useful. Do not think it's particularly appropriate to mention all names but you all know who you are, so thank you once again to all who have offered support.

It seems the consensus in regards to my botting needs is to learn how to program the bot myself rather than rely on anyone else. Problem with this route is it will takes much longer before seeing any results, but in regards to the longterm it gives me many more options and the flexibility to adapt. Having spoken to a couple of guys on the forums VBA doesn't seem all that daunting, although ultimately C# appears to be the language to pursue. I suppose if and when I feel I am being limited by Excel & VBA that would be the time to look at switching to C#. As a start though I'm looking at the Excel integration route. One plus with this route is being able to use the vendor API subscription, as I can see the limitations with the free API restricting the possibilities somewhat.

Also think I am developing a serious case of roboguilt, that is for every waking moment I'm not otherwise occupied, I should be working on this damn bot! Any cures for roboguilt, you know the email address! 

Botting Help

A quick post seeking some advice. As you may have picked up from previous posts I'm looking to get involved in the Betfair botting world. However regrettably out of the six potential programmers I have been in contact with, none have come through for me. It seems going quiet rather than replying and saying you can/can't do something is in fashion at the moment - and this is from email addresses I have already had some correspondence with (not enough to give anything important away mind).

Anyway, I am asking anyone who is reading this, if you have VBA or Excel programming skills and are actually serious, or if you know of anyone with these skills, please get in contact with me either by commenting here or emailing me directly on ambergambler007(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk. It will be a spreadsheet based bot triggered either via Gruss or Bet Angel - as long as it can perform the required functions.

I'm pretty confident one of my trading styles is mechanical enough be be botted, and potentially one or two others. I just need to get this ball rolling and would really appreciate any advice whatsoever at the moment.

Hopefully get some progress on this soon!

First full(ish) day for a while

Horse Racing

Unit stake: £2

Session P&L: £3.06

Average market P&L: £0.18

It's hasn't taken long at all to get used to trading again. I'm feeling confident and motivated after today's result. Before today my cautious plan was to trade with min stakes for about 5 sessions or so (until I felt comfortable with the markets and software), but it seems that has happened already. My plan after reaching that point was to pick up where I left off in February - building up my bank with the 10%-of-bank-max-unit-stake-per-trade-rule - if that last sentence actually makes sense! Considering my staking I am very happy with the return, but moreover being able to maintain my discipline easily for the entire session. I had an hours break between 15:00-16:00, and I think that helped me finish stronger (although I probably should of timed it better considering the quality of racing).

I'm still lovin' The Toy and although I keep postponing this review, it will come when I feel I've used it thoroughly enough. Fact is this software is so customisable that I'm still finding new ways to view the markets depending on how I set it up. I'm also trading with one screen at the moment as I've decided to upgrade the two analogue to two digital monitors. Am just waiting for them to arrive (having already relocated one of the analogue displays), should be next week pending stock. It has been interesting trading with one screen, forcing me to be more efficient with the available space. I do feel that with two though it will be better. Once they're installed I'm planning on setting at least one portrait (perhaps both), so the juggling fun begins all over again.

The Geekstoy Children in Need Plugathon

Well as some of you will know already, there are some great things going on at the Geek's Toy HQ. And believe it or not this isn't an appraisal of the software's performance, but a gesture from the Geek and others for the Children in Need cause.

Having some sort of following here I thought I should at least contribute to this great cause in my own little way. If you have a blog or site  you can also help, check this post here for details.

Make sure you get involved now before it's too late, the deadline is Midnight UTC Sunday 21st November. Not only will you be helping a great cause but there are some seriously great prizes up for grabs:

- Tradesharks Tennis Trading Guide. from  Tradeshark

- Bet Notes software from the Nugget Crew

- £250 form The Geek himself

- £200 Nuggets Football Trading Toolkit from the Nugget Crew.

- €720 BFExplorer Subscriptions from BFExplorer

- Bet72 "free-bet-a-thon" from Darren Hall of Bet72

- £2000 Betfair Personal Annual API Subscription from Betfair

- £100+ Fairbot / Tradeshark Tennis / Nugget Crews BetNotes 

- £300 Bet Angel + Tradeshark Tennis Trader Toolkit

GeeksToy - Probably the Best Betfair Trading Software in the world!

Good to be back

Well it certainly has been a while, looking back the last full day of trading before this month was 16th February!

As mentioned in my last post I have now resumed trading UK horse racing markets, and the past week or so I've gotten involved in quite a few markets, mainly getting back into the swing of things. I must say it hasn't taken too long to pick up where I left off, and it seems what I had learnt has been well cemented. The only issue was concentration levels and stamina so to speak, understandably I can't expect to be in the same condition I was before straight away. In terms of motivation, which was my main issue, I'm feeling as motivated as ever to do this again.

I have also been in contact with a few people in regards to making a bot. This is an ongoing process and will take a while before it's ready, I hope to have this up and running within the next few months if it materialises. It will based on a systematic bookmaking approach that I will be testing initially with Gruss via Excel. If testing goes well I'll look into getting it coded properly and perhaps run off a remote server.

API Software
As some of you will already know my main manual trading application before I stopped was The Toy, and although it lacked a few features I found useful with Bet Angel I managed to match my performance, perhaps even exceed it slightly upto when I stopped. I still felt with the advanced charting and overview The Toy would of been even better, and these were planned for a future release. I'm happy to say that after being involved in some testing of the latest Alpha & Beta versions, they are as promising as ever. My next post will be a review so make sure you're back for that one. Unbelievably the Toy is still free!

As mentioned above I also subscribed to Gruss, and have found it to be quite decent so far. The main reason being for the Excel features, however I traded a few markets manually and it responds very well. For £6 a month this really is a bargain considering how solid the software is and all the potential options you get with Excel integration.

Happy trading everyone, be back soon with more.