Ok I'm planning to get stuck into the races next week. I was initially planning on staking 1% of my bank on each race (estimated 10 races per week). However, I'm a bit uncomfortable putting 10% of my bank on the line I think I'm going to push it back to 0.5% at a time. Does anyone have suggestions for a good staking plan?

thanks,

Don

Depends on your strike rate.
A good rule of thumb is one tenth of your strike rate. If you hit 20% winners, put 2% on each.
Unless you're betting longshots and only hitting a small percentage, betting half or one percent will stunt your growth.
It's a comfort thing but the only thing worse than being overconfident is overconservative.

Don,

It probably depends on how confident you are that you have a winning approach. If you are just trialing then I would stick to a small bet size until you have got some solid figures and are confident in your strike rate, etc. Always remember that it is much easier to lose $500 than it is to win $500 and the horses will still be racing next week - you don't need to rush into anything.

I personally started with around 2% of my bank for each bet but as my bank is increasing I am aiming to reduce that to about 1% (remembering I am targetting long shots and my strike rate is about 12%). The reason behind this was that the 2% was a more aggressive strategy with a small bank that I could afford to lose - as the bank grows I don't want to risk it too much - I feel the 1% is about right for my srike rate.

[ This Message was edited by: becareful on 2002-07-21 21:39 ]

I believe most of your bets should be well below 1% so you don't get put off by bad runs.
Statistical analysis can show what % chance there is for any bank to bust based on strike rate, average odds of winners and % of bank bet.

Try this

Your bank could be 3.5 greater than your longest run of outs experiencd.

This should be calculated over a min. of 150 races.

If you are targeting roughies, it would be wise to look at a bank of $1.00 for every $150.00 that way you wont beat yourself up if the wheels fall off during a couple of bad days in a row before hitting onto that big fat juicey WINNER.

O.K. I am going to stick my neck out here and add some controversy.

If you have a selection method in mind, there should be a mix of prices /odds to add both stability and profit to your system.

For Example,
becareful says he has a "longshot" system, while others are looking at high strike rate systems. In my humble opinion you need a balanced mix of both to keep your run of outs to a minimum (less risk to the bank) and also provide some worthwhile dividends and profit (longshots 10/1 or better).

Therefore, my advice would be to bet 1% of your starting bank, but then only bet 1% of the remaining bank if you enter a run of outs.
If you then make profits, you would end up betting 1% of your total bank, so as profits rise...so do your bets.
This stops you betting 10% of your bank on 10 selections as mentioned earlier.

P.S. becareful, I am not saying there is anything wrong at all with your system. I am just giving advice to someone starting out. I don't want them to lose their bank at the very outset.