To Mark and anyone else
 

who uses Betfair, as a recent converter to b/f could you please give me some clues as to how to pick the peaks and troughs in the market?

Mark, I know you back or lay or sometimes even both the whole field for a small (guaranteed) profit, and was wondering , do you have pre determined prices both min and max and then jump on when those prices appearor do you hang out if you think they might improve, and what if you cant get those prices on some runners? especially the faves, does the trading info that appears when you click on a horses name give any clues as to what prices might do? sorry for all the questions but I have fallen in love with b/f and thimnk itis the greatest thing since sliced bread (or Bourbon and Coke)

any info at all would be appreciated.

some one must have some thoughts on this subject???

Hello Dr Ron

Unfortunately Mark is currently a guest of the Noosa Hospital and has been for the last week. Anyone who has had a kidney stone will know what he's been through. Hopefully he will be home tomorrow and I'm sure he will give you the benefit of his wisdom (LOL).

Mrs Mark
(Lynne)

speedy recovery..
 

Hey mark

i'm sure all of us here hope that all is well and you get well in a hurry.
Your wisdom and thought provoking comments are bonus to this forum.

cheers
nekta.

Thanks for the reply Mrs Mark, please pass on my regards to Mark and I hope he is feeling better very soon.

Get well soon Mark, take care and enjoy your Easter, Betfair will always be there when you get better ;)

All the very best Mark, hope you are well soon, I was actually going to post Where's Mark as you have been very quite lately.

Get well and post soon as I'm sure A lot of of forumites are like me, that enjoy your sensible posts.

Hi, Mark.

Hoping you are now in excellent health. The very best to you and yours for Easter.

Michael.

Hello Dr, how many times have I said that in the last week?, thanks to all for your concerns, I'm now back & ready to cause havoc.

When I first discoverd B/F, my thoughts were, why didn't I think of this, and you beauty at last I can be a bookie again. Alas, B/F has really deviated from what it first set out to be, a person to person way of betting. It has now become battle of the bots (robots, automated betting etc), with victory going to the person who has the smartest, quickest bot setup.

To see what I mean, go to UK races, pick any horse, put up a lay at the next increment & I guarantee it will be topped within seconds. This can be used to your advantage (risky), the other day a horse was $8 back, & $13 lay, so I put up $8.2, the bot went $8.4, so I went $8.6, the bot $8.8 etc. I pushed it all the way up to $12.50 and backed it myself. As soon as I took away all the other prices the bot took away its as well. I managed to lay the same horse later on at $7.8, which put a few % in my favour.

As far as making risk free books (mainly UK races) is concerned my t/o has more than halved & profits have dropped to around 20% of last years. I guess I now regard the bots & their masters in the same way that the TABS & Bookies regard B/F. Dr, I don't have a way of picking which way a price will move, or make my own markets, I simply assess what is available at what price and start laying IF I think I may be able to lay everything at more than 100%. I get it right probably 99 times out of 100, but am now making peanuts compared to last year, for the same amount of effort mind you.

To me the trading graphs are almost useless, except when you see that a horse has been substantially backed, & the lay % is good, I try to lay them in the hope that the money will dry up, and they will either drift and/or others will then come in which boosts the lay %.

You could do worse than just laying Michael g's selections in up, up & up. So long as they are in the market, it is profitable to lay them all to lose the same amount.

Cheers & good luck
Mark

ps Michael, love your work!
pps If anyone is interested I can email the books I made on last weeks BMW & GS, to give an idea of what can be done.

Mark, good to see you back and well. I wouldnt mind a look at those books thanks.

sonnyboy64 at optusnet dot com dot au