Hi guys (and girls if there are any here).

I'm trying out a betting system and although it's VERY early days (like 3 days) I was wondering whether it is better to just keep betting throughout the day or to stop when you reach a certain dollar amount.

I'm using a bot and am Backing (not laying - YAY ) using the Betfair minimum of $5 per bet. I have a $50 stop loss set which I will leave however I'm in a dilemma of whether to let the profits run or stop them at a certain level.

From the 3 days I have finished at the end of the day with +$26, +$9 & -$6.

If I had stopped at say +$25 then all 3 days would have stopped there.

What do you guys think (or do)?

Keep it running or basically a stop at a winner type approach/stopping at a defined dollar amount.

It is often a real dilemma isnt it Ocho

I have a similar setup with automated betting on anything up to 60% of races on a given day laying & backing, & decided after much gnashing of teeth etc to just let it run as while I often reached a desirable profit amount & then went backwards for the day, I would then miss out on 'those special days' when everything falls into place.

So for me in the long run, it has been more profitable to cover every possible betting opportunity.

Rather than stop betting try to work out the races that you are less likely to win in and avoid these races, maybe it is to many runners or to few runners or the fav is to high a price or to low.

Hi the Ocho,

As Shaun said, if you can work out your profitable races then you can avoid the losing ones and stop betting when at a predetermined profit.

Unfortunately for most punters the option is to keep going because you don't know where the profit is coming from.

I keep a most thorough and, probably too meticulous, record of my betting with knowing my strikerate number of outs etc, and I do stop when at a certain profit or loss, and even despite the most complete record keeping I still miss out on some winners, luckily not enough to make up for the potential losers but.

I'd say after a few weeks you can work out your average profit and then set a limit to profit-loss.

At the end of the day this is still a game of chance, actually made worse by the influence of human element.

Lacking complete records I would rather set a loss stop than a profit stop. Due to being a game of chance some days are not going our way no matter what.

Good luck

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Today the system went up to about $44 before a few losses occurred with the $50 trailing stop kicking in and losing -$10.33.

While it's not much of a system it appears that stopping at somewhere like +$25 would have netted me $100 in 4 days instead of basically going nowhere.

I have set the bot to switch to simulation mode when the stop loss is triggered (today was the first day it was actually triggered). From tomorrow I will reverse the settings and have a profit stop set at +$25 and will then run the bot in simulation mode to see what would of happened if I actually make it to $25 (remember I am back betting the minimum $5 at a time).

Of course, you can all guess what will happen tomorrow. Talk about an omen bet.

Generally , many systems will be 3-4 units in front at some stage.

Then give it all back & some.

It is strongly recommended to set profit at 3-4 x initial bet if you wish for daily profits.

Set Max losers at 12
This keeps things more in control .

That way if its a total write off , it will only take 3-4 days of normal betting to recover.

There is the old argument that says ....
"If the system is any good , it should work all the time , so don't stop betting."

The problem I have with that statement is that no system works the same way all the time.
They have windows of opportunity which are always smaller before hit with a run of outs, we never know when or how long these outs will be .
Thats why its best to stop once 3-4 units infront.

I your case it would be $15-20 profit then stop.

If we only targeted for 3% profit a day.
This equates to 90% increase on bank in a month if things go our way.

I feel that s

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Cheers.

Thanks Bhagwan. I was also thinking along those lines and actually had the profit stop set for $25 but then, later on changed my mind. DOH!!!

Unless you have some system that is more successful - for example in the early type of races such as 2YO’s etc - there is no logic that I can see in stopping early or continuing for the full suite of your selections.
To embrace that approach would be similar to saying”I only bet after race 4 on the program” once again unless you had some system more suitable to the mature type of races it makes no sense.
I can’t see any punting magic in a night’s sleep or a new day that will make things right again.
In my opinion by stopping early etc all you are doing is delaying the inevitable.

Ocho

Tried a few variations on the theme but in general it makes no sense to stop betting. All you'll do is limits your gains or lock in your losses.

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Pixie

"It's worth remembering that profit isn't profit until it's spent off the racecourse." -- Crash

or continue to aid the disguise of a non-profitable strategy