Agree Mark.

It seems that most are resigned to the fact that winning using a system is impossible.
It's very possible provided several criteria are met.

a)The rules are logical and apply equally to several systems.
(hypothetical example: eliminate horses drawn worse than barrier 10....if this improves the strike rate and POT in completely seperate systems, then it's got legs, if not then you are probably curve fitting).

b)Your sample size and number of bets are huge.
The greater the sample size and number of bets you have as an example, the more likely the same trends will follow.
I've seen some posts saying things like 134 bets 29 winners - means little or nothing to me.Basing future bets on minimal stats like this is asking for trouble.

Felicity:

Punters Choice do some good work, but they are not the Grail as some seem to think.
Firstly, they monitor only about 10% of the actual services out there. Also they have monitored many systems which still show a profit after 10 years, so I don't know how you arrived at your conclusion.

Your 80/20 rule I use only it's the other way around...I'll run a system for 6 months and then compare it over a different 12 months, then 2 years, then 4 years.

As to never finding a system that wins more than a couple of months - you aren't looking hard enough :grin:


[ This Message was edited by: Chrome Prince on 2003-12-15 23:48 ]