Re: Relevance of fractional odds

[mulberryhawk]

I was just wondering what the forums thoughts were on the relevance of fractional odds and their importance nowadays relating to the exchanges.

Given the exchange price quite often seems to be half a point or so bigger than the on course bookmakers, I wonder do traders use the correlation between the fractional odds and their decimal counterpart on the exchanges when deciding where the exchange price should be now.

Or are fractional odds irrelevent to the new exchange players, who pay more attention to the movement of money in a market. For example if a horse is 7/2 on course should he in theory be pushing out to 4.0 on the exchanges.

Also for the in running traders who I presume have to be able to price the market instantaneously. Is the emphasis on the decimal odds, the fractional odds or he % chance of a selection winning? For example if an in running trader is watching a race and looking to open a trade. Is he looking at a horse trading at 3.0 thinking thats 2/1 therefore a value trade, or is the emphasis on that horse has a 33% chance of winning the race therefore its underpriced.

The reason for asking was just to gauge how much of a role people feel the older fractional odds play for exchange traders. Can they just be ignored with the emphasis being on the movement of the decimal price and the relation that has to the implied probability.