Does BetAngel automation make Excel obselete?

[RonObvious]

Hi,

I'm looking to automate my trading as I just cant commit a lot of time to physically sitting in front of my PC and was initially looking to excel for this but after watching some of the videos about the new autumation features within Bet Angel like singals I'm wondering if theres any point doing it through Excel?

It seems like pretty much everything can be done through conditions, signals etc but I'm expecting to be corrected

Are there still advantages to using Excel and if so what are they?

I'm ready to dive in and get going but would like to know where I should start the Bet Angel automation or Excel spreadsheets?

Thanks

[welshboy06]

Being able to use the actual numbers (vol, ltp, bp, lp etc...) in equations is still only achievable through excel unfortunately

Get the ltp of a selection at say 5mins, save that and then check again at 60s and save that. Compare the both.
Or if a selections traded volume increases by X do Y.

Shame really as I don't feel confident enough letting excel do the automation (afraid I'll mess up the placing of trades, or won't green out at a certain time etc...)

[to75ne]

not at all, not only useful to collect info , its very useful to to exit trades.

i use it all the time as a safety net in addition to auto rules. a belt and braces approach.

[workpeter]

Excel will always beat guardian because the building blocks available to you are infinitely smaller and more complex. You're only limited by your coding skills. Besides having the ability to execute complex functions, let's not forgot excel can be used as a (or hook into) database.

Ill give a personal example of how i used to above. I once created a bot which would automatically keep a moving record of the last 30 race days, and every night it would auto analyse this data and then output any winning patterns. Over time it would build up and maintain an array of these winning patterns and use them as triggers for the current day's race. The bot would continually evaluate what patterns were profitable and drop the ones which were not. It would do this all by itself, all i had to do was to flick it between Mode A (learning) and Mode B (execution and storing).

The bot ultimately wasn't profitable and i concluded it was too focused on short-term trends which are full of smoke and mirrors.

[James1st]

A while ago I penned a post calling for a useable link between Excel and Bet Angel automation. Excel is much superior to the current Automation and as the last poster infers, there are infinite combinations and coding nuances in Excel that could never be replicated in Automation. The one advantage that Automation has is its ability to link directly to bet submission instantly whereas Excel has a delay.

This is why I advocated a link from an Excel cell to Automation.

For example you can use/code Excel to set a single Excel cell with a value, one that Automation can use directly (a trigger if you like)

[LeTiss]

If you have a good knowledge of excel, it is more powerful than automation, due to the layers of code you can include.

However, BA automation is more stable and reliable, as I've had problems with excel sheets refreshing and updating in the manner I would like

[to75ne]

A while ago I penned a post calling for a useable link between Excel and Bet Angel automation. Excel is much superior to the current Automation and as the last poster infers, there are infinite combinations and coding nuances in Excel that could never be replicated in Automation. The one advantage that Automation has is its ability to link directly to bet submission instantly whereas Excel has a delay.

This is why I advocated a link from an Excel cell to Automation.

For example you can use/code Excel to set a single Excel cell with a value, one that Automation can use directly (a trigger if you like)

i still think the above is an excellent idea and hope ba reconsider it, even though their stance is and i quote "There is no need for an Excel/Automation crossover. Some kind of Excel/Automation hybrid sounds like a recipe for disaster to be honest. " by 6thSense » Sun Jul 28, 2013 12:43 pm

[scribbles]

The possibility of excel integration is evidently slowing down the further development of the betangel automation capability, most of the advanced features available in excel (besides data capture/mining, as I know this is against betfair t&c) could be programmed in BA making it much more versatile and user friendly, but who wants the competition of a fully fledged and capable automation set of configuration options with a lower barrier to entry?

[RonObvious]

Thanks to everyone who replied I think I'll delve into Excel automation a bit deeper.

As for improving my coding skills can anyone point me towards any books / online resources to give me an understanding in the skills needed?

[nigelk]

Don't bother buying any books, look on YouTube, literally hundreds of vids on every subject, and if one doesn't quite explain it well enough, just look for another, and a lot of them also have downloadable examples.

Nigel.

[RonObvious]

Thanks Nigel,

Just to be clear though for coding and learning about all the different kinds of functions (IF etc) should I be learning about VBA, MACROS or something else?

Thanks again

[LeTiss]

Don't bother buying any books, look on YouTube, literally hundreds of vids on every subject, and if one doesn't quite explain it well enough, just look for another, and a lot of them also have downloadable examples.

Nigel.

I have learned huge amounts from excelisfun on YT

They have example workbooks you can download too, brilliant stuff

[nigelk]

VBA & Macros are one and the same. Any formulas you can put into a worksheet are accessible via VBA.

Also consider signing up to Mr Excel: https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/

Lots of MVP's on there more than willing to help out. I joined around 2009 and have had all my questions answered.

[RonObvious]

Excelisfun and Mr Excel...

Thanks again to both of you