US racing automation

[Bustrofedico]

I was wondering how people automate their trading for US racing. Aside from the small size of the market, the off is constantly very delayed by a random amount of time. So, it is just not possible to trust post time as something close to the actual off. Is there any reliable signal from Betfair or otherwise indicating 'going behind' or similar?

Thanks!

[ODPaul82]

Base mine 5 seconds after going in play and keep it small & widen my acceptable risk but at same time widen amount I want as return, but, as said before, with smaller stakes.

Pre-off I imagine could be done based on long term amount matched per course but I don't want to take that risk.

[jamesedwards]

I was wondering how people automate their trading for US racing. Aside from the small size of the market, the off is constantly very delayed by a random amount of time. So, it is just not possible to trust post time as something close to the actual off. Is there any reliable signal from Betfair or otherwise indicating 'going behind' or similar?

Thanks!

Depends how accurate you need to be. You could get a very rough idea using the last suspension of the previous race +20/+25/+35 mins (depending on track). If you have TPD you could do something that picks up when all horses are near the gate. Are there signals you can use from volume and/or book%?

[Bustrofedico]

I was wondering how people automate their trading for US racing. Aside from the small size of the market, the off is constantly very delayed by a random amount of time. So, it is just not possible to trust post time as something close to the actual off. Is there any reliable signal from Betfair or otherwise indicating 'going behind' or similar?

Thanks!

Depends how accurate you need to be. You could get a very rough idea using the last suspension of the previous race +20/+25/+35 mins (depending on track). If you have TPD you could do something that picks up when all horses are near the gate. Are there signals you can use from volume and/or book%?

Those are very good suggestions, thanks. Collecting some historic data and seeing how volume goes up a few mins before the off is probably quite doable. As for TPD don't have that, not yet at least.

[Bustrofedico]

Base mine 5 seconds after going in play and keep it small & widen my acceptable risk but at same time widen amount I want as return, but, as said before, with smaller stakes.

Pre-off I imagine could be done based on long term amount matched per course but I don't want to take that risk.

That's a good idea, didn't think of that. I supposed the in-play market is probably extra small?

[ODPaul82]

That's a good idea, didn't think of that. I supposed the in-play market is probably extra small?

It gets a bit larger towards the end, if you check the action against the video you'll see there's stuff happening that in theory shouldn't
You have to remember that even small little chunks add up to a bigger amount at the end of the day.