Trying to get into this

[armadillo]

Hi all,

Having started out on MSE doing sign up bonuses, then moving onto arbing I'm feeling that trading is the next rung on the ladder. However, the rung seems out of reach at the moment!

First thing is, I'm quite confused by Bet Angel's interface. I started playing around with betting on random things with £2 stakes and closing my bets. Then under Auto stake I changed it to £3 ad clicked Update Stakes. I expected when I placed a new bet it would be £3 but it was £150! What happened there? How did it come up with that much?

Secondly, can I please be given some direction on how to make money. I tried greening up using the stop loss feature but every time the price went the wrong way and I lost money.

I'm not asking for people to give away their secrets, I'm happy to go away and do my homework but I have no idea at this stage where to look so I could do with some pointers.

I feel quite clueless at the moment but I'm just starting out.

Thanks

[6thSense]

I recommend you visit this page to begin with:

http://betangel.kayako.com/Knowledgebas ... rther-help

This forum also has some great threads for you to read. Here are a selection:

viewforum.php?f=17
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8320
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4815

[LeTiss]

Well for starters, I can tell you that the £150 stakes were because you had £3 on Auto Stake with 'tick size' in the drop down box. This means you were working on a price between 2.00-3.00, as it means you are hoping to make £3 per tick on that selection.

[kelpie]

Welcome Armadillo

You've made a good start, askling for advice. The links from 6th sense are excellent starts

My advice

- digest the whole forum not just those threads. take a couple of days and take notes

- switch off real mode. You need Practice Mode for the next few months, realistically

- settle your risk v reward target? Are you putting in 10k and expecting 100% return every month? Some here would see that as realistic. Or putting in 1k and expecting 20% return in a year? From that you have your per diem target and then focus on what markets will give that up

- recoommend targeting 100% growth in your first year. Call that 10% a month. Don't get cocky beyond that

- find 1 or 2 markets you can dominate.

- I would say avoid footie and horses as both subject traders to sudden death unless you really know what you're doing. If you must do horses only do pre-play; read the excellent posts by Jolly Green.

- I would focus on in play markets where you can trade. I'd recommend A/B markets like cricket ODI or T20 or basketball. They swing slowly. When you're more confident go for ATP or WTA tennis which swing quickly

- once you ditch paper, start trading with small GBP50 quid stakes. Winning a few tenners here and there is all you need to keep your spirits up

And good luck!

[redtra]

HI Armadillo

Here are a few pages and some pointers for you to have a look at...
http://sportstradinglife.com/2011/12/pe ... rom-a-pro/

http://www.punterprofits.com/horse-raci ... raders.php

http://www.olbg.com/school/betting_odds_explained.php

http://www.olbg.com/school/understanding_bookmakers.php

Plenty to start you off there! Good luck.

[armadillo]

Thanks for the information, that was some useful things to read. I haven't found out a successful way of making money. The advice I read is largely that I need to back high and lay low, but how?

I'm thinking more and more than what I need to do is write my own software that uses Betfair's API to log detailed price information into a database. Then I can use a front-end to replay markets, find patterns and test out trading ideas.

I know there's some other sources for this data, but Betfair's historical data site doesn't give me what I want and Fracsoft is very expensive (70p per market!).

[gazuty]

Thanks for the information, that was some useful things to read. I haven't found out a successful way of making money. The advice I read is largely that I need to back high and lay low, but how?)

Armadillo

There is not "get rich quick" or silver bullet solution.

However, humans have an amazing capacity for pattern recognition. Way better than any computer.

So read, read, read, experiment. Fail. Experiment, read. Fail. Adjust, adapt, read, succeed, fail, adjust, succeed again.

I am very part time, started in 2011. And I made most of my profit in the last six months, even though I was profitable from day 1. There have been lots of experiments and then bang, I found out a couple of things, through observation and failure. If you don't fail, you can't succeed. No longtime trader has a 100% successful trade rate.

I dusted $1,500 today. But I'm still smiling. Because that's a fraction of my trading balance and even less of my lifetime profits. What did I learn, a great deal, that I will employ in the future.

My number 1 tip. Don't pick up pennies in front of the steamroller. We are all tempted.