Automation of record keeping?

[Brovashift]

Hi all,

Just wondering if we have a way to auto log our trades; P&L, course, distance, race type etc. Im currently using the old school pen and paper method.
I have had a look on the forum and found something i teresting from years ago, but looking at the latest 2020 posts it looks like its no longer available or supported.
The other option I am looking at is betfair mind games spreadsheet, looks good, but if we had something internally that can auto log our activity and results, without the need to update manually, that would be even better.

TIA

[CallumPerry]

Go into the Automation tab and check out all the variables you can log and write to a .csv file. Perfect for internal analysis.

[Derek27]

Hi all,

Just wondering if we have a way to auto log our trades; P&L, course, distance, race type etc. Im currently using the old school pen and paper method.
I have had a look on the forum and found something i teresting from years ago, but looking at the latest 2020 posts it looks like its no longer available or supported.
The other option I am looking at is betfair mind games spreadsheet, looks good, but if we had something internally that can auto log our activity and results, without the need to update manually, that would be even better.

TIA

I've been manually logging my markets (no interest in individual trades) in an Access database for the last 8 years. As I'm getting into automation I've spent a lot of time sifting through the Betfair market/transaction spreadsheets to see if I can import the data but my conclusion what there were too many inter-sport inconsistencies. For example, if I trade the 15:00 at Ascot and the 19:30 Premiership match between Arsenal and Chelsea, 15:00 should be in the same field as 19:30 and Ascot should be in the same field as 'English Premiership', not 'Arsenal v Chelsea', which is what Betfair prefer. I like to query my P/L at each racecourse and every league. I certainly don't want a report of my P/L in one or two matches where Arsenal played Chelsea at home!

Or perhaps I should have put that on another thread as my fourth rant of the day.

[Brovashift]

Go into the Automation tab and check out all the variables you can log and write to a .csv file. Perfect for internal analysis.

Thanks.... I will check this out

[Brovashift]

Hi all,

Just wondering if we have a way to auto log our trades; P&L, course, distance, race type etc. Im currently using the old school pen and paper method.
I have had a look on the forum and found something i teresting from years ago, but looking at the latest 2020 posts it looks like its no longer available or supported.
The other option I am looking at is betfair mind games spreadsheet, looks good, but if we had something internally that can auto log our activity and results, without the need to update manually, that would be even better.

TIA

I've been manually logging my markets (no interest in individual trades) in an Access database for the last 8 years. As I'm getting into automation I've spent a lot of time sifting through the Betfair market/transaction spreadsheets to see if I can import the data but my conclusion what there were too many inter-sport inconsistencies. For example, if I trade the 15:00 at Ascot and the 19:30 Premiership match between Arsenal and Chelsea, 15:00 should be in the same field as 19:30 and Ascot should be in the same field as 'English Premiership', not 'Arsenal v Chelsea', which is what Betfair prefer. I like to query my P/L at each racecourse and every league. I certainly don't want a report of my P/L in one or two matches where Arsenal played Chelsea at home!

Or perhaps I should have put that on another thread as my fourth rant of the day.

Is that MS Access? Database's? I used that last time I was in college, about 12 years ago. Is that where you have to have your Primary keys and inter-relationshiips or something? It'd all be lost on me now lol.

That Betfair Mind Games spreadsheet looks pretty good as it separates your racing and football results. The racing is broken down into a lot of sub categories where you can really pinpoint anything that is really working, or not working in your trading. Good for a newbie anyway.

Only negative for me is the manual updating. Once I am into the zone I like to skip from one race to the next looking for oportunities. Stopping after each trade to update a log, unless its a scribble on a pice of paper infront of me, will break my flow and probably require a mental reset each time. I have recently noticed that the first trade after a break (food or toilet) is nearly always a loser. So I've cut out breaks if possible, and stopped trading the first race of the day or the first race after a break, only trading it mentally to make sure I am still in tune with the market. So far so good ...
And updating a log at the end of the session is not even worth entertaining... Unless.... I update a log at the end of a session using my scribbles on paper (just thinking out load here).

I'll check out this .csv in the automation first me thinks

[Derek27]

Hi all,

Just wondering if we have a way to auto log our trades; P&L, course, distance, race type etc. Im currently using the old school pen and paper method.
I have had a look on the forum and found something i teresting from years ago, but looking at the latest 2020 posts it looks like its no longer available or supported.
The other option I am looking at is betfair mind games spreadsheet, looks good, but if we had something internally that can auto log our activity and results, without the need to update manually, that would be even better.

TIA

I've been manually logging my markets (no interest in individual trades) in an Access database for the last 8 years. As I'm getting into automation I've spent a lot of time sifting through the Betfair market/transaction spreadsheets to see if I can import the data but my conclusion what there were too many inter-sport inconsistencies. For example, if I trade the 15:00 at Ascot and the 19:30 Premiership match between Arsenal and Chelsea, 15:00 should be in the same field as 19:30 and Ascot should be in the same field as 'English Premiership', not 'Arsenal v Chelsea', which is what Betfair prefer. I like to query my P/L at each racecourse and every league. I certainly don't want a report of my P/L in one or two matches where Arsenal played Chelsea at home!

Or perhaps I should have put that on another thread as my fourth rant of the day.

Is that MS Access? Database's? I used that last time I was in college, about 12 years ago. Is that where you have to have your Primary keys and inter-relationshiips or something? It'd all be lost on me now lol.

That Betfair Mind Games spreadsheet looks pretty good as it separates your racing and football results. The racing is broken down into a lot of sub categories where you can really pinpoint anything that is really working, or not working in your trading. Good for a newbie anyway.

Only negative for me is the manual updating. Once I am into the zone I like to skip from one race to the next looking for oportunities. Stopping after each trade to update a log, unless its a scribble on a pice of paper infront of me, will break my flow and probably require a mental reset each time. I have recently noticed that the first trade after a break (food or toilet) is nearly always a loser. So I've cut out breaks if possible, and stopped trading the first race of the day or the first race after a break, only trading it mentally to make sure I am still in tune with the market. So far so good ...
And updating a log at the end of the session is not even worth entertaining... Unless.... I update a log at the end of a session using my scribbles on paper (just thinking out load here).

I'll check out this .csv in the automation first me thinks

Yes, I use Microsoft Access. It's so much more powerful than Excel for storing transactions. I think there are some people on here that use SQL Server.

[Brovashift]

Go into the Automation tab and check out all the variables you can log and write to a .csv file. Perfect for internal analysis.

Hi Callum,

Having a little trouble finding these variables. Do you mean the automation tab within Bet Angel/Guardian? In Guardian Auto. tab I see a link "Explore profit reports folder", but that just takes me to an empty windows folder at present.
Or should I be looking on the forum? If the forum, please can you post a direct link...?

Thank you

[CallumPerry]

Yeah, I just mean in Guardian - Automation. Write some stored values that export as regularly as you like (every refresh, 1 second or once at the end of each market etc) with some information you're interested in. Final PnL, price of the runners, volume present etc.

I find recording all of this to analyse where I perform well/poorly personally helps me out. I quite quickly got out of the habit of manually writing down info as I'm lazy. I enjoy letting a bot work on a good sample and then looking at my auto analysis from a wider perspective.

[PDC]

That Betfair Mind Games spreadsheet looks pretty good as it separates your racing and football results. The racing is broken down into a lot of sub categories where you can really pinpoint anything that is really working, or not working in your trading. Good for a newbie anyway.

Only negative for me is the manual updating....Stopping after each trade to update a log, unless its a scribble on a pice of paper infront of me, will break my flow and probably require a mental reset each time.

It looks like you just download you P&L and add that to your data in excel. I don't see why you would need to do this after every race or trade, you aren't going to spot any patterns race to race, you need to zoom out to a wider time frame. You could do it once a week or month or 3 months whatever suits you. Should only take a few minutes to do. If you can't be bothered to do that I don't think you will be spending long looking at the data whatever method you choose to record keep.

As a starting point I would give it a go, it might be enough for what you need or might act as a starting point for developing further.

[Brovashift]

Yeah, I just mean in Guardian - Automation. Write some stored values that export as regularly as you like (every refresh, 1 second or once at the end of each market etc) with some information you're interested in. Final PnL, price of the runners, volume present etc.

I find recording all of this to analyse where I perform well/poorly personally helps me out. I quite quickly got out of the habit of manually writing down info as I'm lazy. I enjoy letting a bot work on a good sample and then looking at my auto analysis from a wider perspective.

Hi Callum, Where am I looking mate?

Im in Guadian in the auto tab, it's just setup with todays races, but cant see where to view all the variables... Do you mean the 'log', bottom tab menu? And write these to a csv file?

I was/am expecting to see somthing intuative, or is this just how you obtain the necessary info and then update to csv elsewhere?

Thanks

[Brovashift]

That Betfair Mind Games spreadsheet looks pretty good as it separates your racing and football results. The racing is broken down into a lot of sub categories where you can really pinpoint anything that is really working, or not working in your trading. Good for a newbie anyway.

Only negative for me is the manual updating....Stopping after each trade to update a log, unless its a scribble on a pice of paper infront of me, will break my flow and probably require a mental reset each time.

It looks like you just download you P&L and add that to your data in excel. I don't see why you would need to do this after every race or trade, you aren't going to spot any patterns race to race, you need to zoom out to a wider time frame. You could do it once a week or month or 3 months whatever suits you. Should only take a few minutes to do. If you can't be bothered to do that I don't think you will be spending long looking at the data whatever method you choose to record keep.

As a starting point I would give it a go, it might be enough for what you need or might act as a starting point for developing further.

Hi,

I want to record more than just P&L, like on the BFMG spreadsheet, I just dont want to do it manually if I dont have to.
Because I go from race to race/course to course the info will help me pin point on what type of race and at what course I tend to take my biggest hits and allow me to see what needs work or what to avoid all together. Although I don't believe anything should be avoided as everything is tradable, but like Peter says, "for every strategy there is a market and every market a strategy". So far I have 4 trading styles that work for me with varying success, Im just want to identify what is working where. I have a rough idea, but going forward I want to record and analyse my performance more efficiently. Thats the idea anyway

[Brovashift]

Yeah, I just mean in Guardian - Automation. Write some stored values that export as regularly as you like (every refresh, 1 second or once at the end of each market etc) with some information you're interested in. Final PnL, price of the runners, volume present etc.

I find recording all of this to analyse where I perform well/poorly personally helps me out. I quite quickly got out of the habit of manually writing down info as I'm lazy. I enjoy letting a bot work on a good sample and then looking at my auto analysis from a wider perspective.

Hang on... am I creating a new rules file? Im just looking through the User Guide now, still all quite new to me this automation lark lol

I think I've got this now... do you mean look in the activity log in the automation tab for all the variables recorded from a days activity? And pick out the useful bits and update to a csv file?
Although thats me doing it manually. Auto updating to a csv file is for another thread, but is this the info/variables you mean, under the log tab?

Thanks

[PDC]

I want to record more than just P&L, like on the BFMG spreadsheet, I just dont want to do it manually if I dont have to....Because I go from race to race/course to course the info will help me pin point on what type of race and at what course I tend to take my biggest hits and allow me to see what needs work or what to avoid all together.

Unless I am missing something the only manual thing you would have to do is click download on your P&L page and then add that to the BFMG SS. Do that once a month and you have about 60 seconds work to do and you get to see what you have just laid out, courses, distances etc etc

Sounds like you are trying to reinvent the wheel when someone is happy to sell you a wheel for less than £10.

[Realrocknrolla]

I want to record more than just P&L, like on the BFMG spreadsheet, I just dont want to do it manually if I dont have to....Because I go from race to race/course to course the info will help me pin point on what type of race and at what course I tend to take my biggest hits and allow me to see what needs work or what to avoid all together.

Unless I am missing something the only manual thing you would have to do is click download on your P&L page and then add that to the BFMG SS. Do that once a month and you have about 60 seconds work to do and you get to see what you have just laid out, courses, distances etc etc

Sounds like you are trying to reinvent the wheel when someone is happy to sell you a wheel for less than £10.

I agree the Mindgames spreadsheet is fantastic.

[Brovashift]

I want to record more than just P&L, like on the BFMG spreadsheet, I just dont want to do it manually if I dont have to....Because I go from race to race/course to course the info will help me pin point on what type of race and at what course I tend to take my biggest hits and allow me to see what needs work or what to avoid all together.

Unless I am missing something the only manual thing you would have to do is click download on your P&L page and then add that to the BFMG SS. Do that once a month and you have about 60 seconds work to do and you get to see what you have just laid out, courses, distances etc etc

Sounds like you are trying to reinvent the wheel when someone is happy to sell you a wheel for less than £10.

Sold!