Betfair Trading anyone?

[playergame]

Hi.

I am looking at horse race market on betfair. By the pink lay area it says 97.2% therefore if i was to lay every horse on the market in a dutch kind of manner there'd be a profit of 2.8%.

But if happens if horse gets withdrawn how would it effect the 2.8%?

Jim.

[Andy]

By the pink lay area it says 97.2% therefore if i was to lay every horse on the market in a dutch kind of manner there'd be a profit of 2.8%.

It might be because of the way you wrote it, but that is not right, if it says 97.2% and you actually did lay every horse in the race at those odds in pink you would LOSE 2.8%.

But if happens if horse gets withdrawn how would it effect the 2.8%?

It would all get thrown out of the window and in my experiance (I have very very little in this area) betfair reduction amounts seem quite unpredictable as to how they will effect you.

[playergame]

If the pink lay boxes is empty and if I am to set the market is it possible for me to cancel should my lay bets not get taken up?

Jim.

[munk]

If the pink lay boxes is empty and if I am to set the market is it possible for me to cancel should my lay bets not get taken up?

Jim.

If noone's take up your bets then yes that's fine you can just cancel at any time.

[playergame]

Hi.

I was looking at a racing market. The graph reflected that the odds were coming down for a particular horse. It came down from 8 to 6 then it started to go back up again.

I am curious to know what determines if odds are going up or down. The odds offered by people are being snapped up and with time the sellers are selling it at even more shorter number but people are still buying. Then there gets to a point perhaps people are no longer buying at the lower odds, sellers are increasing the odds so the odds are being snapped up at higher value. Or it could just well be that for what ever reason sellers have decided to increase the value of the odds.

And at betfair most of the buyers are the sellers. They are hoping to snap it up at a low price and sell it at a higher one. 80% of end up losing money as a result!!

Is there any factors that leads to why prices are going up/down because it it seems strange that odds go down then all of a sudden it starts jumping again all within the space of 5 minutes.

[munk]

Most of the time when the prices jump around before the race it's just traders manipulating the market or bookies trying to reduce their liability on a horse etc etc.

Pre race the usual economic factors should hold, simple supply and demand. If there's a high demand for a horse (lots of buyers/backers), that will drive up the price and vice versa. As to what affects demand, usually the form of the horses involved and closer to the race the way the horses are behaving as they're paraded around the ring before the start. Untold numbers of factors though really.

[playergame]

Most of the time when the prices jump around before the race it's just traders manipulating the market.....

Thanks for your response munk.

What can I do to manipulate the market to control where the price is going rather then be at the mercy of traders. At the moment I am seeing prices going up so laying then backing when prices are higher, vice versa. But this is in no different to throwing a coin and guessing which side it going to land.