Another frantic day in the markets – Ladies day
Where to start? Another frantic day in the markets on both Betfair and Betdaq. I ended up spending less time on Betdaq as it was taking focus away from Betfair, where I have more balance committed. That said, Betdaq Exchange has been really interesting for me lately, and I can see myself doing more work there, especially with the drastically lower commission rates.
The day started okay, although I was instantly on edge when, 23 minutes before post time in the first race, I spotted my first Betfair lock-up of around 15 seconds. After yesterday’s issues, this set a bad tone for me. Even if the market doesn’t lock up for 10 seconds and ruin my position, it has a massive mental impact when it all jumps back into action. It’s constantly in the back of my mind, leaving me on edge. It’s something anyone should bear in mind: if it’s affecting how you feel, it’s affecting how you behave, which often leads to erratic trades and staking.
That’s exactly what happened in the 14:40 race, where I had another brief lock-up. I went from a £30 green to a £200 loss in that race. As usual, I informed Betfair, and they told me they were aware of the issue and logged it. But still, I’m potentially £230 worse off for it (thanks very much). No wonder so many traders are bitter about the company with the premium rates of commission. I wasn’t the only one complaining; there was a string of others on Twitter today.
After that, I decided the best thing to do was take a quick breather. I tried my best to clear it from my mind and carry on, although at that point I was in the red for the day. Not great…
So, I cracked open the serious stuff to calm my nerves and pushed on, being cautious the whole time. Being aggressive in the markets often leads to pain.
In the 15:20 race, I was having a real cracker on *Sprinter Sacre*—only to mess it all up in the last minute when the price whipsawed back on me while I was wide open. A £300 green instantly became less than half of that. Shit happens, but at least it wasn’t Betfair’s fault this time!
The next two races went pretty smoothly. I was just scalping away steadily, making almost £100 each time. Thankfully, the last race was a real cracker. It was very obvious it was coming, in my opinion, and I ended up with a £252 green. All in all, things could have been worse. I know many people who worked more than 4 hours today and made less than a quarter of what I did.
That said, without the cock-ups and frustrations with the API, today could have been close to a four-figure day.
Hopefully, tomorrow will pan out a bit better, as I’m a bit disappointed with how things have gone so far!
Related: A Complete Guide to TimeForm Rating For Horse Racing
2 thoughts on “Cheltenham – Day 2 – Some Decent Mares on Show”
Ive noticed the gt locking up for myself if I’m putting through a lot of trades. I also use ba and not been having the issues. I prefer gt for trading the ladder, but maybe worth a look at as I noticed PW said in his vid today that the api has been rock solid. Just a thought.
Yeah well thats just typical of certain people. Today I have been speaking to BDP and they too have noticed the lockups. So Betfair don’t think its all that rock solid.