Triggering at specific lay odds

[Mweyawa]

Hi Gavin,
Is there any way to ensure that a lay bet is not triggered until the odds are actually reached? I have tried entering the odds I want (lay at 80 odds) both into the in the window on the grid and on the ladder, but the bet immediately devolves down to the current odds.

I also tried activating the stop loss on the ladder, but that did not work either. I take it Excel automation would achieve the desired result? However, there is a problem with that – I don’t want the bet triggered until very close to the end of the race. At the moment I do this manually, but don’t see how automation could deal with that?
Many thanks for any help you can give me. David

[Gavin]

Hi David,

Yes you need to use Excel and Cymatic together for that.

Regarding only doing it near the end of the race, you have two possible options:

1) Set up the bet manually in Excel, but don't let it be sent until you decide manually. You could do that in various ways. For example, if you ensure that the cell in the Status column (column BD in Excel) is not empty, the instructions in the Command column (column BA in Excel) won't be sent. So you'd just need to have selected the status column cell near the end of the race and then press the Delete key to remove whatever you had typed into the cell to prevent the bet being sent. The bet will only be sent when the status cell is empty.

or

2) If you want it to be a bit more automated, you could incorporate more tests into your formula in the Command column cell, so that it references the cell that shows whether the race is in-play (cell E4) and the Countdown timer (cell B4).

Kind regards,

Gavin

[Mweyawa]

Thanks, Gavin, and I'll have a go at setting it up. Many thanks, David

[Mweyawa]

Hi Gavin,
Using an equation you gave me a while ago, I have successfully set up Excel to trigger at set lay odds. But, as you know, odds very often skip past the target odds which means one has missed a betting opportunity. Is there a way to set up the equation so that it will trigger at anything between two lay odds – for instance, anything between 60 and 90 lay odds? I have tried several ideas but cannot get anything to work.

Regarding delaying placing the bets until near the end of the race, I have found the simple answer is to have Excel open, but not to tick the "Enable Trigger Commands" until I reach the critical moment. This works very well.
Many thanks if you can help, David

[Gavin]

Hi David,

That all sounds good, I'm glad to hear it.

Perhaps in your example, you just need to put 90 in the odds requested column? Then rely on Betfair's price improvement matching algorithm, so if 60 is still available then you will get 60, but you will pay up to 90 if price has moved anywhere up to 90.

You might be able to test that in demo mode. I can't remember exactly, but I think I made it demo mode emulate the price improvement aspect of the exchange.

Kind regards,

Gavin

[Mweyawa]

Hi Gavin,
Your idea has worked. Thank you very much - I really appreciate it. With kind regards, David

[Gavin]

Hi David,

You are very welcome.

Happy trading,

Gavin