Tuesday 7 August 2007

Graphs, graphs, graphs.

I didn't get to trade today. I was having trouble connecting to Betfair. I tried Bet Trader Pro, Bet Angel Pro and Betfair Direct, but there was no joy. I assumed there was a problem with the API but none were reported on the site. Oh well.

Instead, I spent a bit more time looking into technical analysis and charting. This is a technique used in financial trading. It is where the trader uses the graphs of price and volume to determine price moves. I've recently started using graphs more, as I find they give a quick indication of any overall trend and sometimes you just get some obvious humdinger trend lines. I want to experiment with some more of the financial type indicators, like bollinger bands (basically a price envelope) and moving averages. Anyone had any experience using them with bet trading?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

richard-- check bet angel pro out, this has a facility that charts the price movement, you can set it up with an actual price line,an average price line , both encompassed in an envelope. below this you have volume bars and a weight of money chart. stan.

Richard said...

Hi,
Yeah, I have had a look. It is better than any of the other software I have looked at so far, but it doesnt offer the level of flexibility that I want. I guess I'm greedy, but I'd like to be able to zoom in on the graphs, to set up moving averages of a range of seconds/minutes ago, also be able to resize the graph and also be able to see the back and lays as a "candle stick", as you can in financial graphs. I'm looking at putting together a graphing tool that will do just this. So I can run that side by side. It may take a while as there are just not enough hours in the day.

Anonymous said...

a graphing tool would be interesting, but these markets move very quickly, by the time you have checked this graph out by that graph , zoomed in and zoomed out the price has moved and you have missed it !!sometimes you get a horse that will either be well backed or will drift markedly and the movement is so obvious, however these are rare imo, most movements are small but quick , the graph looks like wave movements which bounce from a high to low price inside the envelope. this is the skill, reading the market seeing what price range it will allow the horse to trade at. we then nip in at either a high point or low point with our trade. cheers stan.

Richard said...

I totally get what you're saying, but I think being able to set a zoom in on a graph means you can zone in on the price range and see it more clearly. You just set it up by dragging on the graph once at the beginning, if the pattern is quiter tight and as it scrolls along you can see the area you want. Perhaps have an auto zoom, that keeps the active price range zoomed in.
What you're talking about, with the price bouncing from high to low points, sounds the same as when in the financial charts they talk about the price bouncing between support and resistance levels. There they use various indicators to help determine the best entry and exit points or when a breakthrough may happen, so I think there could be scope for using some of those tools. Any thoughts?
It sounds like you are pretty skilled at interpreting the charts and price movements. Do you mainly use the graphs and the numbers or do you dip into the form as well?

Anonymous said...

richard--yes i like the idea of using indicators, which might help to tell us when the price is likely to break. i think a horse can suddenly become a value bet when it reaches a certain price and this encourages people to back it, hence shortening in price, but then it reaches a saturation point where it no longer becomes a value bet so its price will rebound. these are the signs i try to look for when i am trading. i find now the market can be split into 2 trading periods. often 10/15 mins before the race [ and before the money from the track comes in] people will try to manipulate the market one way or the other with spoofs bets that they have no intention of getting matched. this makes things difficult if we are using WOM techniques but 5 mins before the race starts the money from the track comes in and often things settle down a bit and the spoof bets disappear. i dont use form guides when i am trading the market but sometimes small patterns appear with some stables. last year i noticed David Pipes horses would drift quite bad but then very late [ i guess when they were fancied] the price would come in quite markedly. great for trading but this pattern is not gospel so always we have to be waty !!! cheers stan.

Richard said...

Insightful comment, Stan, as always.

Anonymous said...

richard--- waty meant to read as wary !!!! cheers stan.