It's time for some music, Shakira featuring Rafa Nadal in a sexy music video ;)

Novak Djokovic struggling right now in Dubai against Marcos Baghdatis. Marcos was broken 2 times in a row but Joker could not take advantage of it and was broken back both times so now it's 5-4 Marcos in 1st set. I decided this will be my last trade for the day, +£38 after hedging at 4-4.

Just to let you know, my "BET IN PROGRESS" screenshot in previous post is from today. It happened again ;(

Today I traded 7 horse races and it's enough for today, will be busy this weekend so not sure about trading Sat-Sunday.

Looking at my total P&L yesterday I should be happy with my result but.....

Trading horses yesterday was more of gambling than trading. Thanx to Betfair again :(

I traded 4 races with no loss and API was OK, next race was going with no problems at all until 1 minut before the off. I was trying to close my position, hedging for an all green and what I see is an error message "Bet in Progress"
So, what to do now ? Nothing happens, can not see my bet in unmatched box, it's not in matched bets list and I still looking at red numbers. I decided to place another bet, this time it was matched immediately, looking good. Just when race started I found something wrong. My both bets were matched !!! I was green on favorite and red on other horses....race is over and I was a loser, -£145  You can guess how it feels, is it trading or gambling ?
Gruss Software has this information on their website,


BET_IN_PROGRESS error affecting international users

There is a problem with Betfair’s API causing bet requests to return a BET_IN_PROGRESS error message. This does not mean that the bet has not been placed but it does mean that Betting Assistant is not able to determine if the bet has been placed. On some occassions the bet isn't placed at all.

When this error is encountered and you place bets that require monitoring, eg. Tick offset and fill or kill it means they will not be monitored and you will see that tick offset bets have not been placed and bets have not been killed.

You will see this error appear in the black bar at the bottom of the screen and also in the transaction log under the account menu.

If you notice that you are getting many of these errors it would be a great help if you could forward a log file to bdp@betfair.com so that they can investigate.

I was using The Toy when this happened to me but I believe it's an API error and no matter which software you are using.

Thanx to tennis and dogs my day ended with nice profit anyway but I hate when such things happens. We are not having fun with playmoney on Betfair markets ! Fix it now Betfair !

Hopefully will be back to trading today after some days of hard work and some days when my internet connection or Betfair website wasn't reliable. Anyway this week was not so attractive for a tennis trader. The only tournament with live TV coverage I found this week was Dubai Tennis Championships. I had no chance to watch any of BF's livestreams from Acapulco but look forward to see some clay court matches from Mexico this night :)

I believe I said in my previous posts that I prefer trade WTA but unfortunately I can not find any streams for WTA tennis this week. If you found any please let me know by sending a comment :)

As I am a tennis trader and never place any bets before the start of match I am not going to predict outcomes of any matches.

Baghdatis match starting soon and I must say Marcos is a player I have very hard to read if you know what I mean. Sometimes it looks like he is struggling big time with injury or whatever it is. When you think he is not able to win a match he may be back to win a match in straight sets.

Back to watch tennis, wish you nice profits and good luck.


PS, I played with some different layouts as you can see :) I am not a web designer but if you think I should go back to classic blogspot layout just let me know, thanx

Andy is playing at the moment against russian player Kunitsyn. After more than 30 mins the score is....2-0, Murray leads LOL

Second game of this match was 24+ minutes long. Could it be world record ? LOL Probably not but anyway this match is interesting, 3rd game now, Murray serving and again it's 40-40 ;) Could be very long match.

Update...
After 1h 41m this match was over. Andy won 6-2, 6-3 and will play Seppi or Tipsarevic in 2nd round

Novak Djokovic is playing in Dubai right now against Garcia-Lopez.
Here comes another movie to watch if you need a laugh.....

Here is something to watch between your trading sessions...

have fun watching this....

Am i green or red on this market ? It was a big question for me last night when trading some of late tennis matches.
It started with API issues but after some time i found very strange things when looking at same market opened in my web browser. My Bets tab showing no bets which already were matched. Account Summary showing Current exposure = 0, at the same time I see this screen...

Now the question is: what is right, what is wrong ? Numbers The Toy grid window shows are right this time. So I was green at that time. It was very very annoying and made me sick thinking about BetFAIR (?) Definitely what you see is not fair at all. Placed bets disappered immediately after they were matched :(

What a trading night it was...so now I am sitting here looking at my screen and am scared every time I place my bets.
My last word is, be VERY CAREFUL and ready because it's not always WYSIWYG.....

Question in title is about trading Betfair markets tonight. As Betfair is down at the moment it could mean my trading session is finished for the day. Still some very interesting tennis matches on schedule, have to wait and see. I had some issues with API earlier today but was lucky and all my trades today ended with some profit.

If you like to see match stats here are some screenshots for you.

So far today I must be happy with results. If only Betfair could do something to fix their issues....:(

I have also BetdaQ account but last time I checked tennis markets on Betdaq, it was in January this year, liquidity on these markets was very poor...not useful at all. Screenshot is taken InPlay....how do you like it ? ;)

Match against Agnieszka Radwanska was over after 60 minutes, 6-3, 6-0 Radwanska won. Pennetta called after a trainer @0-3 in 2nd set and there was injury time-out. Next week Flavia should play one of her favorite tournaments in Acapulco on clay so we have to wait and see how serious this injury was. Not much to tell about this match, Pennetta was in control from start as Radwanska lost her service game but Agnieszka came back and after that it was one way traffic to the end of this match.

If Flavia Pennetta is really injured it's too bad and I feel sorry as she is one of my favorite tennis players for some reasons.
As in my previous post Wozniacki is currently trading @2.50, much higher than pre-match price 1.33. Caroline lost 1st set and it's 4-4 in 2nd set at this time.
I am not involved in this market without live stream and was busy watching Pennetta.

Match stats and my position from Radwanska-Pennetta here....


Last night I traded also Kubot-Monaco and Glatch-Oudin just before I go to bed ;) 

Ok, back to live tennis now as Kulikova-Kuznetsova just started on centre court in Dubai....

Wish you good luck and nice profits....

So far this week traded only a few tennis markets, no horse racing at all, too bad. But it's life when you have to work for a living :)

Not everybody can be full time trader and I have alot to learn before I could even think about it.

So, here is my PnL so far for this week, Mon-Tue.....

Now I go to bed get some sleep, must be ready for Dubai Wednesday morning, it's starting with A. Radwanska - Pennetta on centre court and Wozniacki-Peer on court 1. I wish both games was played on centre court as both looks like traders dream :)

I never place any bets before the start, well, almost never and so will be this time. Wozniacki @1.33 currently should trade higher InPlay, Radwanska .....hmm...there is a chance this could be a 3 set match, I wouldn't be surprised. Ok, its enough of speculations and guessing from me....

Wish you good night and good luck as always.....

What I mean with "Jankovic did it" is the worst serve ever I have seen. As I said in my previous post players are struggling with their serves in Dubai, today Jankovic's 2nd serve bounced on her own serve line and bounced over the net. It was very funny....LOL

Jankovic lost 1st set 6-4 and came back in 2nd set to win 6-4.
I was happy/lucky to close my position just after second set. I don't have time to follow 3rd set and I am happy with profit from this match.




















Hopefully will be back and trading same late games tonight. Wish you all good luck and nice profits.

Traded Roddick-Verdasco last night. Andy played great tennis in 1st set and I was sure there was no way Verdasco will break him but I was so wrong....
From my screenshot you see Roddick's 1st serve points won - 83%, very good, but only 29% points won on 2nd serve is way too bad. So when Andy was struggling with his 1st serve Verdasco took advantage of it and was in control. I decided not to trade in 3rd set at all, just watching and waiting for tiebreak but Roddick choked and was broken one more time.
Verdasco's serve was very good this night, from stats you see Roddick got 10 serve aces but Verdasco 15. I didnt expect this ;)

It was end of my trading.....time to get some sleep....

Monday started with Stosur-Garbin before I had to work. Stosur won 1st set comfortably but Garbin came back very strong and Stosur had problems with Garbin's offensive tennis. In 3rd set both players had big problems serving. Garbin's 1st serve landed behind base line (or very close to base line)...a few games later Stosur made double fault when her 2nd serve was more than 4m wide LOL.
Final result: Garbin won 3-6, 6-2, 7-6











As I am writing this post I started trading Nalbandian-Starace but match is suspended after 1st set, rain in Buenos Aires right now. Nalbandian won 1st set 6-2

It's late night, I have to work tomorrow, must get some sleep now so I green up as match is still suspended due to rain.

I feel I must clarify something. I have bad days, bad trades and not every day is profitable.

Today I lost £25 when I did some stupid moves trading Zheng-Molik. So many times I said, trade only if you know what you doing and no trade if no live stream. Today I was bored and just placed a bet on Zheng as I was sure Molik can not beat in form Zheng but could it be Jie Zheng had Chinese New Year in her head today ?

Maybe you dont know but 14 February is a New Year Day in China :D

Remember 2010 is The Year of the Tiger
After Zheng I placed a bet on soccer market, it was A. Madrid - Barcelona. Another losing trade but this time I cut my loss and ended with £5 loss.

At the same time Ferrero did his job and Kubot had no chance in final, 6-0, 6-1 tell you the story.

Lucky enough i made some money trading Ferrero match but still this Sunday i have NO profit :(


It will be late but maybe I am going to trade on Roddick against Verdasco this night. Let you know tomorrow.

You may ask why Kubot in title ?

Well, it's just because this polish tennis player allowed me make nice profits when he was in action :)
Looking at screenshots you will understand what I mean.





















First screenshot is from February 2nd, Moviestar Open tournament, 1st round.
Second screenshot is from Saturdays semi-final against Igor Andreev. I used small stakes this time.
Match against Andreev was similar to match against Zeballos. Kubot losing 1st set and comming strong in 2nd set to win match in 3 sets. Kubot, ATP ranking 56, has now 3-0 head to head against Andreev, its not too bad.

Here is P/L from 2010-02-13....I am happy with no losing trades from horse racing.

I decided to start learning Excel and try to use it for automated betting using Gruss Betting Assistant. Not sure if it's something for me but I will give it a try.

I really have to say Gruss Betting Assistant is a great trading application and so much value for your money. I recommend it for everyone if you need some tools not included in The Geek's Toy or if you want to use Excel and automate your trading.

I also installed Linux-OpenSUSE on my second PC and use it to watch live streams, scoreboards and all other web related stuff ;)

I have tried The Toy in Linux using VMware/Windows....here is a screenshot of my virtual desktops in Linux with The Toy running.



It was just a test to see how TT performs using it this way. I found it was useful but I use another PC for trading, or I should say it is an iMAC 24" with Windows 7 installed.

As you see I am busy trying to master Excel and Linux :)

Long time with no updating this blog. It's now 2010 and I just want to let you know....

I am stil alive...:)

What I was doing these months/weeks/days ? Well...I was trading as usual.
From previous screenshots you know I trade horses, NBA, soccer and now tennis as new tennis season started in January.

Australian Open in January was a great time for me with so many opportunities to trade tennis.

Some screenshots from my tennis trading sessions in January....


From screenshot on the right side you see I was trading NBA and 2 tennis matches at the same time. It was not unusual for me during AO ;)

My screen during typical trading session .......

I must also let you know that during AO I found WTA games easier to trade and my profits from womens tennis are bigger so far this year.