Author Topic: List of bets  (Read 8284 times)

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List of bets
« on: 13 Feb 2014, 14:50 »
The main difficulty I am having with my trigger is the slowing down of my current bets refresh rate after leaving the bot running for some time.  I'm sure this is when my list of bets gets too long.

But I wonder, what is a long list of bets.  If I lay £100 and it gets taken in 50 £2 bets, does that give me a longer list of bets than if it got taken in one £100 bet?

And more importantly what can I do to improve things.  I'm running the bot on an old and fairly low end laptop and I think that a new PC may well be the answer.  But what am I looking for in particular to deal with this problem.  Processing speed I'm guessing, but I'm far from an expert so not sure whether better RAM or hard drive space come into the equation?

Many thanks
O

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #1 on: 13 Feb 2014, 16:41 »
Hi
The list of bets is longer if your £100 lay is matched incrementally. If you log on to your Betfair account and check the list of bets there, you will see the same.

While processing speed and system spec might help some way, it is known that the program's performance can be affected by large numbers of bets having to be updated, or high numbers of markets being monitored. I think the latter is the more important one.

Depending on what your trading requirement is, here are a few general suggestions for trying to improve things:
use the latest version of the program
start monitoring markets only when needed
use triggers to adjust market refresh rates according to the number of markets being monitored
use triggers to delete non-required or settled markets
use Scheduler and Locator to load markets in batches according to the event start time
in the settings make sure Log Trigger Expressions is switched off
also try and switch off logging altogether and see if performance is better
switch off things you don't need that may be consuming data requests e.g. score, silks etc.
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Re: List of bets
« Reply #2 on: 13 Feb 2014, 17:38 »
Thanks Mark

I only have one market loaded at a time and I had logging switched off.  I did have silks on, but I assume that won't have had any effect since I don't do horse racing.  So I was ticking most of your suggestion boxes.

I'm interested as to why you mention the latest version of the program?  When 7.1 came out I found that it made this problem much worse - my current bets refresh rate slowed significantly very quickly -  so I went back to 7.0.0.47 which I have been using ever since.

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #3 on: 13 Feb 2014, 17:48 »
I'm interested as to why you mention the latest version of the program?  When 7.1 came out I found that it made this problem much worse - my current bets refresh rate slowed significantly very quickly -  so I went back to 7.0.0.47 which I have been using ever since.
Hi
There have been quite a few bug fixes since 7.0.0.47 plus a memory leak fix
http://community.welldonesoft.com/announcements-1/version-7-1-0-11/
which is the main reason I suggested using the latest version.
If you want to try the latest, keep your 7.0.0.47 installation file so you can revert back if needed.


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Re: List of bets
« Reply #4 on: 13 Feb 2014, 18:08 »
This may be a silly question, but how/where do I find the 7.0.0.47 installation file?

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #5 on: 13 Feb 2014, 18:21 »
Found it in my downloads and saved a copy now, so might give that a try.  Somewhat apprehensive since it was expensive the first time I tried 7.1.

Might also try another PC to see whether I notice an improvement.  Would processing speed be the most important factor in dealing with a long list of bets?  I just don't know where to start in choosing a PC primarily to run the program on.

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #6 on: 13 Feb 2014, 18:40 »
OK. I have a copy of 7.0.0.47 as well if you need it.
If you can try it on another PC first that would be good.

Any current PC you can buy in the shops should be fine. As a guideline for spec, something like this:
Processor i3 (not Celeron) or higher
4GB RAM or higher
500GB hard drive or higher
but of course a lot depends on your other computing needs.

Did you sort out your broadband from last year? A stable and speedy internet connection is very important.


   
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Re: List of bets
« Reply #7 on: 13 Feb 2014, 19:03 »
Thanks Mark.  My broadband is superfast (cable) and very good. 

The possible house move to a very slow connection hasn't happened yet.  No superfast available there in the near future.  I was looking at VPS if the move goes ahead, hence the delay in deciding to get a new PC.

But I think I need to bite the bullet now.  I'll think about other computer needs, but purely to run MFP at absolute maximum possible efficiency, do you see any benefit in upscaling from those specs you just gave me.  E.g. would there any point in going with an i7 just for MFP purposes?

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #8 on: 13 Feb 2014, 19:20 »
The higher the spec the better the performance will be, naturally, but you should take into consideration the software does have its limitations no matter how powerful the hardware.

I will write a test trigger which generates mega loads of bets. Will test it and report back. I did this over as year ago and had no problems.

The bets list was updated a while back to prevent this sort of problem. What should happen is once there are more than 100 bets, the list converts to a summary. Have you seen the bets summary?

Update:
I'm running the test now using the latest version on a low spec old vista laptop and it's working fine.

See attached screenshot: 1 market, 172 bets and the program is working fine and is very responsive. While writing this it has moved up to 275 bets and all seems to be OK.

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #9 on: 13 Feb 2014, 19:54 »
Hi Mark

Yes, I've seen the summary.  Try dropping the refresh rate to 0.4 if you don't mind and see if it copes with that.  0.4 is what I use.  Also relevant to say that I have current bets set to refresh simultaneously with the market in my settings file.

And my problem isn't that the trigger stops working, just that the current bet refresh time slows.  Crucially it gets out of synch with the market refresh, and that's fatal to my strategy.

So I would suggest set to 0.4
Restart the test
Check connection monitor for initial current bets refresh rate (I think it will be way under 0.4)
See if that increases dramatically once the list of bets builds up.

All very much appreciated this.

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #10 on: 13 Feb 2014, 20:53 »
Hi
Set it exactly as you said, 0.4 refresh and current bets refresh simultaneous with market. All fine, see screenshot. 290 bets and the bets refresh looks stable. I will run the same again tomorrow but for a longer period, and will post an update.
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Re: List of bets
« Reply #11 on: 14 Feb 2014, 11:13 »
Hi Orzola
Just an update: ran the same test again this morning, but this time set it to bet 17 bets every 10mins. Same refresh rate of 0.4 and bets refresh with market.
Been running for 3 hrs and approaching 300 bets. Bets refresh is constant below 0.2 all the time as per screenshot in previous post.
The only other thing I can think of is in real mode, which I can't test, you will be downloading the list of bets from Betfair and as the list grows it could be taking longer to download.

I do think you should try the latest version - its pretty solid.
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Re: List of bets
« Reply #12 on: 14 Feb 2014, 11:43 »
Thanks Mark

I sometimes run my trigger for over 24hrs and I'm pretty sure my list of bets will run into four figures (because of lay bets getting taken in increments).

Whether you can leave your test running to get the numbers up to that level I don't know.

What I really need to do is swap from 7.0 to 7.1 at some suitable point on one of my bets to see if refresh time is any different.

I've just ordered a new laptop as well with i7 and 8Gb so all angles should be covered.

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Re: List of bets
« Reply #13 on: 14 Feb 2014, 15:19 »
Hi
Been running at just short of 2000 bets for a couple of hours and it's fine. The only noticeable change is the market refresh has moved from 0.4 to around 0.55.  The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the data for in excess of 1000 bets is a lot of data and I doubt if it can be downloaded along with the market refresh data from Betfair in 0.4sec in real mode.
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Re: List of bets
« Reply #14 on: 14 Feb 2014, 15:36 »
OK.  I'll do some bet counting the next time I run it and come back to you with better data.  Thanks for all your help with this.

My problem will be solved as and when market data and current bets data comes from BF in one call.  I know they were working on that some time ago.  Any ideas on if and when it might happen?

 

Please note, BetFair is seems to be currently OFFLINE