Complete Betfair scalping guide

Be quick. That's all.

Thank you for reading.

What? You wanted more? You want me to charge you something so that you feel as though you really learned something?

Did you want a book, a few videos and a day out at the conference suite of a dingy hotel off the M1 motorway?

Scalping is simply being the quickest to the draw. Most times scalping is the taking of money from slower scalpers. In effect, you are taking the scalps of those less able than you.

So-called scalping is the waiting for a price move, making the right bet (back or lay) and closing out with the opposite bet a few ticks later. There is nothing more to it.

What moves the price? Either new information or the perception that the market has acquired new information. New information can lead to an increased or decreased probability of a horse's ability, which will move its price.

A price may move falsely, which may also attract the scalpers. Often it is the scalpers who initiate this false move. The fastest scalpers will jump in and trade on the false perception of momentum. Slower scalpers will then move in and move the price some more.

The fastest scalpers can now close out their trades. However, the slower scalpers will now be left hanging there, hoping that the momentum will continue. More often than not though, arbitrageurs (in this case, value traders) will correct the price back to where it started and the slower scalpers will have made a loss.

In summary, scalping is a form of momentum trading whereby one trades on events (sudden news) or technicals (prices not being where they should be). You take a position, if it moves against you then you employ your scratch trade for a loss (but preferably a zero tick, zero loss trade). If the position goes in your favour then you close out for a certain number of ticks profit or until the momentum is gone.

That's all there is to scalping. Get the best hardware you can afford, the best trading software, a source of information and a fast connection to the Internet. Oh and good luck.

Many of the best scalpers have no clue as to why they are successful. They will ascribe their success to being able to 'feel' a market. They don't. Simply, they are quicker than the less successful scalpers. That is all. They have a hardware, software and/or skill superiority over other scalpers.

To determine your success as a scalper you will need to keep track of your bets; how many you make, how many are winners and losers and the profit and loss of each bet. You will then see if you are a winning or losing scalper. If you are a winner then you can start sizing your bets according to Kelly criterion. If you are a losing scalper then I am sorry but you will either have to find a different trading route as a fundamental or technical (or both) trader or find a new hobby.

By reading this you have saved yourself a bit of money from signing up for a dodgy trading course and saved you from eating the awful sandwiches catering hands out in those dingy motorway hotels. You don't even have to look at any videos, unless you have no idea how a sports exchange works.

Do give scalping a go but for minimum £2 stakes at first. There is no magic to it. There are no hunches or feelings. Just simple logic. Scalping the sports exchanges is no different to scalping the forex or futures market. Observe momentum and trade it. Be the quickest in and out. Oh and good luck.