"Not for ordinary punter"


And so started the review of my second book, Betfair Trading Techniques, on Amazon. That truism was then followed by just two more sentences. "More about programming and APIs. Sorry I didn't like it."

I'm sorry too that the person who had bought my book left the review "Not for ordinary punter". Obviously, they had not understood what they had read in the book. Yes, there is programming. You won't get far in algo-trading if you cannot program. There was not much mention of APIs as that is covered in my first book, Programming for Betfair.

What was the reader expecting? Some simple trading systems you can scrape off a third-party trading software blog or a video? Simple trading systems are easy to find and therefore have no edge. If you cannot understand that fact then you have no chance as a trader.

Betfair Trading Techniques is a survey of most techniques from beginner to the intermediate level. I have left advanced trading for future publications. What  programming there is in the book is used to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of risk, reward and variance. There is also some programming for machine learning, which acts as an introduction to evolutionary computation and it's uses for sports trading.

To say that the book is mostly about programming suggests that the majority of the book was not understood by the reviewer. Yes, the ordinary punter won't find much of interest in Betfair Trading Techniques because the book is not aimed at mere punters. Certainly, I don't demonstrate the usual simplistic strategies that you will find in the ebooks you can buy unreviewed on author's websites.

As explained on this website, time and time again, the majority of exchange users lose money. Most exchange users have no understanding of markets and use naïve methods, which ultimately fail. By reading Betfair Trading Techniques you will at least lose less and, with the hard work that is required, you might turn a profit.

It's up to the reader to put in the effort and gain the necessary understanding. There are no free lunches. Yes, ordinary punters won't benefit from this book but who wants to be ordinary when you really need to be exceptional.