5. Advanced Features

5.1 Volume Totals

Just below the ladder, a green strip of "Volume Totals" can be found.

Each value is a total of all the binary amounts in the corresponding ladder column above. In this example, the total stake of our unfilled buy orders is 5.00 and the total of our unfilled sell orders is 10.00. The totals for the Buy and Sell columns are the combined amounts of the live prices only, i.e. the "in detail" prices are not included.

The rightmost total corresponding to the Volume column of the ladder contains two values - the first value is the total traded binary volume and the second value in brackets is the regular "matched" (decimal odds) total that can be found on the Betfair website.

5.2 Windowing System

Most sections of the interface can be shown, hidden or undocked into a separate window. Any panel which supports this feature has a window title bar, such as the Unfilled Orders panel:

Click the arrow icon to the left of the window title to show or hide the panel. The "undock" icon on the far right can be used to undock the panel into a separate popup window. Once a panel has been undocked, the arrow and undock icons become greyed-out to reflect this:

The panel can be brought back into the main interface by closing the undocked window, or by clicking the arrow or undock icons for the appropriate section in the main interface.

The View menu contains an "Always On Top" option, which can be used to make the main BDI window always appear on top, regardless if other windows are selected. This property also affects all undocked windows.

BDI also features a vertical divider so that you can resize the left-hand side and right-hand side of the interface relative to each other in a horizontal direction.

5.3 Compact Mode

BDI features two viewing modes - "Full" and "Compact". You can switch between the two by using the View menu, or by pressing Ctrl + F. BDI remembers the window size and position each time you change mode - useful if you have multiple monitors and you want each mode to be in a different position on your desktop.

When viewing in Compact mode, the Betfair Points Balance and Current Discount Rate are hidden from the account information section. Also note that BDI can be started in compact mode, which can be useful when combined with several undocked windows, including the market navigation tree.

5.4 Zoom Mode

BDI by default uses a uniform difference of 0.5 between each price value in the ladder:

For Betfair markets, this means that some of the price values actually map to more than one underlying decimal odds value. You can "zoom in" to a market to trade it more precisely, by pressing Ctrl + Z or by clicking the floating zoom button in the top-right of the ladder:

A zoom animation effect will appear whilst the underlying ladder is being enlarged. Once zoomed in, the values in the price column for Betfair markets will be shown to 3 decimal places to reflect this:

Press Ctrl+Z or the floating button to zoom back out to the normal 0.5 grouping. For Tradefair markets, the unit difference is 0.1 when zoomed in, which is the maximum level of precision supported by the exchange.

The View->Zoom menu contains an option to turn off the zoom animation, along with an option to reverse the zoom animation should you feel that it gives a clearer indication of the zoom direction. The View->Binary Mode, View->Multi-Selection Mode and View->Tradefair Mode menus also contain an option to preserve the zoom state - if this option is disabled, then the next time a market of that type is loaded up, BDI will resort to the normal 0.5 grouping in the ladder. Also note that the floating zoom button in the top-right of the ladder can also be hidden by going to the Ladder menu.

5.5 Projected Profit/Loss Ladder Column

The column on the far left of the ladder shows the projected profit/loss if you were to close out your current net position at each price in the ladder. Initially the column is blanked out when your net position is zero.

In this example, we have 1 filled buy order of 0.10/point at 69.444. The green values in the P/L column above this price indicate that if we were to close out at those prices we would realise a profit, whilst the red values below the price indicate the prices where a loss would be obtained.

Once you have closed out your position, then the P/L column will contain the same value across the whole ladder. This behaviour can be altered via an option in the Ladder menu, which can be used to blank out the whole P/L column when your net position is zero. The P/L column can also be shown or hidden by right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking on Mac OS X) on any of the column headers of the ladder.

5.6 Volume Change Ladder Column

The Volume Change (VC) column in the ladder indicates the estimated size of the last trade. Each time that a new trade is detected, the cell in the VC column which corresponds to the last traded price will contain the size of the trade.

The cell also has a background colour which indicates whether the last trade was a buy (blue background), a sell (pink background) or undetermined (white background). For the vast majority of the time, BDI is able to estimate accurately whether the last trade was a buy or a sell. In the example above, the most recent trade was a buy of 0.14/point at 68.966.

The VC column can be shown or hidden by right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking on Mac OS X) on any of the column headers of the ladder. The Selections panel for Betfair multi-selection markets also contains a VC column which has similar behaviour.

5.7 Weight of Money Indicators

Weight of Money (WoM) indicators appear immediately below the green strip of volume totals, but are hidden by default - they can be shown or hidden via an option in the Ladder menu.

The totals in the green volume strip above are used to calculate the WoM value - The value in the blue cell is the percentage of the live prices which are on the buy side; the pink cell contains the percentage on the sell side. The WoM value is simply the buy percentage minus the sell percentage, so it is a value in the range from +100 to -100. If the WoM value is positive then it has a green background and a green upwards arrow will appear on the left to indicate that the weight of money is in an upwards direction. Similarly, a negative WoM results in a red background, with a red downwards arrow appearing to the right.

In the example above, the total of 111.90 on the buy side is 85% of the total (119.90 + 20.42), so the WoM indicator is +70 (85 - 15), and thus has a green background, together with a green upwards arrow.

Also note that the WoM column for the Selections panel for Betfair multi-selection markets is hidden by default - it can be shown or hidden by right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking on Mac OS X) on any of the column headers of the Selections panel.

5.8 Options Menu

The Options menu can be accessed from the Tools menu.

Here you can choose the values for the four amount/point presets and the four liability presets. The default values are shown above - 1, 2, 5 and 10 for amount/point and 10, 50, 100 and 500 for liability.

BDI will alert you when trying to place an order at a significantly worse value than that is currently available on the market - a security feature to help protect you if you accidentally click in the wrong place. The "Rows outside spread to verify" is the number of rows of the ladder outside of the best available price which will raise this alert.

The Weight of Money indicator can also be customised with the specified number of prices to factor into the WoM calculation. The default setting of 3 means that only the best 3 buy prices and the best 3 sell prices will be included in the WoM indicator.

5.9 TIF Parameter

BDI allows you to specify the TIF (Time In Force) on a per-order basis. If this is enabled then any unfilled portion of the order will be automatically cancelled after the specified time.

In this example we have set the TIF to 30 minutes for any subsequent orders which are placed. The TIF can be set to 0 minutes 0 seconds to act as a kind of "Fill-or-Kill" order, in which any unfilled portion of the order is cancelled immediately after the order has been placed.

Any orders which have a TIF parameter are highlighted in the Unfilled Orders panel with a yellow background in the TIF column. This same yellow colour is also used in the Our Buy and Our Sell columns of the ladder, and the #U column of the selections panel (for Betfair multi-selection markets) to indicate TIF orders. When a cell in the ladder contains orders for multiple types (e.g. one TIF order and one regular order), then the colour changes to turquoise - this also applies to the #U column.

5.10 Monitored List

BDI allows an unlimited number of markets to be monitored simultaneously via the "Monitored List". Right-click (or Ctrl-click on Mac OS X) on a market in the navigation tree to open a popup window, where the appropriate option can be selected.

Groups of markets can also be added to the Monitored List simultaneously - right-click on an event node in the navigation tree to open a popup window shown in the diagram below.

The Monitored List is initially hidden from view, and appears once at least one market has been added to it. A divider appears immediately above the Monitored List once it has appeared, which allows the section to be resized vertically relative to the rest of the interface. It can also be hidden or undocked into a separate window by using the icons in the Monitored List title bar. Individual selections of a multi-selection market can be added to the Monitored List by right-clicking in the Selections panel and selecting the appropriate option from the popup menu.

Please note that the diagram above is split into two rows in order to fit on this web page. In this diagram we have added three markets in total to the Monitored List - two binary markets and one multi-selection market - this is indicated in the Type column. Three individual selections for the "27th November - Daily Spread" market have also been added, showing up in the Type column as "Multi (SS)" - the SS in this case stands for "Single Selection".

To remove a market from the Monitored List, click the "X" icon in the "R" (Remove) column on the far-right. You can also right-click (Ctrl-click on Mac OS X) to open a popup menu, where you can choose to clear the whole Monitored List at once.

Please note: BDI does allow an unlimited number of markets to the Monitored List, but if you are not actively trading then we recommend that you should keep the Monitored List as small as possible. Each market added to the Monitored List will increase the number of Betfair API chargeable requests made per second. Please see Section Section 4.9.2 Data Request Counter for details on how to monitor the number of chargeable data requests BDI is making. If you are actively trading (and paying significant commission to cover the Betfair Data Request Charging) then we also recommend that on a standard broadband connection that no more than 50 markets be added to the list in order for trading using the ladder to be as fast as possible. Also note that the list of monitored markets is preserved across executions of BDI.

We now explain each of the columns of the Monitored List:

• Market Name - the full name of the market, including the name of the parent event in the navigation tree.
• Type - type of the Monitored List entry, either Binary (market), Multi (market), Multi (SS) (Single Selection) or Tradefair (market).
• Selection to Win - For binary markets and Tradefair markets then this is the selection currently being traded to win; for Multi (SS) this displays the selection name.
• Net Position - for binary markets, Tradefair markets and individual selections then this shows the net position; for multi-selection markets this shows the number of selections with a non-zero net position (even for selections which have not been added to the Monitored List).
• Current P/L - for binary markets, Tradefair markets and individual selections then this is the P/L if the net position was closed out at the last traded price; for multi-selection markets then this is the combined total of the current P/L values across all the selections of that market (even for selections which have not been added to the Monitored List).
• LTP - Last Traded Price - this will flash green, red or yellow when new trades have taken place for the selection, in a similar fashion to the ladder.
• VC - Volume Change - an estimate of the size of the last trade, along with an indication of whether the last trade was a buy (blue background), a sell ((pink background) or unknown (white background).
• SL - Stop Loss - for binary markets, Tradefair markets and individual selections then this shows the Stop Loss price if set; for multi-selection markets then this shows the number of selections which have a Stop Loss set. A bright red background is displayed to indicate that a Stop Loss has been triggered but the market has not been viewed since the Stop Loss order was placed. Stop Loss orders are explained in full detail in the next section of the reference guide.
• LIB - Limit-If-Breached - for binary markets, Tradefair markets and individual selections then this shows the Limit-If-Breached price if set; for multi-selection markets then this shows the number of selections which have a Limit-If-Breached set. A bright green background is displayed to indicate that a Limit-If-Breached order has been triggered but the market has not been viewed since the Limit-If-Breached order was placed. Limit-If-Breached orders are explained in full detail in a later section of this reference guide.
• # U - the number of unfilled orders on the market or individual selection. An orange colour is used if the unfilled orders are all regular orders; a yellow colour if the orders are all TIF orders; a green colour if they are all If-Filled orders (described later in this guide); and a turquoise colour if there are at least two orders of different types.
• RTV - Relative Traded Volume - a value from 0% to 100% indicating which markets have the highest traded volume relative to the other markets in the Monitored List, with the market with the highest volume having the value 100%.
• IP Delay - In-Play delay - the time delay which applies to placing orders on live events.
• Status - the status of the market: ACTIVE / SUSPENDED / CLOSED.
• Updated - the time that the Monitored List entry was last updated, sychronised to Betfair server time.
• R - Remove - click to remove the market or individual selection from the Monitored List. Note that removing a multi-selection market will also remove all of its selections.

5.11 Stop Loss Orders

Stop Loss orders are used when you want to limit your losses on a particular market when a trade goes against you. Once a particular price level has been breached then BDI can fire in an order automatically to attempt to close out the current position. Stop Loss orders are especially useful when you are trading several markets simultaneously, or if you want to leave BDI running in the background unattended.

Stop Loss orders can be placed in BDI only when you have a non-zero net position. To place a Stop Loss order, shift-click anywhere in the ladder on the appropriate side of the LTP (Last Traded Price) - if you have a positive net position then click anywhere below the LTP; if you have a negative net position then click anywhere above the LTP.

Once a Stop Loss has been set then this is confirmed in the ladder with a red horizontal bar:

In this example, our net position is positive - this is indicated by the blue background of the 19.5 price which means that the average price of our (positive) net position is around 19.5. We have set a Stop Loss at a price of 17.5. This means that if LTP goes below 17.5 then the Stop Loss is triggered and an order is automatically fired into the market to attempt to close out the position.

To cancel the Stop Loss then simply shift-click anywhere in the row for which the Stop Loss has been set. To move the Stop Loss price then shift-click elsewhere on the ladder, remembering to stay on the appropriate side of the LTP.

When a Stop Loss has been set then a red bracket is displayed in the Price column of the ladder. This indicates how BDI will attempt to close out the net position. Shift-click the cell containing the bracket to toggle it between a bracket and a box shape. If it is a bracket shape, then this means that BDI will attempt to close out at the best available price, but no worse than the price inside the bracket. If it is a box shape, then BDI will fire in a order at the price contained in the box. Shift-click the bracket/box and then drag it to shift it up and down and thus alter the close out price. Note that in some situations you may not be able to drag the bracket past a certain price, because it would result in an order of below the minimum size allowed by Betfair.

Continuing with the above example, the red bracket which appears around the 14.0 price indicates that if the LTP goes below 17.5 then the Stop Loss will be triggered, and if the best available price to sell is higher than 14.0 then BDI will use that price; otherwise BDI will place a sell order at a price of 14.0, with a stake equal to the current net position.

Some other important points to keep in mind:

• When a Stop Loss has been set, the market is automatically added to the Monitored List, which itself will display the Stop Loss price in the SL column. The Monitored List by default will refresh each market around once every five seconds - markets which have a Stop Loss set are updated more frequently. Removing a market from the Monitored List will cancel any associated Stop Loss - a popup confirmation will be displayed if you try to remove a market or selection for which a Stop Loss has been set.
• Stop Loss orders can only be set when the market status is "ACTIVE".
• When the net position switches from positive to negative (or vice versa), or changes to zero then the Stop Loss will be automatically cancelled.
• For Betfair binary markets, the close-out price can only be for rows in the ladder which correspond to at least one underlying decimal-odds price for the favourite selection - the rows which have a value in the Price column which is coloured white.
• Stop Losses can be placed and cancelled both when zoomed and unzoomed, although the value will always be rounded to 1 decimal place when displayed in the Monitored List.

5.12 Limit-If-Breached Orders

Limit-If-Breached (LIB) orders are used when you want to take a profit on a particular trade, but you do not want the close out order sitting in the market waiting to be matched, thus giving away information. Once a particular price level has been breached then BDI can fire in an order automatically to attempt to close out the current position. LIB orders are especially useful when you are trading several markets simultaneously, or if you want to leave BDI running in the background unattended.

LIB orders can be placed in BDI only when you have a non-zero net position. To place a LIB order, shift-click anywhere in the ladder on the appropriate side of the LTP (Last Traded Price) - if you have a positive net position then click anywhere above the LTP; if you have a negative net position then click anywhere below the LTP.

Once a LIB has been set then this is confirmed in the ladder with a green horizontal bar:

In this example, our net position is positive - this is indicated by the blue background of the 19.5 price which means that the average price of our (positive) net position is around 19.5. We have set a LIB at a price of 21.0. This means that if LTP goes above 21.0 then the LIB is triggered and an order is automatically fired into the market to attempt to close out of the position.

To cancel the LIB then simply shift-click anywhere in the row for which the LIB has been set. To move the LIB price then shift-click elsewhere on the ladder, remembering to stay on the appropriate side of the LTP.

The behaviour of the LIB order is such that when triggered, BDI will attempt to close out at the best available price, but no worse than the specified LIB price. Essentially the LIB order is the exact inverse of the Stop Loss order, except with a bracket shape always in the same place as the actual LIB price.

Continuing with the above example, if the LTP goes above 21.0 then the LIB will be triggered, and if the best available price to sell is higher than 21.0 then BDI will use that price; otherwise BDI will place a sell order at a price of 21.0, with a stake equal to the current net position.

Some other important points to keep in mind:

• When a LIB has been set, the market is automatically added to the Monitored List, which itself will display the LIB price in the LIB column. The Monitored List by default will refresh each market around once every five seconds - markets which have a LIB set are updated more frequently. Removing a market from the Monitored List will cancel any associated active orders (LIB, Stop Loss, TIF) - a popup confirmation will be displayed if you try to remove a market or selection for which an active order has been set.
• LIB orders can only be set when the market status is "ACTIVE".
• When the net position switches from positive to negative (or vice versa), or changes to zero then the LIB will be automatically cancelled.
• LIB orders can be placed and cancelled both when zoomed and unzoomed, although the value will always be rounded to 1 decimal place when displayed in the Monitored List.

5.13 If-Filled Condition

BDI allows you to set "If-Filled" conditions on a per-order basis. These can be used to automatically place an order once the condition is met. Three types of If-Filled condition are available:

1. Partial - this is triggered once any part of the order is filled.
2. Full - this is triggered only once the order has been fully filled.
3. Continuous - this triggers repeatedly as new portions of the order are filled, each time firing an order in with a size equal to the portion which was just filled.

To set an If-Filled condition for an order, then click in the If-Filled column of the Unfilled Orders panel for that particular order. This will bring up the "Edit If-Filled" popup window.

Here you can edit the condition type - Partial, Full or Continuous - along with the price and stake of the trigger order. If you creating a new condition then the trigger order stake will default to the stake of the associated unfilled order. The "Remove" button can be used to clear the If-Filled condition for the order.

Once an If-Filled condition has been set, it will show up in the Unfilled Orders panel with a green background colour. This same green colour is also used in the Our Buy and Our Sell columns of the ladder, and the #U columns of the Monitored List and Selections panel (for Betfair multi-selection markets) to indicate orders which have an If-Filled condition. When a cell in the ladder contains orders for multiple types (e.g. one If-Filled order and one regular order), then the colour changes to turquoise - this also applies to the #U column.

Once a "Partial" If-Filled condition has been triggered then the condition will no longer be editable. This will be indicated by the contents under the If-Filled column changing to "Partial [T]" and the green colour being removed.

Also note that the reverse order price for Betfair markets has a precision of 0.5 when unzoomed, and to 3 decimal places (i.e. 1 tick) when zoomed; for Tradefair markets the precision is always 0.1 regardless of the zoom status.

5.14 Order Entry Window

If the Order Entry checkbox is ticked, then each time you try to place an order, an Order Entry window will be shown.

Also note that Alt-click can be used to "force open" the Order Entry window, regardless of the status of the Order Entry checkbox.

The If-Filled condition can be specified in advance of the order being placed - if the order is placed successfully then the If-Filled condition will be applied to the resulting order immediately. The TIF parameter can also be customised for this particular order without affecting the value in the main BDI window.

There is also a setting which can be used to turn the order into a "keep bet", which means that when the market turns in-play, the order will not be cancelled. Note that if you enable this option, then any order submitted from the If-Filled condition will also have the same "keep" setting.

5.15 Favourites List

BDI features a section of the interface which can be used to hold a list of your favourite markets, enabling you to switch between them much quicker than by using the market navigation tree.

To add a market to the list of favourites, then right-click (or Ctrl-click in Mac OS X) in the market navigation tree to open a popup menu, where you can add the market to the favourites list. The favourites list is hidden by default - when the first market is added as a favourite then it will dynamically appear.

You can right-click (or Ctrl-click on Mac OS X) on a market in the favourites list to open a popup menu where you can remove that market, add the market to the Monitored List or clear the whole favourites list. When the favourites list has been made empty, it will disappear until a new market is added to the list.

5.16 Splitting Orders between Favourite and Non-Favourite for Betfair Binary Markets

If you are placing an order on a Betfair binary market at a worse value than that is already available - i.e. if you are trying to fill existing orders on the market - then BDI will automatically divide your order between the two underlying Betfair selections in order to get optimum value for money. For any remaining portion of the order which is likely to be left initially unfilled, you can use the "% Favourite Split" section to manually control how the order is split across the two selections:

You can either use the slider or enter a value in the "% Split" box to control the "percentage split". On most Betfair markets, the majority of the action is on the "favourite" side - the selection which is trading at decimal odds of less than 2.0. However, a significant volume also occurs on the other selection, so it is down to you to determine what proportion of users are betting on each side - a value of somewhere between 70% and 90% is appropriate for most markets.

Both the Unfilled Orders and Filled Orders panels contain an "S" column which indicates which of the two underlying selections is associated with the order - a value of either 1 or 2.

In this example, we have entered a sell order of 20/point at 99.0, with the percentage split set to 90%. The Unfilled Orders panel has indicated that 90% of the order went on the first selection (18.00/point), and 10% went on the second (2.00/point). Note that the binary to decimal conversion is not exact in most cases, so the bet on the second selection corresponded to a slightly different binary price than on the first - 98.8 instead of 99.0.

5.17 Invert Market for Betfair Binary Markets

When viewing binary markets, BDI will by default use the first selection returned from the Betfair API servers as the "selection to win". However, you may have a preference for trading a particular selection or you may prefer to trade a particular end of the ladder - to switch the selection being traded, press Ctrl + T or go to the View menu then Binary Mode Options.

All unfilled and filled orders, together will all the prices on the ladder will then be inverted - i.e. subtracted from 100, since a price on one selection is the same as 100 minus the price for the other selection. For example, if you have an unfilled sell order of 1/point at a price of 99.0 - this will then show up as an unfilled buy order of 1/point at a price of 1.0 when the market is inverted.

5.18 Profit/Loss for Betfair Multi-Selection Markets

When viewing multi-selection markets, the profit/loss figures will in general apply to orders made on the current selection only. The exception to this is the P/L 100 column in the Selections panel, which for normal one-winner markets show the profit/loss if the particular selection settles at 100 (i.e. it wins) and all of the other selections settle at 0. However, the values in the Profit/Loss section apply to orders on the current selection only, therefore the "P/L if 100" value may not match the value in the "P/L 100" column of the Selections panel.

When viewing markets with more than one possible winner (e.g. Horse Racing place markets), then the P/L 100 value in the Selections panel is calculated on a per-selection basis only and therefore is independent of any orders made on the other selections. This means that the values in the Profit/Loss section are more relevant in this situation - the Profit/Loss section can be made visible by going to the View menu then Multi-Selection Mode, as it is hidden by default for multi-selection markets.

5.19 Bias Slider

The "bias" slider can be used to control how the close out is biased with respect to the current net position. Note that it is hidden by default, and can be shown or hidden by an option in the Ladder menu.

If the slider is set to zero (the default setting), then it means that the profit/loss from the close out is divided evenly between both outcomes. If it is set to a positive (+) value then more of the profit is the direction of the current net position; if it is set to a negative (-) value then more of the profit is in the opposite direction to the current net position. The slider also controls the bias when the Net Position button in the Amount/Point panel is selected.

The behaviour of the slider is illustrated by the following example. Let's say we have a net position of +1/point at an average price of 50.0, and that there are no other filled orders (i.e. the realised P/L is zero). Also say we want to close out at a price of 80.0 - the "P/L if 100" / "P/L if 0" values obtained from various bias settings are as follows:

• If the bias is zero, then the "P/L if 100" and the "P/L if 0" are both +30, since the profit is being divided evenly between both outcomes.
• If the bias is set to positive maximum, then the "P/L if 100" is +37.5 and the "P/L if 0" is zero, since BDI calculates the stake required to put all of the profit in the direction of the net position - i.e. the P/L if 100.
• If the bias is set to negative maximum, then the "P/L if 100" is zero and the "P/L if 0" is +150, since BDI calculates the stake required to put all of the profit in the opposite direction to the current net position - i.e. the P/L if 0.

By setting the slider to positive maximum, it can provide a way of getting a "free bet" on the market from the current net position, since BDI calculates the stake required to achieve no change in the profit/loss on the opposite outcome. Also note that when the bias slider is enabled, the P/L column of the ladder shows the projected minimum profit/loss across both outcomes - i.e. it shows the worst case scenario for both outcomes.

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