Trigger battle

Introduction

MarketFeeder Pro is a complex betting bot for the online exchange called BetFair. It comprises numerous betting and market analyzing tools. It has a lot of great functions helping professional traders implement their betting ideas as quickly and efficiently as possible.

But it is just a tool, and the real profit depends on how to use it. That's why our growing community suggested (and we couldn't but agree) to organise a trigger contest where any trader might "fight" for the status of the most successful MarketFeeder Pro trader. In this "battle" each competitor will demonstrate their understanding of the trading processes and skills of converting their ideas into a set of triggers.

Our team will act as independent experts and take the role of unbiased testers of submitted strategies.

Rules

Every competitor must provide a set of required files (see below). We will load them into the freshly installed latest version of MarketFeeder Pro Lite which will be running on a dedicated computer. We will test each set of triggers during three days.

The order in which each set of triggers will be tested is chosen randomly. We will make a schedule on the last day of the period allocated for submitting the triggers. This schedule will be published on this web site on the Results page. The number of markets against which the triggers will be tested may vary depending on their type and availability on BetFair on the day of testing.

For that reason competitors may ask for their triggers to be tested on a particular day (we will try to meet this requirement depending on the demand for that day).

Below are some default settings that will be common for all competitors:

• Test mode is ON
• Placing and cancelling test bets is delayed by 3 seconds
• Account currency - pound sterling (GBP)
• Small bets are not allowed. Minimal bet amount is £2
• Starting bank - £2000 (minimal bet amount * 1000)
• Automatically prevent exceeding requests limit (20 requests / 1 minute, 1000 transactions per hour) is ON
• Computer, operating system and Internet connection: Intel® Core®2, 2.14 GHz, 2 Gb RAM; Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3; 10 Mbps broadband.

If needed, competitors may provide a list of selections (horses, teams etc.) they want to bet on, in a predefined format. They also may attach an Excel® file if it's required by the triggers. Competitors may submit more than one set of triggers to take part in the contest.

Trigger files identical to any of our trigger examples will be rejected without any discussion. Triggers can be based on a trigger example, but in that case the competitor must make essential changes to them as to improve or enhance their functionality.

After a trigger set is submitted, our team does a quick inspection to make sure the triggers can be opened and tested. If they fail this check, the competitor has one chance to correct and resubmit his triggers before the end of the submission period.

Our team will not make any changes, suggestions or corrections. Therefore, if the triggers don't providethe expected results, they will fail the contest.

Each day of testing starts with a fixed starting bank regardless of the profits or losses generated on the previous day. Therefore the losses made on the previous day can't be recovered. Also, if there's no money in the bank, the testing stops.

Each market is settled in test mode by our operator according to the actual results as soon they become available.

At the end of each day of testing competitors may review the following feedback in their competitor panel:

1. Complete actions log file
2. All triggers log files
3. All trigger variables log files
4. Account statement, resulting balance
5. Failure log file (is any)

Once the period for submitting triggers is over, competitors can't make corrections to their triggers.

We may need to run an additional day of testing if some technical problems prevent us from completing the test on the appointed day.

After all 3 days of testing the results will be published on the results page in the following format:

• Profit/Loss for each day
• The amount in the bank at the end of each day
• The efficiency for each day's trading (this is the difference between profit and loss divided by their sum)
• Resulting efficiency for all three days
• Account statement

Competitors may share their triggers with the public and comment on each other's triggers after the contest is over.

How the winner is defined

The winner will be defined after all trigger sets have been tested. The winning set of triggers will have the biggest overall P/L multiplied by efficiency. So the formula is:

Profit * (won_amount - lost_amount) / (won_amount + lost_amount)

Where won_amount is the sum of all the amounts won and lost_amount is the sum of all amounts lost.

For example, a single day profit is £300, made from £400 of winning bets and £100 of losing bets. The efficiency for that day will be (400 - 100) / (400 + 100) = 0.6   The final result for this day is 300 * 0.6 = 180.

Prize

The main prize is a free life-time licence of MarketFeeder Pro for any BF username. The winner may choose to exchange it for a wonderful book "Automatic Exchange Betting" by Colin Magee (subject to change).

In addition the winner may place their advertisement on the home page of our web site during one year, if they wish to promote their services in making triggers.

Contest Schedule

1. 11-Jan-2010 ... 17-Jan-2010 - Public discussion.
2. 18-Jan-2010 ... 07-Feb-2010 - Submitting triggers. Initial inspection.
3. 08-Feb-2010 ... 01-Mar-2010 - Testing triggers.
4. 02-Mar-2010 - Announcing the results and honouring the winner.

We may extend the testing period if there are many triggers to test.

Requirements for submitting the triggers

Competitors must fill a short form where they briefly describe what the triggers do and what is needed to run them efficiently. This information will be made public. It is up to you how much information you want to share. The competitor then must submit two files - the file with triggers (the one with .xml extension) and the file with MarketFeeder Pro settings (can be found in the folder where you've installed MF Pro, and is called feeder6.ini). Prior to submitting the file make sure you have configured the following settings:

1. Request confirmation for every critical operation - OFF
2. Default refresh rates for markets in idle and in-play mode (unless they are modified by triggers)
3. Delete finished/settled markets automatically - OFF
4. The frequency of refreshing list of current bets and corresponding settings
5. Default betting amounts
6. If needed, specify the markets that should be added to the program automatically
7. When to start monitoring markets (we will not start them manually)
8. Default Auto-Greenup and Auto-Dutching settings (if they are used by your triggers)
9. Whether to download match score
10. Whether to download the Silks
11. Clear all Email settings

If needed, you can attach the file with custom cells (customcells.xml) and any other files that are needed for testing the triggers. The trigger files should not be protected by password or software key.

Non-disclosure agreement

WellDone Creative Software having access to the triggers participating in the competition will not at any time disclose or let anyone access the confidential information provided by competitors. Any files and other information will not be published anywhere on our web sites, unless the corresponding permission is given by the author. We do not accept responsibility for any possible coincidences in triggers participating in the contest. We also reserve the right to decline a trigger if we find it too similar to the triggers already published on our web site.

These are the official guidelines for the trigger contest. Latest edition is dated 18-Jan-2010. The rules may be changed without prior notice.

All support is provided on-line only by e-mail and web-site.