Matched bets slow to show up in excel

[Spike]

Title says it all really. I'm finding that it sometimes takes a long time for bets that have been matched to show up as matched in the "matched stake" and "matched odds" cells- even though I can see from the selection P&L that they must have been taken and everything else is refreshing away merrily. Sometimes they simply never show. Is there anything I can do about this? It's annoying as I have bots set to re-set and fire again if they make a profit- and if the bets don't show as matched they think they've made a loss. I'm betting in running so speed is of the essence.
This is a sporadic issue- but my impression is that this problem is becoming more frequent.

[MarkRussell]

Hi,

Are you sure that the prices in the spreadsheet are still updating?
Could you have some code in your worksheet that is preventing Betting Assistant refreshing it?
The matched bets should get updated along with the prices.

Mark

[GaryRussell]

Also are you doing anything to the bet reference cell? It can only update the matched stake and odds if the bet reference matches what you can see in Betting Assistant.

If you think it's not showing at all then you should have time to look at Betting Assistant and see if the bet is showing in the bets manager. Can you actually see an instance where the same bet reference is displayed in Excel and the bets manager in Betting Assistant, but not updated?

[Spike]

Hello-

The prices are deffinately still updating, and like I said- the P&L on the selection (column X) is still updating but sometimes columns V&W aren't. I haven't been checking whether the bets have been showing up during the race in BA, but there have been times when the race has finished and the bets haven't shown up at all in excel but ARE there in BA.

I don't do anything to the Bet Refs column- I just clear it whenever the bot's in profit to allow it to bet again using "CLEAR" in the trigger cells.

I've noticed this problem quite oftern recently- although I couldn't say definitively whether it's since I downloaded the last build. It may be that I've always had the problem but since I usualy don't sit there watching the bots I haven't noticed it. Most of my bots fire completely balanced positions in the first hit and just wait for them to match so it hasn't caused a huge problem on those (except for missing out on another go).

It causes me a bigger problem where I'm placing bets early on, waiting for them to match and then greening them with a counter-bet or when I want a bot to "rescue" a bad position. This is a big enough problem that I've shelved a couple of strategies that look quite workable becuase of the unreliablity of these cells.

At first I thought this might be a problem to do with using several worksheets on the same market- but since I've been looking for it it's been quite clear that this also occurs where I only have 1 sheet betting on the market.

[Spike]

I'll watch it again today and give more detail tonight.

[Spike]

Ok- I've been keeping an eye on this this-afternoon. The bets ARE showing up in BA (although it's hard to say how quickly as I have to scroll down) but they're NOT making it through to excel.

I am having this problem only with flat races- Im running very similar but slightly different sheets on flat and jump markets, and only the flats have this problem.

Some times it's just some of the bets, other times it's all.

The sheet involved is very simple- fires in one set of bets and waits for them to match- that's it.

The sheet is refreshing at 0.1

I'll be very glad if you can help.

[GaryRussell]

It doesn't make sense that the problem would occur in one type of race and not another, the program makes no distinction. Any chance I can have a look at the spreadsheet that has the problem? It doesn't sound like the problem is caused by Betting Assistant.

[Spike]

I was also puzzled by the difference between the different kinds of races- I realise BA dosen't know the difference, I reasoned that it may simply be that flat races are over sooner. The sheet I'm using for NH races is really exactly the same except that it has different settings (it triggers at different values). I'll look at it again tomorrow.

[Spike]

To update on this:

I have been watching this very carefully over the last few days and have found that it is a problem on all of my spreadsheets to varying degrees.
The only pattern I can discern is that bets that have matched quickly after having been placed always seem to arrive immediately in excel, whereas bets that have sat unmatched for a while before being taken can take a long time- if they arrive at all. When I say a while I mean more than about 10 secconds (a long time in running).
I think this is why I previously observed a difference in NH and flat racing- my NH bets tend to get taken quicker as I use a slightly different strategy on jumps races.

This is no longer a real problem for me as I've put in a work-around, so really this is just so that you know about the issue.

My spreadsheets are not sophisticated in terms of coding, mostly they use simple logic functions in the cells and little or no VBA. I did a big audit on the logic a few days ago and managed to strip it down quite substantially where it had become a bit verbose- but this had no impact on this problem. I'm using a fairly fast refresh rate of 0.1.
I frequently bet on all runners simultaneously so there are often a good number of bets that don't match immediately (or at all).

Although I'm using quite a fast computer which is running Vista I'm only using Excel 2003 (never saw the need to update), and I have wondered whether this might be part of the issue- although that's pure speculation.

None the less- I'm really happy with the program and reccomend it highly to anyone who'll listen. Like I said, this is really just for your information- I don't need a solution. I'll get round to updating my excel sometime- and when I do I'll let you know whether the problem disappears.

[throwmeadisc]

Although I'm using quite a fast computer which is running Vista I'm only using Excel 2003 (never saw the need to update),

Hey Spike,

There are some differences with Excel 2003 vs Excel 2007.

See here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/ ... owsColumns

You will also experience faster calculations in large, formula-intensive worksheets because Office Excel 2007 supports multiple processors and multithreaded chipsets.

Probably won't help in this issue, but if you run with such a fast refresh rate it may be worth you upgrading.

Al