Throttling / refresh rates etc

[Rastis]

Hi Folks,

I've put together and Excel file for trading football. I was trading 10 matches last night with 3 markets per match open - each linked to a separate tab. The file also had 2 summary tabs with some modest conditional triggers. And, yes, it was slow - unworkably slow.

I've previously had 10 x 2 markets open with primative triggers that seemed to run almost in real time.

Thus, I'm after some opinions and advice on what specifically causes the delays, and how to improve the refresh rate.

My questions;

1. Would exceeding Betfairs data request limit help?
2. Would doing so cost me a fortune? Am I right in saying that if the commission generated on profits ( ) covers that Data Request Surcharge then there is no charge?
3. Would rationalising my triggers/formulae make much of a difference?
4. Would upgrading my PC or Broadband connection make much of a difference?

Any input would be great.

Cheers

R

[GaryRussell]

1. Yes, but only if you can be sure you can earn enough commission to offset these costs.

2. See http://www.betfair.com/www/betfair/GBR/ ... r.Charges/ for an explanation of how the charges are calculated.

3. Yes, most times this is all that is required.

4. Not particularly unless it really is that processor intensive. In most cases just using more efficient formulas and VBA code (if any) is all that is required.

Have you set the throttle limit in preferences to 20? It is 10 by default and you may not have changed it. If it is 10 then just this simple change will double the number of requests BA will make per second. 20 is the max you can make without being charged so it is important you aren't using any other Betfair application at the same time, including the website.

[Rastis]

Cheers Gary.

Guaranteed commission? Aye right!

For clarity, when I say slow, I mean a delay of minutes in some cases. Oh, and to be honest I was using Bet Angel (coz I'm presently more familiar with it's multiple market data import facility).

-Would BA be more efficent than Bet Angel?
-Is VBA a more efficent way of triggering or will spreadsheet formulae be as good?
- I'm out of my depth with regard to how processor intensive the spreadsheet is. However, most of my triggers have some link to time. IE, if game time exceeds X then back/lay etc. Hence, there is a lot of cross referencing and IF functions. (I suspect I may fully convey my PC ignorance with this but, my Laptop "sounded" to be working very hard - IE, fan at full tilt etc...)

[GaryRussell]

You made it sound like Betting Assistant was slow! Sorry, I am not going to make any comparisons to Bet Angel, it's up to you to decide. VBA is not required for speed, only for more complex solutions, it depends on what you want to achieve.

[Rastis]

Apologies for the misunderstanding. I didn't mean to be controversial.

I am new to BA and joined primarily for the Excel intregration possibilities. I have continued using Bet Angel for the meantime so I can maintain control as I make the adjustment (throwing all the balls up at once wouldn't work for me...).

As I mentioned, the refresh rate was very slow and I see that substantial changes may be required to have any discernable impact. To that end, I am not sure of what changes will help.

Would reducing the number of "tabs" I have make a difference?
Does having tabs interlinked with formulas make a difference?
My Laptop sounded to be labouring

[GaryRussell]

Can you just clarify? Are you saying that Betting Assistant was slow when connected to 30 markets and Excel? I may have misunderstood, I thought you were saying it was slow in Bet Angel and you were looking to see if would be quicker in Betting Assistant.

Would reducing the number of "tabs" I have make a difference?

Of course. Fewer markets being updated means fewer data requests which means the other markets can update quicker. Assuming you have set the throttle limit to 20 (which you haven't said). If you have 30 markets open each one can be updated approximately every 3 seconds because each market requires 2 requests.

Does having tabs interlinked with formulas make a difference?

It depends how many and how complex they are. The only way to know is to find out what the performance is like with the markets linked to blank worksheets without any formulas.

To determine if Betting Assistant can meet your requirements you should first try it with 30 markets open not linked to Excel. Does it struggle? Each market should be updating approx every 3 seconds if throttle limit set to 20. You should then link all the markets to blank worksheets and check if struggles then. If it doesn't then it's got to be the formulas slowing it down.

[Rastis]

The refresh rate was slow when working with Bet Angel.

When I said "reduce the number of tabs" I meant putting multiple markets on 1 sheet. IE, my present workbook has 32 tabs; 1 for each market + 2 summary sheets.

[GaryRussell]

The refresh rate was slow when working with Bet Angel.

When I said "reduce the number of tabs" I meant putting multiple markets on 1 sheet. IE, my present workbook has 32 tabs; 1 for each market + 2 summary sheets.

You can only have one market per tab in Betting Assistant, with the exception of the first tab which can have multiple markets. Each tab could be linked to any of the worksheets so you could reduce the number of worksheets if you wanted to, but this wouldn't make any difference to how quickly it can update Excel.

[Rastis]

Cheers Gary - thanks very much for your help

[BruceLeet]

Hi guys

Sorry for necroing this old thread but I have a quick question about throttling, just wanted to confirm that the data charges are gone now that Betfair switched to API-NG? Also wondering if 20 is still the limit and what would happen if I had 2 instanced of Betting Assistant open at the same time with both set on 20?

Loving the software btw, I've used 3 different ones for a long time and none of them suited my needs as good as Gruss does, it's by far the best software for multi market trading. I'm also a big fan of Mugs so keep up the good work guys, big thumbs up from me.

[MarkRussell]

Hi,

Yes the data request charge is gone now.
You can untick the option in Preferences to "Throttle requests" and you will not incur charges.
It is a legacy feature now and will probably be removed at some point in the future.

Regards,
Mark

[BruceLeet]

Thank you for a very fast reply.



So I can completely ignore this request counter in the bracket in the image above?

Also, should I untick "Throttle requests" everywhere if I use 2-3 instances of the software at the same time?

[MarkRussell]

Hi,

Yes the request counter is for information only now.
There is no data request charge in the new API.
It is safe to untick "Throttle Requests" even if you are running multiple instances.

Regards,
Mark

[BruceLeet]

Awesome, thank you very much once again. KUTGW