All posts by Trader247

Home PC upgrade

I thought I’d share this as it is quite amazing.

I’ve been meaning to upgrade my home PC for some time but only just got round to it. I’ve had it about six years now and although it runs good I wanted it better.

The spec is – AMD Phenom II quad core 3GHz, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, Radeon HD5670.

I looked at upgrading the RAM but this is expensive as it’s old DDR2 and there is little option for 4GB modules.

I asked a local store about the graphics card and came to the conclusion that mine is probably still up to what I need.

The processor is still a pretty good spec and the socket on the motherboard wouldn’t take anything better as it’s old now.

So this brought me to looking at the hard drive. I never thought about it before. Looking at some reviews online I decided to upgrade. I went for a Samsung V-NAND 850 EVO 250GB.

The setup was easy, it comes with a disk to enable migration of existing data from HDD to SSD. Then opened BIOS to change disk priority.

WOW!

Times from pressing button were –

password screen = 60 secs

desktop = 1m 45s

M-link UPS and widgets = 3m 45s

Times from pressing button now –

password screen = 30s

desktop = 40s

M-link UPS and widgets = 55s

Also the time it takes to open apps like excel is lightening fast. Click and it’s open in a blink. I am very impressed.

Next thing is to upgrade to Windows 10, which should make things even quicker.

Week Ending 08-05-16

Greyhounds traded ok but I would prefer a more consistent trend than that in the chart.

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Aus horses were looking like a flat return until a late boost ended the week with a positive result.

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First week of US horses has seen a loss but nothing too concerning for now. The main issue is the lack of activity but this is more down to the way the US markets drift away from the start time as reported by Betfair. I’m seeing most activity early on in the racing day when the post times are still close to reality. I’ve been given a good site for start times (https://classic.ebetusa.com/racing_menus/next-race.html) that drops into excel really easy but I’m trying to figure out the best way to use this info with my bot.

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Week ending 01-05-16

Here are Oscar’s charts. The dogs have done well to return 0.079% with volume increased by over 2.5x since January. I want to start adjusting stake to matched volume as I think the effect of it’s current size on smaller markets is negative. I’ve only looked at a few examples so far, so more investigation is required.

The Aus chart is pleasing with a good return. This is in line with expectation after the percentage stake effect I mentioned last week.

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(Sorry for chart quality, I’ve been playing around with settings. I’ll try again next time.)

Bot name

I’ve been working on a few things recently, my own vb bot and my betting bot (bot3). To make it easier to reference each bot in the blog, I think it’s time to give them names. So the first one to get a name is my old faithful scalping bot, previously referred to as my bot or Bot 1.

I name thee – Oscar.

Oscar (Original SCalping Algorithm Robot) is currently working emotionless and uninterrupted in a cloud.

Week ending 24-04-16

Last week’s charts both end positive. The UK dogs is still going good, the last week in loss was back at the beginning of January.

The Aus markets traded to a profit since being flat (excluding errors) for a month. I’d previously set the Aus stake to £2 to avoid the turnover charge and was thinking that using the same stake may make my bot stand out. Or I may be paranoid. Well I changed it to a percent of bank earlier in the week, so the stake is different most races, if only by a penny or two. I hoped this would provide some cover from bot stalkers/baiters. The proof isn’t here yet but it hasn’t had an immediate negative effect.

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From VPS to Cloud Hosting

A few days ago, Ken asked why I chose the VPS from Tagadab instead of their Cloud Hosting service. To be honest I’m not sure about all these things and thought “hosting” was to do with websites and the like, whereas I see a VPS as just like my PC but based in a data-centre somewhere. ( You can view the conversation we had at the end of the post VPS active)

The Tagadab Cloud is just like a VPS but with the ability to change cores/memory/storage at any time whenever you need it, so it’s more flexible. Also it is 100% SSD (my VPS was Hard Disk) and it should provider better reliability and performance according to their website. More interesting to me was that it starts at a lower price point. A windows system starts at £13.30, which is 1 core, 1MB memory and 20GB storage. The cheapest VPS with SSD is £22.19 (I was paying £17.99 without.)

I’ve opted for the same size storage I had with the VPS, so all in it is now costing me £14.99/month. Here’s how my old VPS and new Cloud compare –

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The allowed bandwidth is 25% of the VPS but I was averaging less than 350MB/day (approx 10GB/month) and if I use more, it costs £0.02/GB. (I still don’t understand the bandwidth, as the Cloud is free inbound and £0.02/GB after 50GB outbound. I will ask the question.)

As I’d installed a copy of MSOffice on the VPS I wanted to keep it. The very helpful Tagadab team transferred my VPS to the Cloud, including the installed apps and kept the same OS settings.

I also asked if the Cloud was based in the UK and they told me it was in the same location as the VPS in London.

So for now I’m £3/month up with better performance –

THANKS KEN! 🙂

 

Weeks ending 17-04-16

A three week period, with the first day on the home PC and the rest on the VPS. The UK dogs performed well, stake is nearly £6 now. The move to VPS has seen a good steady P&L line.

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The Aus chart isn’t too far from normal when compared with previous weeks. The bottom chart shows the trades performed on the VPS in red. None of the previous errors have occurred since being on VPS, so can only assume the massive delay on my home PC was the cause.

Aus160417weeks

Aus160417weeks VPS comparison

 

Whoop whoop

Received the exciting email this morning – news about your lotto ticket. Despite the odds, you can’t help fumbling the password as you hurriedly tap it in. 3 numbers, £25, better than 5 numbers some weeks. I’m break even so far this year, kerching!

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