Geeks Toy Primer
Geeks Toy is trading software for Betfair, BETDAQ and Matchbook. The first version, Geeks Toy for Betfair, was launched in 2009.
The aim of Geeks Toy is to give you a competitive edge over an exchange web site user when trading. This is because Geeks Toy can place bets more quickly than such users. For example, bets can be placed, changed and cancelled with a single click of the mouse. In addition, Geeks Toy provides you with real time prices.
To help you get used to Geeks Toy, the Betfair version has a training mode where you can place virtual bets on the exchange based on actual market data from Betfair. You get to use an account funded with virtual money to do this, the balance of which is sufficiently large to enable you to try out a number of betting strategies. Think of training mode more as a way familiarising yourself with Geeks Toy rather than trading with a safety net: real bets placed when trading affect the market, virtual bets placed in training mode won’t.
Part of Geeks Toy’s appeal for traders is that it allows them to customise it exactly how they want it. You can position Geek Toy’s windows wherever you want on your Windows desktop, adjust colours, behaviours and settings to suit your preferences. When you exit Geeks Toy, it will restore everything just how you had it in the previous session the next time you use the software. You can also create and load custom profiles that enable you to have different settings for different sports and trading techniques.
Geeks Toy provides both a ladder and a grid interface for placing bets.
The ladder interface displays the market in a vertical format therefore making it much easier to see when a selection’s price is moving up or down. It enables you to react very quickly to market movement and, like the grid interface, provides one-click betting. With the speed of execution that ladder trading provides, comes the potential to lose money rapidly, so if you are new to this type of interface, start with small stakes. Otherwise, clicking in the wrong place could prove costly.
The grid interface replicates the way markets are displayed on a betting exchange web site, with odds stacked horizontally. You would use this interface because its features enable you to place bets faster than you could on the exchange web site. For example, by using one-click bet submission.
To trade, you need a reliable connection to the betting exchange. For example, if you place a back bet, you need the connection to be still there to place the corresponding lay bet that makes the trade. Geeks Toy provides a Market & API status window that monitors the health of the connection. This helps you judge whether the connection is sufficiently stable to keep trading.
Because you can’t expect to win every trade and you may not be quick enough to close out your position manually, Geeks Toy provides a stop loss function. This enables you to set up an automatic closing position, should the market move against you.
Geeks Toy is a Windows application that runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It is not available for other platforms, however the Geeks Toy Forum does have posts from users who are successfully running Geeks Toy under a Windows emulator on a Apple Mac machine.
A fully functional trial version of Geeks Toy for Betfair is available. After the trial expires, you need to pay to continue using Geeks Toy. You can either purchase a Geeks Toy license or subscription.
Geeks Toy for BETDAQ and Geeks Toy for Matchbook are both currently free of charge. BETDAQ are providing financial assistance to Geeks Toy in return for providing a free version of the application, presumably because it boosts liquidity on the BETDAQ exchange.
As a final word, bear in mind that whatever its strengths, like Bet Angel, Betting Assistant and other similar applications, Geeks Toy is a tool you use to implement your trading strategy. Trading applications cannot turn a losing strategy into a winning one. The Geeks Toy disclaimer, contained in the product documentation, sums this up well:
"This application cannot make you money on Betfair. With skill, patience, the right mindset and an understanding of the markets, it may be possible for you to make money.
Trading on Betfair is gambling. Instead of gambling on the outcome of the market, you are gambling on whether the price moves up or down. If you are new to Betfair, start by using small stakes until you can make money, and never play with any money you cannot afford to lose."
