Betfair Trading on a Bank Holiday
If we have a bank holiday Monday, internally, we tend to call it Marmite Monday!
It’s that day of the year that you either love or hate.
On a bank holiday day in the UK, we have a whole bunch of horse racing. Something to celebrate? Well maybe, if it wasn’t all on the same day. I’ve posted this comment many times in the past. But it’s worth reminding everybody if you have never traded a bank holiday or a holiday weekend before.
Bank holiday racing
If you are not in the UK, Bank Holidays here bring an extra day off for many people. Originally enshrined in law in the Bank Holidays Act, they are in essence, public holidays. A day off to enjoy the sunshine and some sport.
From a sports betting and Betfair trading perspective, bank holidays in the UK can bring varying rewards for varying efforts.
The main reason for this are races that clash with each other. When races clash, i.e start before one has finished, this means the amount of money traded on a betting exchange reduces. This makes getting in and out of positions trickier.
In short, there is less time to trade between races, if at all. Then there is less liquidity, which makes the markets more volatile.
But it does vary at different times of the year.
How different Bank Holiday's trade
New Year’s Day can be ‘challenging’ as there are a lot of races on and quite a lot of jumps racing. The highlight is Cheltenham of course, but most of the other race meetings are not that high profile. It can be a frustrating day. Especially if you are nursing a headache!
I put my focus into trading Cheltenham on New Years day. Anything else is a bonus.
The Easter holidays are mainly jump racing, and because of the length of races, they all fall over each other, which can decrease liquidity in individual markets. The Easter holiday period sees Good Friday and Easter Monday mix things up again. Depending on when Easter is, you may or may not get a nice mix.
As we move into May, the jumps racing starts to decrease as the flat season moves into top gear, so the racing can start and finish reasonably promptly. You will get one of two jump meetings that can mix things up.
Early and late May holidays still retain a few jump races, which can ruin the following market from a trading perspective. But they tend to produce reasonable trading opportunities. May bank holiday racing is pretty tradeable.
By late August, the Bank Holiday can generally not be that congested because most racing is on the flat. The short race times allow many races to run without too much clashing. These are ideal conditions.
Switching to the boxing day public holiday, it’s a nightmare for clashing race start times. The mixture of predominately jumps racing means you will almost certainly have a clash of start times because of the longer race lengths. For me it’s Kempton or busy on Boxing day. I tend to ignore the other racing.
How different Bank Holiday's trade
The Late Summer Bank Holiday generally isn’t too bad, and you can find some opportunities in the card. As I write this, we have 41 races, and 35 races have five-minute gaps, while 6 have 10-minute gaps. If all races go off on time, which seems optimistic, it could work well for certain Betfair trading strategies.
If you are waiting for a long move in the market, you probably won’t see one on a public or bank holiday. There just isn’t enough time. But if you are looking for a quick in and out on low stakes, you will probably get it. So if you are going to fire up your Betfair account, that’s the trick to trading a day like this.
Whether you enjoy the great British weather, the racing, Tennis or football, good luck whatever your choice!