Spread Betting

[threaded]

.....
IF (time_since_last_played > decent_period_in_seconds) AND (credit_balance = 0) AND money_deposited THEN
new_player := TRUE;
END IF;
....

Basically, with a few little twists, such as the depress time on the buttons, the order of the holds, the time between button presses, the speed of the money entering the coin chute...

[oraclesmith]

Easy on a webtulipe though. Just look at their login !

[IR35 Avoider]

That must be a lie - it should be a zero sum game and if the losers execute stops when they lose (and this is when you win), then their stop limit is pretty much your win limit. Of course they would prefer to make you believe that your wins are unlimited where as losses are limited. Yet another reason why it should be banned, good job that USA is doing the right thing about those pesky gambling companies.

I tested a strategy against historical data with stop-losses at various levels and found that the effect of stop-losses was to increase your losses. It's logical when you think about it: stop-losses force you to sell when the market is down. They only make sense if you set them at a level where you are fairly confident they will never be invoked. Their job then is to protect you against extreme circumstances, not relatively likely ones.

[IR35 Avoider]

When I first saw AtW's post above, I thought he was saying that spread-betting is a zero-sum game. The spread-betters effectively provide a "thin layer" (to use a computing analogy) over the underlying share/commodity/bond/currency markets and related derivatives markets, so spread-betting is only zero-sum if the underlying markets are.

[IR35 Avoider]

For an interesting (and possibly wealth-preserving) insight into how the spread-betting companies really make there money, read all the way to the bottom of this blog.

[HankWangford]

For an interesting (and possibly wealth-preserving) insight into how the spread-betting companies really make there money, read all the way to the bottom of this blog.

the same goes for most bookies, they offset any potential loss by backing or laying at longer/shorter odds over on betfair or betdaq

[Andyw]

the same goes for most bookies, they offset any potential loss by backing or laying at longer/shorter odds over on betfair or betdaq

Good one Mr. Hangford !

[Churchill]

That, in a nutshell, is how a one-armed-bandit works. (Incidentally it is the law that says it has to work that way.)

threaded in "I write the music for fruit machines don't you know" mode.

Threaded, you're talking tulipe.

Churchill - in "I used to work for IGT" mode!