arbscalcmanual0.61

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One-click to MAXIMISING the returns f rom your arbit rage t rade

USER MANUAL

Developed byCheong Y Koo([email protected])

July 2006© Copyright 2006

DISCLAIMER: While we have taken enormous care and precaution in developing and testing ArbsCalc, however, wecannot guarantee that the results it produces are 100% accurate. Neither ArbsCalc or anyone associated with ArbsCalcaccepts any responsibility whatsoever for any loss incurred while using this software.



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Cheong Y KooAustralia

30th June 2006

Dear Arbitrage Trader,

I would like to introduce you to a program that I have written called ArbsCalc. When I first startedArbitrage trading, I was getting frustrated as odds were changing on me after I have made a bet onone leg or a bookmaker would have fixed bets (eg. $10, $20 …) which made it very difficult for meto find out what to bet on the other leg. In fact, my first Arbitrage trade was a loss because I had toround the bet to the nearest dollar and this resulted in a loss. I was so frustrated that I wrote my ownprogram to help me trade quickly and profitably.

With arbitrage trading, I’m sure that most of us understand the need to quickly make a decision onwhether it is safe and profitable to enter a trade. And if a wrong trade has been made on one leg, weneed to be able to quickly recalculate our bet to minimise the loss on the whole trade. ArbsCalc canhelp you to do this. All calculations are done DYNAMICALLY and you can see the result instantly.

ArbsCalc has been written by and for the arbitrage trader.I hope that you will find the program as useful and helpful as I have.

May the high arbitrages keep on coming in and remain till you complete your trade.

Kind regards,

Cheong

[email protected]

PS.

If you are using an unregistered version of this software and you find it useful, I would like toappeal to your sense of justice to do the right thing by registering this software. It’s not expensive toregister. For the cost of a meal, you can receive a registered version of the latest release and supportfuture development and enhancements. Please contact the author at the above email address. Thank you.



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Table of Contents

ArbsCalc – Features (One click to MAXIMISING the returns from your trade)................................4Installing ArbsCalc ..............................................................................................................................5Running the Program ...........................................................................................................................5

Screen Layout ......................................................................................................................................6ArbsCalc Window – Close, minimise, roll-up and stay-on-top...........................................................7Closing the Application ...................................................................................................................7Minimising ArbsCalc .......................................................................................................................7Stay-on-top and Rolling up ArbsCalc Window ...............................................................................7

Display of Lay-odds.............................................................................................................................8Calculation of odds and arbitrage investments ....................................................................................8Maximising and Optimising – to the nearest $1, $5 or $10.................................................................9Entering a trade ....................................................................................................................................9Saving a Trade into a log file.............................................................................................................14View Log File ....................................................................................................................................15

Frequently Asked Questions ..............................................................................................................16Question: Trucate, Optimise, Maximise and Best Bets .................................................................16Question: How do I make AbrsCalc stay on top?..........................................................................18



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ArbsCalc – Features (One click to MAXIMISING the returns from your trade)

This program allows the serious arbitrage trader to be able to QUICKLY calculate and tweak theirbets to get the MAXIMUM return from their investment. It is designed to be EASY to use,COMPREHENSIVE in features and QUICK in operation.

ArbsCalc the arbitrage and odds calculator and optimiser has the following features:

1 Comprehensivedisplay

Display of odds in the three formats along with the betting amount,return, and profit in dollar and percentage. At a glance, you can see howmuch you need to invest and the return from this investment.

2 Odds conversion Accepts entry of odds in the three formats USA (eg. 115 or –105), Europe(eg. 2.15) or UK (eg. 23/20) from which it will be converted anddisplayed.

3 Bet calculation Enter in an Investment amount and it will be used for calculating the betson the different legs (bookmakers). However, we were taught to round ortruncate the amounts to the nearest dollar. When this is done for smallbets, the rounding can actually result in a loss. ArbsCalc will optimise thedollar amounts to give a maximum return (see below).

4 Dynamic bet

calculation

When putting in bets, sometimes the bookmaker will change the odds just

as we put the bet in. With ArbsCalc, simply change the odds, and you canretweak the bets (or let ArbsCalc do it for you) to give the best return.

5 Optimise tonearest $1, $5 or$10

ArbsCalc can optimise and maximise bets to the nearest $1, $5, or $10depending on the user selection. This is especially useful as it doesn’tmake the trade look like an arbitrage trade to the bookmaker.

6 Betting exchangehandling

If you are using a betting exchange, simply enter in the commission valueand click on the checkbox to enable it. All returns and bets will berecalculated to handle the exchange commission. It’s that simple.

7 Optimise betkeeping one leg

constant

You can optimise the bet on ONE leg while keeping the other legconstant. This is useful if you are using a bookmaker that only accepts a

fixed bet (eg. World Sports Exchange) or if you want to use up the fundsin one of your bookmaker accounts.

8 Maximise returnon one leg

Sometimes you may want to maximise the return if one leg wins whilebreaking even if the other leg wins. Simply do this by clicking on theMaximise button on the appropriate leg.

9 Save trade andcomments into alog file

You can save your trade into the log file by simply clicking on the logbutton.

10 Minimise to task

bar or tray

ArbsCalc can be minimised to either the task bar or the tray. It can even

be “rolled up” to save space and is just one-click away.



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Installing ArbsCalcDouble click on the file Setup.Exe to install the program. Note that by default the program isinstalled in the directory c:\Program Files\ArbsCalc. Setup also allow you to install an icon onyour Windows Desktop and/or a Quick Launch icon on your Windows Task Bar. I would suggest todo the latter as well as it gives you one-click access to launch ArbsCalc.

Note:

ArbsCalc will NOT modify your registry settings or put any additional files in your Windowsdirectory.

Running the ProgramLike any Windows program, you can launch it from the Desktop, Start Menu or Quick Launchmenu. Note that when it’s started, you can minimise it to your Task Bar or System Tray leaving itone-click away.

Click on the ArbsCalcicon on the System Trayto bring ArbsCalc

window to the front.



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Screen Layout

Enter indescription of

trade

Odds can be entered inAmerican, European or

British format

Arbitrage values areshown in the differentformats regardless of the

entry format

Totalamount

to invest

Click this button tomaximise the

return on this leg.

Return from

the trade forthis leg.

Dollar profitfrom this leg of the trade.

Percentage

profit from thisleg of the

trade.

Bettingexchange

commission.

Save trade

into log file.Select tooptimise ormaximise tothe nearest$1, $5 or $10.

Click this button tooptimise the bet on thisleg while keeping the bet

on the other leg constant.

Click on this tocalculate thebest bet to thenearest $1, $5 or$10 dollar.



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ArbsCalc Window – Close, minimise, roll-up and stay-on-top

Closing the Application To close ArbsCalc window (ie. terminate the program), click on the button on the top right handcorner of the window. This will close the application. Note that the last settings for description,odds, investment amount and commissions will be saved.

Minimising ArbsCalc

When using ArbsCalc, you have several options on how to minimise ArbsCalc such as:

Minimise to Taskbar To minimise ArbsCalc to the Taskbar, simply click on the minimise

button at the top right hand corner of the window. You can switchbetween ArbsCalc and other applications by using the [ALT] and

[Tab] keys.

Minimise to System Tray To minimise ArbsCalc to the System Tray, click on the button.When you do this, you will see an icon on the System Tray. Clickingon this icon will bring ArbsCalc to the foreground. If you have toomany applications running, you may want to minimise ArbsCalc tothe System Tray to save some space on your Taskbar.

Stay-on-top and Rolling up ArbsCalc Window

When you click on the thumb-tack icon , ArbsCalc window will become stay-on-top. This meansthat it will be in-front of other windows that are opened even when it is not the active window. Thisfeature is very useful when used with the roll-up function. You can “roll-up” ArbsCalc window toonly the title bar so that it won’t obstruct other applications. Simply unroll it when you need to use

it by clicking on the button. Both and are toggle buttons ie. on and off. Try it and see as itwon’t harm anything.

Read Log file

Read User manual Roll-up window

Window Stay-OnTop of otherwindows Minimise

to Tray

Rolled-up



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Display of Lay-oddsLay odds can be displayed by hovering the mouse cursor over the European odds column. Seefigure below. This option is useful when placing bets on the betting exchange.

Calculation of odds and arbitrage investmentsNote: Only the first two lines of the entry are used in the calculation of the bets to place and thereturns of the bets. The third line can be used as a scratch pad to convert from one type of odds toanother (eg. from European to American).

Display of

Lay-odds.

Only the first two lines of entry areused in the calculation of the betsand returns.

Use this line as ascratch pad forodds conversion.



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Maximising and Optimising – to the nearest $1, $5 or $10ArbsCalc maximising and optimising calculations can be done to the nearest $1, $5 or $10. Placingdollar bets does not arouse the suspicion of the bookmaker that one is an Arb Trader. Roundingselection can be made by selecting the rounding amount from the radio button. This is shownbelow.

Entering a tradeSay that you have received an alert from Surebet Pro or some other arbitrage alert service. Quicklylaunch ArbsCalc application by clicking on the ArbsCalc icon.

1. Then enter in the two sets of odds. For the example below, it is 2.25 and 2.45. Odds can beentered in either American (eg. 125), European (2.25) or British format (5/4). You can enterin different formats for the two lines. The program will automatically determine the formatand do the calculation. Sometimes it cannot distinguish between the American and European

format. For example 22 can be either in American or European format. If a number is longerthan 1 digit and you wish to mark it as European format, simply enter a point “.” after thedigit, eg. “22.0” will be in European format while “22” will be in American format.

2. Next enter in the Total Investment. This will be the total investment for both legs.ArbsCalc will calculate the bets for each leg to give the appropriate return and profit. In theabove example, a $100 investment will be divided into $52.13 for Toronto Blue Jays and$47.87 for Baltimore Orioles. This will give a return of $117.29 if Toronto wins and$117.28 if Baltimore wins. The profit for the trade is $17.29 (or $17.28 if Baltimore wins)for a percentage return of 17.28%.

1) Enter odds

2) Enter total investment

2) Bets to place

on each leg.

2) For this leg:Total return: $117.28

Total profit: $17.28Percentage profit: 17.28%

Select rounding amount to usein optimising & maximising

calculations.



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3. To truncate the bets to the nearest dollar, click on the scissors button . The display willnow show the dollar bets with the appropriate return (see figure below). In this example, thebet will be $52 and $47 with 18.18% profit for one and 16.31% for the other. This exampleshows an unequal return for both legs due to rounding errors. For small bets, sometimes youwill actually loose money by rounding (this is what happened to me on my first trade hence

the reason for writing this program). Instead of rounding to the nearest dollar, we can use the

Best BET button to calculate the best bet that gives equal returns on both legs.

4. Clicking on the BEST BET button will give us $49 and $45 for legs 1 and 2. This willgive us a return of 17.29% for either leg, which is much better as we get the maximumreturn regardless of who wins the game. See figure below.

Note that the rounding has been set for $1 and bets will be calculated to the nearest dollar. If you

wish to round to the nearest $5, select $5 radio button and click on the Best BET button . Thisresults in a bet of $60 for leg 1 and $55 for leg 2 (see below), giving a return of about 17% for bothlegs. Sometimes Best BET cannot find a good value for the bets if the Investment amount is toosmall or the rounding is too large (eg. nearest $10). In such cases, increase the Investment amount

or lower the rounding value (to say $1).



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5. If we are using a betting exchange that charges a fixed commission for our winnings,

simply click on the checkbox beside the commission value to enable thiscommission in the calculation. Note that the bets will be recalculated to take into accountthis commission. In the example below, the bets with 5% commission on leg 1 will be$52.83 and $47.17 on the other leg. This will give a return of 15.57% on either legs. Bets

that have commissions enabled will be shown in Yellow. Again, the Truncate and BestBET buttons will take commissions into account when Commissions are enabled.

The example below shows what happens when the Truncate button is pressed … (note that thereturns are not balanced)

The example below shows what happens when the Best BET button is pressed … (note that thereturns are balanced at 15.57% on either legs).



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6. You can manually tweak the values in the BETs field to see the dollar and percentagereturn for each leg. In the example below, I have changed the bet on the first leg to $60giving a profit of $28 and 26.17% if Toronto wins and a profit of $8.15 and 7.62% if Baltimore wins. This can be used to quickly do what-if scenarios and to tilt bets to one legof the trade. Note that returns are DYNAMICALLY calculated as you enter in the betamount. There is no need to wait or press a button to start the calculation.

7. The other two functions are the Maximise and Optimise buttons. Pressing the

Maximise button will maximise the return on one leg of the trade while breaking evenon the other leg. For example, in the trade below, if we press on the maximise button for theToronto leg, we get a bet of $74 for a return of 33.20% if Toronto wins, while the other legwill almost break even. This feature is useful if we want to maximise the return on thefavourite side or maybe if we feel that the underdog stands a good chance, we can maximiseon the underdog leg.

Note that Maximise will maximise to the nearest $1, $5 or $10. In the example above, we aremaximising to the nearest $1. If we were to maximise to the nearest $5, the bet on leg 1 will be $80while that on leg 2 will be $55. In this case, the total bets will be more than $100 (actually at $135).To get better Maximising and Optimising results, we need to increase the Investment amount.



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8. The Optimise button allows one to optimise the trade on one leg while keeping thebet on the other leg constant. The goal here is for a balanced or almost balanced return onboth legs. This feature is especially useful for bookmakers such as World Sports Exchangewhere the bets are fixed at $10 increments or if we want to use up the funds in a particularbookmaker account. For example, if we want to place a $40 bet on Baltimore (the lowerleg), we enter in $40 for the Baltimore bet, then click on the Optimise button next to the

Toronto leg. This gives us a calculation of $44 to place on Toronto for a profit of 17.86%and 16.67% respectively.

Similar to Maximise, the Optimise button can be used to optimise one leg by increments of $1,$5 or $10. For example, if our Rounding were set to the nearest $5 and we click on the Optimisebutton, the bet for leg 1 will change to $45 for a return of 19.12% on leg 1.



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Saving a Trade into a log file

Once a trade has been made, we can save the trade into a log file. The name of the log file is“tradelog.txt” and it is located in the same directory as where the executable is stored. For mostinstallations, the location is “c:\Program Files\Arbscalc\tradelog.txt”. Before saving the trade,

enter in the description for the trade then click on the Save Log button. This will open up

another screen where we can enter in the Title for the trade and any other description that we wishto make. Click on the OK button once you have made any necessary changes. Note that this log willbe saved with a date and time stamp, which is especially useful for tracing and reconciling yourtrades.

9. We can read the log file by using a simple text editor such as Notepad. There is no need tolaunch Notepad and then start looking for the log file, instead, we can do this from Arbscalcitself. Simply click on the System Menu (top left hand corner) and select Read Log file from the drop down menu. This will launch Notepad opening up the log file.

SaveintoLog

file

Enter in description of the trade and any

other additional notes.

Enter in a title for thetrade. For example,“Tennis – WTA …”



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Apart from saving a trade into the log file, we can also save comments and maybe our thoughts aswe are making a trade into the log file. I use this to remind myself of a deposit that I made to anaccount. This feature is similar to the trade log but is more free flowing. To save a comment into the

log file, click on the Save Comment button .

The screen above shows how we can save a comment into the log file. Note that comments enteredinto the log file are also date and time stamped. This makes it easy to track back on trades anddeposits that were made.

View Log File

To view the Log file, click on the button or you can use Notepad to manually open up the logfile.

Click to Open logfile.



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Frequently Asked Questions

Question : Trucate, Optimise, Maximise and Best Bets

I am having problems comprehending Truncate, Optimise, Maximise and that button above thescissors icon (looks like rabbit out of a hat). I understand Truncate is to round off the odd cents to

the nearest dollar, and Maximise is to maximise our bet on either the favourite or underdog. But isOptimise and the other function above the scissors icon?

Answer: This is a good question.

Truncate or pressing the will just cut or truncate the cents off the bets. Say if your bet for agiven set of odds is $81.32, if you press the truncate button, the bet becomes $81.00. In truncate, nooptimisation is done, we only “throw away” the cents. When I first started arbs trading, I was justdropping the cents off my bets and using the dollar amounts for betting. I found that if my bet wastoo small, in some cases, I could actually loose money on one leg of my trade. Also, whentruncating, the returns on both legs may not be balanced. For example, say we have odds of 1.3 and5.66 with a total bet of $100. This trade has an arb of 94.59%. The calculated bets for legs 1 and 2are $81.32 and $18.68 giving a profit of about 5.7% balanced on both legs. If we simply drop the

cents and place bets of $81 and $18 (you can do this by pressing the button), you will find thatyour return for leg 1 is now 6.36% and that for leg 2 is 2.91%. In other words, the returns are now

not equal on both legs. So if Team 1 wins, you will make 6.36%, while if Team 2 wins, you onlymake 2.91%, loosing out 2.80% (from 5.71 – 2.91). In conclusion, truncation may not be the bestoption to use for a trade as it can cause the returns to be unbalanced.

The Find Best Bet or button will attempt to calculate the bets that will give EQUAL returns onboth legs. In the example above, dropping the cents off the bets gives unequal returns. But if weclick on the Find Best Bet button, ArbsCalc will re-calculate the bets for equal returns. In this case,it’s $74 and $17 giving a return of about 5.7% whether Team 1 or 2 win. Find Best Bet willcalculate bets to the nearest $1, $5 or $10 depending on the Rounding value selected. If yourinvestment amount is small, its best to keep the rounding value to the nearest $1. Sometimes Best

Bets cannot be found and ArbsCalc will simply return the closest bets that it can find. In ourexample here, if we set the Rounding to $5 and click on Best Bets, the bets calculated are $85 and$20. This gives a return of 5.24% and 7.81% on legs 1 and 2 respectively (see below). While thisreturn is not balanced, it’s still better than simply truncating the cents.



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The Maximise button will maximise the return on one leg of the trade while breaking even if the other leg wins. In the example above, if we think that Team 2 has a strong probability of winning, we can click on the Maximise button for Team 2 to calculate the best bets for maximumreturns for Team 2. This gives us bets of $80 for Team 1 and $24 for Team 2. If Team 1 wins, webreak even. But if Team 2 wins, we get a return of 30.62% - a pretty healthy return. The picturebelow shows the bets. Note that the Maximise calculation will also make use of the Rounding value

of $1, $5 and $10.

The Optimise button is used to Optimise one leg of the bet while keeping the other leg constant(unchanged). For example, I only have $22 left with Pinnacle for Team 2. What bet can I place forTeam 1 so that I get equal returns on both legs? First we enter $22 in the bet field for Team 2, thenwe click on the Optimise button for Team 1. ArbsCalc recalculates and gives us bets of $96 and $22for returns of 5.76% and 5.53% respectively. This is a very handy feature when we want to use upall the funds in a particular betting account or when we are have placed a bet on one leg and theodds changed on us for the other leg. In the latter, we’ll need to re-enter the new odds and Optimise.

Note that the Optimise calculation will also make use of the Rounding value of $1, $5 and $10.

Maximise on Leg 2 of the trade.

Maximise calculation will findvalues to the nearest $1, $5 or $10

(1) Enter in $22. This is thebet we don’t want to

chan e.

(2) Click on this button toOptimise this leg of thetrade.

Optimise will find values

to the nearest $1, $5 or$10.



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Question : How do I make AbrsCalc stay on top? It’s difficult trying to juggle between Browser window, Surebet window and Arbscalc window. Isthere an easier way to use ArbsCalc?

Answer: Yes, ArbsCalc was designed to be only a click-away. There are a few ways in switching

between ArbsCalc and other applications.

Roll-up and Stay-on-topArbsCalc has a feature where we can make it always stay in-front of other windows. To do this,click on the pin icon on the caption bar. This action causes ArbsCalc window to be “pinned” ontop of other windows. If you find that ArbsCalc is still in the way of other windows, you can roll it

up by clicking on the roll up button . This will shrink AbsCalc to only the caption bar. You canunroll it when required by clicking on this button again.

Note that even though you may have pinned ArbsCalc to be on-top of other windows, sometimesswitching between windows will cause ArbsCalc to drop out from being on-top. This is a behaviourof Microsoft Windows and cannot be controlled. To make ArbsCalc stay on top again, just unpinand pin it again.

Minimise to System Tray

Another way to move ArbsCalc out of the way is to minimise it to the System Tray. Click on thebutton located on the ArbsCalc window caption to minimise ArbsCalc to the system tray. Click on

the ArbsCalc icon on the system tray to restore ArbsCalc.

ALT-TAB keysYou can switch between ArbsCalc and other applications by using the ALT and TAB keys.

Pin ArbsCalc on top of other windows.

Roll up ArbsCalcwindow

Minimise toSystem Tray

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