I need a good money managment system

[MarkH45]

I'm in desperate need of a money managment system. I pick horses on a consistent basis that are ITM but I need to get this money thing under control. Any help would be great. THANKS what kind of systems do you full time handicappers use??

[dutchboy]

You only need an accurate spreadsheet with the bets you have placed. You may find out only win or place or show has been profitable in the past. I doubt if any money mgmt plan will work without a consistent selection process and accurate records. Stop or reduce bets to a minimum until you can prove to yourself that you have a good plan. You may ( you will ) find out all of the win or place profits have been eliminated by show betting. Maybe win has returned 10% profit, place 40% profit and show has shown a 60% loss. Maybe all of you profits have been wiped out by betting the longshots or from betting on low odds horses. Once you have a history you can start betting most of your money on what was profitable in the past.

Time off to create accurate records is good for anyone. Perhaps you will find the answer in your records or you may decide the current plan has not chance. You can always find a new plan to try if you find out you have no chance with the current one.

[Form W-2G]

I recommend that you read "Money Secrets at the Racetrack" by Barry Meadow. I used many of the charts in his book to create simple spreadsheets that readily identifies overlays in win, place, show, exacta, and daily double pools.

[stu]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

I'm in desperate need of a money managment system. I pick horses on a consistent basis that are ITM but I need to get this money thing under control. Any help would be great. THANKS what kind of systems do you full time handicappers use??

Here's my suggestion for beginning bettors - use fixed percentage betting until you are good enough to confidently use Kelly wagering
( http://www.dmtc.com/handicapping/tools/wt_kelly.php ).

Some obvious questions arise:

Q: When am I good enough to use Kelly wagering?
A: When you are a consistent, long-term profittable player.

Q: What percentages should I use?
A: IMO, you should use the following percentage formula, which I derived from the Poisson distribution where I set the probability of tapping out at
1,000,000::1 (assuming my probability of winning is accurrate).

Bet percentage = [-(1/6) * log {1-P(w)}] * 100%

where P(w) is what odds you give yourself of winning

For real even money selections bet no more than 5% of your betting bankroll. You will have to determine the percentages from your records as Dutchboy recommended above.

P(w) Bet percentage

0.500 5%
0.250 2%
0.125 1%

Just one man's opinion from a break-even bettor.

Stu

[njcurveball]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

I'm in desperate need of a money managment system. I pick horses on a consistent basis that are ITM but I need to get this money thing under control. Any help would be great. THANKS what kind of systems do you full time handicappers use??

There is no better advice anyone here can give you then keep records of your bets and use FLAT bets until you are sure what your winning and losing streaks can be and which tracks/races you excel at.

Start with three separate $100 bankrolls. Bet $5 win/place/show to start for your first 20 bets.

At the end of the 20 bets, check the bankrolls. IF you have lost half of the bankroll on ANY bet, cut that bet back to $2!

If you have doubled any bankroll, raise the bet to $10 for the next 20.

Continue like this. If the bankroll is more than half and less than double, just bet the same amount for the next 20 races.

Do not MIX the bankrolls.

After 100 races, you will have a great idea on what is profitable for you!

[Topcat]

Take a look at Dave Scwartz's HMI, Horse Marketing Investing and his Contrarian Method. I have read and tested all of the money management approaches out there, Kelly, Fixed %, Meadow's approach, Out of the Red Into the Black, Square Root, Rowe's Method, Dr Z, Mitchell, Cramer and a dozen others.

This is the best.

[parshooter]

do you have any suggestions as to spreadsheet format? I would like to know if anyone has created a spreadsheet that I could record my wagers and types and also monitor wins and profit/loss.

[dutchboy]

http://www.dmtc.com/handicapping/tools/index.php

Check this webpage out. Creating an excel spreadsheet should be easy once you decide what you want to track.