Scope Rules

In this lesson, you’ll delve into “Scope Rules,” some of the most powerful and essential tools in the horse racing software. Understanding these rules is key to unlocking the full potential of the software.

Key Features:

  • 💡 Scope Rules Introduction: Scope rules allow you to compare various stats and figures, either to a fixed value or to other stats within the horse’s history. These rules are versatile and essential for refining your strategies.

Using Scope Rules:

  • 🔍 Comparison Rules: You can set up rules that compare a horse’s Betfair Starting Price (BSP) to other stats, such as its lowest pre-race price. For example, you might want to trade on horses whose BSP was greater than their lowest pre-race price, indicating they have dropped in odds. This can be used to get the DOB (Double Or Bust) rate of the horse, for example
  • 📊 Multipliers: Multipliers can be applied to comparisons, such as requiring the BSP to be at least double the lowest pre-race price (again as in DOBs). This helps refine your strategy to catch more significant price movements.
  • ⏳ Rolling Time Windows: Scope rules allow you to look back over a horse’s past performance, such as examining how often a horse has won in its last 10 races. This helps you build strategies based on historical data rather than just the current race.

Examples and Practical Use:

  • 🏇 Finishing Position: By using a scope rule, you could, for instance, decide to trade on horses that have won a certain percentage of their last races. This rule looks at the horse’s previous performances before the race currently being assessed by the backtesting algorithm.
  • 🔗 Inheriting Restrictions: You can set up scope rules that inherit other restrictions, such as focusing only on races at a specific course. This adds further precision to your strategies, ensuring they are tailored to your specific trading goals.

Advanced Comparisons:

  • 🔄 Self-to-Self Comparisons: These allow you to compare a stat within the same scope, such as comparing the class of the current race to the class of the horse’s last race. This is particularly useful for creating strategies based on a horse’s performance when moving up or down in class.

📝 Recap:

  • You’ve learned how to compare one stat to another or to a fixed value.
  • You can turn a rule into a scope rule to look at past races instead of just the current one.
  • You’ve seen how to compare a stat in the current race to its value in previous races.
  • Finally, you’ve explored how to pull other rules into your scope query for even greater refinement.

Understanding and mastering these concepts will give you the flexibility to create almost any strategy within the rule builder. Rewatch this lesson as needed and check out other lessons with real-life strategy examples to solidify your knowledge.