Been a while so I thought I would add my 2 cents!

Test Match trading is the toughest to implement hard and fast trading strategies because of the variables -  but it can be the most profitable when you get it right.

Reason is that there are so many things that effect the outcome over a 5 day period – weather changes every minute, the pitch loses moisture as the game goes on, becomes cracked and harder to bat on, the players get fatigued in the latter part of the match, the balls changes every 80 overs, bowlers change, field settings change to stop runs rather than take wickets, the situation of a series (is it a dead rubber or meaningless test?) – the list goes on – and all effect the prices of the teams and the draw price

You really need to be a student of the game to be profitable long term and understand why odds move.

The 2 best ways to make money are to take a longer term view of a price, place a trade and wait for it to hit your get out point…this requires patience and many of is don't like to have thoudands tied up for long periods, so we get trigger happy and try to make things happen – big mistake – we trade out early or for a loss when we need to be patient and keep the powder dry.

The other way is to scalp – and there are hundreds of opportunities a day - boundaries, bowling changes, wickets obviously, rain, commentators mentioning the rain!, bad light…again the list goes on.

What I tend to do is have 1 account for scalping – my betfair account and another account for longer term trades, my betdaq account – works well as betdaq has shit liquidity in play for scalping and generally prices are hit at some point in a match….for me its a set and forget arrangement, with a stop loss in place.  Its difficult to explain why you make a trade, but you get a feel for a match.

For instance right now, Aus are playing NZ in Hobart.  Aus started the 2nd morning at 12 for 1 on a very grassy pitch in overcast conditions chasing 150 runs by NZ in the first innings. their price? 1.20 to back!!  Oi?!

Even if they never lost a wicket and surpassed NZ's score, they would be no shorter than 1.10, a loss of 10 ticks…acceptable.

More likely is they lose an early wicket or 2 and the price jumps out….NZ have a pretty poor bowling attack but even they just need to land it on a good length and let the pitch do the work for them

So I laid them on betdaq at 1.21 and settled in to scalp the wickets on betfair if they came.

I jumped out just before lunch with Aus at 81 for 7 and Aus at 1.71 – a nice 50 tick profit for 2 hours sitting on my ass….

those situations happen all the time – you need to wait for the opportunity to come to you in tests – the best trading times in my experience are day 1 and the last 2 days of the test.

happy to try and help any newbies where i can if I'm following a match – I don't tip, I just read a match and offer suggestions!

This current match could be over by end of tomorrow, so is a great one to get on (though its late night trading!)

There could be a good chance to make some decent cash trading the draw in this game today…

seems there is a bit of weather about which could disrupt play.

Coupled with the pitch flattening out and playing a lot truer, this should bring about the usual draw backers (mugs as they are so eloquently described on many forums!)

Even though the test is not even half gone and we are well into the 2nd innings, with lots of time being able to be made up from early starts, the draw backers still come out of the woodwork, which provides great opportunites for us.

As the match is positioned very nicely for either a NZ or Aus win, (NZ slight favorites for my money, notwithstanding their insatiable appetite for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory) – I will hold fire in the first bit of todays play on trading either side until we see how play unfolds.

So for any who have some spare time at the pub tonight while the wife is up te bar getting the next round, keep a watch on the weather http://www.bom.gov.au/tas/fore…..bart.shtml as there are early showers predicted, likely before play, but clearing as the day progresses….from 7pm tonight (6am hobart time) we might see some shift downwards in odds as play get closer if the forecasts are accurate 

So we can either put a small trade on the draw now, currently 12.0 on bf and trade out as the price come in as the panickers jostle for a price, or we can wait til the price drops further and place a lay against it and ride the price back up.

The chance of a draw in this test is very/highly/not going to happen unless Tasmania sinks/unlikely, so 10-1 and anything you can get under that to lay is a belter of an opportunity!!

TS, if you are greened out all results might be worth laying some off on the draw and taking it back to zero or even a little red which will top up the profit on Aus or NZ equally…thats what I'm doing in any case!