Program is betting on both horses!

[iantrader]

Following on from my previous Q...

I have potential horses in the Selections tab. There's only two horses to choose from per race. The selected horse prints a "Y" in the Bet column which is picked up by the Trigger column in the Market tab.

The selection criteria is mutually exclusive so there's no chance the two horses would both print a "Y" at the same time.

However, sometimes odds can fluctuate quickly so it's possible (and, today, likely!!) that the two selections will oscillate rapidly.

The Trigger cell contains this:

IF(AND(Z5="Y",$X$1<2,$E$2="Not In Play"),"BACK","")

Z5 is the result of the "Y" in the Selections tab, $X$1 is the seconds until off.

I've been running this for a few days over probably 90 races and today is the first time the system has backed BOTH selections. And it happen 3 times!

I can only assume that between the $X$1<2 and $E$2="Not in Play" that the selection criteria switched so the system backed both horses.

Is there an easy way to prevent this?

Ideally, I want to the system to select the horse whose criteria fits as near to the Off as possible.

Thanks.

[Captain Sensible]

Without knowing the coding you use to select maybe the easiest option is to add extra criteria to your trigger so it'll only fire if no bets have been placed, easily done by just using COUNTA which will count non blank cells in the bet ref column

so something like

=IF(AND(Z5="Y",$X$1<2,$E$2="Not In Play",COUNTA(T5:T50)=0),"BACK","")

[iantrader]

Ah, thank you kindly.

Trying that now!

[iantrader]

Hmm... Well, that was odd. It didn't place ANY bets.

I was out all day and didn't see what was going on.

Will recheck everything.

[Captain Sensible]

COUNTA($T$5:$T$50)=0 would just count the number of blank columns in the Bet Reference column (assuming your starting cell is A1) , as long as you're clearing those cells on market changes that wouldn't cause it to stop betting

[iantrader]

Yes.

But think I've spotted an error in the sheet so will test again tomorrow!

Thanks.