2014 - Round 8 : Load-Bearing Power

On a per game basis this week we're investing more than we have in any other single round this season despite wagering in only four of the six games available and despite having no disturbingly large single wager. That's not to say though, as my clients in the risk industry might phrase it, that our risk is "fully diversified". We do have a fairly significant dependence on the performance of a single team.

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2014 - Round 7 : A Small, Significant Giants Bet

We've already collected this season, in Round 1, from a wager on GWS when they were priced in the "not this week" range, and this week the Head-to-Head Fund is hoping to reprise that symphony with a 2.1% wager on the Giants at $9.50 facing the horribly in-form Port Adelaide. Its bet is twice as large this week as it would have been were it made last week when the Fund's Kelly bet divisor was still at 20 and not 10. According to the Head-to-Head Fund, no other home team represents value in the head-to-head market this week - at least none of the three other home teams that it was entitled to consider for that privilege, they being the only ones priced at $1.50 or higher.

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2014 - Round 5 Results: Regressing to the Wrong Mean

For the second week in a row all three of the MatterOfStats Funds lost money, the Margin Fund most determinedly by shedding 5c, but the Head-to-Head and Line Funds with only slightly lesser and approximately equal alacrity, dropping 1.4c and 1.5c respectively. Combined the three Funds brought about a loss of just over 2c for the Recommended Portfolio, leaving it now down by a little less than 3c on the season.

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2014 - MARS and ChiPS Ratings After R2

Before performing the analysis tonight I thought that team ChiPS Ratings would have been much more affected by the results of Round 2 than team MARS Ratings but, as it turns out, Ratings were similarly affected for both Ratings systems.

For only four teams are ChiPS Rankings more than a single place different from MARS Rankings:

  • Collingwood is ranked 6th by ChiPS and 8th by MARS
  • Sydney is ranked 10th by ChiPS and 6th by MARS
  • Port Adelaide is ranked 7th by ChiPS and 9th by MARS
  • St Kilda is ranked 15th by ChiPS and 13th by MARS

Six more teams have ChiPS and MARS Rankings differing by a single spot - Richmond, the Kangaroos, Essendon, West Coast, the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast - while the remaining eight teams have identical ChiPS and MARS Rankings. Some of the gaps between teams are more or less assailable in a single round, but the rankings are remarkably consistent.

Lastly, the correlation between ChiPS and MARS Ratings increased a little this week, rising from +0.977 to +0.983. Team Rating Systems, it seems, have much in common.

2014 - Round 2 Results: Steady Progress

This week only the Head-to-Head Fund took a backward step, unsuccessful in its lone wager and thereby surrendering just under 1c to the TAB bookmaker on a Dees outfit that scored 2 goals and 11 points fewer in the entire game than its opponents registered in the 1st quarter alone.

More than offsetting this loss from the Head-to-Head Fund was the Line Fund's two successful wagers from three, which added just under 1c to its value, and the Margin Fund's two additional successful wagers from eight, which added almost 9c to its value. Combined, these two Funds' results added almost 3c to the value of the Recommended Portfolio, leaving it up by 2c for the round and now 6.4c for the season.

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