Three Tips For Trading IPL Cricket Cricket continues to grow by volume traded on the exchange and there is no bigger event each year than the Indian Premier League! World Cups come and go, but the IPL is consistent every year and it’s a fantastic trading opportunity.
The IPL mixes cricket and Bollywood. The markets move quick and the sums traded are huge. It’s important to know what you’re doing before starting to trade IPL cricket and with this in mind, we’ve picked three simple tips to keep in mind before the IPL starts.
Research
The IPL in-play markets move so fast, you have to do your research before the start. It’s easy to panic and make the wrong moves in-play, but with detailed research you can remain calm as the market moves.
This research should be:
- Ground score history
- Team score history
- Key Players
- Who’s in form
- Expected playing conditions
If you don’t have hours upon hours to spend on these, a quick fix would be flicking through the last five games at the ground, the last five games from the team and a little bit of research on current form and the important players. Expected playing conditions is obviously a big factor in cricket and it’s worth spending more time on that.
Ground Conditions
Ground conditions will always have a big say in how a cricket game goes. In regards to the IPL, it is slightly easier to call ground conditions correctly before the game starts because the league occurs at around the same time each year. This means we can expect reasonably similar pitch conditions and because Indian grounds are so small, we can expect the boundary sizes to stay the same.
After that, a lot will depend on the state of the pitch. Every pitch will be different and you will have to read how it’s playing as the game goes on but a good rule of thumb is;
Green pitch: Tricky to play the new ball as it might seam off the pitch but after that it will get easier. Green pitch in India isn’t the same as a green pitch in England or New Zealand, beware of those as they can be very tough to bat on.
Good Bounce: Usually good to play and easier to read for the batsmen so expect good scores.
Low & Slow Bounce: Tough for batting and you should see low scores. You’ll usually hear the comms quote that it’s a “dead” pitch. It basically means the ball isn’t coming on nicely and it’s tough to play shots, which means it’s tough to score.
Spinning pitch: We will always see spin in India, and when you get a spinning wicket – boy does it spin! We’ll usually see spin in places like Chennai, the home ground of CSK, and again it brings low scores and tough conditions. We can see some really low scores in India when we have a big spinning pitch.
Discipline & Staking
After you’ve done your research, and read the ground conditions as best as possible – it’s time to make the right trades. The IPL markets move so quickly it can be very easy to lose your discipline and stake incorrectly. Because the IPL goes on for so long, that’s really what you can’t do.
Of course, you will have trades go against you. But it’s a marathon not a sprint. The IPL goes on for two months and if you’ve put in all the hard work, most trades will go your way. You just have to say focused and patient when trading. Remember, you don’t have to have a position for the whole, just get in and out when the odds offer value.
There will be a tonne of moments over the course of two months when the odds offer value and conditions are in your favour. Don’t throw away an edge with poor discipline and poor staking on the other days!
