Placing and cancelling
Click a pink cell to back at that price, a blue cell to lay. The order rests behind the money that was really there and fills as the tape eats through it; a click across the spread fills at once. Click the price cell of a resting order to cancel it. Right-click a rung to arm a stop there.
Green up
One click (or G) places the hedge that locks the same profit or loss whoever wins, at the current price.
Spread exit
An exit spread over prices instead of one order. Press Spread, then click a rung on the runner you have a position on. Your closing stake is split into ten equal slices resting one tick apart, starting four ticks past your average entry on the profit side. As the price runs, the slices fill one by one, so you average out rather than picking a single exit. ▲ ▼ shift the slices that have not filled yet.
Trail
A trailing stop, the way the pro ladders do it. Set arm (how many ticks the price must move in your favour before the trail switches on) and trail (how far behind the best price the stop follows). Switch Trail on and every runner you hold a position in gets one automatically: once the price has moved arm ticks your way, a stop sits trail ticks behind the best price reached and follows it, only ever tightening; if the price comes back to it, the position closes at market. Trail +2 / 2 means: after two ticks in your favour, a stop two ticks behind the best.
Stop
Right-click a rung to arm a hard stop with a position on; right-click it again to remove it. When the last traded price reaches it, the position closes at market.
Green at the off
On by default: twenty seconds before the off any open position is greened up at the price then, the pre-off trader's rule. Switch it off to carry a position into play and manage it there with the trail or a stop.
The chart pane
Under each ladder sits Betfair's own price and volume chart for the race so far, drawn from the recorded tape in the exchange's own form.
Suspended and in play
When the tape reaches a suspension the ladders grey out, a band says so, and nothing can be placed until the market reopens, as on the exchange. At the off the market goes in play: the clock turns red and counts up, the IN PLAY chip appears beside the market name, and trading continues to the close.