Trading preferences and settings

Where to find trading preferences

All trading preferences are available at Settings → Trading Preferences. Changes take effect immediately and are synced across all your devices — if you use HRT on both a desktop browser and a mobile device, your preferences follow you.

Default mode: Safe vs Pro

The most important preference is your default trading mode.

Safe Mode (recommended for new users) displays a confirmation dialog before every order is submitted. The dialog shows the order details and maximum liability. This extra step prevents accidental orders and ensures you have reviewed the financial exposure before committing.

Pro Mode removes the confirmation dialog and submits orders on a single click. This is designed for experienced traders who need to react quickly and are confident in their stake and liability calculations before clicking. Pro Mode also removes certain informational prompts that slow down the interface.

You can override the default mode in individual sessions without changing this setting — a mode toggle is always visible in the trading terminal.

If you are new to HRT or to Betfair exchange trading generally, leave this on Safe Mode. The confirmation step takes less than a second and can prevent costly mistakes while you are still building familiarity with the interface.

Ladder row height

Choose between three row height options: Compact, Standard, and Comfortable. Compact shows more prices simultaneously but requires more precise clicking. Comfortable uses larger touch targets — useful on mobile or if you prefer a less dense layout. Standard is the default.

Price animations

When prices update on the ladder, the changed cells can flash briefly to draw your attention. You can configure:

• Flash on change — cells flash when their available volume changes (default: on)
• Flash colour — whether the flash uses green/red for increase/decrease, or a neutral highlight
• Animation speed — controls how long each flash lasts (Instant / Fast / Normal)

On older hardware or slower browsers, disabling animations entirely can improve ladder performance.

AI panel default

Choose whether the AI Intelligence panel opens automatically when you load a race (Auto-open) or waits for you to manually expand it (Collapsed). On smaller screens the collapsed default is recommended to give the ladder maximum space.

Stale data lockout

When a market is IN_PLAY, prices can change faster than the data feed refreshes. HRT's stale data lockout prevents order submission if the displayed prices are older than a threshold you set here. The default is 3 seconds. You can adjust this between 1 and 10 seconds, or disable it entirely for in-play trading where you accept the risk of acting on briefly stale data.