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It’s fair to say that I’m still very much learning as I go with Football Index (FI).
For those of you, like me, new to the concept, FI is a kind of stock market where people use real money to bet on footballers, with the value of these shares then going up or down based on market forces.
Over the first three weeks of the season, I’ve learned that the sell price – when you sell your shares in a player directly back to FI – generally lags way behind the buy price to stop people from disrupting the market with too much short-term trading.
But I’ve now discovered a way to do just that or at least to try and make money on players I have bet on, despite their low quick sell prices: FI gives you the option to trade with your fellow users as well as with their ‘official’ market.
So if you can find a trader willing to buy or sell shares in a player at a price you set, then the transaction happens.
Last week, I wrote about waiting for the right moment to sell Everton’s free-scoring Dominic Calvert-Lewin as I couldn’t see how his run of goals was sustainable. I was, of course, dead wrong about that as he scored again at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
But I’d sold him by them anyway – and at a price way beyond what I would have got from a quick sale back to FI.
I’d bought into him at £1.85 and enjoyed 40p per share in dividends while watching his price shoot up to the £2.30 mark. But his quick sell price, while rising as last week went on, was around £2.10. This would still mean a decent profit for me, but I felt like there was more to be had.
So I pressed the ‘Sell’ button and used the function to set my own price, which was far closer to the buy price – but only if fellow traders took the bait. And that they did, handing me nearly 40p per share profit, rather than the 25p I’d have made selling back to FI direct.
This got me into a small, if positive, lather as I promptly started trying out the same function, but this time setting buy prices for players I wanted to bet on.
Lo and behold, someone bit when I offered £1.60 per share for Wolves striker Raul Jimenez, who was on the market at £1.83, but would have made his owners just £1.56 per share if they’d used the quick sell option.
I decided I wanted Jimenez for the medium term at least as Wolves have a good run of fixtures over the next four rounds, but I could have sold him for a profit within two days if I’d really wanted a shorter-term bet.
This may, or may not, be something I explore as the season progresses.
For now, I suspect it was beginner’s luck and I’m happy to hold on to Jimenez and Danny Ings, who I also bought from a trader at a relatively knockdown price. The Southampton striker has already earned me 10p per share in dividends as well.
This Week I’ll Mostly Be Buying…
Well, that really depends on freeing up some money from elsewhere.
My portfolio is not exactly bulging, but there are too many long-term options (Aubameyang, hopefully, and Rodrigo from Leeds if we gloss over his poor start) so I need to sell.
Callum Wilson is the obvious fall guy, and I would have sold him last week if I could have got anywhere above the £1.01 I bought him at – his buy and sell prices at the time of writing are £1.10 and 70p respectively.
If funds allow, I might take a bet on a West Brom player as the Baggies have a great schedule (sou | BUR | bha | ful | TOT), with Callum Robinson, at around 80p, a potential bargain if he can build on his two goals against Chelsea.
And I could always buy back into Everton’s stars now I know how to play the field. Sort of.
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