Timeless Trading Rules

Fantasy sports are my hobby, buying and selling stocks is my job. After finishing up my undergraduate degree at UMass I went to work for a small electronic trading firm located in Atlanta GA. It was here that I first learned the essentials when it comes to trading stocks. Trading players on your fantasy sports teams is amazingly similar. In both cases you only have information from the past that you can combine with an outlook of the future in order to determine the right times to buy and sell. It was this skill that I attained that has led to my success as a fantasy sports player. While in training to be a professional trader, certain time tested rules were constantly hammered into my brain. I was thinking about a few of those rules this morning and decided that it’d be good to share some with you, and offer their relevancy to fantasy sports. These should serve as excellent guidelines to use when pondering future trades.

The Five Rules To Being A Successful Trader…….in Fantasy Sports!

1. Plan Your Trade, and then Execute Your Plan.

Sounds simple enough right? But I’ll venture that many of you out there almost take this for granted. What often happens is that you decide on a player to trade away, earmark either a player or particular stat category to trade for, and then as you make offers and receive counteroffers, the final result is often very far from the original intent. Anybody can push a button to offer or accept a trade; the true player knows what he’s giving and getting in every deal. I made this mistake earlier this season when someone offered me Jason Kidd for David Lee. I thought it too good to pass up and just jumped on the deal. After it went through I realized I now had too many assists (Kidd and CP3) and too few Rebounds. I then had to turn around and deal Kidd away, making the first trade pointless.

2. Be Emotionless – DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR PLAYERS

Cause they could give a rat’s a$$ about you! Don’t trade for a player because he’s an icon, or he’s on your hometown team, or he has a hot wife. Don’t hold players because they just had a ridiculous night or stretch of games. How many of you out there wish you dealt Andrew Bogut after that 18 rebound performance or Jennings after he dropped 55 points or Camby before he started complaining about injuries? When a player is hot, that is the best (and toughest) time to deal him away. Fact is, everyone saw that performance and everyone wants him on their team, and they will pay dearly to have him.

3. Make Sure You Get Full Value

There’s two types of trades in fantasy sports, trading for necessity and trading to sell high. Sometimes you can mix them. Trading for necessity means you have to make a deal because you’re getting killed in a stat category and your season is on the line, you are NOT in a very good position to bargain and most people know it. Trading to sell high is the BEST bargaining position to be in, and your goal is to add quality to your squad. Sure, some players are going to continue to outperform after you’ve dealt them away. Guys like Kevin Love and Carmelo Anthony haven’t shown signs of really slowing down. So what! If you got the proper value from trading with them, you’re at least no worse off than before. When I Sell High on a player, my aim is to package the deal as a 2-2, adding in a bench player, and targeting one Buy Low player that has the ability to reach the same level as my sell high, AND another player of good value. Like dealing Carmelo Anthony and John Salmons for Amar’e Stoudemire (when he was a buy low) and Jameer Nelson. By seasons end, Amare should at least = Carmelo, and Jameer should be > Salmons, whereas when you made the trade, Carmelo was so hot and Amar’e so cold that it looked (to the other guy) like you were getting robbed.

4. Do NOT Trade Based on Advice From a Friend

You’re out at a party, or chillin in school and one of your boys who doesn’t play in your league is talking about last nights games and he’s all like ‘WHOA did you see Deron Williams last night?!, He looked AWESOME, he is definitely the best PG in the league!’. Then you jump on your league page and start making offers for Deron without doing any homework. Your friend is an idiot, he doesn’t know your team, doesn’t know what you need, and is about as reliable as Joe Schmoe the Sports Writer.

5. Do NOT Overtrade

We have a goal in mind each season; try to stack our team as much as possible. This requires lots and lots of deal making. But look, after you just turned over half of your roster, maybe from making 2 or 3 deals, you gotta let the team play a bit. If you had bought low on David West last week, and then dealt him away this week, you’re going to be missing this hot streak he’s going on. You need to let these guys bounce around a bit. Give them a chance to rise in value, and other players a chance to drop in value. Yes, trade many times a season. But overdoing it can be ruinous. Just remember the two types of trades we make, and if you aren’t making one of those two types, you’re over trading.

Keep these rules in mind before sending offers, before answering offers, and before pulling the trigger. Discipline is the single most important factor in determining whether or not you are successful.