Introduction to Trading

By Tod Burros

Four ways to win at Fantasy Football

There are basically only four ways we can help ourselves win at Fantasy Football and they are
1-Drafting
2-Who to start and who to sit
3-Waivers
4-Trading

There is a ton of content out on the market on the first three but each season there is little to anything written about trading, which is interesting to me because trading is my favorite part of Fantasy Football, even more so than drafting and it is something I have used effectively over the years to win multiple leagues. Now some leagues especially big money leagues do not allow trading online but many leagues still allow trading. It is my goal to share what I have learned about trading in a formal series and share my thoughts to help you win your fantasy leagues.

One of the biggest differences between the other 3 aspects of Fantasy Football and Trading is often people don’t trade out of fear of hurting their team and/or being embarrassed or called out for making a bad trade. The goal of this series is to piece by piece help you to understand strategies to not only help you to trade with the average trader but to be aware of some of the key elements that good traders might use on you

So this series is as much about being defensive as it is about being offensive when it comes to trading.

The Golden Rule of Trading
When I first started playing Fantasy Football in 1999 I started looking for content online. The one piece of info that immediately jumped out at me is that someone wrote an article on trading. They started that article the way I am going to start this series.

The ONLY reason to make a trade is to improve your team!!!!

It seems simple but often I have found people make trades with me and then say well this seems like a fair deal. Now obviously I didn’t think so because I felt I was winning the trade even if only by a little (which is totally ok) but that person I think when they say “this seems like a fair deal” is fundamentally misunderstanding what trading is really about which is again improving your team.

If you can’t see how you are winning a trade or improving your team then it is simple. Continue to try and get more out of the deal or pass on the trade and look for another trade elsewhere.

And that leads us back to why so many people don’t trade. They can’t tell if they are winning or losing the trade so they don’t trade.

The problem with not Trading
The problem with not trading is very simple. If there is one or two people in your league who are good at trading and you are not then I can guarantee that they are going to win more money then you are

The reason for this is there is just not enough of an advantage that can be gleaned by doing the other three aspects of Fantasy Football well to make up for the advantages a good trader can get by trading

Drafting is setup so everyone has a fair chance, waivers everyone gets the same amount of bid bucks if you do blind bidding and no one wants an early waiver pick in traditional waivers because it means you are losing already. And there is tons of content on the internet each week to help players make Start/Sit decisions.

Trading is the only aspect of Fantasy Football where you can have a huge advantage over your competition so we need to make the most of this opportunity because to ignore it puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

Parts of the series
I have laid out an outline of the parts I think necessary to truly cover the subject in depth. Some parts might morph or parts might be added but the key concepts I want to cover in this series are as follows. Know your league and its members
1- Know your league rules and know league members
2- Know Football
3- Introduction to value based trading
4- The morals of trading/What kind of trader are you?
5- Using advanced social skills to learn and setup possible trades
6- How to make a first offer and how to respond to a first offer
7- How to trade vs weak and strong owners
8- Understanding and maximizing the value of Draft picks.
9- Advanced value trading through multiplication to dominate your league
10- Taking over weak teams and how to trade your way to the top
11- Trade Committees are bad ideas and why

In conclusion
Hopefully after reading this Introduction you are excited to read this series as much as I am to write it. It is my goal to you that if you do read this series that you will be able to have everything you need to maximize your personal trading abilities and use them to improve your chances of winning at Fantasy Football.