Using your Wildcard for Profit

WealthyB

This may not require it's own thread, so mods feel free to change/move if required.

I was looking at the lad who's top of the Global Leagues - http://fantasy.premierleague.com/entry/1340/history/ - and one thing stuck me, his transfers during GW4 which is traditionally the international break.
Check this out:
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/entry/1340/transfers/history/

Is it just me, or did he spent the prolonged break from 31st Aug - 14th Sept moving players in, out, back in and out just to maximise profit? His team increased in Value by £1.2M over this Gameweek - no small feat.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/entry/1340/history/

Before now I might have tinkered with my wildcard during the week it was active, but this does look like a concerted effort almost every day moving players in and out purely to gain money for spending later on.

Has anyone else employed this strategy? The thought only occurred to me that this GW was the one to use the Jan WC for the same purpose, however this time you would be limited to moving around players who you've not gained massive money on. Also that ship has now sailed with only a few days of wheeling and dealing left.

Thoughts?

GLaDOS

Take a look at the january wildcard thread, loads of people doing exactly that

KevIRL

Its an overrated tactic imo and certainly in the January window, for 2 reasons mainly

Early in the game there's still lots of players playing and plenty of players making lots of transfers therefore causing price increases quickly and easier to make money on players as the bandwagons chug on

One of the big reasons to make cash in the first half of the season is to use it in January window to get a better team without lots of point hits. This is nullified when you attempt to make money in Jan.

There's obviously always an advantage to having extra cash, but I dont think this should be the reason for using a WC, especially in January.

WealthyB

KevIRL wrote: »

Its an overrated tactic imo and certainly in the January window, for 2 reasons mainly

Early in the game there's still lots of players playing and plenty of players making lots of transfers therefore causing price increases quickly and easier to make money on players as the bandwagons chug on

One of the big reasons to make cash in the first half of the season is to use it in January window to get a better team without lots of point hits. This is nullified when you attempt to make money in Jan.

There's obviously always an advantage to having extra cash, but I dont think this should be the reason for using a WC, especially in January.

Yeah I'm in agreement that using your Jan WC like this will only bring marginal gains... it's all about GW4 for me where every season we know the International Break happens, giving you 14 days to bring players in, make some money, ship them out, bring them back in etc etc - that guys team increased in Value from £101.6m to £102.8m because of his 30 odd transfers.

In comparison I went from £101.4m to £101.9m during that same week having not used my Wildcard. (and I'm having a good season by my standards - currently on 1,261)

Guess I'm wondering is this a much used tactic specifically during this one GW. Certainly makes sense IMO? Has anyone else earmarked GW4 as the money making week to much success?

FHFC

GW 5 was much better for transfer activity and making money than GW 4 this year. Dunno how that fella managed to make so much in GW4 actually.

MR NINE

I would have thought after gw3 is the best time to play it. The transfer window has just closed, theres a two week break and we've seen three matches which gives us a good idea of players that represent value by virtue of being played out of position, being underpriced etc. I've played it this week the past two seasons. Another benefit; if you plan on playing it this week before the season starts, you can pick a team that focuses solely on picking up points over the first three gameweeks and then you play your wildcard to pick a team for the season. Usually results in a good start and a lot of early price rises which gives you a great platform to build upon for the season ahead.

As for the January wildcard, I don't think it's too important to pick up more price rises. As Kev pointed out, the further into the season it is, the less important team value is as the opportunities it provides and the potential benefits it brings will diminish. I may be in the minority here, but in my opinion, January is the beginning of the endgame. I won't be paying too much attention to prise rises and falls from here on in, my sole focus is picking up as many points as possible week to week.

PARlance

While I agree that price rises should be at the bottom of the list when deciding when to activate the Jan WC. It would be absolutely crazy not to try to maximise your bank as soon as you activiate it.

Activate, review team for built in profit or current risers in the squad. Keep them. Anyone else that has no built in profit or doesn't look like rising 0.1 (even if they'll be in your Final WC team) should be transferred out for potential risers....

Monitor TotalFPL closely for the week.
Don't go on a 48 hour bender Thursday night.
Set final team Friday or leave a few changes for Fri Night/Sat morning if you're waiting a few to reach 0.2

roryc

Anyone that puts any effort into the game realises the wildcard should be used both to fix your team and to make a bit of cash. Most decent managers will activate their wildcard immediately at the start of the GW to take advantage of price rises and to make a bit of extra cash. I'm surprised this came as a shock to you WealthyB! It's a pretty obvious tactic that practically every manager on the forum would use...

MR NINE

At the start of the season its vital to extract as much value as possible out of your wildcard. At this stage I think its far less important. I played my wildcard yesterday when I learned of Walcotts lengthy injury. Early in the season I wouldn't dream of playing it so late between gameweeks. At this stage I see having as strong a team as possible for the next couple weeks and preferrably beyond as far more important then waiting til the weekend to use it early in the next week. Obviously I'll try play the market if i can to gain 0.1 or 0.2 but it I see it as a very minor disadvantage that I may have missed out on the opportunity to gain an extra 0.2 or 0.3 if I had played it early in the week.

Shedite27

I'm attempting to do something similar this week, but nobody's jumped .2 yet so there's nobody to make profit on.

Added to that, anyone who has jumped .2 I'm likely to want to keep.