One thought every newcomer has when they join FI is- have I missed the boat? They hear about the tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands made in profit and think, “yeah, but there isn’t the opportunity to make that now.” And there they would be dead wrong. Probably not since they early days of FI has such an opportunity to make big money come along.
A perfect storm of Covid and order books teething issues have driven prices lower than they have been relative to dividends, probably ever. Has there ever been such jaw dropping value? Many players are remarkably cheaper than before dividends were doubled.
My day job is property investment, and after the 2008 crash, the amount of value was staggering. I wince as I walk past houses that I viewed back in 2009, and see they have almost doubled now. But at the time, ppl moped around like it was the end of the world, and property would never recover. (The fact there are property cycles roughly every 18 years was beyond them. 😏)They were as pessimistic as they had been pompous, puff chested and over confident just a year before, when property was flying. Everyone was slapping themselves on the back, telling each other what a fantastic job they were doing and how property would never crash again. Ppl had been queuing around the block to buy second rate, over priced property. The problem is ppl are just too over emotional and need the support of others to validate what they are doing. When others buy, they feel reassured and buy also ; they feel emboldened, running with the herd. But when others sell, they feel scared naked and alone and sell! The fact is, the value is there. There is no denying that. Eventually the sheep will move in and start munching on the sweet, dividend rich grass and others will join. And soon the value will be gone. The opportunity will be gone. And the ppl who missed out will go back to moaning how good breaks never come their way.
In a years time, when most players will have doubled, ppl will be sick to the stomach looking back at some of these prices. Because as IPD’s end, and NASDAQ flattens out the creases and trading returns to normal, one thing will be certain- big money will flood in to fill the value. With average players returning 20-30% in divs alone, this is a rare Golden Opportunity and it won’t last long.

Hi guys, check out Footballindextrader on Twitter today. He’s released an article discussing some of the points Caan Berry raised in his FI review.
In the article, FIT made suggestions that he felt needed to be made to the market mechanics, but he also discussed FI’s financial security which has been a hot topic recently for obvious reasons. It was a solid, sensible read as always. Thought it was worth sharing on here:

“Endole give a company a Credit Score based on the accounts submitted to HMRC and Companies House each year. It costs about £8. I’ve been following the FI credit rating for a few years and for almost all of the time FI has lived in the “Caution” bracket. It had large loans on the books, not uncommon for Start Ups, and they had even told us they had taken loans for marketing pushes etc.
But as Order Books were brought in in 2020 they jumped swiftly into “Stable”. And, interestingly, last week they moved further along into “Secure”, the highest bracket, for the first time. That may strike some as a fine irony given what we see on the market!
You get high level numbers with the report: Assets, Liabilities. Employees.Cash on hand. Debt Ratio. Who holds shares. Whether they have CCJ’s etc.
The Credit score is primarily based on the company accounts (as submitted to Companies House/HMRC) plus knowledge of the Director’s and Shareholders- and then they cross reference similar companies to look for warning signs of firms that may go bust.
So, as far as we can see in the accounts, there is nothing alarming going on, quite the opposite. It might seem odd that the Credit Score is better than ever. But it’s totally logical- they are no longer on the hook for buying unwanted shares- which removes a massive liability from their balance sheet. FI are simply less vulnerable in the short term to market volatility than ever.”
https://footballindextrader.co.uk/2020/12/15/state-of-the-market-caan-berry-video/

Today’s announcement is a return to FI’s original mantra. A return to its roots- holding quality players. The 1p Match Day Extra divs may not appear to be particularly flattering at first glance, and they aren’t, but they reinforce the mantra of holding quality and the extra divs will add up nicely over time.
I’m quietly relieved the offer was sensible and not overly generous. They last thing we need is some boom/bust, unrealistic offer that leave FI vulnerable or they cannot maintain. And then have to withdrawal further down the line. This would not help anyone. Now is the time for stability and gradual market growth- not flashy offers. The divs on offer are already fantastic value, so any further incentive wasn’t really needed. Confidence and stability is what is needed.
The liquidity should now flow to the top 400 or so players. 1000’s of players just wasn’t sustainable post ME, spreading the liquidity too thin. These ever changing top 400 will be traded in and out of, as form, age and FOMO drives the market. The liquidity will be strong in these players. And then, as the elite players become too heated, money will flow into the more fringe and youth talent. I’m looking forward to a bright few months ahead
(I might also add, anyone new to the forum, take anything @oO and @A Former User says with a pinch of salt. They are both the same bloke. He cashed out at rather a large loss during the dip, and he’s unable to get over it. But this was his decision. He now spends his days trolling every single thread. One day he will accept it and move on with life).

With the football world going bananas at the thought of Messi doing the unthinkable and finally moving on from his beloved Barcelona, the price increase has been stratospheric. He will likely win MB galore on this MB Madness days, and if he ended up in the Prem he will earn a bucket load of MB.
However, and there is a big however, if he stays (as some reports are saying, and he will sign 3 year deal) then he will drop to his previous price of £4.50 like a stone. That is a lot of money to be lost. I don’t care about experienced FI users, they are big boys now and know the risks/rewards- but new users, this is something you need to be aware of. You could make a lot of money on this trade, but you could also lose an awful lot on this trade. This is effectively flipping a coin. And that is poor trading. We should only really put big money in trades we are highly certain of. For most ppl to make money on this trade now they need a positive transfer to happen. And this is far from certain.

After a massive rise leading up to the resumption of football, Rashford was the man everyone wanted in their port. He was United’s new hot property. Then, when he started slowly, and Greenwood stole the limelight, ppl sold in their droves. You couldn’t give away Rashford. And all in space of about 4 weeks!😂 But he is a quality player, and now he is back up to speed it’s no surprise he’s come away tonight with star player and MB. (A whopping 21p of divs)
But this post isn’t about Rashford necessarily- it could apply to any player on the Index. When your players are a bit flat and not performing, it can be so easy to sell up and go chase the latest shiny new thing. But this strategy will rarely make you big returns. However, if you just apply a little patience, it will bare fruit. There will be players in your port now that are dropping, because the herd is off chasing some other rainbow. Just stick with them, trust your research (hopefully they are quality 😅) and ignore the crowd!

Think it’s time for the famous Warren Buffet saying: “The stock market is designed to transfer money from the impatient to the patient”

Make no bones about it, our all time profit/loss numbers are making for pretty ugly reading at the moment. Nobody, not even hard core FI veterans like to see their port sliding day in day out. But as we’ve seen before, the market sentiment can change in an instant. One announcement or a big fish buying up like crazy, and weeks of gloom can be replaced by smiles very quickly.
So all you can really do for now, is ignore your P/L and just pack your port with PB quality. Chill out on the speculative long shots, and instead aim for stable, PB players that can reap these unbelievably generous dividends. Because it’s about to gets nuts round here (in a good way) After the international break, European football will be back; and the football matches will be hitting us thick and fast. There will be dividends flying around like ping pong night in downtown Bangkok.
It shouldn’t be long before more ppl want a bite at the Dividend bait ball, and the market should starts to grow again. And then a shadow comes from the depths and an almighty whale comes in and gobbles the lot. That’s right, it’s @ericali. Having hoovered up everyone’s panic buying he’s now one of FI’s biggest whales! How unbearable would that be? And you guys made it happen 😉😄 🐋

It will probably hurt like a kick to nuts, but next Thursday the stabilisers are coming off and we can finally get back to trading. The blue button price is gonna drop closer to the red button, but at least the stagnation will stop. A natural equilibrium will hopefully then be found, and the green roots of recovery will start to show. But it will take time. And it’s gonna hurt like hell to start with when the plasters get ripped off and our ports drop even further. Like we need to see more of that 😏 I’m just personally looking forward to buy and sell again.
At the end of the day- the value is there, the yields are there- it’s just up to us to reach up and grab the low hanging fruit. The divs on offer are bloody incredible!

Loving this for all Bruno holders. This is why you can’t always trust market sentiment on a player. It was baffling he dropped as low as he did, particularly as his MB and PB potential hasn’t changed. Perhaps only Neymar, and Messi are better PB/MB hybrids. He’s a rare commodity. And he’s rewarded his loyal supporters handsomely tonight!

Gonna shatter my mental image meeting ppl in the flesh tho. If @Black-Wolf looks anything other than Dumbledore it will be a disappointment. @Ericali might actually be a shy, nervous, little thing sitting in the corner poking his Mojito with a cocktail stick. @MickTurbo, @Baydog and @johnboywalker will be steaming drunk, their hairy bollocks out on plates, calling the waitress over to say they hadn’t ordered onion bhaji’s. It’s like I’m already there....

@NewUser120946 said in What is everyone's ratio of premium holds against mid-pricers, youths?:

@NewUser469373 @Valhalla interesting stats from you guys. Indeed looks like both of you's are on alternative strategies...

I’d say the strategy i use is the most widely used on FI. It taps into the huge PB returns on offer and then reinvests the divs, to earn more divs.
Having a youth heavy port can be highly lucrative in the long run, no denying it- some will be superstars. But most won’t make it. Your also not tapping into the dividends on offer. It could be years before they earn a div, if they ever earn one at all.
I also love watching game days, and seeing my players win PB. I’ve had youth heavy ports in the past, and the overriding feeling is of “waiting”. You need a lot of patience. Game days are also boring if your youth hopefuls are benched.
But each to their own.

@Rocket-Ronnie said in What is everyone's ratio of premium holds against mid-pricers, youths?:

@Valhalla do you have Ronaldo or too risky ? Are players who win media but never really pb worth it? Like rashford kane etc

I don’t hold Ronaldo personally. He earns solid divs still but he’s just a bit too risky. I do hold Rashford and Kane however. They are consistent div earners. Last time I checked, they were 9th and 10th in the most divs earned in the last 12 months.

@Stevo he was hovering around £1.20 for ages. So when ppl were saying things like “there is crazy value in the market at the moment.” Kroo’s is a classic example of what we were meaning. He just needed to get match fit and when he did, the sublime PB numbers followed.

Roughly 70% of port value in reliable, dividend returners. 30% in youth and more risky punts.
You also don’t want anymore than 10% of your in any one player, to spread the risk.

@Cypher44 said in Kroos Pb beast:

Krossy boy in February alone.

30% return in one month is bonkers.

@TeamGB purring to another win without the need of assists or goals.

Non Kroo’s holders may find this thread “gloaty” and annoying. But forgive us...we need to take every ray of light we can at the moment 😅

@AndydfopT 😂 he’s just getting greedy now. There are other players that need dividends too.

@Metropolis 👍🏻

@Rocket-Ronnie said in Same Old Sh*t Same Old Player...:

@Valhalla it’s not even homework or effort, you seem them winning Pb regularly you buy

In the crudest sense, yes. But sometimes a player like Kroo’s has a barren spell, like he was having a couple months ago. Ppl dropped him like a sack of potatoes and his price plummeted. But if you looked a little deeper, you could he was still posting good numbers, he was just hampered by a series of niggling injuries. If he could get match fit again, the wins would most likely return. And they did, big time. This is what I mean by putting in a little extra effort to get the win.
Likewise in picking PB suitable talent before they have won. Everybody can pick them once they’ve won ( and their price has shot up) but the research and effort comes in buying up talent before they’ve burst onto the radar.