Player Pricing
Player share prices in TradeStars are not fixed — they move based on demand. When more people buy a player, the price goes up. When people sell, the price goes down. This means timing and conviction matter.
How Prices Move
Think of it like a stock market for athletes:
- Buying shares pushes the price up — each additional share costs slightly more than the last
- Selling shares pushes the price down — each share you sell returns slightly less than the previous one
Early buyers get better prices. If you spot a breakout performer before the crowd, you’ll pay less per share and hold more exposure to their fantasy points.
Example: Haaland’s starting price is 40 credits. Before kickoff, 10 managers buy in and the price climbs to 55 credits. He scores a brace, demand surges, and the price hits 70+ credits. Managers who bought at 40 now hold shares worth significantly more — and they got more shares per credit spent.
Behind the scenes, prices follow a bonding curve — a mathematical formula that ties price to supply:
- P — current share price
- F — floor price (baseline from projections)
- s — number of shares already in circulation
- k — how quickly price rises as more shares are bought
Early buyers get in cheap. As demand grows, each additional share costs more. This rewards conviction and early reads on player performance.
Floor Price
Every player starts each arena with a floor price — a baseline set by their projected fantasy points for the week. Star players with high expected output start at higher prices than rotation players.
The floor price gives you a reference point: if a player is trading well above their floor, the market is bullish on them. If they’re near the floor, they might be undervalued — or the market expects a quiet week.
Spread
There’s a 1% gap between buy and sell prices at any given moment. This means if you buy and immediately sell, you’ll lose about 1% of your credits.
The spread rewards conviction — hold a position through a match and profit from fantasy points, rather than flipping in and out for tiny price movements.
Large-Order Price Impact (Slippage)
If you buy a lot of shares in one go, each share in that batch costs a bit more than the last. This is called slippage (large-order price impact) — a natural result of how demand-driven pricing works.
In practice, this means spreading your credits across several players is more capital-efficient than going all-in on one. It also keeps the market fair for everyone.
Ownership Caps
To prevent any single entry from cornering the market on a player, there’s a 10% ownership cap — no single entry can hold more than 10% of a player’s circulating shares.
Ownership caps are enforced per entry, not per user. If you run multiple entries, each one has its own independent 10% cap.
This ensures:
- Portfolio diversity across your holdings
- No single player dominates your entire score
- The market stays liquid for all participants
Summary
| Mechanic | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Demand-driven pricing | Prices rise when people buy, fall when people sell |
| Floor price | Starting price based on projected points — your valuation anchor |
| 1% spread | Small cost to change your mind — rewards holding through matches |
| Slippage | Large orders pay more per share — diversify for efficiency |
| 10% ownership cap | No entry can hold more than 10% of a player’s shares |
Pro Tips
- Buy before the crowd. If you have a strong read on a player — say, a favourable matchup or expected lineup change — get in early while the price is low. Waiting until everyone agrees with you means paying a premium.
- Watch for overpriced favourites. A star player trading at 2× their floor price needs to massively outperform projections to justify the cost. Sometimes the best value is the 20-credit midfielder nobody’s watching.
- Diversify across 5-8 players. Slippage punishes all-in bets. Spreading your credits means more total shares, more exposure to different outcomes, and a smoother score curve.
Understanding pricing helps you time your trades. Next, learn about live-match scoring timing and credit recycling →.