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 sigmoid bonding curve — an S-shaped formula that ties price to supply. Prices start near the floor, rise steeply through the mid-range, and flatten as they approach a ceiling:

\huge P(s) \;=\; F \;+\; \frac{C}{1 + e^{-k(s - s_0)}}

P — current share price
F — floor price (baseline from projections)
C — ceiling range (maximum price increase above the floor)
s — number of shares already in circulation
k — steepness of the curve (how quickly price rises through the mid-range)
s₀ — midpoint supply (the point where price is halfway between floor and ceiling)

The sigmoid shape means prices are capped — late buyers pay a premium but are never priced out entirely. Early buyers get in cheap, mid-range demand drives the steepest price moves, and the ceiling prevents runaway prices.

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 →.