Author: The Ginger Pirlo

“I am going to change my trading habits slightly come the new year…”

Welcome to the fifth instalment of the ‘Can I make a living from Football Index’ series and the last one of 2019!

What a year it has been. My first (crazy) January window, the share split, the new scoring matrix, the dividend increase and one or two deposit bonuses. Plus all the other bits here and there we get thrown from the FI headquarters.

I joined the index in Sep 2018 and regretted not finding this thing earlier. Over a year later, I am glad I found it to begin with. There are still so many people who haven’t even heard of it, never mind refuse to acknowledge it and call it a scam. They are all missing out!

If you had told me a year ago the amount of money I would have in the index I wouldn’t have believed you. I am a man who bets cautiously. I may stick a tenner on something now and then, £50 if I am ultra-confident (very rare) but more often stick a couple of quid on an accumulator. That’s about it.

The numbers I am “playing with” are eye-watering on this kind of scale. I don’t have an exact clear number but looking back I committed somewhere between £2.5 and £3k of my own money, which was a big commitment. Trust me. Most of us had our own doubts over this product when we first joined up but I got over them and went for it.

Finish the year on a high?

“If he does, he could really rocket.”

December was a slow start and this new app update that shows you your all-time trading profit every time you log in is really annoying me. 😀

I have always kept a spreadsheet of my ongoing all-time profit which I would update pretty regular and it was a nice surprise to see where I was at and how much I made since the last update.

Now, it’s in my face all the time and it’s like watching a kettle that never boils. If it’s going down it’s pretty annoying. This little function seemed like a nice addition at first, but you only want to see it if it’s going up! If you can turn it off someone let me know.

Some December trades

I made some trades that look to be decent this month. First up is Alphonso Davies. This 19-year-old kid has put in some decent PB scores and if he continues to make the left-back spot his own at Bayern he may well be switched to a defender.

If he does, he could really rocket. Not that Bayern like to keep too many clean sheets these days!

I have noticed the impressive performances of Emiliano Buendia, PB wise as well as on the real-life pitch. He looked like a decent player to get involved in, so put a decent amount of shares into him given PL was the only league going over the Xmas period. I’m currently up 20p.

Someone else I have put a decent amount of faith into lately is Marcel Halstenberg. I stuck in a fair amount when he was sticking in that impressive PB score not too long back and sold most of them.

Once he had a dip I ploughed back in and have high hopes for him once the Bundesliga is back. Surely a £2 player in the making very soon.

Some other lads I got into more than my usual amount were Hamed Junior Traore and Julian Brandt. Both stuck in a fine PB performance with a goal to their name, so were guaranteed to receive action.

I sold both of these prematurely. You can’t always predict the future but a little more patience regarding the significance of the Xmas break situation was needed.  T

Now, the number of shares I stuck into them is something I would like to go into a bot more below.

New Year’s Resolution?

I am going to change my trading habits slightly come the new year and be more aggressive with the number of shares bought and (try to be) more patient with the time I think of selling.

Using the above trades as examples. Davies was a good trade but I should have bought more. Brandt and Traore were 1200 and 900 share size trades but sold too soon. It basically comes down to thinking more like a trader rather than profiter.

Not all trades are perfect and things happen you don’t always count on but if I think someone will get a nice solid rise over a period of time I shud commit to it more in shares bought and time given for it to happen.

Let’s see how that goes.

What about the 200 club?

Some additions this month were Jadon Sancho and Paulo Dybala for varied reasons. I couldn’t ignore the PB victory Sancho stuck in and with the inevitable transfer spec in January around the corner, I grabbed 200 just before he went over £7 and he has had a lovely rise since.

Dybala hasn’t moved but he has grabbed a PB win after I bought in and I have high hopes for him if Sarri gets his head out of his rear end and play him for 90 mins week in week out. He is the best player he has at his disposal and it doesn’t take a PhD to work that out.

There have been some big dips in the 200 club which has been a hole in my all-time profit figure. It has been a non-stop battle between me and my all-time profit figure staring back at me!

Messi has fallen off a cliff and I am only just in profit with him Cap App wise. He has dropped 56p this month and is a £1 off-peak. His dividends accumulated thus far is his saving grace.

Kroos and TAA also had significant falls with the latter only recovering this past few days with a big PB score to remind people of his quality. Kroos is down 30p and him breaking £5 wasn’t that long ago.

Then there is Memphis Depay. His ACL injury clearly devastated his price but I can report I saw the news pretty quickly and instant sold him before his epic drop and massive opening up of his spread.

So, I can’t complain about that one. What I did do was buy him back once I thought he had bottomed out and I plan to keep him for when he returns at the start of next season.

There is no reason why he won’t return to at least the price he was before the injury and if the prices at the top end increase significantly, on the platform as a whole, he could be worth even more than what he was

The club has the following active members: Sancho, Dybala, Neymar, Trent, Messi and Kroos. Although this may have changed come the next episode.

Gimme some numbers

I finish the calendar year with the following:

Let’s get straight down to the overall picture and I have an all-time profit of £35,930. I am writing this on 30th Dec so there is another day left to get to that £36k mark, fingers crossed I can do it. Nice little target.

The Dividends finish off at £5,248 which is up considerably from where I started the year and around has increased by £1k from last month. A thousand pound of divs is not bad at all for a trader like myself.

IPDs have played a huge part in this over my time. They have been a steady earner for me over the year and will continue to be so in 2020. The addition of Match Day divs has been very welcome and I have hit these at a regular rate this season.

For some overall perspective of 2019, I tracked down my all-time profit email from last November and the difference from then to now is there to be seen.

Remember, I haven’t deposited anything that remained in the Index, I have actually increased my withdrawals over this time period. The activity on the Index is profit feeding profit, over and over again.

I mean, that it is just a bit ridiculous. 😀

The overall average profit per week since I started this blog series is now at £1,219.65. This has been over a period of 20 weeks.

Quick maths will tell you the total profit have made since starting this on 11th Aug is £24,393.07. This is an increase of 364% in 20 weeks. Lovely.

As for December specifically, the all-time profit is up £5,218 from the last episode which isn’t bad. It is over the £1k a week pattern that started to establish from the opening months of the season, which is kind of a benchmark I use each week as I go.

If you can be bothered, have a quick look back at the previous episodes as a nice outlook on the progress each month. I did not expect these numbers when I started. 😀

Here’s to a cracking 2020

As we toast a fond farewell to 2019, let’s hope 2020 is even bigger!

FI are pushing again this January with their marketing campaign to bring in new users and new money which can only be a good thing. Hopefully, prices at the top really start to get charging as it brings the rest of the market with it.

Another thing I would like to touch on is the #FICommunity. We are seeing more and more sad little morons creating all kinds of crap on the #footballindex hashtag to either rip people off with fake transfer stories or fake accusations trying to make names for themselves.

These people are a plague and need to be stopped. The next time you see something on Twitter claiming to either be a transfer source or saying this user has done this, that or the other, look at what you are actually seeing.

Look at the “evidence” provided in isolation and make your own minds up. These ppl need banishing and having zero credibility given to them whatsoever. I get my fair share but so do others.

Lots of us know who the fake story pumpers are, so blacklist them. Next time you see someone trying to discredit another user’s good name with no actual evidence whatsoever, blacklist them as well.

I am not talking about other users you just happen to disagree with on something and are looking for revenge, I am talking about the clear agenda riddled cowboys out for a quick buck or quick 5 mins of attention. These people are either scum or moronic, perhaps both. We don’t them.

We can all block and mute but a quick word to others as to what they are won’t hurt.

Here’s to 2020. I wish you good luck!

Follow me on Twitter @GingerPirlo_FI

To sign up to Football Index click this link and give it a go. You won’t regret it!

“The index can offer you many ways to make money it’s just a case of taking advantage.”

Welcome to the second update to my ‘Can I make a living from Football Index’ series.

I’m very pleased with the positive response to my first episode, on top of the intro, with lots of messages coming in, as well as many questions. This is all good and keep ’em coming!

Let’s get straight into episode two, the dreaded sequel! 😀

The last episode left you on the 30th of August, so I thought it would be good to leave it a month and see what progress was made up until the end of September. Seemed all very neat and tidy to me.

However, I have cut that short slightly by a few days after hitting a milestone on the 25th of September. I was planning on leaving the ongoing profit numbers until later on but I shall just get stuck into them right from the off!

Remember in the intro article where I started this series with £6,700? I used some of that to buy into fixture holds and kept the rest in my account for as and when I needed it. Well as approaching midnight on 25th September I have broken the 100% ROI return.

So to be clear, I have taken £6,700 as of 11th August and made another £6,700 as of 25th September. That’s a 100% profit return in just over 6 weeks. To be specific it’s actually £6,852.40 and 102% but you get the picture.

These are crazy returns and something I did not expect to get so soon.  As I was tracking my progress, I saw my profit continuing to rise its way to potentially getting to this 100% ROI marker by the end of the month.

It seemed more like a possibility as the days ticked by and then the 10% net spend Birthday Bonus landed on the 24th September and gave it a big boost over the line. Boom! Happy f**king Birthday! 😀

Before I lay out the numbers I would like to mention that I took some money out last week. £800 to be exact as August was one hell of an expensive month and I needed a boost. What’s making money if you can’t use it eh?

 

The numbers

So with that in mind, the actual numbers are as follows:

I have £12,752.40 in the index. If you include the £800 that would be £13,552.40.

This is a total of £6,852.40 made since I started this series on 11th August.

This is a 102% return made over the course of just over 6 weeks. 45 days to be exact.

This works out at a running profit of just over £1000 a week and £150 a day.

(The below is what my “Port” and account balance looks like as of 27th Sep.)

Looking at the last episode I was going at a similar rate of around £1000 a week and I was fully expecting this to slow down but it’s just ploughed on. The birthday bonus has helped no doubt over the past 24 hours or so but it was still chugging along at a very healthy rate regardless.

I will say I don’t expect it to continue but I said that last time! Plus I still have the actual 10% to land in my account in a few weeks which will be a nice thing to receive. For the record on that, I had just over £6k in my account balance when it was announced and I will spend all of that come 30th Sep so I expect it to be receiving around £610. Lovely.

My all-time profit now stands at £18,352 which is just crazy when you consider a year ago I was testing the waters after just joining with £50, then a few hundred, before committing a couple grand more. I never expected these returns. Never.

 

What I did this month

“Not all flips make money and go to plan.”

Well, some of the first things I did this month were sales. I still had on my hands the Bundesliga front line trio of Mr Weghorst, Waldschmidt and Petersen and after a quiet weekend they had come to their expiry life in my port and I instant sold the lot.

I also decided to get rid of Sven Bender who I had invested a fair share in and had high hopes but even though his PB did outscore Tah, he just hadn’t quite hit the heights and I sensed a sell-off coming, so cut the rope myself.

I had made very good profits on all of these players but given I instant sold them, I took a little hit with the spreads and commission paid but I did the right thing, as they all had a little dip with other traders following suit and selling themselves.

As far as buys go, I make so many trades when it comes to writing it up it’s a difficult task. So, what I will do is follow on from something I did last time and make a list of some Hits, Flips and Misses to show some of the action that went down over the month of September.

Hits

Domenico Berardi – bought 600 for £99p – Sits now at £1.69

I have a new man crush. What a lad he is. He is involved in everything Sassuolo do going forward, he takes free-kicks and corners and if he isn’t scoring himself he is setting someone else up.

I bought him on 6th Sep for the single-game day against Brescia on the 4th Oct in mind. I knew he had performance in him so decided to get in on him nice and early within the 30 days for IPDs.

From that time he has bagged two goals away at Roma and grabbed two assists in the next match against Spal. I am currently 70% up on him and feeling pretty sweet.

I had already flipped him when he got his hat trick on the 1st September before buying him again, so he has returned a very healthy amount already…and he hasn’t even got to the game I bought him for yet!

Also wanna quick shout out for his mate Alfred Duncan who I also got 600 at just 39p. I have sold him now when he reached 59p but he is never too far away from setting up Berardi and are a great double act.

Javairo Dilrosun – 900 for 86p – Sits now at £1.25 

Hertha Berlin had/have some decent fixtures in the month of Sep/Oct and there was a bit of talk on one of their exciting players Dilrosun coming back into the team, so I kept my eye on him.

He went and obliged immediately by taking on 3 or 4 defenders against Paderborn before slotting one in the net, so I went in. He later picked up an assist so grabbed me 2p of IPDs and some very sweet CA was to follow.

He has gone up and up since I bought him and is currently at a 40% rise and with some single games to come, I won’t be moving him on anytime soon. Cracking little player.

Martin Odegaard – 300 for £2.16 – Sits now at £3.25

Most traders know about or have at least heard of Odegaard and his move to Sociedad was an interesting one to keep an eye on. As soon as he scored and also put in some decent PB scores I went in.

He has gone up way more than I anticipated and wish I had invested more than 300 shares. He broke the £3 mark with birthday bonus money piling into him and with a fantastic performance with an outrageous assist vs Alaves I am now sat at over a £1 rise.

Robert Lewandowski – 300 for £1.58 – Sits now at £1.84

This wasn’t my usual type of player to buy. Lewa is the type of player on the Index that can score in a game but his price goes down afterwards. However, when Bayern went to Leipzig they had some cracking fixtures afterwards.

So, I made a pact with myself that whoever scored in the game I would buy for the IPD discount and keep for these games. Within a couple of minutes, old Lewa bagged one and I was in.

I only went for 300 given my reservations with him but after a few more goals in games after bringing more IPDs and the birthday bonus giving him a very healthy price injection he is sat on £1.85 as I type. Decent trade if I can get out at a good price. We shall see.

Philippe Coutinho – 300 for £2.15 – Sits now at £2.66 (over 5 days)

I couldn’t ignore Coutinho’s PB winning score the last week of 298. He also took a pen when Lewandowski was on a hat-trick which tells me he could be the designated taker.

I grabbed 300 as I felt a score like that won’t go ignored and within an hour he was up 15 to 20p. He has had an extra injection with the bonus money piling in, like many have, and I will keep him to see how he gets on.

Casimir Ninga – 600 for 47p – Sits at 67p

I flipped this lad when he bagged a hat trick off the bench for around 1200 shares. I wish I had just kept him and took the IPDs on top as in the next game he put in a quality PB score and grabbed an assist.

I decided to go in on him and I am glad I did as he has gone up 20p in a matter of days. Hopefully, he will not only keep his price but continue his form, helping Angers sit joint top with PSG. Crazy

Flips

I make a lot of trades including flips so I will do my best to list some below. I’ll do it in most recent first as I can remember those easier when I trawl through my transaction history.

When the Beta site is up and running I will start downloading my transaction history. Its too complex to go through how much paid and sold for atm so I will list names below and how many flipped.

The following are just from the past week alone since Tuesday’s Champion League night:

Oyarzabal 600, Ocampos 300, Oliver Torres 300, D’Ambrosio 900, Yacine Adli 600, Golovin 600, Arthur 900, Ninga 1200, Benes 300, Thuram 600, Cresswell 300, Budimir 300, Nyom 600, Caputo 600, Saracchi 600, Sabitzer 300, Orban 600, Chris Wood 900, Alario 600, Cazorla 600, Stengs 600, Saka 600, Di Maria 300, Valbuena 600, Tagliafico 900, Edson Alvarez 900, Szoboszlai 300, Haaland 900 on 1st goal 600 on 2nd goal.

 

As you can see I make a lot of trades in-play. Whenever a goal goes in, I always check who it is and his price with his spread. If it seems viable I will jump on. If not but I think another goal or assist would be, I may buy 1 share to have him there ready.

Not all flips make money and go to plan. Some I get on too late or don’t rise as much as anticipated. It isn’t as easy or straight forward as it may seem. Some people will not go anywhere near in-play action due to its nature.

I have had a lot of practice which has brought its fair share of burns but its all experience. Like anything, the more you do it the better you get. That will do, not listing anymore, be here all day! 😀

Misses

Erling Braut Haaland

You may have caught that I flipped him in-play when he went on a scoring spree on his Champions League debut, but my profits on him could have been so much more.

I bought him a few days earlier when he put in another performance for Salzburg but sold him not long after to free up some money, completely forgetting he was due to finally play a PB game.

During that time he rocketed up an eye-watering amount by the time that game kicked off. D’oh!

Donyell Malen

This one is a bit hit and miss, as I had bought 600 Malen at a similar time as Haaland on that weekend, as he scored 5 goals for PSV in one game. Unlike Haaland. I kept hold of Donyell for a few days and made good money as he went up about 30p or so.

Problem is after Haaland went crazy on Tuesday night, the market decided that Malen may do the same so he had another injection of money piled into him and went up a further 40p. Very annoying.

Michy Batshuayi

Now this one really p*ssed me off 😀 I sat and watched the likes of Dries Mertens and Romelu Lukaku rise for a course of a couple of weeks or so, as traders were looking forward to Belgium hammering San Marino.

That’s fine, except in the back of my head I had a feeling they weren’t gonna play and Martinez would give Batshuayi a run out instead. The day before the game I had notifications on IndexGain set up on Michy’s name and it was now a simple case of waiting for the team news.

When the team news came out, where was I? Sneaking off for a quick piss and left my phone to charge so completely missed it and the 13p rise that came. Blew my top on that one!

IPOs

If Batshuayi blew my top, waking up to all those IPO’s already out and pumped as they were released in the middle of the night was nothing short of devastating. Could have cried 😀

What makes it worse, is I was on IndexGain at half-past midnight cracking jokes as to whether they will release some soon. I quote, “If I worked there I would release one now for a laugh”

If I had taken my own wild sense of humour more seriously and stayed up just 40 mins longer I would have cashed in. I reckon I missed out on a couple of grand there at least. But I am over it now…honest.

 

Main strategy on the index

“I couldn’t recommend this type of in-play/fixture buy strategy enough”

The above were some picked out Hits, Flips and Misses but if you ask me what my main strategy is at the minute it’s fixture buying. I can buy a player looking ahead of anywhere up to a month. I don’t really go too far beyond that.

Fixtures I look out for are any regular single game days in a short period of time or literally just decent fixtures back to back in the 30 days window for IPDs. It really isn’t rocket science, you just have to think about the timing of trades to make the most out of it.

Another aspect of this I have been actively doing lately is merging my in-play stuff with future fixture buying. My Lewandowski and Coutinho trades are an example of that. I knew Bayern’s games coming up so grabbed a discount.

I couldn’t recommend this type of in-play/fixture buy strategy enough. It doesn’t even need to be a long list of upcoming fixtures. It can literally just be the next game.

If there is a single game coming up for a team and their relatively cheap striker bags one or even two IPDs, get on him and just wait. Traders will always look for players in form and buy accordingly in the days leading up to the next match.

I did this with Loren Moron a couple of weeks back and he went up sh*t loads by the time the next game had come along. Traders see his goals and assists and decide he is a good buy. The trick is getting in early before these trades commence.

Another example is Amine Harit. I saw that Schalke had a nice looking single game on a Friday night, so kept my eye on their match before this vs Paderborn. They smashed them 5-1 with Harit scoring twice.

He was the best player on this pitch so I invested heavily in him. I took the IPDs and kept for the next fixture as other traders were bound to catch on to his skills. Sure enough, he went up gradually during the week and sat 30p higher than what I paid for him.

Now, the problem for me is that as I was working that Friday night I couldn’t keep track of him so I sold him the day before the match. He went on to be star man and I missed out on some serious profit but that’s for me to chew over. Point is, the theory works.

So if you want my advice, look at the fixture lists. Keep an eye on Twitter for accounts showing single game days or 5 game double days and make a note. Even just a mental note. It can be a very solid and consistent way of making money on the Index.

 

Signing off

I’m gonna wrap this episode up here as I don’t want them to be essays. I am looking forward to the next one and seeing if this rate of income can continue. If I had to make a bet on it I would say it will dip but you never know.

When I look at some of the opportunities that I missed over the past month it shows what can be achieved if you are on it and sharp on a regular basis. The index can offer you many ways to make money it’s just a case of taking advantage.

The IPOs happening in the middle of the night is an example. The Birthday Bonus is another. The international games offering PB and IPDs is another. Next month could see something else come up. FI can be the gift that keeps on giving if you are set to take it.

I mean, I’ve made 100% ROI in 6 weeks of starting this blog series. That is crazy.

Thanks for reading and see you on the next one. Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter @GingerPirlo_FI and I’m always on IndexGain. I am also now apart of an FI Newsletter with FIG and co so keep a lookout for that. It comes out every fortnight.

Peace out.

To sign up to Football Index click this link and give it a go. You won’t regret it!

 

 

“…I am not expecting the same level of results on my next update.”

Welcome to the first update of my ‘Can I make a living from Football Index?’ series.

I just want to say straight off the bat, the positive reaction and messages I received on my Twitter feed and IndexGain for the intro article of the series were amazing. I did not expect it and thanks for all the very kind words, glad you enjoyed it!

If you haven’t read it yet it can be found here and pinned to my FI dedicated Twitter account @GingerPirlo_FI 

I also want to clarify (if that’s the correct and proper word to use) that the title of the series was the question I first asked when I looked into joining the Index. I am not suggesting that I quit all other forms of employment to suddenly become a full-time FI trader.

My working situation is and was slightly unique in that I had different contract type roles in and around football and was always looking out for more opportunities to add to this. The index intrigued me as a possible addition to my income and gave it a go.

So, with that being said I am not going to go out and say other people should jack in the day job and make your living trading footballers. That isn’t what this blog series is about.

Its purpose is to show what can be achieved with a modest budget in FI terms & whether or not it can be a nice little earner. Or better still, a quality earner!

Now, if someone out there takes this series or anything else they see and says to themselves, “f*ck it, I’m in” and goes full-time trader mode, then that’s their choice. I neither promote it nor disapprove it. Totally up to you.

Please don’t send your wife, husband or oversized child round to give me a slap if you missed a mortgage payment or cancelled the trip to Disneyland if you have a poor month or two.

However, If you end up having an amazing time of it, then I am open to commission or gifts, obviously.

So to be clear. In my opinion, you CAN make a living from Football Index.

We all define what that actually is different, but I would say for your average working-class person living in an affordable place in the country, it’s achievable. Let’s say they are single also with no responsibilities. Bloody kids. Expensive things.

If you already have access to shit loads of money to plough into this platform than chances are you could live off what you get back alone. We regularly see the tweets or screenshots of those making thousands from just dividends alone on a monthly basis, so these folk are loving FI life & very comfortable. Rich bags. : D

But that’s easy (kind of), what I will (hopefully) show you is what can be achieved with a modest amount of money in the index at any given time. It can be hard work but I am willing to do it. In fact, I love it and I am happy to sit for hours on a matchday to try and maximise returns.

I will also show you how I did it (minus the finer details). I will also tell you about the missed opportunities that would have made profits even higher. Trust me, it happens and I kick myself quite often.

Now, there are many, many other people on the index that will make more hard cash than me. Fact. However, I will show you my percentage returns across a period of time and you can multiply that to whatever budget you have. This is a key point to make.

I speak in this series on behalf of a moderate-sized budget at this moment in time of under £10k. Some would say under £10k is actually ‘small’, but you can make your own definitions. Several grand is still a decent sum of money in anyone’s book.

I started life on the index with £50, a minuscule amount. I added a few hundred, small amount. I never went over investing around £2.5k of my own money into the platform. This was more than enough for me and I will never deposit any more.

So going forward, if you take inspiration from this series (some have said as much to me already!) and you have more available cash, go for it. If you have less than me, it doesn’t matter. What percentage are you getting back and over what time period? That’s the question.

Ok, that’s my disclaimers out the way so let’s crack on. 😀

 

The start

“I felt the new scoring matrix would inject this type of performance with steroids”

A quick reminder of where I started this series.

After a bit of an upheaval in my life and trying to sort that out, resulting in a poor opening weekend which I should have just left well alone, I sold a few players I had in my port on the 11th August, keeping one or two and started fresh.

I said to myself to stop chasing things if I wasn’t in a strong position to take advantage of them properly and efficiently and vowed to “trade smarter”. So what did I do?

Well, I had around £6,700 in the index and I invested in 11-12 players that looked to have good fixtures at the start of the season and/or looked to be in decent enough form leading up to the brand new season.

The first player I bought was Sven Bender. I noticed in Leverkusen’s opening German cup game just before the league campaign kicked off,  he started in the centre of a back three and had stats that were off the scale.

He passed the ball around 150 times, grabbed an assist, managed a few interceptions, aerial duels and attempted a very healthy amount of long balls.

I felt the new scoring matrix would inject this type of performance with steroids and he seemed to totally outperform his teammate Jonathan Tah (£1.55), who is and rightfully so a bit of an Index darling with his PB scores last season. He is also three times as expensive.

In case you’re not aware, Tah endlessly passed the ball over and over again into people’s ports, racking up the PB scores with Leverkusen’s new manager’s obsession with possession and playing out from the back.

The big centre back also made yours truly some decent money after buying him low and selling high. Buy low, sell high? That might catch on…

But, with Bender, had I stumbled onto a possible PB monster for just 46p? Leverkusen started the season against a newly promoted side as well, so I went for it and invested £500 into him, which was about 1087 shares. (the below includes a few extra shares I bought at a later date)

As I am writing this up he is sitting at 69p after a few others saw what I saw and has started the season well, outscoring Tah (PB wise) in both opening fixtures. Will that PB win come? Possibly. He has a chance with the perfect storm of dominance and a clean sheet.

Some of you who read the Intro article may be thinking ‘I thought you don’t chase PB or divs?’

Well, I don’t in general but if Mr Bender puts in big PB scores he will continue to get attention. If he wins, then it’s rocket time. It’s the Capital Appreciation I really want, not the divs. They’re a bonus if they come.

After Bender, I looked into the fixtures and bought players who I believe have good sentiment from last season and a chance of performing in games up until the next month. Or in other words, the next 30-day In-Play Dividend schedule (IPD purchases last for 30 days).

Come Monday night, I had around 11 players in my “port” with some money left in my account and was ready to go.

Who did I get on?

“……. (Big mistake!!!)”

A couple of players I had bought that weekend were Lucas Lima who I grabbed after he started in the front three for Nantes, even though he is a defender. Very cheap with a 1p spread. Lovely.

Plus my old mate Jose Fonte who had got an assist in this game versus Nantes who I bought and kept. He is so cheap and can hit a solid PB score on his day so I decided to keep him.

After looking into Sven Bender, I knew Leverkusen had a half-decent start so got one of my favourite players Kevin Volland who leads their line very well. I also grabbed Bender’s even cheaper defensive partner Dragovic.

The German league (my favourite league for FI) was just kicking off and Leipzig had a decent looking start against a newly promoted team also, so bought into right wing-back Klostermann. He is capable of getting forward and grabbing a goal or assist.

I would have bought Halstenberg who takes set-pieces and also good for an IPD at left wing-back but he had an injury in pre-season so stayed off of him. In hindsight, I could have gone a bit further with some Leipzig choices.

Sticking with the German theme, Freiburg had a very favourable set of fixtures over the first three games with Mainz at home, followed by two newly promoted teams. Lovely. So, I invested in striker Waldschmidt who had just had a stonking u21 tournament in the summer and his strike partner, the very cheap and good for an IPDs, Nils Petersen.

Next, my attention was drawn to Wolfsburg who opened the season with a similar schedule, as they too had both promoted teams in the first three. So, there was only one thing on my mind and that was to get into one of my favourite players from last season Wout Weghorst.

At this stage of my purchases, I came to realise the Euro qualifiers were in the 30 day IPD period and now count for performance so went back to Leipzig and got striker Poulsen, as he had some easy fixtures for Denmark included in his domestic schedule. Though he had already had a rise at this point.

I took a step away from the Bundesliga and went a bit French with Bertrand Traore who put in a decent PB score in his first game for an upcoming single game day and did the same with Jeff Reine-Adelaide. With Lyon’s Tousart also getting some love from me after outscoring his more expensive midfield teammates.

Before stepping away from Bundesliga completely, I noticed Dortmund also had some decent fixtures but I had spent a decent amount of money so grabbed just the one share of the following player just to keep track and a reminder to maybe buy later…

Purchased – Axel Witsel – 1 – £0.70 ……… (Big mistake!!!)

To finish off, I grabbed some Jamie Vardy to test whether he would get the same type of weekly build-up to an upcoming fixture like he did last season.

In case you are not aware, Vardy went through this rollercoaster life on the index last season of massive sell-offs after, or even during games, then he would be bought up again gradually for the following week. So, I gave him a go.

Meet the squad.

So who we got? My “squad” as of Monday 12th August looked like the following which was based on upcoming fixtures, those that had shown PB muscle or had their own unique reasons. I came to these choices using my years worth of knowledge and experience on the Index:

Lucas Lima – 300 futures – 53p. Cheap defender looking like he is being used as a winger. Could be another Youcef Atal.

Jose Fonte – 300 futures – 23p. Old but capable of very good PB scores and the odd goal or assist. Poor spread but I am letting it slide as he has got me an IPD already.

Jamie Vardy – 400 futures – 80p. Taking a punt on him to test whether he will get a rise before playing Sunday in a big televised game.

Bertrand Traore – 300 futures – £1.12. Another single game day coming up and got a big rise off the back of his first PB score. Is a forward and taking corners which adds to his PB score.

Jeff Reine-Adelaide – 300 futures – £1.05. Single-game day coming up and he too got a massive pump during his first game with a goal and assist. Had dropped a bit in price since at this point.

Lucas Tousart – 600 futures – 71p. Easily outscored his more expensive and hyped central midfield teammates at Lyon. Cheap and had grabbed a goal so also has a goal threat, even though is a holding midfielder by trade.

Kevin Volland – 600 futures – 87p. Leverkusen have a good fixture to kick off the new season and my old mate Kevin is always good for a goal or assist.

Lukas Klostermann – 300 futures – 95p. Attacking wing-back who loves to get in the box to try and create a goal or score himself. If he gets one and adds a clean sheet, happy days.

Wout Weghorst – 300 futures – 99p. I was a bit slow on getting on him as he had a decent rise that day so just grabbed 300. Has decent looking fixtures to start off the campaign and one of my boys who made a decent amount of money last season.

Sven Bender – 1100 futures – 46p. Chucked in a special performance and could be a steal at his price, was too good to turn down. He has to stay injury-free through which is something he didn’t do last season. Fingers crossed.

Aleksander Dragovic – 900 futures – 32p. He wasn’t far behind Bender with his own stats and is even cheaper. Took a punt in case he starts and does the business also.

Nils Petersen – 600 futures – 51p. He is a very capable goalscorer on his day. I remember him a super sub during my Bundesliga analyst days. Cheap and up against favourable opposition for three games on the trot.

Gian-Luca Waldschmidt – 600 futures – 97p. Young and carrying some quality sentiment from the recent u21 tournament where he finished as top scorer. Has those favourable fixtures and seems to be on penalties. Boom.

Yousef Poulsen – 500 futures – £1.06. Has some good fixtures including Denmark matches against minnows of Europe. Had a 10p rise before I bought after hesitating initially but had to get some.

(I also wanted to get on some Belgian players like Mertens and Lukaku but had spent a large chunk, so just like Axel Witsel I bought one of each. Spoiler alert – these three players skyrocketed and I missed out on huge profits but that’s the index and shows why the more money you have to use, the more money you make)

So that’s a “squad” of 14 players come Monday night at a total cost of £4,850. Leaving around £1850 in my account for if and when I need it.

 

How did you get on?

Let me start off by saying that I was debating whether to actually start this series for a few weeks, so for this time period from 12th August until typing this up now on 30th August, I don’t have a lot of info on most of my trades in terms of screenshots etc.

I am also still up in the air as to how I will show the progress made going forward. For this opening update, I am going to cut straight to the chase and then tell you about some of the trades made after. I can’t show them all as I make LOTS OF TRADES! 😀

The time right now is 4.36pm on Friday 30th August. I am looking forward to the games tonight and as I check my port I can show you what I have in the Index right here, right now:

As you can see, if you add what’s currently in my port with what’s in my account, I have the following amount in the Index: £6033.63 + £3649.44 = £9683.07.

It’s been 19 days since I started with £6700. 

So that is an increase of £2,983.07. In percentage terms that is a return of 44.52%.

Below is what is in my port as I type right now. Please do take away 11 players from that 23 as those are all players I am tracking with just one share to their name, so it’s really just 12.

Results summary

In just under three weeks I have (practically) made £3k. That’s a grand a week. I have a return of 44.52% doing what I do and trading how I have. I am very pleased.

Now, I will say this. The Index has been slightly unique in this period with the excitement that a new season brings. Traders can’t wait to invest in this, that or whoever if he looks like gold, so I will categorically say I am not expecting the same level of results on my next update.

The biggest trend in this period has been around the new PB matrix and people looking for the next big thing, we have seen some huge in-play rockets based on early looking monster PB scores and I managed to catch a few and ride the wave.

Eventually, the market will slow down on these types of in-play rockets and go back to “usual” but when one door closes, a window may open somewhere else so it’s important to always be on the lookout for trends and try to take advantage of them. No matter what it is.

How did the original “squad of 14” get on?

Looking back at my transaction history, I trade a lot. That’s for sure. Out of my 14 “squad members” I bought on the 12th August, I currently still own five.

One of which, Weghorst, I have increased my holding when he bagged another goal last weekend from my initial 300 futures to 900. This obviously changes my average holding cost of him but for this time period he has returned me the following in CA:

He has also brought in some IPDs with two goals in two games and he has decent looking fixures including single-game days, so I am not looking to shift him on just yet.

My Freiburg boys in Waldschmidt and Petersen have brought in the IPDs also, as they have grabbed a goal or an assist in each of their opening two games.

Waldschmidt naturally gets more CA attention but I am keeping them both for this weekend at home to Koln, plus Wald has just been called up to the German senior team for the first time.

The old man Jose Fonte has had a nice rise from 23p to 29p with a couple of half-decent PB scores and Lille have a good set of fixtures coming up. Will I keep him for the whole season? That would be a first. I also still have Sven Bender in my port to make up the famous five.

I sold the rest at different stages. Adelaide overnight from buying him got some transfer news to Lyon and I sold off the back of that. However, I sold WAY too early and would have been better off missing that news and finding a nice surprise late in the day. Never mind.

I sold Lima a few days back for a little profit after he started in his usual left-back spot and lost his unique selling point. Luckily for me, he has just transferred to a non-PB league so his hype really was short and sweet.

I sold Poulsen, then bought back and now sold again for very little return tbh. Was better off keeping him throughout. That was poor trading.

Sold Klostermann during opening Leipzig game, as he was totally outperformed by Halstenberg who did play in the end and grabbed a goal and assist! I bought him though in-play so got some IPDs and a little profit in there.

Had to dump Dragovic as he didn’t start the Leverkusen match. I broke even though as he had a rise after I bought him and all commission was covered. He was a punt in any case, just didn’t come off. No harm done.

Kevin Volland was a successful trade. I have sold him now but he grabbed some nice IPDs (like he does) and I sold my 600 futures around the £1.10 mark on average from an 87p trade. Nice. I will own you again Kevin, we both know this.

Bertrand Traore didn’t work out so well. He hardly moved in price all week and didn’t do anything during that single game day so dumped at a loss. Poor trade.

Lucas Tousart was a very good trade in the end, as by the time I sold him he went up to over a £1 after I initially got him for 79p.

The only problem was I sold half my stake well before this and never topped up. It’s painful watching a player grow like that with a small holding. But a profit is a profit.

Mr Vardy, king of parties, was ok. Nothing special. Sold him for about 84p. I did the Vardy thing again the week after and made a bit more on him. Although I sold before kick-off and he went and scored to reach 89p I think. Still, a profit is a profit.

So a mixed bag from these trades but overall a very healthy profit. I think I was up like 17% in no time at all just on these lot alone and then I had my in-play stuff and other trades flowing afterwards.

Speaking of which…

 

How else did I make my money?

“I had a really good day…”

In-play is a big part of what I do on Football Index.

I mentioned a few strategies in the intro article and I came to realise very early in my time on the Index, that players can have big rises with goals or impressive performances, so it made sense to get involved with this especially considering my lack of huge funds.

To make this part a bit clearer, I will show you some in-play trades from the first few match days at the very start of this series. I’ve picked out a few that spring to mind and also ones that I didn’t get on that would have been very profitable.

The below is a “weekend in the life of an in-play trader” if you like. The very short version : D

Saturday 17th Aug:

Hits

Wylan Cyprien – The Nice midfielder bagged another penalty and an assist which adds huge bonus points onto his already decent PB base. I got him at 99p and kept until I sold when he was £1.47. So almost a 50% rise over a week or so.

Ignatius Ganago – In the same game, young Nice forward Ganago scored the winning goal and won the penalty that Cyprien converted. I checked his price and was 60p so went on him. Held for the next game and sold for around the 78p mark. He went as high as 84p at one stage.

Hugo Diallo – As soon as Hugo Diallo stuck in his second of the game I bought a load. Sold quite quickly to the market once the masses cottoned on. Classic in-play flip.

Misses

Dani Ceballos – The above three trades I picked out were all done at night games as I was working during the day, so I missed out completely on the Ceballos rise. He went up like 60-70p or something stupid. I hope you got on.

Teemu Pukki – Another explosion with his hat-trick. A fine example of what can happen when you are on the ball in-play. His rise was massive so many people had lots of opportunities to get on and off with some profit. Whereas I was totally unaware as was working. Oh well.

Sunday 18th Aug

Sundays are usually a lot better for me (as long as I am not working at a game) as lots of games are available live somewhere and kick-off times are spread out accordingly across the day. This can help with focussing on specific games.

Hits

Mason Mount – He was playing in a Super Sunday game. He is a young exciting Englishman. He opened the scoring. I bought at £3.05. I sold at £3.32. Bread and butter.

Marcel Sabitzer – I knew of people talking about him earlier in the week so he had some incentive to keep my eye on him. He then goes and bags three assists and a goal for himself. I think I got on when he scored and reaped the rewards, as he continued to smash it afterwards with two more assists.

My only regret is not buying more when he got his second assist, as that was the point he went wild going up around 30p I believe. I kept him for a week or so before selling for a 50% profit.

Marcel Halstenberg – Another player with popularity. The defender opened the scoring so he was guaranteed a nice rise. I bought at 99p. He went on to reach £1.17 when he grabbed another assist. However, I didn’t sell as was too seduced by the 3p IPDs. He then dropped to £1.07 at full time. Hit and miss but I kept for a bit before selling.

(I had a really good day as other highlights were Sergio Reguillon, Martin Hinteregger and some others.)

Misses

Filip Kostic – He grabbed an assist within a minute. His PB score was doing very well. He shot up in price and I kind of just watched it happen. Slow from me but I can be stubborn at times and almost refuse to get on once missing the initial rise.

Monday 20th August

Hits

Anthony Martial – Tony Marshall as he is also known, has a lot of eyes on his potential role this season. If he is the leading striker, the Man Utd fans that are on the Index will be all over it. He bagged a goal in the Chelsea game and another one here would see another spike.

He did and I bought. £3.21 I got on and £3.48 I got off. Lovely jubbly.

I got on Ruben Neves at £1.66 & then at £1,69 when he smashed in the equaliser and sold at around the £1.76 mark so not bad. Nice little bonus.

So there are some picked out trades from that weekend. I make A LOT of trades so to list them all would be silly. I have left out the weekend after this as the article would become too long, but it was also a decent one overall with some steady profit.

Remember, not all trades come off. Some hardly move and I sell at a small loss after commission. Sometimes I am just too late to the party. It happens. Every week. It’s part of the game.

I am gonna mention that I do like IPDs and for this weekend of the 17th and 18th of August, I had a total haul of £133 for Saturday and Sunday. These are a lovely commission-free bonus that tallies up over time.

My current total of £2,356(ish) of dividends is mainly IPDs. I can’t put an exact figure on it but 90% wouldn’t surprise me. This is my buzz that others get from PB and MB wins. Get your buzzes where you can. : D

 

So what do you think?

I haven’t gone into real fine details on this first episode as a lot of time has been put into clarifying a few things and keeping it on a general theme for an opening update. The episodes will be shorter I suspect going forward once it gets going.

It goes without saying I was very happy with the results even with missing out on some HUGE profits and with the odd trading mistake, but let this be a sign of what can really be achieved on this platform.

Reminder:

I now have £9,683 in the Index from starting with £6,700. (as of 30th August – 5pm)

I made £2,983 in 19 days. That is a return of 44.52% in this period.

I can tell you my overall profit now sits at £14,482 as of 30th August 2019. I have put £2.5k of my own money as a true deposit. I started the index on the 5th September 2018, so coming up to a year. I am glad I joined. : D

So, that’s the first episode done and dusted. Let me know what you think by commenting on the article, sending me a message or tweet to @GingerPirlo_FI and you can always find me on IndexGain. If you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for? You can do so on this link.

Just one last thing to finish…

…do you think you can make a living from Football Index? 😀

Peace out. Good luck with your trading!

To sign up to Football Index click this link and give it a go. You won’t regret it!

“This is literally what the index can offer. It’s like you are cheating to make money”

An intro.

Almost a year ago, I saw an advert on telly late at night with John Motson telling me about a football stock market where you can buy and sell shares in players for a profit. I was intrigued. The next day I had a look into it, asked a few questions and signed up sticking £50 in my account.

One of the first google searches I made was ‘Can I make a living from Football Index?’.

Now, this is an open question as what defines as ‘a living’? How much are we talking? Over what time period? Per month? Per annum? In fact, why would I even ask that question to begin with?

I already had a few contract roles in and around football as a performance analyst and scout with other bits and bobs and was looking for something else to add onto my bow of regular income.

I didn’t hold my breath that this stock market for footballers thing was like striking oil, but I was interested enough to give it a go given my years of casual gambling, especially on the Betfair Exchange, and it also seemed a little similar to fantasy football but for real money.

I was signed up to the initial ‘£500 refund in your first-week’ offer at the time and after a couple of days playing around with £50, I stuck in some more. My opening risk-free week wasn’t exactly groundbreaking but I had a clear choice once the time period was up. Stay with it, or sell up and get your money back.

I went back and forth for a bit and couldn’t make my mind up as to what to do, but in the end, I chose the former and decided to give it a proper go…and thank f*ck I did!

Who am I?

“…my all-time profit stood at just a hint over £10k at £10,087.58.”

Joining Football Index is one of the best things I have ever done. If you are reading this and haven’t signed up yet, then do it on this link here. You won’t regret it, I can promise you that. If you are already a trader, then you will probably agree with me. What a platform.

My background is I was a Performance Analyst for a few years, analysing games from around the world via WyScout with Bundesliga being my specialist league for a couple of seasons. I ended this in January this year.

I was also a Prediction Analyst for the same company, literally making predictions and getting paid for it. Again, Bundesliga was my specialist league with also League One in my safe hands. I finished my last league season with a 30% yield which was very healthy.

I have been a Premier League Match Operator for several years, gathering stats and data at PL matches from inside the stadium. This is the best job in the world. I won’t give this up in a hurry. I have also done some (in-depth!) scouting reports for lower league sides and done every coaching badge under the sun, with the B licence my last one.

I have been on FI since September 2018 and at the end of the 2018-19 season, my all-time profit stood at just a hint over £10k at £10,087.58. So, that’s ten grand made in around eight to nine months of signing up. This blew away all my expectations.

(the below image includes a cancelled withdrawal so trust me it was £10k, not £11.2k)

What’s even more mind-blowing is that I am not a big roller. I am not a whale. I don’t have limitless amounts of gambling money to plough into this thing. Remember, I am a lad who googled if I could make a living out of it. Making £10k profit in say nine months was created from an investment of around £2.5k of my own money.

To make things even better I have been “free rolling” for some time now, which basically means I have withdrawn all of my initial investment and trading with nothing but profit. My net deposits at the end of the season stood at -£2,200. That’s (minus)£2.2k. Nothing but profit. Sweet.

What did I do?

“Now, this wasn’t anything special. To me it was obvious.”

So, how did I do it? Well, it wasn’t in the way you may think, which is why I have started this blog/diary that will show my ongoing trades on the index for the 2019-20 season. I am different from what you may have seen or heard at this point so I thought it would be good to show you.

Let me go straight off the bat and say I am not a long term trader. As in I don’t have long term holds. I don’t have any screenshots to show you of Sancho in my port with a 200% rise. I am not your man for that.

I have had occasions during my time on the index where players have risen whilst holding very nicely and very quickly, of course, but my point is I am not a “stamp collector” type. The three-year hold and beyond type. That isn’t what I am. I have settled on my own style and strategy after trying most of them in the book at some point.

In the past, I have ‘invested’ in a mixture of big fish like a Pogba, Messi or Ronaldo, to relative plankton (in price terms) like a Bruno Alves. These trades have brought me mixed success. So mixed that at some point I decided holding players for a long time isn’t for me.

One reason for this is I just don’t have the patience for it. I have admitted that to myself. It’s important to be honest with yourself on the index and holding players long term, in general, isn’t for me. So why pretend?

Because holding and building your portfolio is what the index is all about? Who says? Adam Cole? There are no rules. You don’t need a portfolio set for three years. That’s a choice, not a requirement. I have nothing against traders who do but I believe I can make more money focussing short term.

Like I say, I have had some successful holds. One of my best was buying Pogba on Boxing Day, post-crash after the Mourinho sacking when he bagged himself a brace. I held him for a few months up until the share split in March, where I then sold.

Now, this wasn’t anything special. To me it was obvious. Everybody on the index should have done the same no matter your budget. Just because I don’t have a long term hold strategy in general, if I have the opportunity to make a good profit over a period of time longer than my usual, I may take it.

Now, this hold was for three months and in my head, that was a long term hold. This just shows it isn’t for me. Three months doesn’t even count as a hold to some folk. That’s a potential hold that is just getting started.

For me, I couldn’t wait to get out when I thought he had reached his peak and took great satisfaction in banking the profit into my account balance.

Why short term?

“…why would I bother with the latter? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Why do I have such a need to get out of holds/trades you may be thinking? Accessibility.

During my time on the index I have gone through those moments where you see something happening, whether it be a big transfer story breaking, a manager (like Jose) getting sacked or someone scoring a brace or a hat trick and you have nothing in your account to use to get on the incoming rise.

This drove me mad. There was nothing worse for me than having my money tied up in holds that may be stagnant or worse yet at a loss, when I could be making a shed load on what is happening right here, right now in front of me. I almost vowed to myself to not be left in that position again.

As I have said, I am not a big cheese with loads of spare cash in my bank to deposit at any time I want. The money I had available was put in and I got it out again as soon as I could. I’m not interested in depositing any more. That’s done and I am a free roller from now on.

Another reason I don’t have long term holds is I realised I was making more money from short term and in-play trading. So this links in with needing access to as much funds as possible to react and buy into short term flips.

If I can make more money on a player scoring a brace in a match, than a player slowly rising over the course of a few months, or even weeks, why would I bother with the latter? It doesn’t make sense to me.

All traders have strengths and weaknesses. They have pros and cons.

Some have lots of available money but don’t have the time to keep track, so they invest accordingly.

Some have lots of money but don’t have any real knowledge about football, so trade accordingly.

Some don’t have lots of money but do have football knowledge, so trade accordingly.

One of my strengths is I have a lot of time and access to live football matches, as well as the index itself. I try to use this strength to benefit me as much as I can. I do so to counter the weakness of not having a sh*t load of money to invest with.

It may be harder work for me to make a certain amount in a day, then for someone who doesn’t even bother to look at his port that often, but I am willing to do it and try to make it as worthwhile as possible.

Up to this point, I can say it has been a huge success and I am hoping to make it even better.

The goal and strategies

“The strategy is also low risk, which is another reason why I do it.”

This article is an intro into me and what I am planning to do for this season, which will be an ongoing record of my trades and the profits made in that time. With also a view on how much money it took to make such profits, which is important.

Any rich bloke with more money than sense can profit on the Index during this boom period but I like to show what the little guy can achieve on a relatively modest budget.

Whether I update and send out this blog on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis I haven’t decided yet. I will see how it unfolds naturally.

It’s also there to be used and discussed as an example for traders (or potential traders) for what can be achieved from having a strategy like mine.

What you need to know is I make the bulk of my money from the following:

• Buying goalscorers/assisters asap. These may be particularly popular players, or players with a profitable spread compared to the in-play dividends just gained for e.g. a player scoring with already an assist (2p IPDs) with a 1p spread. Players participating in a pre-2pm deadline fixture who could win PB for the day etc.
• Fixture buys leading up to certain favourable games ie a perceived “easy” fixture(s), potential IPD or PB players, early pre-2pm dividend deadline kick-offs, specific game weeks for e.g single game days, 5 game double game days etc. These are made ideally in good time and hold through the rise leading up to game day.
• Line up announcements. Players that traders would be keen to buy based on starting a game. Like a wonderkid or a player usually on the bench who has a favourable price/spread like Origi near the end of last season for e.g.
• Buying injury replacement players asap. A first-team player looks to have a serious injury so his direct or indirect replacement in that position may get significant game time or time in the squad. Cheap alternative or wonderkids especially.
• Potential PB monsters. During a game day a player can be putting in a monster PB score, which can be an unexpected player or a repeat player showing they can be consistent throughout the season. This may be at half time or whenever it seems noticeable.

I also have other ways of making money such as IPO announcements (new players entering the market) which can be extremely profitable. Transfer stories during the correct part of the season. Managerial sackings or changes that may benefit a certain player. Plus others I am probably forgetting.

The above bullet points are mainly around game days and matches which is my bread and butter strategy on the index and what I will be focussing on for this blog/diary or whatever you wanna call it to show what can be achieved with a relatively small budget.

The strategy is also low risk, which is another reason why I do it. What can be safer than buying a player who has just tapped in his second goal of the game who has a very good spread and is mopping up the performance points as well as in-play divs?

Imagine you are in the bookies and you see this player score on the telly, you very quickly hand the next goalscorer slip to the person behind the counter, they take it, then pay you winnings for your trouble! This is literally what the index can offer. It’s like you are cheating to make money.

It sometimes feels like you can rewind time to back the next goalscorer and make money on him or like owning the sports book off Back To The Future. Seriously, making money on players AFTER they have scored still blows my mind. 

It’s crazy and something I picked up on almost immediately after I joined and studied match day trends…and that was before in-play divs even existed!

Back then certain players who scored were bought based on sentiment and seen as “in- form” for future performance or PB potential. With FI now paying traders IPD’s for owning these players at any time during the match day, it’s even less risky and more profitable!

What about Dividends?

“At the end of the day, the chances of your player being the number one performing man that day are slim…”

Some may notice I have hardly if at all, used the word dividends, not including In-Play Dividends of course. This is because I don’t really care about them. Or should I say I don’t really aim to win them. I see them as a bonus, nothing more.

If I do own a player going into a game day, then I may decide to keep him to see if he can put in a PB performance. This is maybe due to how I feel at the time. Maybe I am bored. Maybe I am super confident he is going to smash it. Who knows?

But this is not a solid strategy for me. I don’t chase dividends. Whether it be performance or media. I don’t really care.

At the end of the day, unless you own 90% of the index, the chances of your player being the number one performing man that day are slim. Especially on Treble game days with like 18 or so fixtures.  It’s nice if it happens but chances are he won’t so why bother chasing it?

Plus how much would you win in any case? 100 shares in Messi for a 5p win? Maybe 7p if he is the star man gets you a £7 win. That’s nice but is that worth having £500 tied up in him?

And for how long? All season? What if he does his ACL? Fails a drug test and is banned? I owned Ronaldo in my early days so have felt the force of price shattering news. So in short, it’s not for me, Clive. Not any more. Been there and had the FI t-shirt burned.

Media Buzz isn’t really something I am interested in either. The usual suspects win most often like Pogba but again, given his price how many shares would I need to own to make it worthwhile? A lot is the answer. So given I don’t have long term holds I pretty much ignore it. Not my market so I won’t try to pretend it is.

Some traders despise this idea of “not caring about dividends” but these traders usually have huge ports and/or have a decent amount of shares in the main performance players & mop dividends up regularly. Making the 5p or so on offer, very profitable indeed.

Good luck to them. As mentioned earlier, all traders are different with strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, what’s important is to trade accordingly to those. There is no right or wrong way, only your way. Whatever you feel is the best outcome for you.

So, can I make a living from Football Index?

“If I can make £2k a month from the Index I will be a happy man.”

In short, yes.

For me, I see it and use it as kind of a part-time job within itself. The regular income stacks up and giving I get in and get out quickly, having access to my profit in my account at my fingertips more often than not, I can take it out and bank it.

My profit of £10k last season was split into two parts: Pre-share split and post-share split.

Before the share split in March, I had an all-time profit of around £5k which was made over 6 months. This isn’t making a living in most cases. After the share split, I doubled that £5k in around 6 weeks. Doubled. Now that’s a spicy meatball.

That’s like making £4k a month in your job? A thousand pound a week. If you make that, fair play. The highest-paid job I ever had was £40k a year and that’s before tax.

I will say the amount gained at the end of last season was unique. Given my strategy, there were games on almost every day during that six week period and I milked the f*ck out of it more often than not. So I am not expecting those returns every month.

In fact, I will say I am targeting half that. If I can make £2k a month from the Index I will be a happy man. Is that “making a living”? I would say so. No taxes remember. 😀

Final word.

“This was gained with plenty of f*ck ups and mistakes. “

I have rattled on here for longer than planned, which is usually the case once I start typing, but the point of this article is to show you what I have done and what I am planning to do going forward.

You can take what I do as you wish. You can like it, you can hate it, you can find it interesting, you may not. You may take something from it and add it to your own strategy, you may not. Up to you.

The point of the blog is to show that there is more than one way to make money on Football Index.

There are lots of podcasts and articles out there which more or less all focus on holds and portfolios. I can’t say I have seen one that says, you don’t need a traditional portfolio to make money…

Well, in effect, this blog will do that.

Don’t get me wrong, there may be times where I decide to hold a player for a given length of time and I will give a reason for this. I may see it as very beneficial to drag it out as a hold. I’m not allergic to holds, I just don’t work to the “building a portfolio” mentality.

I have started the season with £6.7k in the index. At any given time I will have money tied into players on a “port” the rest will be in my account ready to use and access. This is key, on match days especially.

My total profit at this point after just under a year on the Index is £11,656.07p.

This was gained with plenty of f*ck ups and mistakes. I am not perfect and always make good decisions or things always pull off. This is definitely not the case. I have had plenty of money slip through my fingers and flushed down the toilet, it will happen again.

My initial investment was £2.5k and I will NOT be depositing any more into the index. I will withdraw from time to time. I may withdraw regularly each month, kind of like a wage, haven’t decided yet.

This blog will mainly be about going in hard and fast and getting out with a profit. It will show you the profit made, or the losses as this is the index after all. It will also try and show you the money invested at the time to achieve such profit. See how it goes.

Follow me on Twitter @GingerPirlo_FI 

Enough said. Let’s do this.

To sign up to Football Index click this link and give it a go. You won’t regret it!