There are lots of ways to make money at Jockbrokers and there will be some that lose money. We have listed some solid strategies below to help you to decide your own strategy. The best advice that we can give anyone is to take advantage of our bonuses listed here and always diversify. The biggest risk anyone takes at Jockbrokers is to have too high of a percentage of your portfolio invested in any single athlete.

Buy low, sell high - This may seem obvious but it is the basic premise of stock trading and it should be applied here as well. There are many ways to do this that will be discussed below but the key is to find a point where an athlete is at his lowest point. In other words, buying a player that just won the Super bowl or who seems to be peaking is not a good investment. Always ask yourself this question before placing your buy order. "Based on the current on field performance of the athlete, what upside potential is there from here"? If you cannot see a way for this athlete to substantially out perform his recent history he is usually not a good investment at that time unless you feel that his price in the market is lower than it should be based on his current performance.

Buy at the right time - Again, this might seem obvious but don't forget that performance bonuses are paid out to the owner of the athlete's shares at 4:59p EST  for all athletes in the market. This means that in essence you could buy at 4:58p EST and sell at 5:01p EST and you are the one paid the performance bonus. Be aware that even if you buy at 4:58p, you still need to buy bargains. The reason the player is posted at a bargain could mean that demand is low for that player so selling at 5:01 may be impossible. Also, once the performance bonus is collected, the demand and of course price, might have to be lowered to find a buyer. Still, if you have had your eye on a player for a while, the best time to buy is when you know he will earn a monthly or season-ending performance bonus. What you have to balance is whether to wait and hope the posted sell doesn't expire or that someone else buys it up in front of you.

Sell at the right time - This is hard to know but always ask yourself this question before selling. "What is the downside of this athlete"? If you think that the athlete cannot do any worse then why sell at his lowest value? This is a good time to check the Hall-of-Fame buy-back table associated with your athlete. You will find a link to this on the athlete's profile page. If he retired today, where does he qualify for the buy-back? If he qualifies for a $50 buy back then even if he retired immediately he cannot be worth less than $50 because Jockbrokers would pay you that amount. If you cannot get much more, then you are better off keeping it and hoping that he returns to form.

Buy the young players - Not all the young players are bargains but sometimes there is that diamond in the rough. Those players that had very little hype coming into the pros but did well after they got there. Some examples are Albert Pujols, Tom Brady, and Jeremy Lin. You just have to avoid the mistakes like Ryan Leaf, J.D. Drew, and JaMarcus Russell. Had Jockbrokers been open when Albert Pujols was a rookie, our estimate is that he would have sold in his release around $5. Today, he would be a level 2 Hall of Famer who would be projected to finish his career at Level 1 and would probably be selling around $175.

Off-Season Buying - Many investors will make the mistake of not depositing enough money in their Jockbrokers account to do everything they want to do. For this reason, during the off-season many traders might sell their players at a lower price than if they were currently performing so that they can invest that money into in-season players. For this one you must be a patient investor because you will have to hold the player until he is playing again to have any shot of making money. Even then the player might start slow, have injuries, or lose his starting position which could cause huge drops in their value.

Buying injured players - Many investors will not want to wait until a player returns from injury or they might be speculating that the player will not return to form or they may never return. If you feel that a player will rebound well from an injury this might be a great time to buy them up at a lower price than normal.

Scandals and Suspensions - It seems that athletes are always in some scandal. While Jockbrokers is a performance based market, it is also a free market, which means that popularity could effect price. In addition to traders losing interest in an athlete, therefore dropping price to sell them, they might also assume that the scandal may influence future on-field performance, cause a long-term ban, or prompt early retirement. These are very legitimate concerns but if you are convinced that the athlete will bounce back you can find some great values in the market. Tiger Woods and Michael Vick come to mind in this example.

Labor Disputes - When a strike happens or is threatened all fans hate it but this just adds another wrinkle for Jockbrokers traders. You should consider this strategy much like off-season buying or injury buying. The good news is that we know they are not going to strike forever, but be aware that for some older players this might prompt early retirement.

Buy Bulk Portfolios - This is the option that all Jockbrokers traders are given to be able to sell off their entire portfolio in one auction. The seller is happy that he can get money fast and not have to take possession of his cards and try to sell them elsewhere. The buyer should inevitably get a bargain unless they mess up in bidding. In some cases you might be able to buy for as low as 20% of the value in the open market then break it up, keep some, sell some, and make solid profits.

We sincerely hope that all traders make money in the Jockbrokers market but not everyone can make money. Using these basic strategies will only pay off if you make good decisions as well.