FI Weekly Mag Issue 009 - 01/06/19

Issue 9 01/07/19

Weekly Magazine Unofficial Weekly Magazine for Football Index Traders

Beware the Pump and Dump In light of recent events, this week’s article focuses on ‘pumping and dumping’, a problem that can easily lead to quick losses on Football Index if you’re not careful.

Football Index Weekly Magazine has tried to avoid being too focussed on, well, Football Index. Of course, this magazine has sprung from the platform and is aimed at those who use it, but it is also meant to be a magazine that even the casual football fan can enjoy; articles discussing football topics with enough nuggets of information that are interesting to traders, but not too overbearing should someone oblivious to Football Index stumble across it and start reading. Hopefully, we’ve been able to find that happy medium in the first 8 issues.

This week feels like the need for an exception; this is a very Football Index-centred piece, discussing ‘pumping and dumping’.

Follow us on Twitter @FI_WeeklyMag and join the discussion #footballindex

What is pumping and dumping?

Pumping and dumping is an age old fraud within the trading market. People will identify a low-cost share and purchase it in high quantities, artificially increasing the market. Alongside this, they will share false and misleading positive statements about the share, encouraging others to purchase too at a ‘bargain price’.

As others get on board, drawn in by this misinformation, excited by the prospect of ‘getting in early’ to make a big and quick profit, and fearing missing out as the price rises, they purchase at a higher price than those who initiated the pump.

With the price now even higher given the new traders who have jumped on, the original pumpers mass sell their shares at the inflated price. They walk away with a tidy profit, whilst everyone else sits there with stock that is essentially worthless.

Can you give an example in Football Index?

Imagine a player is valued

at 20p. User A may buy 9000 shares in the player, taking his price to 30p (900 shares to move 1p). His average cost would therefore be 25p.

With the player’s name now appearing in the trending list, along with false information being shared online, User B buys 1800 shares, taking the price to 32p (average 31p). Users C, D and E do the same, buying on average at 33p, 35p and 37p, taking the price of the player to 38p.

User A, seeing the price now up to 38p, mass sells all 9000 of his shares. This may be easy for him too, either through low spread instantselling or with others still jumping on and buying. All 9000 sell at an average price of 33p. With FI’s commision at 2%, and a minimum of 1p, User A walks away with 32p per share; a 7p increase on his original price and £630 profit across the 9000 shares.

Unfortunately, this drops the price of the player to 28p, meaning Users B, C, D and E are between 3p and 9p down per share. With no one else buying the player - because,

in actual fact, he was never a good trade - coupled with others who are now panic instant selling to try to avoid the crash, which could push the price even lower - these Users are left at a loss with little chance of recovering their money.

Why do people pump and dump?

Because it’s an ‘easy’ way to make money. They are gambling on people’s emotions and greed: people have a fear of missing out and get greedy thinking they can get in early enough to make a big profit. They therefore don’t think rationally before purchasing, ending up stung.

So if it’s easy, why shouldn’t I start doing it?

There are 3 main reasons we would strongly suggest you avoid this.

Firstly, you could get stung yourself. If people catch on to the pump and dump - it doesn’t take a genius to spot one, aside from having such an excellent community of FI fans on Twitter who call people out - they will avoid

How to Avoid a Pump and Dump Use trusted sources: If you’re buying off a tip, make sure the source is trustworthy. Is it a respected journalist who has a history of reporting big transfers, or ‘Random Guy Football Index’ who says his mate’s mum’s bosses’ cousin saw so and so at the airport?

Research: Do additional research into why you’re buying a player. You might have to delay a quick trade, but you could save yourself the agony of realising not all is as it seems.

Caution the Rocket: Pumps usually follow the same format: ‘X is amazing! This boy is gonna (rocket emoji)! Definitely buy him!’ Genuine tips tend to give a more balanced story with pros and cons about the player.

Beware the trending list: If a cheap player is trending, do your research; don’t just buy.

buying the player; leaving you at a loss with the commission you would lose off the sale.

Secondly, Football Index themselves may get involved and ban your account. It is fraudulent, and such suspicious activity is easily spotted. Even if they don’t close your account, they may vastly increase the spread of the Instant Sell, putting you at even more of a loss when you’re stuck with a player you no longer want.

And lastly, it can damage the growth of the platform. Those most likely to fall for the pump and dump are new users to the platform. If they get stung in this way - unaware of what’s really going on - they are far more likely to withdraw all their money and stay away from the paltform altogether, telling others that the whole thing is a scam. This would mean negative publicity for Football Index and less users; making things harder for everyone who is trading.

There’s also a fourth reason: it’s simply a bit of a shitty thing to do.

How can I avoid the pump and dump?

We’ve put a few ways that you can avoid a pump in the box to the left. But the golden rule is to avoid making rash decisions and only trade when you are confident. As Warren Buffett said: ‘The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient’. Don’t let others take your money so easily.

Dividend Winners 24/06 - 30/06

24/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) 730 Neymar Aaron Wan-Bissaka 580 530 Lionel Messi 390 Kieran Tierney 280 Sadio Mane

28/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) Aaron Wan-Bissaka 1000 620 Wilfried Zaha 470 Neymar 380 Gabriel Jesus 320 Lionel Messi

25/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) 860 Neymar 660 Sadio Mane Aaron Wan-Bissaka 460 390 Kieran Tierney 330 Tanguy NDombele

29/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) Aaron Wan-Bissaka 1820 440 Marcus Rashford Paul Pogba 410 360 Lionel Messi 240 Mattijs de Ligt

26/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) Aaron Wan-Bissaka 1660 510 Paul Pogba 500 Kieran Tierney 420 Neymar 340 Tanguy NDombele

30/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) 680 Neymar Aaron Wan-Bissaka 560 540 Bruno Fernandes 380 Paul Pogba 350 Mohamed Salah

27/06/19 5 x Media Day Media Buzz (First to Fifth) Neymar 780 Aaron Wan-Bissaka 770 Matthijs de Ligt 310 Romelu Lukaku 260 Kieran Tierney 260

This Week 5 x Media all week ALL SUMMER! Footie: 106,285

+5,345

Football Index Guru

Guest Blog

Football Index Guru has been on Football Index since May 2018 and has a 67% ROI. Over the course of the summer, he will feature in a weekly guest blog. You can follow him on Twitter @IndexGuru.

For Real Madrid the 2018/19 season was one of the most disappointing in recent history.

For a club of such magnitude, such poor league form that has seen them win only one title in the last seven years would normally seem like a serious failure. However, this form was brushed aside a little by winning 4 Champions League titles in this time including 3 in a row from 2016-2018. Last season the Champions League exit in the round of 16 to a young Ajax side showed that with their weakness in the league, a lot was left to be desired in the club since the unexpected departures of talisman Cristiano Ronaldo and manager Zinedine Zidane at the end of the 17/18 season. Zidane has since returned to the club and has made 5 huge big-money signings to try and make up the 8-point deficit to local rivals Atletico Madrid and the 19-point gap with Barcelona as they seek to lift the clubs’ 34th La Liga title in the 19/20 season. Let’s take a look at these signings and how they might compare to the players who have similar roles at there already.

Rodrygo: £40.5m The first signing that we will look at is the incredibly exciting wonderkid from Santos who is only 18 years old. The tricky Brazilian winger could be the basis of the future Real attack but doesn’t typically fit the style of signing that the club would normally go for. Many compare this signing to when Barcelona brought Neymar (£7.71) from Santos and think that Madrid are doing this to get ahead of the competition by bringing in the next Neymar early. In the opening 4 games this season, he has scored 1 goal and provided 2 assists.

With 4 shots per game Rodrygo would improve his tally of 11 goal contributions in 30 starts. When looking to compare what Rodrygo could do for Real Madrid is hard because we don’t know what role he will take in the squad. When Neymar took to La Liga he scored 9 goals in 19 starts and contributed 8 assists. At £2.45 Rodrygo is highly priced due to his huge potential and if he repeats the numbers that Neymar produced, he could well be a bargain.

5 Questions With...

FI Bruce Wayne FI Bruce Wayne has been on Football Index since October 2015 and has a phenomenal 650% ROI. (No, that is not a typo.) You can follow him on Twitter @Football_INDEX_ Best Buy: Purchasing 2000 Lionel Messi futures just before Performance Buzz (Match-day rankings) was introduced. Looking at statistics and data from previous seasons, it was obvious he was going to be the player that would be most suited to any scoring matrix, so I decided to buy 2000 futures and it paid out handsomely. That day was one of my best ever days on the platform. My portfolio went up 16% in one day mainly all because of Messi.

Worst Buy: Over the last year Sergio Ramos was my worst buy. I purchased some Ramos futures in August. I purchased these futures because I expected Real Madrid to go far in the UCL, he was getting some good Performance Buzz scores and taking penalties. Defenders that regularly score goals are a rarity and will always do well. However, Real Madrid’s form totally dropped off and they ended up having a terrible season, which included being

Ferland Mendy: £43.2m The French left back has been very impressive this season for Lyon helping them to finish third in the table and progressing to the last 16 of the Champions League where they were put out by future semi-finalists Barcelona. At left-back Real Madrid have the aging Marcelo (£0.49) who at 31 years old has been linked with moves away from Madrid with only 21 starts in La Liga this season. When comparing Mendy to Marcelo it is important to look at their general style before looking at the statistics. Mendy is genereally a stronger defensive option than Marcelo who is known for his attacking prowess from full-back. This can be seen in the stats: both players average 1.5 tackles per game but Mendy has 1.1 interceptions per game compared to Marcelo’s 0.7 and 1.4 clearances per game compared to 0.6. When you think of Marcelo as an attacking full back you would think he would dominate Mendy in attacking stats but he doesn’t massively. Both players have scored the same number of goals but Marcelo has got 1 more assist. Marcelo does average 2.9 passes more per game with 0.1 key passes per game more than Mendy. When it comes to PB however, Mendy takes it with a PB average of 87.36 compared to Marcelo’s average of 67.32 and his peak score this season of 199 compared to Marcelo’s peak of 185. At £0.90 he has a lot of potential to rise if Madrid improve next season.

Part 2 will feature in next week’s issue, looking at Eder Militao, Luka Jovic and Eden Hazard!

knocked out very early in the UCL by Ajax. Also, Ramos himself got injured and picked up a couple of suspensions over a short period of time. Frustratingly, Real Madrid did get three penalties during that time and two of those penalties were the game winning goal. I was lucky enough to get out before his price totally collapsed and he has been steadily declining now for about 6 months.

Biggest Regret: Selling Paul Pogba just after the news about Jose Mourinho being sacked had come out. I thought his dividends would drop off and his price would fall now that Mourinho was gone but that was not the case. He dominated Media over the following few weeks and also when he returned to the pitch he put in some good performances, which led to a couple of Performance Buzz wins. After the initial price drop on the day of the Jose Mourinho sacking his price just rocketed back upwards, higher then his previous all time high.

I sold all my Pogba futures on the news and I worked out that including IS, dividends he won in the next two weeks and his price increase over those two weeks I lost over £5,000. I ended up buying him back after two weeks.

Best Tip: I’m going to go for a player who should be good hold in the long term, 19 year old Jadon Sancho. He is currently ranked as one of the best teenage footballers in the world and has an estimated transfer value of £130million. Sancho had an excellent breakthrough season in his first season at Borussia Dortmund, where he scored 12 goals and got 14 assists in 34 league games and I would expect him to push on even more in his second season.

Next summer could be huge for Sancho. Firstly, we have Euro 2020 to look forward to and he should be one of the star men for England in a tournament that England should progress far in. Secondly, I would expect him to be pushing for a move back to the Premier League, which should see him become the most expensive player on Football Index. Also, his future dividend potential is one of the highest out of anyone on the platform, he could pick up over £1 in dividends every year for the next 8 years at the very least, if he moves back to the Premier League. He only turns 20 in March 2020.

Best Piece of Advice: One thing I would say to everyone is make sure you read all the rules before joining. Why would you invest your hard earned money into something you don’t understand because you haven’t read all the rules. It’s something totally basic but I have seen a lot of people asking simple questions, which they would have already known the answer to if they read the rules properly before they joined. It will make your Football Index experience a lot smoother and more enjoyable.

Please remember: Football Index is a gambling platform.

Do not put in more than you can afford to lose.

Please gamble responsibly.