Ultimate Team mode was released ten years ago and trading was always part of the game. FUT Chief, specialist on Trading and Investing Advice for the FIFA Market, helped us to summarize the history of FUT trading in a single page. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter.
YEAR
FIFA 09 – FIFA 16 | FIFA 17 | FIFA 18 | FIFA 19
Short History of FUT Trading
Introduction
Over the past three FIFA instalments, there have been drastic changes to the landscape of FUT trading and investing. Prior to FIFA 17, there were limited methods for generating coins. However, EA has made some great additions to Ultimate Team in the past couple years that have allowed even the casual player to profit from the transfer market. In this page, we will introduce you the history of FUT trading and the investing and trading strategies from FIFA 09-16, FIFA 17, FIFA 18, as well predictions for what FIFA 19 might have to offer.
FIFA 09 – FIFA 16
Ultimate Team was introduced as a game mode in 2009. From that point until FIFA 16, there were relatively few ways to make coins on the transfer market. They can be broken down into 5 methods.
1 TOTW INVESTING
The idea behind this strategy is based on tenants of supply and demand. Every Wednesday, a new Team of the Week (TOTW) is released based on player performances from the previous week. These upgraded cards remain in packs from Wednesday at 6PM until the following Wednesday at the same time.
Initially, player prices for these upgrades are expensive due to the lack of supply. However, as more packs are opened throughout the week, prices drop in price, often reaching their lowest levels on sometime between Sunday and Wednesday.
Then, when these players are removed from packs, they generally rise steadily in price. Antonio Valencia is a great example of this from FIFA 18 – he rose from 164,667 coins to 739,760 coins in three months following exiting packs after TOTW 1.
To be clear, not all situations are as profitable as Valencia’s was last year. However, it is a good example to show just how good of an investing strategy buying TOTW players before they exit packs can be.
A pairing strategy that coincides with TOTW Investing is the Out-of-Packs method. For TOTW 1, when inform Valencia went into packs, his base card went out of packs. This cut in supply (particularly in the early stages of the game when card volume is so low) also often causes for price increases. Gold cards also go out of packs for other special cards as well (e.g. TOTS, TOTKS, MOTM, etc.).
2 SNIPING
While TOTW investing is more of a long-term strategy in the sense you hold the player for days or weeks until he rises, sniping is a bit different. With this strategy, you try to win a player through “Buy it now” by purchasing him for 10%+ less than his regular price (smaller percentage necessary for more expensive players).
For example, say the cheapest Nainggolan on the market has a “Buy it now” price of 200k. That means you should attempt sniping him for 180k (10% of 200 is 20, 200-20=180k) by setting your maximum “Buy it now” price to 180k.
After winning a snipe, often times you immediately list to try and liquidate your profit. Again using Nainggolan as an example, if you win him for 180k and sell him for 200k, you have a net profit of 10k (200k * .95 = 190k – 180k = 10k).
3 BIDDING
Similar to the sniping strategy, bidding also requires you to buy players for 10%+ less (smaller percentage necessary for more expensive players) than their current cheapest BIN price on the market. The difference is that you bid on the player rather than buying it now.
4 PRICE FIXING
A method that takes time and patience, price fixing is buying many cards of a particular player who is popular in FIFA. For example, Sadio Doumbia was overpowered in FIFA 15. You buy all of his listings from 5,000-6,000 coins. Then, you sell your cards at the new minimum price of 6,000 coins, a profit of 700 coins per card (6,000 * .95 = 5,700 – 5,000 – 700).
5 OLD IN FORM TECHNIQUE
This is a strategy for later in the FIFA trading season as players begin to get multiple informs. When the new TOTW comes out, many players panic sell IF’s if the player they have gets a new one. After looking at multiple cases, usually the low point of this occurs around 2 hours following TOTW release on Twitter (1 hour before they are released in packs). For example, in the 2 hours after Martial 2IF was released, his 1IF dropped to 145,000. However, 8 hours later, it’s price is up to 175,000, and by Friday it rose to 200K+.
FIFA 17
For this installment of Ultimate Team, EA added some features that created 4 new methods for investing.
1 SBCs
Similar to how the forward pass changed the game of American football, so too was FUT Trading revolutionized by one addition: the Squad Building Challenge. There are many different ways to invest for SBCs, but a few include: Marquee Matchups, Players of the Month (POTM) and League SBCs.
2 BRONZE PACK METHOD (BPM)
With an abundance of new SBCs, players in FIFA 17 began to have value for reasons that weren’t related directly to their usability in-game. Many bronze players who wouldn’t have sold for 200 coins previously would now be purchased for thousands of coins due to challenge requirements. For this reason, BPM became a popular coin-generating strategy in FIFA 17.
In addition to players, other consumables (squad fitness, contacts, employees, etc.) could be flipped for profit with some patience.
3 ONES TO WATCH CARDS (OTW)
EA introduced these “live” items in FIFA 17 for the first time. Investing in these players could prove very profitable if you get them before their match. For example, if Pogba has a TOTW-worthy performance for United, you would see his price increase for the impending upgrade.
4 WEEKEND LEAGUE INVESTING
The grueling 40-game Weekend League format began in FIFA 17. This feature created consistent market schedule in which player prices were often the highest on Fridays (when people were buying their WL teams) and lowest on Sundays (when people were selling their WL teams). To invest, simply buy commonly used and overpowered players on Sunday and sell back on Friday.
FIFA 18
A big part of this game was centered around the fact that it coincided with the World Cup. We had 2 new strategies stemming from FIFA 18.
1 PATH TO GLORY ITEMS (PTG)
Like Ones to Watch, Path to Glory cards are also live items that were added in FIFA 18. These cards (of players who hoped to earn a spot on their national team’s World Cup roster) would get an upgrade equal to that of their TOTW, MOTM, TOTT, Record Breaker or Hero cards.
2 SELLING THE HYPE
With so many new methods for making coins, TONS of new players took their shot at trading and investing this year. As a result, selling in the hype was often the best option for the most profitable returns.
For example, Harry Kane was the favorite to win the September POTM in FIFA 18. Many people thought that one of the SBCs would require his gold card (as it did for Mane’s August POTM SBC). As a result, he became extinct. However, when the POTM SBCs dropped on October 13th, he was not required, and his price fell drastically. In that situation, you would have been better off selling in the hype than holding until the SBCs dropped.
FIFA 19
In FIFA 19, we expect there to be even more investors than in FIFA 18. We wouldn’t be surprised if this trend of “Selling in the Hype” continues.
EA has received the licenses to many different leagues and tournaments for this year, including: Chinese Super League, Champions League, Europa League and full rights to Serie A / Coppa Italia. It remains to be seen how this could change the Ultimate Team trading and investing landscape. One example could be additional POTM items for leagues like the Serie A or La Liga. Another could be more frequent and specific “Team of the Tournament” upgrades for players participating in the Champions and Europa League.
Regardless of what happens, you can be sure that this community will actively research, investigate, and communicate new methods for making coins.