Background story What do footballers and football gamers have in common? They all keep in shape.

Its just that the gamers shape is usually round. 9 s kids played video games! " s kids breathed video games. I was a FIFA player. I had this dream of creating the best squad for each team I managed; while everybody was crazy about catching em all or !ust hating the "ainbow "oad# I was aiming for the $ltimate %eam. Although my &' was far from a high(end one# it)s in the game # not in the console. #or my $%th birthday& my friends bought me a 'lay(tation). The first game I got *as #I#+ $". I could finally test my skills against other players! I could finally build the perfect s,uad *ith the help of the ne* feature& -ltimate Team. In -T its you against the *orld. .ou earn your o*n money& you have no Board or sponsors or *hatnot! you either earn coins through playing matches& or you get into trading. /o* this is *here its at. To be a successful trader you need to learn the basics of economics. I started reading about market behavior& microeconomics& supply and demand& market crashes0 I *as al*ays good at maths& and I finally had an ans*er to those *ho think algebra is useless1 play #I#+& darlings. I enjoyed every bit of my research. I started playing #-T in 2une& *hen the market *as half as full as it used to be& *ith about one million auctions daily. /aturally& prices *ere lo*er& there *ere less players and less items. By the end of 2uly& there *ere less than ) . auctions. #-T $" *as at its end& #I#+ $) *as to be launched at the end of (eptember and *ith it the ne* #-T $). The fe* players left *ere just playing for fun& because trading successfully *as very hard. I needed to come up *ith a plan to get enough money to build the best s,uad in the game *ithout The -ntouchables1 3ristiano 4onaldo& 5ionel 6essi and 7latan Ibrahimovic! starting so late& I *ouldnt have been able to make enough money to get them. /evertheless& *hat strategy *ere I to find so as to make profits *ith a semi8stagnant market? #-T *orks like this1 you get some footballers that play for you until their contracts e9pire. .ou lose one contract per match. (o here is *hat I figured out1 because of the lo* number of active #-T players& there is no footballer I could trade to make substantial profits. But everybody needs contracts& and their price is usually overlooked! players *ould pay up to % coins more than the minimum price for contracts. I managed to make profits of more than " . coins and to build the perfect s,uad *ithout the aforementioned -ntouchables. In the end& I had fun *hile learning basic economy rules. (o no matter *hat my mum says& video games make you smarter.