Icon Trading Guide
Alright guys, this one has been heavily requested and it's time we bring it back into Fifa 21! Icon trading is always effective due to the low supply and high demand of Icons. They are more immune to normal market movements due to rarity and you can often hit huge deals!
That all sounds good right? Well, it's also a higher budget and often more challenging way to trade. Most people trading Icons also can lose a lot of coins off them without practice. I am going to try to teach you everything you should know before diving in!
First, I recommend a budget of at least 1 million, but I would even prefer 1.5 million. Ideally, you can find 5-10 deals at a time and that simply isn't possible on a lower budget. Also, on a smaller budget you're much better off using chemistry style trading, solution trading or position change trading. It's a faster turnaround and usually even a higher ROI.
Second, Icon trading should be watched a lot first before making your first buy. Do not jump into it. Spend some time taking it in and watching trends. Prices cards sell at, how fast they're bought and bottom points will help a lot.
Okay, let's get into the different techniques!
1. Fluctuation Trading
When trading Icons, you are using fluctuations just like any other special card. They are supplied so rarely that they fluctuate nicely throughout the day. Remember, Futbin graphs are not recording sales exclusively, but it can help you identify some ranges.
This graph is 85 Vidic. He's very in-demand since he's a new Icon and has great pace for a CB! Yesterday, he fluctuated all the way down to 624 and as high as 680.
Important to note, he sold both lower and higher. Futbin can only detect so much. Cards also have to stay on the market long enough to get a reading.
A day prior, Vidic fluctuated from 630 to 690+ based on Futbin recordings.
This is a nice graph as it paints a similar picture of buy and sell prices. If you are seeing Vidic drop to around 650K, it will be worth watching for undercuts that bring him to those buyable prices. If he is towards the top end of 690, you likely will want to wait for him to come down and focus on another Icon.
The reason he swings in price is because people want sales. They want their coins. They will continuously list lower until they sell their cards and when you know a price is too low, that's how you profit!
If you want to know a true buy and sell price, you need to actually watch the cards. Remember some Icons sell even higher if their card is "fresh" meaning they have 0 games played. For elite attackers like Torres, Drogba and Etoo you can often sell 2-5% past their lowest buy now if they have 0 games played. I ran a poll recently on Twitter and over 25% of people prefer to buy these cards (surprised me)!
2. Watch List/Concept Squad Trading
This goes hand-in-hand with the step above and I recommend coupling them. For this method to work efficiently, you need to memorize buy and sell prices. You need to buy with confidence as deals may only be on the market for 1, 5 or 10 minutes, but often not much longer.
If you put 11 cards in a unique budget in a concept squad you can often learn prices at an accelerated rate. You simply check on these cards as often as possible throughout the day and see how they swing in price. You may notice a card goes as low as 220, but as high as 250. You've just established a buy and sell price.
For watch list trading, you get to do two things at once -
You memorize prices and see what they actually sell at. I always add the lowest listed card to my watch list and sometimes "fresh" cards to see if they sell higher.
You also have an extremely accessible way to check prices. Even if a card is expired on your watchlist, you can compare price and quickly see all listings. If you have prices memorized, you can check for deals in minutes. Again, if I see a card it toward a low fluctuation I will more actively check on them.
3. 59th Minute Method
This is the optimal way to Icon trade, but also the most challenging. The 59th minute method refers to "sniping" Icons who were just listed too low. This could be a low fluctuation undercut or even a missing number. There have been multiple "snipes" over the years where people miss a "0" on R9 or Gullit allowing for millions of profit on 1 card.
Truly, this is where Icon trading can be more profitable than most other methods. It's those one off deals you may get once a week where you can 50-200K profit on a card.
When performing this method, you are memorizing a group of cardsso that you can scroll to the 59th minute for deals. Filters include but aren't limited to
700K+ any
900K+ any
Portugal
Defenders, Brazil
Under 500K defenders
Under 500K midfielders
Defenders, England
Essentially, you're breaking down these filters into cards you can memorize. As your memorization becomes better, you'll find more and more deals popping up!
Here is an example using the 900K+ filter. I scroll to the 59th minute and see 4 cards JUST listed. From here, you have to know the prices and buy good deals as fast as possible.
And one more, Icons/Portugal!
From here, memorization is the trick! As you can see below, 87 Deco fluctuates often from 290-320+. If I saw a listed at 290 or under, I would snatch it!
Other key tips -
Icons are often lowest from 3-8 PM UK during periods of supply. They tend to get very rare at night and bring them up in price.
Check for overnight listing of 3+ hours as it often dictates prices. For example, if a card is listed low for 3+ hours you would need it to sell before you can make profit.
Icons can be panic sold like other cards, but usually with less severity. During new promotions you often see panic on them just like other cards. They rebound quite well towards previous prices.
Below are some examples. Some of these Icons were even won on bid on fluctuations, while others were snipes at the 59th minute directly!
If you have questions, please just ask in Discord!