For those of you who trade on the Football Index, you will already know that November has been quite a month. On almost every single week day throughout the month, 50 new players were added to the tradable market.

As we now enter December, around 1000 players have been added in total, meaning there are now something like 1,200 different players from Europe’s ‘big 5’ leagues, and Champions League and Europa league teams, you can buy shares in (top 200 + 1000 squad players).

As an Index trader myself, I was very interested to see how the market would react to the influx of new players. I was particularly keen on adding a crop of good young talent to my own portfolio, with a view to playing the long game and sitting back whilst all my shares increased in value over time, or at least that was the idea anyway.

The influx of new players to the market gave all traders an equal chance of a buying a potential future superstar on the cheap. However, with so many players being added in a relatively short space of time, I was conflicted about my own strategy for investing in the new additions. Should I buy a few shares in many players or many shares in a few, or perhaps, should I even buy none at all?

The first couple of days in November saw a number of good young players enter the market. Although I didn’t specifically have some of these players in mind to add to my portfolio, I got drawn in to buying them anyway. My thinking was that the players were relatively cheap, and so I could make some sort of profit on them in the short to midterm future.

In light of my impulsive purchases, I decided upon a strategy of buying a small number of shares in a large number of players. The master plan was, if I bought shares in lots of good young prospects, I was bound to have the next Mbappe amongst them, right?

Unfortunately though, it was only a matter of days before I suffered the frustration and despair that most traders will have experienced when, for what seems like no apparent reason, the share price dropped below the price I had initially paid. That in turn made me question why I had actually bought shares in these players in the first place. The feeling of frustration and despair then intensified when I then saw players that I had actually had designs on, being promoted, but I was prevented from splashing out on them as my money was tied up in other players!

On reflection, I believe I suffered from something which I am certain the majority of traders on the Index will have experienced themselves at some point, and that is FOMO (a fear of missing out).

In not wanting to miss out on bargain, I wavered from my original plan. Changing approach was something that was easy enough to do when there were only 200 players to choose from, but with now over 1,200, and still climbing, it is even easier to be led astray.

Essentially, with the shares I had, but didn’t really want anymore, I was left with two options. Sell the shares, but at a loss, or be patient and wait until I was in a position to buy more shares in players I actually wanted. This would be when either when I could sell the shares I didn’t want at a profit, or when I had more spare cash to invest.

Regrettably, patience isn’t one of my virtues and I shamefully admit I went plumped for the first option. I sold the shares at a loss. To make matters even worse for myself, I was so impatient to buy shares in players I thought I actually wanted, I instant sold most of my unwanted shares and got an even lower price for them than what I might have recovered if I had listed them in the sell queue.

I am telling you this so you can hopefully avoid making the same mistakes as I have. I would strongly advise, again, that before you buy shares in any player on the Index you should try and have a crystal-clear strategy in your mind as to who you want and how much you want to invest in them.

Then, having invested, you should try very hard and not waver from it, even if in the short or perhaps even midterm things don’t look so great. Trust your gut because whether it is a week, a month or even a year or more, there is a very good chance your instincts will be proved right and you will have a nice profit to show for it.

I myself have now decided to completely change my strategy to having a larger number of shares in a smaller group of players which I am completely and utterly happy with. Well, at least I am for the moment anyway….