In an earlier post, I shared about Ticketreserve, a company that offer sports fans a chance to attend major sporting events at a fair price. Sports fans can buy options to purchase tickets at face value if their team makes it to the big game, like the Super Bowl. If you want to go to the game if your team makes it, than I suggest you buy your options as soon as possible, at the initial offering price as soon as the market opens for trading. Hold on to those options, and cheer for your team. If your team makes it, you will have tickets at face value plus the option price you paid. You get to go to the game at a fair price, when you otherwise could not have gotten those tickets without paying a fortune. If your team fails to make it to the big game, than you lose just the amount you paid for the option or fan forward pass as it is called in the ticket reserve market. However, there is an opportunity to make money by trading the fan forward passes, but you have to have a disciplined trading strategy. I have bought fan forward passes on my favorite teams based on emotion hoping that my team will go to the Super Bowl, or BCS bowl game, and I have lost money as my team chances faded, and the options became worthless. However, had I traded the options without any emotional attachment to them, I would have made a lot of money. Here are some trading tips to maximize your chances to make a profit on ticket reserve.
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Trade in the right market: Ticket Reserve offers many markets you can trade in from the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, NHL hockey, and even European soccer. However, certain events are better for trading for profits. You want to trade in the most popular sports events as those will be the most active in trading. Football is the most popular sport and the Super Bowl is the most popular event followed by college football bowl games. The pro football markets are very active even in the off season. Pick single events such as the Super Bowl, or BCS Championship game as opposed to a game in a series such as the first game of the world series. Since there is only one game in a championship rather than a series, there is more demand and a more active market. In pro football, the Super Bowl is a better market than the AFC or NFC championship game. The Super Bowl is the most popular event in the world. Only buy options on events such as the NBA finals, or divisional championship in football only if you really want to go, not to make money.
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Buy Early: Try to buy as soon as the market opens to get the initial offering price. After all the options are sold at the initial offering price, they are only available on the open market and the price is determined by supply and demand. The better the team is doing, the higher the price of the options will be. Always buy at lease two, as most people will always be looking for tickets is twos. I prefer to buy 4 options at a time, and sell two, when it doubles in price, and let the other two ride. Even if the other two become worthless, I still would locked in a profit by selling the first two.
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Buy the Blue Chips: At the initial offering prices, the favored teams will demand a higher price based on the fact the market believes its chances of making it to the championship game are good. For example, in last year’s market, the initial price of a fan forward pass for the New England Patriots to make it to the Super Bowl was $125. On the other hand, the initial price of a Chicago Bears fan forward pass was just $18. Unless your are a big Bears fan, or knew something the market does not know about, you would not have bought the Bears option. Both teams had a good season with the Bears making it to the Super Bow. Options on both team traded as high as $2,000, so you would have done well with either options, but as a general rule, you should buy the options on the favored teams. The $18 may seem like a bargain, but most likely it will be $18 wasted. Also, their is a bigger fan base with teams that have done well, so the market for those options is more active with trading.
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Always Sell your options: Almost all option traders never exercise their options, or actually buy the security at the contract price. If you want to make money from trading on ticket reserve, always sell your options rather than buying the tickets at face value. If your were to buy the tickets, you would have to receive the tickets, and sell them on EBay or to ticket brokers to realize a profit. Besides the hassle of selling the tickets, ticket scalping may not be legal in your state. It is easier and equally profitable to just sell the options on the ticket reserve market.
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Use your sports knowledge: Since trading is often emotional, you can follow the markets you are interested in, and often spot and take advantage of special situations. Maybe some fans will overreact to a few losses, but with your knowledge of the team, you believe the team is still strong, and you offer a low price and hope that someone will panic and sell to you.
[...] March Madness and TicketReserve I introduced Ticketreserve, a market where the sports fans can purchase options on sporting event tickets, and buy tickets at face value if their team makes it to the big game. Its a great way, and often the only way for the average sports fan to gain access to the major sporting events at a fair price. Not only is ticketreserve a great way to obtain hard to get sporting event tickets, I pointed out that one can also make a great deal of money trading these options on the ticketreserve market. I offered some basic strategies to make a profit on thse markets. [...]