All posts by Sigmund Ausfresser

PROTRADER: Avoiding Hype with No Substance

A recent discussion about the stock market with a friend last week catalyzed some relevant MTG finance thoughts to flow through my mind. The friend asked me about a stock that he regretted not purchasing, after watching the ensuing outperformance of the equity. He was disgruntled for not trusting his own instincts. I tried my best to alleviate his distress by pointing out how a missed opportunity to profit is certainly not the same as an incurred loss.

Shortly after our chat I was faced with a paralleled emotion in the world of Magic, and I almost made the same reckless mistake I cautioned my friend to avoid on Wall Street. The card that triggered this reaction of mine is Scout’s Warning. Ever heard of it? Don’t worry if you haven’t – I never had either until someone mentioned it to me.

Warning

Apparently the scout assigned to alert me to random buy-outs was not on duty last week because I received no warning about the card’s movement. TCG Player sold out completely, and I could find only a few lingering copies on the oft-forgotten website Cardshark.com. In reaction to the movement, I scrambled to add about a dozen copies of the card to my shopping cart. But before I clicked “Complete Purchase” I hesitated just a moment.

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PROTRADER: Investing on the Classics

This week many writers will touch upon the latest spoilers from Shadows Over Innistrad. They’ll talk about how Angels and Zombies will gain more popularity amongst casual players. The most savvy writers will even predict what implications these new additions to Standard will have on prices once the format rotates.

I like Zombie cards – lately Corbin convinced me that Endless Ranks of the Dead is a good pickup, so I started there.

Endless

That’s all I got.

Other writers will probably cover the three Modern Grand Prix from this weekend, discussing the metagame and surprising breakout cards. All I can say is that it’s Sunday morning right now and Kai Budde’s tweet sums up my attitude towards the format.

Tweet

At those odds, I would have taken that deck. Which brings me to my advice: sell Eldrazi cards. That’s all I got for Modern.

With those out of the way, I can shift my attention to more steady, consistent investment areas – ones which I have been actively buying into for months now. I believe these bets will pay off handsomely in the long term while at the same time minimizing downside risk. Low risk high reward…these are my favorite types of investments! Allow me to explain.

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

PROTRADER: Rebalancing the Portfolio During Volatility

Much has happened over the past couple months. In addition to the nonstop flow of information about upcoming products, we’ve also seen the Modern metagame completely turn on its head. A few innocent bannings, the printing of a couple Eldrazi critters, and the announcement of a new set has created endless turmoil in the MTG market.

I love the volatility.

As long as you stay on top of trends, you should too. This movement has created a ton of opportunity for profit significant amounts in short periods of time. Consider Meditate, for example, which I managed to snag a few copies of in the $4 range before they shot up to $12 on buy lists!

Meditate

Or, consider what Eldrazi speculation in Legacy has done to the price of Thorn of Amethyst.

Thorn

It’s not common practice for me to write articles following the prototypical format of “buy this, sell that”. However, this week merits an exception. There’s simply been too much movement in the markets to ignore, and I believe now is a critical time to re-evaluate portfolios to make sure we’re well positioned to succeed in the next couple volatile months.

I’ll do this format by format…

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

PROTRADER: Quantitative Eternal Masters Reactions

After endless speculation, we finally have confirmation that Eternal Masters will be an official set, to be released June 10th of this year. Along with the announcement, we’ve also received two spoilers to whet our appetites: Force of Will and Wasteland (shout-out to Terese Nielsen for another gorgeous artwork on Force).

spoils

Since then, I’ve been monitoring three trends very closely: the price impact of these reprinted cards, the price impact of Reserved List cards, and discussions of a new (currently fictitious) Eternal format. This week I want to briefly explore each of these three separate reactions and share my takes on each. Some of my data just might surprise you…

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.