The Player Price Movement Algorithm Part I
Love it or hate it the PPMA is an integral part of FPL.
Personally I'm in the
'love it' camp. It adds a further layer of complexity to the game that, like the doubling cube in backgammon, makes it much more interesting to play. In fact I would go so far to say that without the PPMA I probably wouldn't be interested in playing FPL at all
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I also like the fact that it is a movable feast. Each season's PPMA is different. I like it that FPL Towers doesn't reveal the algorithm. Understanding the characteristics of the PPMA can give a manager a distinct advantage. By this I do not mean working out the formula (we have the player price prediction websites to do that for us) but by comprehending how to best utilise this season's PPMA to one's advantage.
In my opinion the game is most interesting and fun to play when it is finely balanced, when budget is relatively tight, the feasible player pool is large, and there is a genuine decision to be made between making early transfers to catch rises or avoid drops or waiting to maximise information.
If the PPMA is too volatile everyone is pushed into making their transfers early and the luck factor in the game increases as people are making decisions based on insufficient information.
Conversely if the PPMA is too conservative and sluggish managers will wait until the last minute before making their transfers.
Neither of these situations are good for the skilled manager. What you want is a situation where you have to apply judgement to decide whether the information is worth waiting for or whether controlling the budget risk is the more important factor.
If increasing your budget is too easy managers will tend to end up with the same template teams because they lose too much when they sell one of their players who has risen a lot.
If increasing the budget is too hard then there is little point paying attention to the market.
If players cannot drop significantly in price they may never be part of the feasible player pool and again most squads will be very template and the game relatively dull.
This season's PPMA looks particularly well balanced. There are relatively few risers and very few double risers so is is not too easy to gain budget. There are
a lot of fallers but few if any precipitous fallers. That means that managers can be patient but the feasible player pool is kept large because player's can drop steadily and then become good picks again when they hit an upturn in form or a good fixture run and suddenly become value.
This is exactly the kind of situation that favours the skilled managers as there are many decisions to be made. I think this should be a really interesting season.
I'd be very interested in reading other poster's thoughts on this topic
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they come when they come, and they won't be rushed by cash in the bank.
. I have no idea why I assumed that 
. I am working my way through it now.
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