Have created this thread with the hope that it may help prevent "unbalanced" or rip-off trades that are detrimental both to the owner/team who is on the short end of the trade and the league as a whole outside of the two teams involved in the trade. Please feel free to add or comment, when trading is fair and balanced, it is a benefit to the "health" of a league. We dont use the same ratings or values, unless its the AI weights (big mistake) and defaults, so evaluating a trade does have a margin of different opinions, but.... there are trades that are highly questionable and are way out of balance when it comes to player & pick values.

An unbalanced or questionable trade happens usually due to 2 situations:

1. an owner with less than a few months experience, less than 2 seasons experience, and less than 2 teams owned or an owner that does not consider true player values, key attributes, & position importance, is taken advantage of by a much more experienced, knowledgeable, and/or successful owner. It takes a while to get a grasp on true player value and not rely on the AI values, especially default ratings. Trade meter values can be very deceiving. Its a good idea to check the FA pool before you make a trade for a player that you might be able to replace with a better one from FA. Key attributes are the most important factor for evaluating players.

2. A dummy or dupe account is used that is under the influence and/or control of the owner who is the beneficiary of the trade. This also includes "favor" trades, you help me in this league, and I'll help you in another. "Cheat" or "questionable" trades do not happen near as much in leagues with active league admins, they happen mostly in standard/public leagues.

There are degrees of both, variations, and other circumstances, but those are the two most common trade abuse situations that I have observed so far.

So here are what I consider the "basics" to trading, there is more to consider, so please add to the list if there is anything that you feel is important when trading, this overview is a "work in progress".

1. Do not base your trade decision on the trade meter. The trade meter values do not consider or put enough value on things like player performance (stats), position value (DB vs FB or OL for example), players age/exp, or key/primary attributes (speed/strength/pass rush for a DE for example). As an example, there are RBs that the AI has worth over 800 on the trade meter, but have not averaged better than 3 yds per carry and have less than 80 speed. Keep in mind that the trade meter values are based on the AI player weights and AI default value, weights that are not used by experienced and successful owners. The trade meter often undervalues picks, especially first round picks valued under 700, and 2nd round picks valued under 350. Obviously it matters where in the round the pick is, like 1.32 vs 1.15, but in general, the trade meter undervalues picks and overvalues players based on the AI weights.

2. Consider who it is that is making the trade offer, how strong their team is, is it a team in your division or conference that you may be making stronger by the trade. Is it an owner that wins 90% or more of their games. There are owners who are "predators", and they go after new owners and less successful owners for first, second, third, and fourth round picks. After a few seasons they will have a roster that is filled with first and second round picks, and will basically be creating a "stacked" team (one with a majority of 80+ rated starters).

3. Consider the importance of the position. The two most important position groups in MFN are WRs and CBs, followed by DEs & Safeties ( a very close second). From there its TE, LBs, DTs, OL, FB, Kickers. QB & RB are separate from the rest of the position groups. QB is also dependent on the receivers & OL that you have, and play selection. Good RBs can be found in the FA pool on a regular basis, speed being the primary attribute. Good DBs and WRs are much harder to come by.

Note: (1/27/19) 4.4 game version changed the order of position importance. WR has been reduced while TE has increased. DE is equally important as CB-SS-FS, and good pass coverage along with speed & run defense attributes for LBs has become more important as passes to RBs has more than doubled.

3. Consider the age/exp of the player, at 9 years a player starts to lose physical attribute ratings, speed - acceleration - strength. That is why you see a lot of players with 8 yrs exp or more on the trade board.

4. Are you getting the most value you can out of the deal? Did you make a counter-offer or just accept the offer w/o trying to improve it? Can you do a lot better by "shopping" your player/picks? These are questions you should be asking yourself when considering a trade.

Bad trades are and have been an ongoing problem in MFN, as one very experienced owner put it " The bigger problem is the aftermath, these noobs end up with crappy players and no draft picks, then get bored and either leave MFN or abandon the team, it then affects the rest of the league, sadly". When you make a bad trade it not only affects your team, it also affects the rest of the league, especially when the trade is made with a league or conference champion that is a significant improvement to their roster or when they add first and second round picks.

There is a lot of information in the General Forum about player attributes, position importance, and other topics that are of value to you concerning trading, along with all the other aspects of the game. You can also PM other owners for a second or third opinion to compare with your own if you are not sure. Be careful with your trades, especially those that involve your high draft picks.

Here is a link to the Community Help Forum, where you will find several threads about player evaluation, make sure you review the "Threads for New Users", if you havnt already.
https://dfl.myfootballnow.com/community/3

This is the type of trade that caused me to start posting in my leagues about trading. Its a good example of a "predator" trade. The team names & player names have been changed to somewhat protect both the innocent and the guilty. Its not hard to track this trade down if you were curious, but the "who" is not important, what is important is to try and prevent trades like this from happening at all. It is a very recent trade in a league playing with 4.3

3 yr Experienced Owners team sends:
Rookie (QB) ... AI rating 84 (my weights-77), -9 in camp, trade score - 800
20XX Round 5
20XX Round 5 ...two round 5's are low odds of getting a starter or good sub. trade score 25-35 each.

Owner with 3 month MFN exp sends:
Average Rated (QB) .... AI rating 63, 12 yr vet. trade score 14
next draft Round 1 (3 mo Owner's Team)
following draft Round 1 (3 mo Owner's Team)
following draft Round 1 (3 mo Owner's Team)

Am assuming that the "predator" sold the "prey" on having a severe need for a better QB, for whatever reasons, and that even though the QBs trade score was 800, he was worth twice that, as the 3 first round picks had to total over 1500 by themselves. He had to be at or under 1600 total to make the trade cover the minimum on the trade meter. This trade occured in a new, first season league, so there may not have been any decent QB alternatives that a newer owner would have spotted in the FA pool as an option and it was mid-week 6th game 4 days prior to the 8th game trade deadline if the sims ran each day.

So, another question should be even though the inexperienced owner made the trade, how did it work out for him so far? Before the trade his team had won 6 and lost one. Since the trade his team has won 7 and lost 2. The rookie QB has performed real well, with a 100+ rating, I dont know what his stats were after the 5th game. So at least he got good results from the rookie QB, if would really have been a super bad trade if he had not gotten those results. But, keep in mind, that he may have had the same record w/o the trade, the QB position is heavily dependent on the ratings & performance of the receivers, and the OL blocking. In any case, the question should be, was it worth anywhere near 3 first round picks? I would not have traded 2 first rounders, but that's me. I dont care if those first round picks are 1.32's, they are still high value and 3 of those far exceed the value of a 77 rated QB. And Im more than sure that would be a 90% consensus among owners with more than a 1/2 year experience and having won division, conference, and/or LC(s) on their record. This is just one example of this type of trade, it is how a team can become known as a "stacked" team, one with many or all of its starters rated 80+. The "predator" type trades are a part of that process, one of several ways those players can be acquired, but the predator trade is done at the expense of the inexperienced or not as knowledgeable owners along with the rest of the league.