(Full season game players will need to create a new account to play)

By Jon Loomer

I am happy to announce that Season 2 of NBA Stock Exchange has been launched, and is ready for your fantasy basketball pleasure. I'm more than happy. Some would consider me pumped. I've been waiting for this day since I realized I screwed up my strategy in the full season contest two months ago. You can sign up and add players now, and the season starts on February 19, immediately following All-Star Weekend.

There are three groups of people who should jump all over the opportunity to play this game:

1) You didn't play the full season contest, heard NBA Stock Exchange rocks the house, and want to try it out.
2) You played the full season contest, realized too late that your strategy stunk, and want another shot.
3) You're a casual or new fantasy player, and don't want the commitment of a full-season game.

You're in luck, people. I've been vocal in my support of this game from Day 1, and although that comes with the job description, my support is entirely genuine. I love this game. I'm addicted. I spend way too much time playing it. If my job didn't require that I know our games inside and out, I'd probably get fired for wasting time.

For those who are unaware of the rules of this game, let me break it down quickly.

Do you play the stock market? Similar idea. Trading floor opens every morning at 8 am ET and closes at 3 am ET. The best time to be on the Trading Floor is at market open, as that is when player value first begins to rise. If you notice early trends, you can buy a player before he skyrockets. Players rise and fall in value based on how often people are buying and selling them. Haven't played the stock market? No problem. This game is basically a salary cap game on steroids. Instead of player value being determined by production, it's determined by buying trends. Instead of having a fixed salary cap, your cap goes up with your team value. Instead of player value updating overnight, it updates in real time.

Let's get to the basics. You have a nine-man starting lineup and up to a three-man bench (if you so choose). You have $300 to begin with, and depending on the prudence of your investments, you can make more money to use on improving your lineup. For example, after relentlessly buying and selling players this season at appropriate times, I now have a $500 roster value in the full season contest. That puts me at a significant advantage over people with $300 roster values.

Although it is beneficial having a high roster value, the name of the game is fantasy points. So if you spend all of your time selling players at their high price (when they have a lot of games coming up) and buying them when their price is down (when they aren't playing for a few days), you will quickly fall down the standings. You need fantasy points. Having a pretty roster at the end of the season that didn't score points doesn't get you a bonus.

You can play in a league, but everyone in the league isn't battling for the same player. Go to the trading floor, buy a player, and he's on your roster. Depending on the buy and sell activity for that player, he will go up and down in real time throughout the day. You'll quickly notice trends. If a player's team is one of only four teams playing today, his value will likely go up. If your player won't see action for four days, his value will go down. If he has back-to-back games or three games in four days, expect his value to increase. Temporarily, of course. Take advantage of these trends.

Keep in mind that you do have a 31 games limit per position. This prevents you from rotating in warm bodies on a daily basis. You can do it, but you'll run out of games before the season ends. Just not worth it.

Andre' Snellings writes a fantastic weekly article every Thursday called The Hoops Market. I strongly encourage you to read it. Very helpful stuff. Also check out our How-to-Play to break down the basics.

Ok, now if you are playing the full season contest, let me give you the low-down on the differences as well as a few tips:

• As discussed above, there is a 31 game limit per position. Use it wisely.
• Again, no draft. Just go to the Trading Floor and buy your players.
• There is a 15-transaction limit between now and 2/19. This prevents you from having an advantage by buying and selling on a daily basis before Season 2 begins. A buy and a sell each equal one transaction. So if you sell LeBron James to buy Josh Smith, that is two transactions.
• You will not be able to place players into your starting lineup until 2/15. You can't accumulate stats anyway until after the All-Star Break.

Don't buy all of your players immediately. Ideally, you want to maximize your $300 from the start of Season 2. So if you go in and buy a player on a day when he's already gone up $6, chances are very good that you will lose money on that player by February 19. This leads me too...

Buy players who are taking a temporary and significant drop. The Trading Floor you are working with is the same Trading Floor used by the full season contestants. Therefore, these people are reacting to players who are having or not having games during the next few days. If a player's team doesn't play until next Tuesday, that doesn't affect you in Season 2. But his price will drop. Wait until it appears to be at its lowest point, and buy.

Be frugal. When you only have $300 to work with, I strongly discourage you from buying players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They are very expensive, and in my mind they are vastly overpriced. Remember that the buying habits of people in this game control the market, so player prices may or may not be reflected by their fantasy production. In the end, what matters is the number of fantasy points you accumulate, not your team value. When you're in the Trading Floor, click on Market Stats and then click on "Avg" to sort by fantasy point average. This will give you an idea of the players who put up the most fantasy points consistently, and how that production relates to their price. I personally prefer to build my team around players like Marcus Camby, Baron Davis, Josh Smith, Chris Kaman and Tim Duncan -- all top 15 fantasy players who cost less than $75. Meanwhile, LeBron and Kobe are going for over $110 -- and Kobe averages fewer fantasy points than all of these players other than Duncan.

Get to know the cheap players. When I say cheap, I mean under $20 and $10. You will need them. The more high priced players you own, the more cheapies you'll need as well. I strongly recommend adding players like Kurt Thomas ($15), Anthony Carter ($17), and -- when healthy -- Anderson Varejao ($4). All of these players average more fantasy points per game than Jameer Nelson, Ben Gordon and Tayshaun Prince -- who all go for between $25 and $30.

If you play the full season contest, you'll need to create a new username. Thanks for hanging with us on this one. There wasn't an initial plan to have a Season 2, so the fact that we limited users to one team per account wasn't going to be a problem. Well, now it is. So you can still play if you already have a team. You'll just need to set up a separate account.

Enjoy yourself. See if you have what it takes, and play in my league (ID 140551, password btbg). Good luck!

Play NBA Stock Exchange Season 2 NOW!