MasterstrokeSquad building and management
Trade window
The period, outside the auction, when clubs may exchange players for other players or for cash, usually with the player's consent.
A trade window is a period, typically before and after the auction, when franchises may transfer players between themselves, either as a swap or for a cash sum.
Trades let a club fix a problem the auction did not solve. A side with three overseas openers and no death bowler can exchange one for the other rather than waiting a year for the next auction, and a player who has fallen out of a club's plans can move somewhere he will play. Leagues usually require the player's agreement, cap how much of a contract can be exchanged for cash, and close the window a set number of days before the season starts. The trade changes the purse of both clubs by the value of the contracts moved.
For a manager the trade window is a second market with different prices. A rival club under pressure to shed salary may hand over a good player cheaply; a club that missed a target at auction may overpay. Offers arrive throughout the window and the right answer depends on the same role budget that guided the auction: what does the player add to the XI, and what does the money he frees up buy?
In Masterstroke: miss out at the auction and there is still the trade window, where rival clubs make offers for the players in your squad and you can bid for theirs.