Nobody's squad is perfect on draft night. Injuries bite, form dips, and a surprise striker starts scoring every week, so you'll want to reshape your team as the season goes on. There are three ways to bring a new player in, and the right one depends on where that player is at the time.

• Add from Free Agents

  Pick up an unrostered player; they're not on a team already, and not on the waiver wire.

  Costs nothing

• Place a Waiver Bid

  Submit a bid for a player on the waiver wire; they're new to the league in real life, or they've recently been dropped by another team.

  Costs your winning bid

• Agree to a Trade

  Negotiate a trade with another manager to sign that player you've been dreaming of.

  Whatever you agree

A free agent is a player who isn't on any fantasy team in your league, so if you like him, you can just add him. The player costs nothing, and you're free to drop him later if he turns out to be a flop.

If your squad is full, you'll need to select a player on your team to drop in order to make space. Don't forget, your league probably has position limits, so you may need to make some tough decisions.

When a manager drops a player, he doesn't just go to whoever clicks him first; he goes on the waiver wire. The wire is where players go up for auction for a short period of time. Every team gets the opportunity to put an offer in on these players before the waiver window closes, then the highest bidder wins the player and pays the price they bid.

Say a manager drops Cody Gakpo. For the next 48 hours, you can bid for him with your waiver budget. Your waiver budget is a pot of virtual money every team starts with. When 48hrs is up, the window closes, and the best bid takes him. Here's how it works:

1. 1. A player is dropped

   He goes on the wire and a waiver window opens (ex: 48 hours). Players arriving from outside the league get a window too.

2. 2. You place a bid

   Bid from your waiver budget, and name a player to drop if your squad is full. Nobody else can see it, and you can edit or cancel it any time before the window closes.

3. 3. The window closes

   The highest bid wins. If two bids tie, the better waiver priority gets the player. You only pay what you bid if you win.

4. 4. Priority rotates

   A team that wins moves to the back of the queue, and everyone behind them moves up one. This gives different teams more of an opportunity to win bids.

Here are two worked examples, so you can see how a window is decided.

The Nitty Gritty

• Waiver Budget: every team starts with the same amount of funds based on how the commissioner set up the league. This budget can be spent on waiver players or traded with other teams.
• Waiver Priority: every team is given a priority ranking at the start of the season; think of it as a draft order for waivers. This is used to break ties in bidding; a winning bid puts you at the back of the queue.
• A winning bid has to leave you with a legal roster; the result can't put you above or below the position limits.
• If a player in the claim is locked because his club is playing, the whole window waits and settles shortly after the lock lifts.
• Not every league works the same way. Bids can come from a waiver budget or be decided by waiver priority alone. Waivers can also be turned off entirely, in which case dropped players become free agents straight away.

A trade is a simple swap of assets between two teams in the same league. You pick what you want, what you're willing to give, send it over to the other manager, and wait for them to decide.

• Trades can be any combination of players, waiver funds, and even future draft picks that haven't been used.
• You can rescind a pending trade proposal at any time, but all trade offers automatically expire after 48 hours, or sooner if a trade deadline or window closes first.
• Once a trade is accepted, it is confirmed and pending processing. If a player involved in the trade is locked for any reason, the trade waits to process until after the lock lifts.
• Just like waivers, both teams' rosters must be legal after the trade, following position limits, squad size, and IR eligibility.
• In the case of an offline agreement, commissioners have the ability to process trades on managers' behalf.

Some leagues have restrictions on when managers are allowed to conduct roster moves. There are 3 different formats; check with your commissioner to confirm which one your league uses:

In each of the examples above, the filled part of each bar represents when moves are allowed. Remember, regardless of format, players cannot move when locked.

Players have a market value, shown in the transfer market, which comes from their recent and historical performances. They're scaled to your league's budget to avoid you having to do so much mental math. Think of it as a hint about who's in demand. It's just information there to help you gauge player values based on your league's configuration. Adding free agents costs nothing.

You can also keep a private watchlist of players and get notifications when they become available, get claimed by another team, or are involved in a trade. That way you can keep an eye on a player without checking the market every day.