Select a Strategy

You can bid using an automatic strategy or a manual strategy.

An automatic strategy changes your bid continually according to market conditions and your valuation settings.

A manual strategy lets you make single bids at a set quantity and price.

(For a complete description of Merkato strategies, see Merkato Buyers’ Reference Manual, “Strategy Overview.”)

Note:If the quantity (Mbps, for example) or time units (month, for example) displayed do not suit your needs, you can change the units. Select Units from the Selection pull-down menu. The Units box lets you use Kbps, Mbps, or Gbps, as well as minutes, hours, days, and months. (See “Select Bidding Units.”)

Automatic Strategy

From the Strategy pull-down menu, select Auto Strategy.

The Auto Strategy window appears.

With Automatic Strategy selected your agent starts bidding for you immediately and does not stop until you disable it.

The Auto Strategy window lets you see your bids as they are submitted. With Auto Strategy active, your agent bids, if its valuation allows it, every time the market price exceeds its last submitted bid. (Since the market price is determined by the price offered by the lowest successful bidder, a bid under this price does not receive an allocation.)

  1. Select the Current Strategy radio button.
  2. Enter the amount of bandwidth you want to bid for in the left field (quantity).
  3. Enter the maximum you are willing to spend in the right field (cost).

Manual Strategy

From the Strategy pull-down menu, select Manual Strategy. The window shown in the illustration appears.

The displayed quantity and unit price are those of your last bid.

  1. Select the Current Strategy radio button.
  2. Enter the amount of bandwidth you want to bid for in the left field (quantity).
  3. Enter the maximum you can spend in the right field (cost).

When you are connected to the Garage and ready to bid, click Bid. This sends your bid to the auction. Note that this is a one-time event. The submitted bid is not carried over to the next auction round. If you wish to place a single take-it-or-leave-it bid each auction round, use the Linear valuation with the Automatic strategy.