A Good Week Trading

It has been a better week, perhaps one of my best.

My research into items to sell from Dodixie and Hek took a major step forward.  I am now selling more fittings and sub systems.  My prior ideas of trying station trading have now given away to selling these additional items.

In all, this week i increased by wealth by 2.2 bn ISK and so far i am making profits of c173m ISK per night this month and this rate is increasing.  I suspect that this rate may plateau out for now given my trader in Hek is now using all its active order slots, perhaps it will rise further as my trader in Dodoixie further finds items to sell.

I am starting to contract haul on a daily basis 1.8bn ISK of products which if sold for the target 20% margin after all broker / selling / Rush job hauling contracts would make me enough to buy a Plex if i managed to sell it all without reducing my prices (big if).  On a daily basis i am now spending c45m ISK contract hauling items from Jita to Dodixie and Hek.

Of the list of 165 items i have built up since i started two months ago that i sell in Dodixie c15% i now never sell as the prices are too low.  The least competitive items remain blueprints and the most competitive are the subsystems.

Now that i contract out to haul from Jita to Dodixie and Hek on a daily basis i am finding that i am spending my entire 45 minutes per weekday logged.  Hence i don’t feel that i can launch a third trader alt unless i was to update the sell orders and contract haul for 2 of them a day.


Trader in Dodixie: Not yet running at full speed.  Can post a maximum of 141 sell orders but not yet finding enough items to sell to use this all up.  So continuing to do research to find new items to sell.


Trader in Hek:  Doing well and using all sell order slots.  Main constraint to making ISK is the number of sell orders it can post.  Currently training Retail to level 5 which completes on 28 July and will allow me to train Wholesale to increase the number of sell orders i can post.  Currently has Trade 5, Accounting 4 and Broker Relations 4.  Hence, can post a maximum of 57 sell orders whilst paying Broker Fees of 0.80% and Sales tax of 0.90%.  i am hoping that the combined traders in Dodixie and Hek can make at least 8bn per month once the Hek trader is up and running in under a month – we will see.


Manufacturing Alt: Remains at Jita as my buying alt whilst it trains up in manufacturing.  So far, has trained Industry to Level 4, Mass Production 4 and Production Efficiency 4.  Currently training Production Efficiency 5 which will complete on the 28 July.  Then i intend to take Mass Production to Level 5 so that i can start Advanced Production.  Hence, still a month away from starting any manufacturing though when i do, i suspect i will be starting a new account and moving this alt to a new location.  In the new account i will start with a buyer alt in Jita.


Surplus ISK: I am now regularly sitting with 550k ISK in my wallet uninvested - has come down since I found the new items to sell in Dodixie and Hek.  The one thing i know about that 530k is that it will remain at 530k when i log in the next day.  I need to find items to buy in Jita to sell in Hek or Dodixie.  If i find that this surplus ISK keeps on growing then i may as well start a new account and start training up a new alt.


Corporation: I am mainly using my Corporation as a central location to deposit the ISK from the traders so that the alt in Jita can buy items using the Corporation wallet.  i am looking into seeing if the corporation can contract out the hauling of the items from Jita to Dodixie and Hek to save on mouse clicks – though i need to understand more how Corporation hangers work.




Current wealth is 9,149,479,219 ISK made up from:

• Items for sale 8,902,467,294 ISK
• less a 20% provision (1,780,493,459) ISK*
• Buy orders 560,800,206 ISK
• Items in storage for sale 248,900,000 ISK
• Items in transit 0 ISK
• ISK in wallets 1,271,805,178 ISK

Expected business purchases in the next 30 days

• Plex 530,000,000 ISK

I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK.

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost until i finally hold it as ISK.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what cost is or at least the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.

Hek trader starting to ramp up

13 days into the month and i am up 1.5bn ISK which includes buying a Plex for 530m ISK to allow Dual Training.  So about averaging 150m ISK per night profits before Plex purchases.  At this rate i am on track for 4bn ISK increase this month (4.5bn ISK less the Plex purchase for 0.5bn ISK).  I would hope though that my trader in Hek continues to improve and so i am aiming to do better than that.

It has been noticeable that as i move into more higher priced items to sell (over 200m ISK) then i start to have to take big write downs as competitors come in and knock 20m or so ISK off the lowest price at a time.  To mitigate against this risk i only buy 1 or 2 of such items at a time – hence if i need to take a write down to undercut new competitors.


More use of Corporation Mechanics: My alt in Jita that does all the buying now uses the corporate wallet to make the purchases from – therefore this alt need never spend some mouse clicks taking ISK from the corporation to make purchases.  Saves me some time.

Almost daily my alt in Jita is now sending 2 Rush Contract jobs to my alts in Dodixie and Hek.  Hence, spending c43m ISK per day to have items hauled from Jita to Dodixie and Hek.


Surplus ISK: I am finding that i can have over 1bn ISK in the wallet and yet be struggling to find items to buy in Jita to sell in Dodixie or Hek.  I continue to do research looking for suitable items to sell – but this is slow work.

However, i have decided to try Station Trading.  In summary, that is when i place orders to buy items in a station with the intention of then selling those same in items in the same station and so making my money on the spread between the buying price and the selling price.  I plan to stick to the same slow moving, high value items.  Therefore, my Buy Orders could in effect suck up ISK as dead money as they wait to be filled.  I will see how it goes.


Dodixie trader: Business as usual really.  Is using 73 of its 141 spare slots to sell items.  Not much change, implants and fittings still the major sellers.  Blueprints quite a small amount now.  Typically having over 750m to 1.2bn ISK of products hauled each day.


Hek trader: Skilled up to Retail level 4, Trade level 4, Accounting level 4, Broking Relations level 4 and Contracting level 2.  Currently learning Trade level 5 so that can start on Wholesale training to increase the number of active selling slots.  At present, using 26 of its 53 slots leaving room for more items to be sold as i discover them through comparing prices at Hek and Jita.  The alt pays 0.80% to put a sell order on and 0.90% in sales tax once it is sold.  Starting to make some good ISK though i don’t really have a feel how much given ISK from the alt in Dodixie and the alt in Hek gets all mixed together.

I would hope that the combined alts in Dodixie and Hek can get to 6bn ISK per month after purchasing a Plex for Dual training.


Industrial Alt: Currently my buying alt in Jita whilst skilling up the industrial skills needed for manufacturing.  Has trained Industry to level 4, Mass Production to level 4 and Production Efficiency to level 4.  Currently training Production Efficiency to level 5.  Hence, this alt can currently run 5 manufacturing jobs at once.  I next plan to level Mass Production to level 5 which will allow me to learn Advanced Mass Production to add additional manufacturing slots.  Hence, still really a month away from starting any form of manufacturing.



Current wealth is 6,989,869,330 ISK made up from:

• Items for sale 7,264,928,420 ISK
• less a 20% provision (1,452,985,684) ISK*
• Buy orders 560,800,203 ISK
• Items in storage for sale 15,400,000 ISK
• Items in transit 0 ISK
• ISK in wallets 601,726,391 ISK

Expected business purchases in the next 30 days

• Plex 530,000,000 ISK

I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK.

 

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost until i finally hold it as ISK.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what cost is or at least the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.

a few steps forward and a mistake

New manufacturing Alt up and ready: My new manufacturing alt completed its training, again took 2 sessions, and is now back at Jita to be my buyer for my traders in Dodixie and Hek.  I seem to feel compelled to do the starter missions for all new alts.

I will be purchasing a Plex in the next day or two so that train both my trader at Hek and my Manufacturing alt at Jita.

I don’t expect to be doing any manufacturing any time soon but the training is in full swing.

Initially i will train up the skills in:

• Industry: reduces the time to manufacture an item by 4% each level.
• Production Efficiency: reduces the materials required by 5% each level.
• Mass Production: allows an additional manufacturing line to be run each level.
• Advanced Mass Production: allows an additional manufacturing line to be run each level

I suspect that this character will be transferred to a new account once it starts to do manufacturing for real.  But i don’t expect to do that within the next 2 months.  We will see - I may in fact leave it on this account and start a new account with a trader at Jita to train up.

I know that trading brings in the ISK, and indeed other ISK makers have said that they went down the route of trying other forms of ISK making but found trading the best ISK maker - but I am really excited about manufacturing.  I am hoping it will allow me to experience more of the game (though I appreciate without the PvP).

 

 

Traders doing their bit: My traders in Dodixie and and Hek have settled down to their usual routine of selling items hauled to them from Jita.  I am currently making between 100 – 150m per night though i am hoping this will increase as the trader in Hek comes on stream.

 

It is interesting to see items that once made me good profits but now have seen their profits shrink to zero.

• I used to be able to guarantee 2 -3m ISK per day on 650mm Medium 'Scout' Artillery I, would buy it from Jita at 480k ISK and sell in Dodixie for 1.5m ISK.
• Likewise i could buy the Inferno Heavy Assault Missile Blueprint from Jita for 600k ISK and sell in Dodixie for 2m ISK.  These were great ISK makers for me in the beginning but now not so.

 

 

Too much ISK: I have 1bn ISK sitting in my wallet.  c540m is reserved to by a Plex so that leaves c500m ISK spare.  The one thing i know about that 500m ISK is that at the moment it has no chance of increasing my Wealth.  It is dead money that should be earning a return.  Hence, i need to find more items to sell, most likely in Hek.

 

 

A question of accounting: I know that i will be purchasing a Plex again in 30 days or so and indeed i suspect i will be purchasing Plex every 30 days after that.  Hence, given i know i have a c540m ISK liability every month the question becomes how do i recognise this in my Wealth statement?

 

One method would be to deduct a months worth of Plex from my Wealth in recognition that i will need to purchase it.  But then where do i stop, do i also deduct the purchase after that?  And indeed, should i not just wait until i get to the point of purchase and then make the deduction from my Wealth as i pay?

 

This will also become a bigger issue when in the future i have other known purchases i must make at a given point in time.

 

I have decided that i will not deduct them from my Wealth but merely make a disclosure of known purchases that must be made.

 

 

And a mistake: I managed to update a sell order from 330m to 330k by mistake and of course it sold to a lucky buyer who of course now has me marked down as a plank.  Darn.  Was going to happen one day . . . . and doubtless will happen again . . . . a casual 330m ISK gone, equal to about 2 – 3 days work.

 

 

 

Current wealth is 6,220,112,358 ISK made up from:

• Items for sale 6,487,818,288 ISK
• less a 20% provision (1,297,563,658) ISK*
• Items in storage for sale 19,500,000 ISK
• Items in transit 0 ISK
• ISK in wallets 1,010,357,728 ISK

I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK.

 

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost until i finally hold it as ISK.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what cost is or at least the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.

New trading Alt started in Hek

It has been a slow week, my wealth has only increased by c900m ISK in the first 5 days of July.  Trading picked up on Thursday night as is now often the case.


Main continues its normal work: My main has stopped training and remains my seller in Dodixie.  It can post up to 141 sell orders and is currently using 80 of them.

As i start selling the higher priced implants i am finding that i am undercut quicker and occasionally by large amounts – hence the main reason why this week has been slow.  It is not unusual to loose my entire 20% profit margin on an item as competitors undercut.

Otherwise, implants and fittings are now my main seller.


New alt started in Hek: Undertook the training missions, took two nights, exploration was much easier this time.

Trained Retail to level 4 and Trade to level 3 giving the alt 45 trade slots of which i am currently using 19 to sell items in Hek.  Started training Broker Relations to reducing my costs of putting on sales orders and trained Contracting to level 2 which allows this alt to place up to 9 contracts.

I am currently training Accounting and Broker relations to further reduce my sales taxes, and Retail to increase the number of sell orders i can post.

The items i am selling in Hek are completely different to the items i am selling in Dodixie.  Only one blueprint, the rest are implants and fittings.  The NPC blueprints that made me my first few millions in Dodixie don’t sell for a profit at all in Hek.

I currently have 849m ISK of sell orders by this new alt.


Daily hauling contracts: Both my Main and this Alt are having Pushx Industries make daily hauls from Jita to Dodixie and Hek using Rush Jobs, hence paying c43m ISK per day to Pushx Industries.


Starting the new manufacturing alt: I have terminated my alt in Jita and i will start a new alt this weekend to train up in manufacturing and for the time being be my buyer in Jita.  Once i start its training i will need to buy a Plex for dual-training which will cost me c530m ISK for 30 days training.


New corporation started: Which i am using to hold the ISK centrally making it easier to transfer ISK between my characters.  As i get to understand how a corporation works i will start to make it do all the contracting with Pushx Industries.




Current wealth is 6,400,187,258 ISK made up from:

• Items for sale 7,436,113,799 ISK
• less a 20% provision (1,487,113,799) ISK*
• Items in storage for sale 18,400,000 ISK
• Items in transit 0 ISK
• ISK in wallets 432,896,219 ISK

I don't count assets I use in the course of my business such as ships, fittings etc nor do I add back any expenses such as skills purchased etc.  The wealth I disclose is made up of items that are ISK or are in the process of being converted to ISK.

* I take a 20% provision against the items I am selling.  Eve calculates wealth by adding up the value of the sell orders hence it is possible to increase your wealth by buying an item for 100m ISK and putting a sell order for 120m ISK (in this case your wealth would increase by 20m ISK).  For me, I want my wealth to be calculated at cost until i finally hold it as ISK.  I know that the value of my sell orders will likely fall over time as I update my orders downwards as competition reduces their prices before my items are sold.  Hence the 20% provision is my best guess as to what cost is or at least the maximum reduction I would need to make to my sell orders as a whole before they are sold.