My Current Business Operations in Eve

In this post i will discuss my current business operations in Eve.  My prior post looked at the profits and current wealth it generates.  In a future post i will look at a bit more detail into how i go about the Trading and Manufacturing.


Accounts

I still have 2 accounts each with 3 characters.


Strategy

My strategy remains unchanged.  I am looking for slow moving products to sell at high profit margins (minimum 20% before taxes, likely now rising to 25% given the rise in tax costs).

This is in contrast to other (much richer) traders out there who look for fast moving but low margin items to sell.  My style suits my play time, I feel.

I am trying to avoid the competition whereas the other traders take them on (and win).

An item that I can buy for 100m ISK from Jita and sell in Dodixie for 130m in 5 days time with no maintenance to the sell order is fine with me.  In fact, that would be just ideal.  If i had 5 products that did that then i would earn 150m ISK over 5 days for 500m ISK invested.  That is close to getting me a Plex a month.  (before taxes etc etc but you see my point)

My overriding aim is that each business venture must be able to Plex an account per month and my total time spent on my businesses each day must not exceed 45 minutes.


Business locations

I operate out of a number of locations.  The aim is to make Jita the center of operations which collects all items to have them hauled out to the selling locations.  This makes life easier - one central hub from which then distributes all my products for sale.  Similar to the FedEx model.

• Jita - this is the center of my operations.  Every item that i sell will at some stage sit in a hanger in Jita.
• One manufacturing location in Lonetrek.

• The four other main trade hubs from which I sell items bought at Jita or manufactured from Lonetrek: Amarr; Dodixie; Hek; and Rens

• Five other smaller trading locations from which I sell items bought at Jita or manufactured from Lonetrek.  These are really low maintenance.  I have no competition but not many buyers either!

Everything happens in Highsec.  I would like to expand into Null Sec or Low Sec but so far that is not proving too successful.


The Distribution Network

I contract out all my hauling of items from Jita to the four other main trade hubs.  I then transport any items myself to the other smaller trading locations.


Back in 2014 i discussed why i use Hauling Corporations to move my stuff from Jita.  Furthermore, that post also discussed why i use the express service on offer.  Contracting cost me about 1-2% of profits.  Given my profit margin is 20% then this is fine by me.  Furthermore, the premium paid to get my items moved within 24 hours is well worth it.

Following my review of the Hauling Organisations in Eve a year ago i currently use New Evolution Express.  In the slow times of playing the game i tend to haul each weekend spending 150 - 250m ISK to haul 10 - 12bn ISK of Items.

The exception to this is if i need to go and buy some Blueprints or other items from NPCs in the far corners of the universe.  In that case, i will go there myself, buy the item and haul it back to Jita myself (or, on occasion, haul it to where i need to sell it myself).

For this hauling i use my Taranis.  Since i set up with the current ship below i have not been destroyed (famous last words, i am sure i will be nailed at some point).  Plenty of attempts made on me, all the damage has come from smart bombs as i warp to a gate.

[Taranis]
Damage Control II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II

Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender
Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender
Pithum C-Type Adaptive Invulnerability Field

Prototype Cloaking Device I

Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
Small Core Defense Field Extender II

As someone politely observed - it will safely get me from A to B but not much else!



Business Ventures - active

Inter-regional Trading

• This is my main source of income.

• I buy items from Sell Orders in Jita to be sold in my selling locations elsewhere.  I don't place Buy Orders in Jita - the margins i work on are high enough to profit from essentially hauling the items to other Regions to sell at a much higher price.  The time taken to fill Buy Orders would merely delay the process and whilst bring in higher margins would be offset by lower actual sales volumes.

• I focus on T1 and T2 items, blueprints and a few other misc items.  I am slowly expanding the number of T2 items and high value blueprints that i sell.

• I used to sell Skillbooks and many other misc items but i have scaled back to the current list.  Not really changed it much for over a year now.

• I stock all my selling locations with all my items (exception is Amarr which is more competitive hence i tend not to stock the more competitive items).  Once an item is fully sold out i then purchase a new item in Jita to haul to the selling location.  I don't keep any items spare in stock.

• I push my available ISK to the max.  For example, at the time of writing this i am down to about 4bn ISK in my wallets.

Manufacturing

• This forms part of my Trading activities - if i can manufacture cheaper than i can buy from a Jita Sell order then i will manufacture.  It is merely a way of capturing more of the value chain.

• For the T2 items, i get all the BPCs from the Contract market - i don't do Invention myself.

• All the manufacturing is done in Lonetrek - it is very close to Jita.  I haul the raw materials to Lonetrek myself and haul the finished items back to Jita myself.

Business Ventures - not active

Station Trading

• I tried this a while ago and I could not master it.  I may rethink how to do it.  But, more likely, I will just not do it.

Planetary Interaction

• I used to do this quite a lot.  Took too much maintenance so i have put it on hold for now.
• I almost entirely produced P3 items for sale.  I bought P2 items from the market and hauled them to my 15 factory planets to produce the P3 items.

• I always had some P3 items on the market to sell.  I tended not to move their price.  So, i only produced to replace sold orders.

• I did not change the P3 item that i produce - the thought of all that clicking on the factories appalled me!

• I tried to do P4 items - but they all tend to be loss making if you start from buying the P3 items from the market.

• I don't own any customs offices so i tended to pay planetary tax.  I always aimed to have tax rates at below 10%

• In all, i suspect i made about 1bn ISK per month on this.

• Nice passive income, not overly reliable though takes up little time.

Plex Trading

• I tried.

• That went right onto the backburner almost as soon as i started it.  Felt too complicated at the time and high maintenance.  I will take another look at it in the future.

Mining

• I tried this out to see what it was all about.  I would have to say that it is useful to mine when catching up on all the Eve podcasts / videos of the week.  I imagine a fleet mining operation would be quite relaxing and enjoyable.

• It does not make me anything so i don't count it as a business venture - but it does give good time to catch up on things whilst mining in the background.
• A very relaxing way to kill several hours!

POS

• I have set up a POS near one of my selling hubs as an experiment.  Started to use it to make BPO copies as a start to move into Invention.
• Abandoned that idea.  The POS just sits there with nothing in it.
• Pondering what to do, i suspect i will abandon it eventually

Low Sec / Nul Sec

• I tried setting up in H-PA29 V in the Venal Region.
• Did not make as much ISK as i hoped.
• I am looking for another location to try again.

Freighter

• i bought an Obelisk.  Mainly used to haul my raw materials to my manufacturing location in Lonetrek and then my finished items back to Jia.

An update on my Profits and Wealth as at July 2016

Now that we are over half way through 2016 it is worth updating where i am in my wealth and how my monthly profits are progressing.


The Strategy

First, lets remind ourselves of my trading strategy.

My greatest constraint is time - i don't have much of it.  There are times, like recently, when i can only log in once a week.  Hence, my Business needs to be able to operate under such constraints.

Therefore, the aims of the strategy i have adopted since Day 1 of this blog is that

- each account must be able to make a Plex a month.  I want to play Eve for free.
- each business venture must be able to make a Plex a month (i.e. Inter Region Trading vs PI vs invention vs etc)
- assuming i can log in for no more than 45 minutes per day

As a reminder, i have 2 accounts and so 6 alts in total.  One alt in each trading hub (Jita / Amarr / Dodixie / Hek / Rens) and a second on Jita trying to make my null sec trading work.  Each of the alts (except the null sec trader) also sells into a second region, the Jita alt sells into two regions.  In all, therefore, i am selling into 10 markets (i don't sell into Jita).  My null sec trader is not trading at present - that is on the "to do" list.

At present, my main and only ISK earning is inter-Region trading.My Trading strategy remains unchanged.  I am looking for slow moving products to sell at high profit margins (minimum 20%).  This is in contrast to other (much richer) traders out there who look for fast moving but low margin items to sell.  My style suits my play time.  I am trying to avoid the competition whereas the other traders take them on (and win).  Therefore, even if i log in once a week, i only need to update about a third to half my orders.

I also only Buy from Sell orders - the nature of my business means that it is more important i have the items on the market ready to sell rather than spend time updating Buy orders waiting for them to be fulfilled.

As an example, an item that I can buy for 100m ISK from a Jita sell order and sell in Dodixie for 130m in 5 days time with no maintenance to the sell order is fine with me.  In fact, that would be just ideal.  If i had 5 products that did that then i would earn 150m ISK over 5 days for 500m ISK invested.  That is more than halfway to getting me a Plex a month.  (before taxes etc etc but you see my point).

As a general rule, if I am able to log on for at least 45 minutes each day then I make 7bn ISK per month.  When real life is busy I make less (sometimes close to nil) and other times I make more.

(In my next post i will update on the mechanics of my business).

Current Wealth

My current wealth stands at 311bn ISK, as at end of July 2016.

My wealth is calculated by adding all Sell Orders less 20% value of Sell Orders as a provision against cutting prices over time + Buy Orders + Items in Production + Items for sale in hangers  +Items for sale in transit + ISK balance + Plex.

I don't value BPOs or BPCs or Ships or Towers etc.

The reason i take the 20% provision on the Sell Orders is that i am trying to estimate what i could re-sell my items for if i needed to liquidate them.

The majority of my wealth is Sell Orders (244.6bn) on the market (less the 20% provision of 48.9bn) - that is how it should be.  That is my best chance of increasing my wealth at the fastest rate.

The 892m "Buy Orders" are some Commodity Items i am messing around with - not really making much from them so i suspect i will ditch that as an idea.

The 10.9bn "Items for sale in hangers" consists in part of items waiting to ship to my trade locations but mostly to items that i used to stock in a null sec station - but trade was poor so i repatriated them back to Jita and will seed another null sec station once i find a suitable idea.

The 14.2bn "ISK Balance in Wallets" is actual ISK i have ready and available.  In reality, i would like to get that down to a floating balance of 5bn at a time.  The one thing i know about that 14.2bn is that it has no chance of generating additional ISK by just sitting in my wallet.  I need to make it work for me.

And the balance of my wealth is made up of Plex (88.9bn) i invest in to soak up surplus ISK i may have - see the end of this post for more on this matter.

Worth taking a look at how the Sell Orders are distributed around my characters, as shown below:

- each of the "sellers" and "Jita Operator" sell into two markets.
- the "Jita Operator" does not sell in Jita but in two Regions next to Jita (Lonetrek and The Citadel).
- The "Dodixie  Seller" and "Rens Seller" is a similar size to the "Amarr Seller" even though Amarr is a much bigger market.  That is because i find Amarr very competitive and so i don't sell all my products in Amarr.
- Hek only holds 30bn of Sell Orders vs Rens which holds 51bn.  That is because Hek is becoming a slow trading hub and so i tend to stock less of each item for sale.
- the "Null Sec Seller" is not selling anything in Null Sec for now.


Profits

In 2015 i made 109bn ISK vs 96bn in 2014.  In the first 7 months of this year i have made 44.2bn ISK - so clearly slower than even 2014 which reflect the decline in Plex prices and my lack of time to log in.  The decline in Plex has reduced my wealth by 16bn.  Either way, i need to pick it up in the final 5 months of this year!  Perhaps a rising Plex price will also help out.


Monthly Profits

I operate on a monthly cycle - i.e. i aim to be fully invested in the market at least at the month end as a minimum and have Plexed my accounts.  That also gives me an opportunity to see how my wealth is changing, as shown in the chart below.

As shown in the chart, i tend to make between 1 to 10bn per month.  I have had one loss making month and a few near 20bn.  The low and high months tend to reflect the move in Plex prices.

That said, what this chart also shows is that i have been unable to break out of that sub-10bn per month level.  That reflects the reduced time i have available to log in.  However, to meet that challenge i have devised a method by which i can log in for 15 minutes a day and hopefully boost my monthly profit.  Will be trying this from September onwards.

I also should invest in a laptop (i own a desktop and then nothing until i get to an ipad) for when i am travelling on business.

Another way of looking at my monthly profits is to see what the monthly profit is a % of my total wealth.  In other words, how hard is my wealth working for me?

Essentially what the above chart shows is that as my wealth increases i am not making any more profit and so my profit as a % of wealth is falling.  I need to reverse that.

One of my favorite charts shows my wealth at the end of each month and the ISK i make per day:

The blue bars represent my wealth at the end of each month - using the left scale.  The red line represents the daily profit in each month - using the right scale.  I like this one - it irons out the fact that some months are 30 days and others 31.  It also shows that when i am operating at full speed i make 650m per day and so i can afford a Plex every 2 days.  That has to be the aim though i will be happy if i can make 400m per day on average (= about 12bn per month).

Make up of Wealth

My aim is to ensure all my wealth is trying to make a profit.  The chart below shows how my wealth has been deployed over time:

Two items jump out.

Firstly, my investment in Plex is now a noticable part of my wealth.  I have not bought a Plex since March 2015.  In total, i have spent 86.8bn on Plex and it is now worth 88.9bn.  Not a bad investment at all.  More later in this post.

Secondly, the biggest part of my wealth is Sell Orders (notice the 20% provision at the bottom).  That is how it should be.

If you look hard, you can see the "ISK in my wallet".  During parts of 2015 it was reasonably high.  That ISK in my wallet is not very helpful, it is not making me any profit at all, and never will.  During 2015 it was too high so i took it down to nearer 10bn ISK in my wallet, i have now decided to take that down to 5bn to cover daily business costs.

Also, items for sale in my hangers is of no use - right now that is running at 10bn ISK also which i need to reduce.  These tend to be items that i once wanted to sell but for whatever reason are no longer in demand or items waiting to be shipped out to the selling locations.

The 20% Provision is currently reducing my wealth by 49bn - i don't mind that.  Keeps me honest.  Profits are only really profits once converted into ISK.  Csah is King, as they say.


Plex Account

My reasons for investing in Plex i detailed in an early post but in summary i find this is the best way of investing surplus ISK to hold its value in the game (i.e. an inflation hedge).

I started investing in Plex back in February 2014 (at a starting cost of 636m per Plex!).  Since then i have entered the Plex market a further 5 times and now own 94 Plex, valued at 88.9bn ISK (=946m per Plex).  I last entered the Plex market in March 2015, as show in the chart below:

My in cost of Plex is 710.5m vs the end of July value of 946m, so a 33% rise.  Not bad as an investment.

As an aside, the recent rise in Plex made me 5.3bn during July though i am still 23.2bn ISK down from the peak.

Eve Economic Report for July - ISK added to the economy

The monthly Economic Report for July is out.


In summary:

The summer lull goes on: Trade is down; Production is down; and Mining is down.  That said, we have a return to the normal status of ISK being added to the economy and so Plex prices are rising again.

Starting to see a change in dynamics with the two smaller Trade Hubs of Rens and Hek perhaps under threat as centers of activity.

Items of note from Regional Activity

Trade - down 9%

I am hoping this is still the summer lull - trade was down 9% in July on top of a 23% fall in June and a 14% fall in May.  To put this in perspective, Total trade in July was 514 trillion ISK vs February of 977 trillion, that is a fall of 47%.

Going through the Trade Hubs: The Forge (Jita) has fallen 48% since February; Domain (Amarr) has also fallen 48% since February - so both the main trade hubs are down with the average.  However, Sing Laison (Dodixie) has fallen 54%; Heimatar (Rens) has fallen 53%; and Metropolis (Hek) has fallen 52% - so it appears the other major trade hubs are falling faster.

If i just looked at Regions that did over 1 trillion ISK of trade (18 regions) then three are actually up since February: Catch which has risen 5%; Fade which has risen a massive 267%; and Vale of the Silent which has risen 23%.  All low/null sec.

Providence, which had been holding up, fell by 22% in July and Lonetrek, which had also been holding up, took a 23% dive in July.

I have put the top 10 trade Regions for each of July, June, May and April below to allow readers to see how far trade has come back:


Below is the top 10 Trade Regions in July

		Trillions
1	The Forge	367.9
2	Domain	59.7
3	Sinq Laison	19.4
4	Heimatar	10.5
5	Lonetrek	9.1
6	Metropolis	7.4
7	Essence	3.3
8	Providence	3.2
9	The Citadel	3.2
10	Tash-Murkon	1.9

Below is the top 10 Trade Regions in June

		Trillions
1	The Forge	399.2
2	Domain	67.1
3	Sinq Laison	21.2
4	Heimatar	12.4
5	Lonetrek	11.9
6	Metropolis	9.7
7	Providence	4.2
8	Essence	3.8
9	The Citadel	3.3
10	Tash-Murkon	2.5

Below is the top 10 Trade Regions in May

	Trade
		Trillions
1	The Forge	517.1
2	Domain	86.2
3	Sinq Laison	30.0
4	Heimatar	15.5
5	Lonetrek	13.0
6	Metropolis	12.9
7	Essence	5.2
8	The Citadel	5.2
9	Providence	4.5
10	Tash-Murkon	4.1

Below is the top 10 Trade Regions for April:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	597.7
2	Domain	99.4
3	Sinq Laison	34.8
4	Heimatar	19.1
5	Lonetrek	18.6
6	Metropolis	14.0
7	The Citadel	7.1
8	Essence	6.5
9	Providence	4.4
10	Tash-Murkon	4.1

Nothing much changed in terms of Region ranking in July.  The Trade Hubs dominate though Lonetrek continues to secure its position ahead of Metropolis (Hek).  Metropolis (Hek) looks secure in its position as the 6th largest trade Region but that is starting to look a dull place to be.

Lonetrek is still battling hard to replace Hek as the number 4 Trade Hub.  It really got to the number 5 slot during World War Bee and continues to holds it position.

As a reminder to new players, the main 5 Trade Hubs in the order we know: The Forge (i.e. Jita); Domain (i.e. Amarr); Sinq Laison (i.e. Dodixie); Heimatar (i.e. Rens); Metropolis (i.e. Hek).

In the next 5: the expected Essence and Tash-Murkon are there, known secondary trade hubs.  But also Lonetrek and Citadel (both Regions that are one jump out of Jita) and Providence (null sec space that borders several highsec Regions: Domain / Tash-Murkon / Devoid / Derelik).

The dominance of The Forge (Jita) reigns supreme though - Jita shows no sign of losing its dominance.  It is no surprise that citadels in High-Sec are parking themselves close to Jita as they fight for its business.

Deklein (home region of the losing side in World War Bee) saw its first monthly rise in trade since March, with trade up 20%.  Remains a shadow of its former self though.

Looking at trends since February, the big risers have been Fade (rank 39 to 12), Immensea (rank 42 to 21) and Vale of the Silent (rank 21 to 13).  Regions with trade over 1 trillion ISK need to be in the top 18.

The big fallers have been Deklein (rank 13 to 24), Oasa (rank 28 to 46), Querious (rank 18 to 28) and Wicked Creek (rank 17 to 49).



Production - down 10%

Production fell 10%, looks like it is giving back its large rise of 39% rise in May (likely on the back of building Citadels and rebuilding destroyed items in World War Bee) following a fall of 17% in June as well.

Production is now a mere 5% above February levels - suggests we continue to see the effect of Citadel building.  Still, we have the seeming contradiction that Production remains above February levels yet Trade has almost halved since then.  My best guesses remain that either Corporations are mining and processing their own raw materials rather than buy them from the market, or that the purchases were made in prior months.

I have put the top 10 Production Regions for July, June, May and April below.



Top 10 Production Regions for July:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	20.6
2	Lonetrek	14.4
3	The Citadel	9.6
4	Domain	5.8
5	Providence	3.9
6	Sinq Laison	3.9
7	Tribute	2.7
8	Malpais	2.2
9	Cobalt Edge	2.1
10	Vale of the Silent	1.9

Top 10 Production Regions for June:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	22.9
2	Lonetrek	15.0
3	The Citadel	11.2
4	Domain	6.7
5	Providence	5.1
6	Sinq Laison	4.3
7	Catch	2.8
8	Geminate	2.6
9	Malpais	2.6
10	Black Rise	2.5

Top 10 Production Regions for May:

	Production
		Trillions
1	The Forge	32.7
2	Lonetrek	19.6
3	The Citadel	15.1
4	Domain	8.9
5	Providence	5.4
6	Sinq Laison	5.3
7	Geminate	3.7
8	Catch	2.8
9	Tash-Murkon	2.6
10	Malpais	2.4

Top 10 Production Regions for April:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	19.6
2	Lonetrek	14.0
3	The Citadel	11.8
4	Domain	7.3
5	Sinq Laison	5.3
6	Providence	3.6
7	Metropolis	2.8
8	Geminate	2.5
9	Malpais	2.1
10	Tash-Murkon	2.0

Nothing of substance to say about the rankings - some changes towards the bottom half but these are small numbers.

The Regions of The Forge and its neighbours Lonetrek and Citadel dominated - they were always big production centers but now take on the role as being where Citadels are being focused in High Sec to take business away from Jita.

For new players - The Forge remains the top slot - makes sense, many people will produce near where they buy the raw materials and/or intend to sell.

Domain and Sinq Laison are the other two major Trade Hubs - hence would expect Production to be there.

Providence, is a Low Sec Region but borders several highsec Regions: Domain / Tash-Murkon / Devoid / Derelik and has a more inviting stance for players - hence we would expect to see it be up there in the Production rankings.

Deklein (home region of the losing side in World War Bee) saw a 25% rise in July on top of a 61% rise in Production in June (someone moving back in?) though still down 56% since February.

That said, there is plenty of movement going on below the top 10.

There have many plenty big movers since February.  Notable increases since February have been seen in Branch which is up 16%, Colbalt Edge which is up 161% to 2.1 trillion, Delve which is up 61% to almost a trillion, Esoteria which is up 45% to 1.4 trillion, Fountain which is up 76% to over a trillion, Malpais which is up 62% to 2.2 trillion, Period Basis which is up 122% to almost a trillion, Providence which is up 22% to 3.9 trillion, Querious which is up 47% to almost a trillion and Tribute which is up 108% to 2.7 trillion.

If i singled out those that made the rise in May/June/July as indications of Citadel building then Branch, Colbalt Edge, Period Basis and Tribute look like they are Citadel affected.

Honorary mention goes to Cloud Ring which is up a massive 2399% from a mere 15 billion to a still small 384 billion and Detorid which is up 960% to a small 209 billion.

Of the fallers since February - a big note that two of the main trade hubs no longer feature in the top 10 . . . . Metropolis (Hek) and Heimatar (Rens).  Furthermore, Domain (Amarr) and Sinq Laison (Dodixie) have both fallen 15% since February - looks like Production is moving to Citadels, generally closer to Jita and perhaps into Low/Null sec.

Mining - down 7%

Mining was down 7% - more inline with Trade - though remains up 7% since February, not unlike Production.

Below is the top 10 Mining Regions in July:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	1.4
2	Malpais	1.3
3	Cobalt Edge	1.1
4	Providence	1.0
5	Lonetrek	1.0
6	Domain	1.0
7	Metropolis	0.8
8	Branch	0.7
9	Tash-Murkon	0.7
10	Sinq Laison	0.7

Nothing special of note in mining this month, again.

Perhaps worth noting that we are seeing notable rises since February in Branch, Cobalt Edge, Paragon Soul and Malpais.  Either Null / Low sec is a lot more safer to mine or everyone is busily replenishing after World War Bee and to build Citadels.

Deklein, which historically had been a Top 10 mining Region fell to 46 in May and has since risen to position 21 though remains at less than half of its peak mining levels.

The Forge and Domain at the top given being major Trade Hubs - so people mining near where they intend to sell and Lonetrek being next to The Forge and itself a major production Region.

Providence is up there given it is nullsec space that is very connected to several High Sec Regions and has a more neutral policy to neutral players.

Destruction - up 15%

I had thought that Destruction was falling after World War Bee - but now it is back with 10% of those levels.  A nice 32 trillion ISK destroyed in July vs 35 trillion peak in April.

Below is the top 10 Destruction in July:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	2.1
2	Black Rise	2.0
3	Lonetrek	1.9
4	The Citadel	1.6
5	Providence	1.3
6	Immensea	1.2
7	Sinq Laison	1.1
8	Pure Blind	1.0
9	Metropolis	1.0
10	Vale of the Silent	1.0

The top table is the top 10 Destruction in June:

		Trillions
1	The Forge	2.0
2	Lonetrek	1.8
3	Black Rise	1.8
4	The Citadel	1.4
5	Providence	1.3
6	Querious	1.0
7	Domain	1.0
8	Catch	0.9
9	Vale of the Silent	0.8
10	Sinq Laison	0.8

The table below is the top 10 Destruction in May:

	Destroyed
		Trillions
1	Lonetrek	2.7
2	The Citadel	2.2
3	The Forge	1.9
4	Domain	1.4
5	Black Rise	1.4
6	Providence	1.2
7	Sinq Laison	1.1
8	Metropolis	1.1
9	Catch	1.0
10	Querious	1.0

The table below is the top 10 Destruction in April:

		Trillions
1	Lonetrek	3.0
2	Pure Blind	2.3
3	The Forge	2.3
4	The Citadel	1.9
5	Black Rise	1.6
6	Domain	1.4
7	Tribute	1.1
8	Deklein	1.1
9	Metropolis	1.1
10	Sinq Laison	1.1

Not much of note in July other than Black Rise made another appearance in the top 10 - a consistent top 10 appearance since February.  If i followed the battles in Eve more closely, i suspect i would have a better idea as to why certain Regions appear in the top 10.

That said, always expect to see The Forge (Jita region) and its two connecting Regions (Lonetrek and Citadel) in the top 10.

Sinq Laison (Dodixie) also there but no Domain (Amarr) this time.  Odd that the number two Trade Hub Region has fallen out of the top 10 - i would have thought the ganking at least would have kept it in its normal top 10 position.

Notable movers upwards in Destruction have been Immensea - new top 10 entrant; Vale of the Silent which is flirting constantly with the top 10; and Fade which is now a constant top 20 position.  All consistent with a rise in Trade in those Regions since February.

Life as normal of course means that Destruction follows Trade - for that, read ganking.

For The Forge, during July there was 540 trillion ISK of goods imported into the Region and 637 trillion ISK of goods exported.  Out of all that, a mere 2.1 trillion was destroyed.  A drop in the ocean really, only 0.2% of all traffic value - lets call that the "gank coefficient".  Though annoying if you happen to be amongst that drop.

In fact, all the major Trade Hubs don't see more than 0.3% of their import+export traffic destroyed in May.  Ganking is clearly there but just not the threat it is made out to be.

If i looked for Regions that have imports and exports of at least over 100 trillion each then the only Region that sees a decent "gank coefficient" is Black Rise where 0.8% gets destroyed.

Imports and Exports

I normally watch the Imports and Exports as an indicator on the travel of goods or, more recently, the movement of war.

In all, Imports were up 3% and Exports were up 3% following a 18% fall in June.  Still up 8% since February through down 17% from the recent peak in April.  I suspect the rise into April was due to war mobilisation.

Similar to what we are seeing in Production, Black Rise is seeing a notable increase in Imports and Exports - more than doubled since February.  Placid saw a nice 30% rise, as did Pure Blind.  Add all that together and it looks like we have a rising transport of items through Black Rise to Placid to Pure Blind.  Or in the other direction.

I also like to look for big Net Importers of Net Exporters as an indication of an end point, or start point, of goods.  I would always expect to see The Forge (Jita) be a big net Importer as players bring stuff into Jita and keep it there.  Hence, i would expect to see many of the adjacent Regions to The Forge be net exporters as players transport their goods through those regions to get to Jita - and that is the case with big net exports from Lonetrek / Citadel / Metropolis / Geminate.  That said, this time Sinq Laison is a net importer instead of a net exporter - which chimes with more activity on that side of the map in July.

The only stand out oddity in the net importers vs net exporters is Aridia which imported 88 trillion and only exported 54 trillion.

Items of note in the Sinks and Faucets

We are back to the traditional trend of the net of Sinks and Faucets adding ISK to the economy after April and May saw rare examples of ISK contraction.  July saw 26.7 trillion added to the Eve economy, a rise on the 24.5 trillion in June though mainly due to falling expenditure.

The overall ISK in the economy grew once we eliminate the 21.7 trillion that left due to players leaving the game - first growth in ISK since March.  ISK in the game is now 956 trillion vs the recent peak of 972 trillion in March.

We are still seeing the effect of the Tax rises.  As a reminder on 27 April 2016, Transaction Tax (a tax on items sold) went from 1.5% to 2.0% and Broker Fees (a tax on orders placed on the market for future fulfillment) went from 1% to 3%.

Broker fees fell 9% to 10.6 trillion but remains double the level in February and March.  Transaction Tax fell 4%.  Recall that Trade fell 9% in July.  Hence these declines are not unexpected.  The greater fall in Broker Fees is likely due to "off-shoring" whereby Buy and Sell Orders are posted from Citadels (but into NPC stations) to dodge the Broker Fee tax in NPC stations.  The fact that Transaction Taxes fell less than Trade to me indicates that plenty of Trade continues to take place in the NPC stations.

Blueprints fell 28% to 4.5 trillion on top of the 59% fall in June and the 38% fall in May.  Blueprint spending peaked in April at 24.8 trillion but remains above the February level of 3.3 trillion.  Suggests we are winding down now on Citadel Blueprint buying.

On the income side: Bounty Prizes were flat at 42.5 trillion; Commodity fell 9% to 13.7 trillion; Incursion Payouts fell 7% to 9.1 trillion; and insurance rose 9% to 3.2 trillion.  Nothing much to say about all that other than to note that Bounty Prices have been picking up since the end of World War Bee as combatants get back to ratting.

Project Discovery remains in decline.  It started as 340 billion Income back in March but is now a mere 78 billion.

Items of note in the Money Supply

Nothing to say this month other than money supply rose for the first time since March from 950 trillion ISK to 956 trillion, as noted above.

The greatest inflow of ISK into the game as a % of the prior day's ISK was on 17 October 2014 when 4.9 trillion ISK came into the game (=0.66% of the prior day's ISK in the game).  And indeed 18 October 2014 was the third largest day with 4.1 trillion ISK coming into the game.  Not sure why this would be: Plex went over 800m though that itself would not cause ISK to flow into the game; may also relate to SOMER Blink reimbursing prior deposits (see paragraph below).

The greatest outflow of ISK from the game occured on 20 August 2014 when a massive 32.7 trillion ISK left the game (=4.3% of the prior day's ISK in the game).  Most likely to do with the banning of SOMER Blink from the game on that day.  To put this in perspective, the next largest outflow of ISK was on 8 January 2016 when 4.8 trillion left the game (=0.52% of the prior day's ISK in the game) - again, most likely due to a banning event: The Latest IWANTISK Ban Wave.  Seems at least to be a pattern to the major outflow days = banning days.

Mapping all that onto Plex Prices

I greatly suspect players, like myself, use surplus ISK generated each month to buy Plex.  When i say "surplus" i of course mean surplus to all other requirements - where i have a choice of letting my ISK balance grow with no chance of generating further returns or i can invest it somewhere.

Normally, there is 20 - 30 trillion of surplus ISK generated which, through the mechanisms of trading, makes its way nicely up to the business owners and bankers in Eve.

They then park some of that in Plex.  That is what makes Plex an inflation hedge - where inflation is defined as money supply.  That is, the rising amount of ISK in Eve.

However, we have had three recent events which have disrupted that flow.

Firstly, World War Bee, i suspect, will have seen a higher than normal selling pressure to finance the war.  For a few months that extra ISK generated went into financing the war and i suspect hoarded reserves of Plex were sold to help out.  That i suspect is now largely over.

Secondly, Citadel building will also have seen a higher than normal selling pressure to finance the cost of building Citadels.  That appears to be scaling back to more of an ongoing expense rather than the rush we saw recently.

Thirdly, the rise in Transaction Taxes and Broker Fees has added a further 5 trillion of additional ISK sink to Eve.  Worth noting that it was an additional 15 trillion ISK sink until players discovered "off-shoring".  That is here to stay though good to see player innovation minimizing its affect.

The point here is that the recent headwinds to ISK generation are now lessening such that we are again generating surplus ISK and so Plex rises have started to rise again in response.  When those headwinds were the strongest in April, May and June we saw ISK leave the economy and so Plex prices fell.  Prior to those months, ISK only left Eve on three prior occasions - August 2014, April 2014 and March 2014.