Insurance Fraud - This made me laugh

The Utility Function

This is a cheeky post about the utility function (more below but don't give up read now!).  It uses Eve Online ingame insurance fraud as the example.

In economics the utility function is the measure of satisfaction, pleasure, or benefit that a person gets from using a good or service.

Which is why, in real life, not everyone is trying to make billions or become the great ruler.  Some people are perfectly happy at a low level of wealth or have other pleasures like family.

And this applies to Eve - never forget that not everyone is travelling in the same direction as you!

The background

There is a post on reddit where the OP points to making "easy" isk by mining the ore, building the ship, insuring it and then destroying it.

At least that's how i read it.

So i would guess making more isk from the insurance payment than selling the Ore or selling the Ship (or perhaps quicker isk).

and a helpful image was put up:

So, looks like making 27k isk a shot.

First take

That is a seriously the equivalent of wading through treacle to make a serious small amount of isk.

Time cost of money

Now, don't get me wrong here.

Before i spout out about this being a seriously poor and dull use of time to make isk i have to recognise that this is a sandbox game and caters for everyone of all tastes and desires.  In other words, i have to understand that everyone has a different "utility function", ie the measure of satisfaction, pleasure, or benefit that a person gets from using a good or service.

So a miner, like TheOneAndOnlySidar loves mining, does twitch shows about it and i love watching them.

But the above insurance "fraud" is pushing that, i think.

Sandbox

That said, this is a sandbox.  And if the OP loves doing that then go ahead.  From small things grow great empires.

How close the game mechanics are to greatly expanding the financial environment such as banking and derivatives

The game mechanics today don't allow lending or shorting prices without using a trusted third party that is also willing to manually monitor it all.

But, with one small step within the contract mechanics we could be right there.

The simple change needed to set up a lending system within the contract mechanics

. . . . . basically, issuing a contract within a contract is what needs to be coded in.

OK, stick with me for these steps.

Player A wants to borrow 10 billion isk from Player B for 4 weeks and is willing to pay 1 billion isk in interest and give 12 billion in collateral.

All contracts set up by Player B (the lender):

Contract 1 = Player B buys 12 billion of items (say Plex, this is the collateral) for 10 billion isk +  Contract 2 (this is the issuing of a contact within a contract part and needs CCP to make this change to the Contract mechanics)

Contract 2 = Player B has a private sale of the items back to whoever accepted Contract 1 for 11 billion isk in 4 weeks time.  This will automatically put the items (collateral) into escrow.

So, how does this work for Player A (the borrower) if they pay the loan + interest back?

On day 1 Player A will get 10 billion isk in exchange for 12 billion Plex and will be holding Contact 2.

In 4 weeks time Player A will pay Player B 11 billion isk and get their 12 billion of Plex back.

And how does this work for Player B (the lender) if Player A pays the loan + interest?

On day 1 Player B pays 10 billion of isk and receives 12 billion of plex and Contract 2 will force that 12 billion of Plex to be put immediately into escrow.

In 4 weeks time Player B will receive 11 billion isk in exchange for the 12 billion of Plex.

So, how does this work for Player A (the borrower) if they DONT pay the loan + interest back?

On day 1 Player A will get 10 billion isk in exchange for 12 billion Plex and will be holding Contact 2.

In 4 weeks time if Player A defaults then they keep the 10 billion isk but lose their 12 billion Plex.

And how does this work for Player B (the lender) if Player A DOES NOT pay the loan + interest?

On day 1 Player B pays 10 billion of isk and receives 12 billion of plex and Contract 2 will force that 12 billion of Plex to be put immediately into escrow.

In 4 weeks time Player B will keep the 12 billion of Plex.

4 weeks is a short time, could this be set up for a longer time period?

4 weeks is the maximum time currently allowed in contracts.

The simplest way would be for CCP to add more time options in the contract mechanism.

The other way would be to issue Contract 2 within another Contract that ended in 4 weeks time.  That would increase the length of the loan to 8 weeks.  And this could keep on going for longer time periods.

The potential here is massive

I could use the same system to enter into a derivative contract.  But lets leave it at lending for now.

How could Banking work with minimal adjustments to current game mechanics?

At its core, a traditional Bank is a business that takes in money from Depositors and lends that money out to Borrowers in exchange for some collateral to cover the loan.  So thinking mortgages here.

The revenues of the Bank is the interest rate it charges the Borrowers and the costs are the interest rate it pays to Depositors and any loans it has made that go bad (the Borrower is unable to pay and so the loan is written off) less the collateral that becomes the property of the Bank.

Get the collateral right and the cost of loans going bad is very small to none at all.

How could this work with current game mechanics?

The current Contracting systems gets us almost there.

To make a loan i would want to give isk to a Borrower for a set number of days in return for Collateral.  If the Loan + Interest was repaid within x days then the Borrower gets the Collateral back.

That is a contract within a contract - see the example below.

All we need to be able to do is put contracts within contracts, and then we are there.  And more.

An example

Lets assume i was lending out 1 billion isk for 4 months and charging 100m interest.  And i chose to accept a Procurer Blueprint as Collateral (base value 1.4bn isk).

The way this would work is to create the contracts in reverse.

I would first create a contract to give the Borrower a Procurer Blueprint in exchange for 1.1bn isk with a time limit of 4 weeks.  So a sort of Courier Contract with no distance travelled.  But this contract would not be immediately given to the Borrower, it would be part of the next contract.

I would then create a contract to give the Borrower 1bn Isk and the above contract in exchange for an Procurer Blueprint.  So a simple exchange contract.

So, on day 1 the Borrower gets 1bn isk from me and a contract to pay me 1.1bn isk in exchange for the Procurer Blueprint, and i get a Procurer Blueprint .

The Borrower then has the option of paying me 1.1bn isk within 4 weeks and getting the Procurer Blueprint back or defaulting in which case i get the Procurer Blueprint.

I cant run off with the Blueprint because i have given a courier type contract to return it - so it will effectively be held in escrow.

This is an example of secured lending, like a mortgage.

How would the deposits work?

In the same way, the depositor gives me isk in exchange for some collateral and a contract from me to repay the isk + interest in exchange for the collateral within a certain time.

What is the underlying truth that makes this work?

The assumption here is that the Borrower and Bank have plenty of assets sitting around unused which they are willing to use as collateral and that the Bank has surplus isk available to fund any Depositors wanting isk back before new depositors come in.

In this situation, if things go wrong then assets start changing hands and the Depositors and / or Banks are left with lots of Collateral items rather than their isk + interest.

Where would this lead?

Get the ability to put contracts within contracts and you get the ability to have Futures and Options, and therefore the ability to go short items

Plex / Omega deal - 3 months is great value

For the first time in a long time the 1 month Omega cost has been discounted from 500 Plex to 350 and the 3 month Omega cost also discounted from 1200 to 1050 (it had sat on a long term discount from 1500 to 1200 previously).

This deal closes on 17 October and is available on the New Eden Store.

The cost of the other Omega times had not changed from their long term discounts.

As ever, the question is what is the best deal and the answer to that really depends on how you use your ISK in the game.

The thought process for an ingame business to decide which is the best deal

For me, i operate an ingame business and so the answer is not as clear as it may first appear to be.

For example, if i chose to buy 3 month Omega for all my 4 Omega accounts i would be spending 21bn isk vs the more usual 23bn, if no discount at all is given, 29bn.  But the calculation does not stop at comparing the 21bn cost to the other costs i would have paid.

I need to ask myself what 21bn invested into my business would have done.  Maybe the answer is just to take the 1 month deal for now, who knows.

Fortunately, i can work this out by asking myself the question of what my business would need to return each month if i decided to invest in the one month Omega each month instead of taking the 3 or 6 or 12 or 24 month deals:

The key column in the table above is the last column.  This tells my what my monthly return on my business must be to do better than taking the Omega deal.  (the working process is at the bottom of this post).

The clear winner is the 3 month deal where my business would need to do better than 51% returns each month - that is unlikely to happen.

The calculation process

What i do is compare two assumptions.  Lets use an example of the 3 month Omega deal:

If i go for it then i would spend 5.1bn isk per account vs the normal cost of 7.4bn isk, so a saving of 2.2bn isk for what is a 30% discount.

However, i must also compare this to taking that 5.1bn isk, buying a one month Omega and investing the rest in the business.  Then taking buy the next month Omega the following month from the profits and so on until the end of month 3.  For this to be a better use of the isk i need to work out what the monthly return needs to be - in this case for the 3 month Omega it is 51% each month.

Nice deal - 25 free Plex / 10 days Omega for 10 Plex

Its a small deal on the New Eden Store but not to be missed

Firstly to note, this is available to Alpha and Omega accounts.

CCP are giving all accounts that claim it 25 free Plex and also all accounts can buy 10 days of Omega for 10 Plex.

So, this is self financing: CCP are effectively giving everyone 10 days of Omega and 15 Plex.

Basically CCP are giving ISK for free here

25 plex at 4.7m = 118m isk.

But, that is small fry.  It is the conversion to Omega that makes this deal work spectacularly.

One month Omega = 500 Plex at 4.7m = 2.4bn isk.  So 10 days for free is equivalent to 780m isk.  Add in the remaining 15 Plex (=70m isk) then CCP is giving the equivalent of 780+70 = 850m isk to every account.

So, what did i do?

For my Omega accounts i took the 25 free plex and spent 10 Plex buying the 10 Omega Days.  So, leaves 15 Plex with each of the Omega accounts.

So my Omega accounts have made 850 x 4 = 3.4bn isk for free.

For the Alpha accounts i took the 25 free plex only = 118 x 3 = 350m isk.

I sold all my Plex - will buy back later

CCP are becoming more aggressive in their deals.  It all really kicked off last September when there was a material discount on the amount of Plex required to buy Omega.

This time there is a material discount on the amount of Plex required to buy Skill Extractors.

The ingame store (New Eden Store) is offering a 2-for-1 sale on Skill Extractors and Daily Alpha Injectors.

I am not sure when it ends.

CCP deals to buy cheap items for Plex always drives the price of Plex Higher

The effect in both cases is that the demand for Plex goes up as players pile in to buy the Plex to then buy the cheaper Omega or, in todays case, the cheaper Skill Extractors.

And then the Price of Plex will fall back

Once the deal is over the surplus demand for Plex falls away and so the Plex price comes back to where it was before.

Where to find the analysis of this all

Oz Eve, one of the go to people for analysis of what is happening on Eve Markets talked about it in his weekly Twitch Stream on Saturday (he likes to call it Plexageddon), starts talking about it16 minutes in, and has a dedicated youtube report The Oz Report which talks about all this about 1:45 in.

The effect this time is to reduce the price Skill Extractors (as expected) by 40% and increase the price of Plex by 25-30%.

i.e. Skill Extractors would halve but we need to rebase this upwards given the rise in Plex Price.

The Trade to do every time is the same

For me it is simple, i sell all my Plex and then buy it back later.

I had 4500 Plex which i sold at 5.6m isk.

This stock pile had cost on average 4.4m per Plex.  So that is a nice 27% profit before taking off the 3.6% Sales Tax.

In the next week or so i will rebuild my stock pile at a lower price.

Technically, it was still possible to make an additional profit by converting your Plex to Skill Extractors and selling the Skill Extractors.  But i am a simple man and want to keep all things simple.

Will the Plex price fall back?

It should do.  The main risk is if players now come to expect these deals to happen every 3 months then there will be a stronger than normal rebuild of Plex in inventory.

The events in January and April recovered quickly.

Will the Skill Extractor price recover?

Again, it should do though may take longer.  Plex can be used for more actions where as Skill Extractors can only be used for one thing.

That said, stocking up on Skill Extractors to sell back later is not a bad idea.

A key secondary reason to hold Plex

These more aggressive deals means that for market operators there is an additional reason to hold Plex.  Every 3-6 months an opportunity will present itself to trade in your surplus Plex to make a nice instant profit.

As i write this article, the Buy Price for Plex in Jita is 5.7m isk.

Plex for Omega discounts - which is the best deal

As is now always the case, the amount of Plex required to buy Omega is discounted by ever higher discounts as the period of Omega rises.

The discount to buy a 3 month Omega is 29%, the discount to buy a 24 month Omega is 45%.

Which is the best deal?

It can be quite straight forwards to work that out

Today it costs 31.0bn isk to buy a 24 month Omega.  It would normally cost 56.4bn.  A 45% saving.  That is the highest % saving for any Omega time (20% for 3 months, 30% 6 months, 40% 12 months).

Therefore, if you have 31bn isk lying around that you do not intend to use to generate isk in any way then the 24 month is the one to go for.  No doubt about it.

But if you would otherwise plan to use the 31bn isk to generate isk, either in PVE or on the Markets, then it is not so clear.

How so - this is not as clear as first seems?

Because, quite simply, if you could invest that 31bn isk, make over 6.1% return each month and buy a monthly Omega instead (no discount) then you are better off buying the monthly Omega.

The table below shows the monthly returns that are the difference between taking the deal vs not.

The table lists each of the Omega deals, the normal cost, the discount given and so the actual cost.  Then shows the saving made, and the saving on a monthly basis, and the effective number of months you get for free.

It is the final column that is the interesting one.

This does the calculation of taking the amount needed to buy the deal and shows the monthly return required to make the difference between just investing that isk in your efforts and buying the monthly Omega vs taking the deal.

The current price of Plex does not change the answer though clearly assuming Plex price does not change is one mighty assumption!

But, taking this table shows that the best deal is the 3 month Omega.  If your efforts generate over 27.5% monthly return on the 5.6bn isk needed to buy the 3 month deal then don't go for the deal.

For myself, i can get no where near generating 27.5% monthly returns and so i always for the 3 month Omega deal.

Trick Buy Orders or borderline scamming or more?

Anyone who puts Sell Orders on the market will see this.

The below image shows it well.  I am putting up a Sell Order in Dodixie to sell a couple of Small Consortium Vorton Projectors.  The last Sale price in the history was 394,900,000.  There is an existing Buy order there for 39,490,000.

Immediately you can see the game here.  The Buyer is not putting up a low priced order for low priced sake.  The Buyer is trying to trick any sellers into misreading the Buy price into thinking it is 394,900,000.

As you can see, i spotted it and did not fall for it.

Clearly, it is a trick Buy order and outright Scam.  Some might say an exploit.

It is also annoying.  The Sell Price in my Sell window defaults to the Buy Order price.  If no Buy Order is there then it would default to one tick above the last Sale Price i had.

So i need to input the correct price which adds to the time taken to post Orders.

But, it is all part of the rough and tumble of Eve.

And for those players that make a success of it - there is now Highsec Buyback that will pay 90% of Jita Buy price anywhere in Eve highsec NPC stations.  So no longer does the player need to transport their ill gotten gains to Jita to sell, the ISK will come to them immediately.

Eve Excel add-in

I am beta testing the excel add-in and so far i like what i see.

This will really allow players to more readily use data to get more involved in Industry and keep track of your Characters and Corporation more generally.  All of this could be done before but now much less coding / excel knowledge is required.

There is no NDA - and plenty of market commentators are showing examples on their streams.

The best way to think about it for now is that it gives the same data you get into the Eve Portal app.  Though, i can see how it can be used for much more.

The data comes straight into a spreadsheet - there is a limit on how much data can come in at any one time before more is added.  But not too long between additions.

Works on Excel, the free Excel (only web based), on MAC and PC.

You need to add characters by logging in - but that is all very intuitive.

Example excel formulas

=EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_ORDERS(<char_id>) - will pull into excel a column of all Buy and Sell orders from one of your characters.

=EVEONLINE.CHARACTER_ORDERS(<char_id>).price will show the price that the Buy or Sell order is at.

So far, pretty basic stuff and very intuitive.

It can get tricky though:

=MIN(FILTER(EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS(10000002, <item_id>),EVEONLINE.MARKET_ORDERS(10000002, <item_id>).transaction_type="SELL").price is what is currently required to show the lowest Sell Order price for an item in Jita (this is the formula i use to value assets i hold).

What have i done so far

So far, i have built a spreadsheet that tells me my wealth: Adds up all my Sell and Buy orders across my 14 Traders (8 Omega alts and 6 alpha alts); adds up the value of my assets; adds in the value of the ISK held by the alts and the ISK held by my corporation.

The thing it won't do for now is capture any assets delivered by courier contract into a Corporation Delivery Hanger and it can't capture the Plex in the Plex Wallet.  That may change.

Also, some things could be ironed out, for example the excel formula to find the lowest Sell Price or Highest Buy price in a station is a bit intensive.  I am sure they will be.

If you have a big spreadsheet like i do that cane take a minute or so to update, best to put your formulas to "manual" and so the data updates when you want it to rather than every time you come out of a cell.

Current videos on the add-in

Oz has one: First look: Eve Online Excel Add-in Beta

Talking in Stations has one (bias to the Industrial side of life, using Blueprints): Eve x Excel for Dummies

Output

For what it is worth, my wealth as i write this post is now 916bn isk, so an increase of 48bn vs end of February.  Maybe i can make March a 70bn increase in wealth month.  Lets see.

The current 3 month Omega deal (36% discount) is fantastic

As at the time of writing there is another Omega sale going on that is much better than the normal sale.  Firstly, the one month Omega is going for 400 Plex rather than the normal 500 Plex.

The question is - should we go for it.

The summary of the below is the 3 and 6 months look good.  The 12 and 24 months less so.  In fact the 24 month deal is very poor.

It is all a question of what is the return your business makes.

To not go for the 3 month deal if you can afford it means your business needs to make a monthly return of more than 72%.

What are the discounts on offer?

The table below summarises them all and adds some analysis.

It is a busy table but lets focus on the 6 month Omega to explain what is going on.  The cost of Plex does not alter any of the outcomes.

So, looking at the 6 month line:

The normal cost is 14.7bn (=500 plex x 6 months x 4.9m per plex = 3000 Plex x 4.7m)

CCP gives a 44% discount meaning instead of costing 3000 Plex it costs 1680 Plex.  Therefore, the actual cost is 8.2bn isk and so saving 6.5bn isk.  Over 6 months therefore this saving is 1.1bn isk per month.

The return technically made is 6.5 / 8.2 = 79%.

By Buying this 6 month deal you effectively save on 2.6 months (you pay the full price for 3.4 months and get 6 months).

So far, this all looks really appealing.

But we need to think of the alternative

Sticking to the 6 months, the alternative is that we take the 8.2bn isk and instead of buying the 6 month Omega we invest it in our business and pay the normal monthly Omega.

The question there is what monthly return must our business make to justify this course of action rather than taking the deal.

In other words, for the 6 month calculation, we take the 8.2bn isk we would have used to buy the deal but instead invest it into the business, reduce it by 2.5bn to buy a 1 month Omega, invest the rest for a month making a return of X%.  Then reduce that enlarged amount by another 2.5bn to buy the next months Omega and invest what's left to make that return of X% and so on for 6 months.

As it happens for this 6 month period, and it does not matter what the market price of Plex is (assuming it does not change), to make it more attractive to buy the Omega each month then your monthly return (i.e. X%) must be at least 31.7%.

If you can't make 31.7% then buying the 6 month Omega deal is better.

And that is what the final column on the table shows.

It shows the monthly return required to do better than buying the deal.

The longer time deals are poor

The 3 month deal is the best.  You would need to make a monthly return of 71.9% to mean that buying the 1 month Omega each time is a better idea.

The 24 month deal is the worst - you only need to make a monthly return of 9.0% to mean that investing the 25.9bn isk into your business and paying each month for a 1 month Omega is a better idea.

What does it mean for me?

I currently make a monthly return of 10-11% on my business (i.e. for every 100bn invested i make 10-11bn).

Therefore, assuming i knew i was going to play Eve for the next 6 months then i should buy the 6 month Omega deal rather than pay each month for the monthly Omega.

Example of the 6 month calculation

The below table shows how i worked out the required 31.7% return:

Start at time 0 and invest 8.2bn isk.  buy a 1 month omega for 2.5bn leaves 5.8bn, make the 31.7% return increases that to 7.6bn.  Start of the second month reduce it by 2.5bn to 5.2bn for the 1 month Omega, increase that 5.2bn by 31.7% to 6.8bn and so on.  By the start of the month 6 you are left with 2.5bn to buy that final months Omega.

Is it worth taking the Omega / Plex discounts on offer if you are in the business of making isk - YES & NO

As at the time of writing there has been a long time offer to discount Omega times.  For example, you can buy 3 month Omega for 1200 Plex vs the normal cost of 1500 Plex, so a discount of 20%.

The question is - should we go for it.

The summary of the below is the 3 and 6 months look good.  The 12 and 24 months less so.  In fact the 24 month deal is very poor.

It is all a question of what is the return your business makes.

What are the discounts on offer?

The table below summarises them all and adds some analysis.

It is a busy table but lets focus on the 6 month Omega to explain what is going on.  The cost of Plex does not alter any of the outcomes.

So, looking at the 6 month line:

The normal cost is 13.8bn (=500 plex x 6 months x 4.6m per plex = 3000 Plex x 4.6m)

CCP gives a 30% discount meaning instead of costing 3000 Plex it costs 2100 Plex.  Therefore, the actual cost is 9.7bn isk and so saving 4.1bn isk.  Over 6 months therefore this saving is 0.7bn isk per month.

The return technically made is 4.1 / 9.7 = 43%.

By Buying this 6 month deal you effectively save on 1.8 months (you pay the full price for 4.2 months and get 6 months).

So far, this all looks really appealing.

But we need to think of the alternative

Sticking to the 6 months, the alternative is that we take the 9.7bn isk and instead of buying the 6 month Omega we invest it in our business and pay the normal monthly Omega.

The question there is what monthly return must our business make to justify this course of action rather than taking the deal.

In other words, for the 6 month calculation, we take the 9.7bn isk we would have used to buy the deal but instead invest it into the business, reduce it by 2.3bn to buy a 1 month Omega, invest the rest for a month making a return of X%.  Then reduce that enlarged amount by another 2.3bn to buy the next months Omega and invest what's left to make that return of X% and so on for 6 months.

As it happens for this 6 month period, and it does not matter what the market price of Plex is (assuming it does not change), to make it more attractive to buy the Omega each month then your monthly return (i.e. X%) must be at least 17.0%.

If you can't make 17.0% then buying the 6 month Omega deal is better.

And that is what the final column on the table shows.

It shows the monthly return required to do better than buying the deal.

The longer time deals are poor

The 3 month deal is the best.  You would need to make a monthly return of 27.5% to mean that buying the 1 month Omega each time is a better idea.

The 24 month deal is the worst - you only need to make a monthly return of 6.1% to mean that investing the 30.4bn isk into your business and paying each month for a 1 month Omega is a better idea.

What does it mean for me?

I currently make a monthly return of 10-11% on my business (i.e. for every 100bn invested i make 10-11bn).

Therefore, assuming i knew i was going to play Eve for the next 6 months then i should buy the 6 month Omega deal rather than pay each month for the monthly Omega.

Example of the 6 month calculation

The below table shows how i worked out the required 17.0% return:

Start at time 0 and invest 9.7bn isk.  buy a 1 month omega for 2.3bn leaves 7.4bn, make the 17.0% return increases that to 8.6bn.  start of the second month reduce it by 2.3bn to 6.3bn for the 1 month Omega, increase that 6.3bn by 17.0% to 7.4bn and so on.  By the start of the month 6 you are left with 2.3bn to buy that final months Omega.

Current Markets in Eve

With the real life events in Ukraine i had wondered how this would affect what i see in Eve Online:

I had expected to see the markets slowdown given the potential withdrawal of players from the game.

What i have seen is the market weaker in places but stronger in others.

Weaker sub-markets

For example, mining equipment sales for me have fallen away.  In part, because this market has become more competitive so i can't make the 25% profit margin i like.

I still make some mining equipment sales but the days of this being a noticeable part of daily sales since the changes in Eve in October 2021 is no longer the case.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, mining related blueprints are also not really selling for me.

Stronger sub-markets

That said, i am seeing good sales in ship equipment used in battles.  It feels that this has increased.

I am seeing better sales in some manufacturing items.

Shortage of supply

This is a trend that has been going on for a while but there is a shortage of supply of many of the items i sell.  It is quite common for me to be buying out all the items in Jita just to replace sales i have made across my trading locations.  These are not commonly used items but they do have nice sales rates - so being in short supply will be noticed.

These items range from mining related equipment to equipment used in battle.  I don't really deal in low value consumables so i don't have an insight into whether these shortages extend elsewhere.

As an aside, i rarely undock to carry out by business ventures so i don't have a feel to how many people are camping gates etc either.

Overall

Lets see how March turns out but so far the weaker markets have been replaced by the stronger markets.

I have had one or two days of weak sales but i have also already had three days in March where sales were over 10bn ISK and indeed one of those days came close to 20bn ISK.

It is not uncommon that one of my main trading locations does not need to be re-stocked for a day whereas since October i was always restocking each of my main locations daily (i only re-stock if the value to transport is over 1bn isk).  Maybe that suggests the markets are a little weaker.  Lets see.

Eve shows i watch

Below are the shows i currently watch on youtube.  They are all related directly or indirectly to making ISK.  And very enjoyable to watch.

All the links to the below shows are below and on the sidebar under "Eve Trading Youtube Channels"

Talking in Stations

Whilst not a specific market show it does have episodes that cover the Monthly Economic Reports and episodes into Industry and related activities.

Well presented, thoughtful.

The guests it has presenting on the Economic Reports and Industrial discussions are highly experienced and so bring their own perspective to it all.

Good all round.  Won't give you any specific tips nor go into any trading / industrial strategies in much depth.  But will talk about the general economy in Eve and a bit more depth into the broader side of Industry.

Their discussions on wars give a good sense of the activity in Eve which is reflected back into market activity.

And their discussions on the direction of Eve give a good sense on where the market is going in some areas.

Eve Talk

The grand daddy of them all.

A weekly show for about 1 hour where Delonewolf, <Meizu Kho> ingame name, goes through a set agenda that can change over time.

For now, the show starts with a round up of any news that could affect markets, followed by a reviews of the markets for Plex, Minerals, PI, advanced moon materials, T2 ships, T3 ships and then a final section that changes each week.

The visual is his Eve screen using the ingame market charts and tables.

Delonewolf discusses the market movements and trends for the above items and gives his views on where the prices are going next.  I like the way he links market price movements to other trends seen elsewhere in Eve.

I find with this show that if i want to benefit the most from it then i need to pay attention, i can't really let it run in the background with me doing something else.

Strange Net

A weekly (often more frequent) series of tutorials on how the author (Red Fall) makes his ISK.  About 15-20 minutes a show.

He has been playing for 16 years now but this is an ideal show for beginners or players wanting to get involved in various ISK making activities.

Looks like the shows have been growing for several months.

He tends to focus on lower priced items but sells in volume - so during his show to you get to see his wallett receive the proceeds of sales being made quite frequently.

He also has an ingame channel <Strange net>

I find i need to pay attention to this show, i can't really let it run in the background.

The Oz Report

This is great.  More Investment led.  By that i mean many of the concepts and ideas Oz throws out are about Buying an item now for sale in the future once the price has risen.

Each idea is well explained starting with the concept and reasoning.

Discord Channel is busy.

It is a weekly, sometimes more frequent, 15 minute review on what the presenter is doing in the Eve markets to make ISK.  Occasionally we get a 45 minute video.

It is more focused than, say, Eve Talk, in that it tends to focus on one part of the market at a time.

What i really like about it is that the presenter goes into good detail about why he is buying or selling or investing in the items in focus.  You don't have to listen far into an episode to realize that he knows what he is talking about and likely has a background in economics or finance.

And what brings this all home is that you see his process in action and therefore you are free to use all or some or none if it, as you choose.

It is also clear that the presenter has a good amount of Eve knowledge and therefore is able to take seasonal or other Events within Eve and link them to expected movements of prices to come.

Tucked away in his videos are decent length guides on what tools he uses and how and identifying the best trades and more.

Building my Industrial Empire

A great one for new players, need to listen from the first episode.

I came across this youtube channel "Gaming since the '70s" that has a weekly 10 to 30 minute video by a player who is following his progression from the start titled "Eve Online: Building my industrial empire - EP XX"

As the player has evolved in Eve each episode is now more broader than a pure Industry narrative to include running a Corporation and all that which goes with it.

But at the start he is playing Eve for the economy side of it - or at least that is his prime desire.

The player, Thanak, starts with no experience in Eve and decides that Manufacturing is the way forwards.

Really enjoying it.  Finding it inspiring.  I listened to each episode from the start where it was more focused on Industry.  I typically listen to it in the background and loads of time i find myself stopping what i am doing to listen more carefully.

Easy listening voice he has also.

From the first episode the weekly video takes us through his mining, processing and missioning at the start to seed his business, and then incursions.  His entanglements with competitors, how he deals with it all and progressing onwards.

. . . . . . and discovers Planetary Interaction, low sec mining along the way.  And a lot more.  Loses ships, gets ganked, fights off pirates, the works.

He discusses what is working and what is not.  and his desire to the the industrial mogul in his part of space.

It is an all round Eve industry narrative.

And this is all through the eyes of someone who is new to Eve which brings its own excitement that we all had when we started the game and reminded me of the third party tools to use.

Techmisek

Not really a market show but some small episodes of this player trying various tasks to measure the ISK generated and then commenting on whether it was worth it.

Nice to listen to and reminds me of how varied Eve can be when it comes to earning ISK.

A project need not be a pure business venture but can also involve getting out there and mixing it up with all sorts of PVE in EVE.

Old shows that i used to enjoy but are no longer airing:

Eve-Prosper: like Eve Talk; ended in 2016; shame.

Eve Online: Life of an Industrialist: typically a 2 to 3 hour show of watching the player over his shoulder as he ran his industrial complexes; ended in 2020; shame also.

EveEconomy website updated for the March 2021 Monthly Economy Data

The Eve Economy website has been updated for the March 2021 monthly economic data which was just released by ccp

The site takes the monthly economic data for Eve Online provided by CCP and puts it all together in charts so that we may get a better understanding about the economy of Eve.

The pdf chartbook on the home page has 241 slides covering all the charts:

• Section 1: Daily data from 2012 onwards

• Section 2: Wealth in the Eve Economy

• Section 3: Top level Regional Data

• Section 4: Discrepancy charts - showing that the daily data is not reconciling with the monthly Regional data

• Section 5: Regional data for each region from 2016 onwards

• Section 6: Faucets and Sinks

• Section 7: Discontinued Sinks and Faucets

• Section 8: Economic Indices

• Section 9: Interesting observations

• Section 10: State of PVP

• Section 11: State of PVP by Region

The chart pack looks at each and every region, including regions that have been and gone.

Quick Summary

I will take a closer look in over the next few days but the main items of note i can see are:

1) Total ISK in Eve has now been flat for 2 years (slide 4 in the charts on the website)

2) But production goes on and exceeds destruction so the total wealth in the Eve economy continues to rise and so ISK as a % of all Assets continues to fall though remains over 15%.  (slide 19 in the charts on the website)

3) Trading, Bounties, Mining, Production and Destruction all rose in March - though March does have 10% more days.  (slide 35 in the charts on the website)

4) Faucets exceeded sinks as they have done every month except for three.  Again, the active isk delta (inactive accounts etc) was negative leaving a small inflow of ISK into Eve.  (slide 125 in the charts on the website)

5) Mineral Prices continue to move higher (slide 142 in the charts on the website)

6) Destruction of mining ships continues to rise, capsule destruction remains high (so PVP remains high?), Transport ship destruction remains high but falling (slide 147 and 148 in the charts on the website)