Market Discussions

Hi guys,

A few quick questions for those of you who have made you billions in the EvE markets below. Have just dipped my toe in the waters I've noticed that many of the truths of the real world don't apply in EVE (real-world experience and MBA needed a addendum to apply to EVE!).

1) How much of your capital do you keep as cash in EVE? Specifically as a new player? I'm up to a bit over 200m but am currently staying 80-90% cash to cover skill books and ship/game costs. I see a lot of advice on liquidity, but little on cash-on-hand.

2) Corporation involvement as a capitalist - how do you feel about corps and what size do you (as a social group) tend to join? Did you look specifically for cap-corps or did you look to fill this role some other corp type?

3) Manufacturing - yes or no? From the little bit of manufacturing I've done it seem to be a very low-margin game. Many/most items are listed below manufacturers cost (I'm betting many manufacturers don't calculate time value of money or resource cost (if they mine themselves) into their pricing. I'm sure it gets better once you get out of the entry level items, but is it worth the training and time to get to the speciality goods?

4) Other general advice? I'm sure I'll come up with more questions.

Thanks in advance
-Dom

I can't offer much advice in terms of gameplay, nor am I willing to reveal all of my secrets when it comes to trading strategies, but I will tell you this:

Only keep as much cash as you absolutely need.

Cash sitting in your wallet is cash not being put to work.
I would say that for me, due to the fact that I am trading as my only activity, cash makes up about 1 or 2% of my total assets at any time, and approximately 5-15% when I need to provide capital (such as repaying a loan).

Thanks to you both. And as for advice on specific trading strategies, that isn't what I'm looking for. Basic trading isn't that hard and I'll teach myself the rest in game, but knowing what pitfalls this unique economy hold are more what I'm after. I didnt want to fall into a liquidity trap (for example) because I don't understand the market.

I wouldnt trade with a character with accounting and broker relations below 4 - ideally 5 but at 4 its good enough to be getting on with.
Margin trading is great but not a need so much as an awesome to have type thing.


Trading/manufacturing is not a group activity with the current mechanics unfortunatly :( If your using several alts then starting your own crop can be a god send for co-ordinating them - shared corp wallet, inventory etc.

Manufacturing T1 can be profitable however itl be in larger items (with one exception i can think of) with relativly expensive BPOs and probably the capital construction skill required.

In regards to pitfalls in manufacturing id say dont invest too much in raw materials....i try to build on a day or 2 day basis - IE I buy the amterials for a day or two of production at a time. The reason being that eve markets can and do crash in a matter of hours and its not very nice trying to decide if its a temporary crash and to just hang on to your stock or to fire sale as fast as you can to minimise loss before the market drops even further : / - If youve only got a day or so of stock then impact is minimised.

It also helps you react to the market fast - proces rise and fall quite regularly and if you notice something very profitable you can get producing inside of a day where as if all your production lines are tied up for a week youl miss the opertunity.

Also if your working on a 1 or 2 day scale then youl be building a wider variety of items in order to use your availabel capital whereas if your working ona weekly basis then youd probably have all your capital tied up in materials for 1 or 2 items - diversity is security.

I already have all the skillbooks and ships I need so I dont keep much. This game has inflation like any real economy so keeping too much cash is a bad idea. I usually try to carry less than 10% of net asset value. I will keep some in assets with high turnover so if I need more I can have it in a few hours if needed.

I made my own corp, seeded it with money from my personal wallet and 2 investors. I gave them shares and pay dividends regularly. I pay myself for the work I put in with a weekly salary in shares. Skillbooks if needed come from my personal wallet.

Manufacturing is a definite yes, but you have to be choosy about what you nake. I actually dont do it myself, one of the other shareholders does, But you can increase profits if you do it right.

Use spreadsheets but not too much. If you do, as someone else once told me, this game will turn into spreadsheets online and become unfun. That has happened to me twice now...

I dont know. Alts are good but I do most everything from my main. I do have other accts but I use them for other things.

As for training I would worry about actually training to do stuff and worry about trading skills later. All they do is save you money. Ship skills will make you money.

20% cash, 20% - 30% in items that need to be picked up, moved around, etc from buy orders, 40% fun stuff like ships and 20% market. I dont' nearly has as much money to play with as others, and with manufacturing you're always increasing your asset value because of the expensive bpo's.


Market is for money. Sure the market can be fun but use the market for your isk. Corps are for fun. If all you do is market trading you'll burn out and quite the game in a few months.


Manufacturing if you're smart. 1/2 of the stuff people make money off on the market are people selling to buy orders because they are to cheap, stupid or lazy to deal with their own sell orders. If you get into manufacturing don't be one of those people.

Also to make money in manufacturing requires real money. Yeah you can make ammos and cruisers and t1 garbage and make 10isk here and there, but the real manufacturing money is with the more expensive items. Orcas, battlecruisers, etc. T2 has simular problems. you need several weeks of skills to do it well (profitable), and if you skip on the skills it will cost you.

You also need a pos. Fuel costs are really not all that bad when you consider wait time, x2 research times, etc. Last month I spent roughly 98M in highsec station usages for me/pe/invention/copy. thats 1/4 of a pos right there, and it was also like 1/20th of what I could have done had I had a pos setup that month.



Alts. Several alts. Just suck it up, and pay for upto at least 4 total accounts. You'll get 1 plex for each (buddy program) and by the time youre trial/ 1st month is up you'll be able to pay for all 4 accounts with PLEX.