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Market Discussions

 
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Starting to market trade the easy way

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Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#1 - 2013-09-22 01:01:07 UTC  |  Edited by: Zappity
This is a starting point for people who want to start trading on the market but don't know where to begin with spreadsheets. Specifically, moving stuff between regions is a good way to make ISK but you need to be able to compare prices at the market hubs. If you find this post useful please give the thread a bump to keep it alive for future updates.

Why am I providing this? Take your pick:
- Out of the goodness of my heart and to help more people to get into the market.
- I no longer region trade or use spreadsheets.
- Increased market volatility and volume is good for my trading system.

So, enter the spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjefXzIHBNdFdHpFa0EyN21HTDFlLTQxbEU2cXlxbUE&usp=sharing

Note that this works reasonably well as is but I intend this to be a starting point for your own edits and additions. Feel free to copy to your own Google docs account. I have included imports from both eve-central.com and eve-marketdata.com as examples. There are a few elements to this sheet which I will walk you through:

1. eve-central’s API allows you to define a time period of interest. This can be specified in A1.

2. Column A contains the typeID for each item you want to keep an eye on. typeID is an in game reference for each item that can be taken from the SDE released for every expansion and helpful sql dumps by players. You can get a simplified list of typeIDs for Odyssey 1.1 here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjefXzIHBNdFdDlha0p1LXFuUktTRW94MVBTVDF2cXc&usp=sharing

typeIDs don’t tend to change between releases but you can easily enough find sql dumps for each expansion on the forums.

3. Column B has the typeName associated with the typeID. Just copy/paste along with the typeID.

4. D1-I1 contain the systemIDs for the main trading hubs. IDs for other systems, stations and regions can be found in this file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjefXzIHBNdFdGxEcWpJVjkxVmVaQWVFR1hYMVloUFE&usp=sharing

5. C4 is the Jita buy order percentile price. D4-H4 are the sell order percentile prices. These are taken from eve-central using:

=importXml(ʺhttp://api.eve-central.com/api/marketstat?&hours=ʺ& $A$1 &ʺ&typeid=ʺ&JOIN(ʺ&typeid=ʺ,$A4:$A7)&ʺ&usesystem=ʺ& $D$1 &ʺʺ,ʺ/evec_api/marketstat/type/buy/percentileʺ)

- hours=ʺ& $A$1 &ʺ is defined by the hours you enter in A1.

- typeid=ʺ&JOIN(ʺ&typeid=ʺ,$A4:$A7) gets typeID from A4 and then continues the call down the list by the JOIN function.

- usesystem=ʺ& $D$1 &ʺ gets the systemID for each column.

- /evec_api/marketstat/type/buy/percentile tells eve-central.com exactly what data you want for the specified typeID. In this case you get the value of the highest 5% percentile of buy order prices. More information here: http://dev.eve-central.com/evec-api/start

Note that Google docs has a limit of 150 on requests per importXML call. You can get around this by restarting the JOIN at row 151 (or 155 in this case).

6. I4 does a similar data request but this time for The Forge region rather than a specific system.

7. L4 is an eve-marketdata request for volume data for the typeID. More information here: http://eve-marketdata.com/developers/index.php

8. O1-S1 are scenario-specific costs (e.g. broker fee percentage, sales fee etc) that can be used in cells below. You can figure out how best to define what is an interesting opportunity but I have left a few examples there for you to look over.

HINT: This is the really useful part of the spreadsheet. It takes the price data and turns it into whatever colour-coded buy/sell signals you want.

9. The Sorted worksheet shows you how to sort Sheet1 in cell A4:

=sort(Sheet1!A4:Z7, 14, FALSE)

I can’t remember exactly how this works but ‘Sheet1!A4:Z7’ is clearly the data range. I think ‘14’ is the number of columns you are sorting, and FALSE relates to whether the sorting ascends or descends. You can figure it out.

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#2 - 2013-09-22 01:02:08 UTC
If you find this useful PM me an item you like to trade after you make your first billion!

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.
Johan Civire
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#3 - 2013-09-22 01:18:10 UTC
Sorry to say thats why i`m not a marketing man. To many data. Boh i wish those new guys good luck.
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#4 - 2013-09-22 01:24:13 UTC
Johan Civire wrote:
Sorry to say thats why i`m not a marketing man. To many data. Boh i wish those new guys good luck.


Yeah, fair enough. The useful part of the sheet is the columns on the right where the data is converted into easily usable information (ie colour coded buy this here and move it there).

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.
Doc Fury
Furious Enterprises
#5 - 2013-09-22 01:25:10 UTC

--> Market Discussions

☼

There's a million angry citizens looking down their tubes..at me.
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#6 - 2013-09-22 01:29:11 UTC  |  Edited by: Zappity
snip

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.
ISD Dorrim Barstorlode
ISD Community Communications Liaisons
ISD Alliance
#7 - 2013-09-22 14:59:16 UTC
Moving this from General Discussion to Market Discussions.

ISD Dorrim Barstorlode

Senior Lead

Community Communication Liaisons (CCLs)

Interstellar Services Department
flakeys
Doomheim
#8 - 2013-09-22 15:36:50 UTC
Johan Civire wrote:
Sorry to say thats why i`m not a marketing man. To many data. Boh i wish those new guys good luck.



I've never touched a spreadsheet in my life and i did ''fairly well'' with trade. You don't need to use spreadsheets or write everything down .

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
Death ToU
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#9 - 2013-09-22 22:27:31 UTC
flakeys wrote:
Johan Civire wrote:
Sorry to say thats why i`m not a marketing man. To many data. Boh i wish those new guys good luck.



I've never touched a spreadsheet in my life and i did ''fairly well'' with trade. You don't need to use spreadsheets or write everything down .



I can second that. They can help I'm sure, but so can the market quick bar and in game notes.
Rhivre
TarNec
Invisible Exchequer
#10 - 2013-09-23 12:02:10 UTC
I can third that.

It is a taste thing, a lot of people like spreadsheeting. I tried it for a bit, and still try it once in a while, especially if inter-region trading, but for most trading, it is not for me.

Fluffy Bunny Pic!

Ave Kathrina
My Ass Is On Fire
#11 - 2013-09-24 22:46:44 UTC
Johan Civire wrote:
Sorry to say thats why i`m not a marketing man. To many data. Boh i wish those new guys good luck.


Yoda, is that you ?
I've done some really stupid shit in this game.
TheSmokingHertog
Julia's Interstellar Trade Emperium
#12 - 2013-09-25 11:32:17 UTC
Its great to see what can be done by automation, but people still have to make decision themselves. Trading as stated above can be a nice way to start, but maybe a simpler spreadsheet with just a buy / sell overview to record (projected) profits would get more people started.

"Dogma is kind of like quantum physics, observing the dogma state will change it." ~ CCP Prism X

"Schrödinger's Missile. I dig it." ~ Makari Aeron

-= "Brain in a Box on Singularity" - April 2015 =-
Silver Dagger Kondur
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#13 - 2013-11-15 03:59:19 UTC
thx, zappity, looks useful!
want to get into trading later, when i'm up a lot on isk.
Dixon Cutter
Savvys Corp
#14 - 2013-12-10 22:16:10 UTC
Zappity, thank you for a great intro.

Just wanted to check if this is a typo: you mention "lowest 5% percentile of buy order prices". Don't you mean the 5% percentile that represent the highest buy prices, since the reason for us wanting that number is to weed out the outlying numbers?
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#15 - 2013-12-12 07:00:38 UTC
Dixon Cutter wrote:
Zappity, thank you for a great intro.

Just wanted to check if this is a typo: you mention "lowest 5% percentile of buy order prices". Don't you mean the 5% percentile that represent the highest buy prices, since the reason for us wanting that number is to weed out the outlying numbers?

Yes, thanks. I've edited the post.

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.
Silver Dagger Kondur
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#16 - 2013-12-28 18:37:03 UTC
thx again, zappity!

i was in dodixie buying me some stuff, bought 71 of another item (which was all i had room for) and dropped the 71 items off at pator, my former school.

it was amusing to watch my stuff being bought (over the course of weeks) as i ratted, mined & trained. i've trained up some on business so now i can do more contracts - it's a cool way to earn some isk while busy doing other stuff! i can see why many get into it full time!
Torrin Vakarian
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#17 - 2013-12-30 15:11:35 UTC
this seemed quite confusing lol
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#18 - 2013-12-31 10:46:08 UTC
Torrin Vakarian wrote:
this seemed quite confusing lol

Hehe, just wait until I write up the next level! Automating the spreadsheet using PHP and MYSQL will appear here some day when I get time.

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.