Market Discussions

Hi there,

for a while I have been watching the economy of EVE online. The different QENs have been very useful, that havn't been appearing anymore. Our Dr.EyjoG made his last Devblogentry on the 30th of August 2011.
One thing that interests me a lot, is what data is openly accesable and what isn't.
To me it seems that CCP releases small amounts of data, but very little on an up to date base.
Pricestability is one of my main interests, so 2 areas interest me the most.

1. Gross domestic product (GDP or GUP)

You can find small bits of information on this topic. These bits are all over the Internet and its very hard to understand what measurement method was used. Do you know places where I can find reliable data, that are up to date and transparent? Or at least a good alternative?
One goal is the BIP-Deflator, as an inflation indicator.

2. the different price indices (MPI, PPPI, SPPI, esp. the CPI)

These were an important part of the QENs. But even back then the origin were not made transparent. As an example in the CPI there is talk of "over 4000 individual items", but no word of what they are.
There are 2 different sides when it comes to Market Data (f.e. eve-markets.net, eve-central.com, jitonomic.com, evemarketeer.com) but they usually only reference one product - so microeconomics instead of macroeconomics is in the focus. Do you know any source where I can get reliable macroeconomic data?

sincerly CaldariLegion

Thanks for your answer Tekota.
I really like to know whats your intention respectively the market data is.
And did you ever find more precise data as the ones i already mentioned?
Do you think it's reasonable to send a mail to CCP or Dr. Ey regarding this topic?

sincerly CaldariLegion

Callean I have a curious index in my mind: the ISKUSD currency pair (similar to Forex).

Basically it is simple: it's calculated by dividing 1 PLEX ISK value by the RL cost in dollars to purchase said PLEX, day by day, for the period examined.

I.e. if 1 PLEX = 500M ISK and buying 1 PLEX = 19 USD (*) then 1 USD = 26.3158M

(*) From my country I only see the cost = 19 euros so I am not sure.
The returned index would be in millions, with 4 decimal digits (to be standard).


This would show the evolution of ISK vs dollars over time and would show the decrease in purchasing value of ISK vs dollar.

It would be even nicer if that index was displayed like a regular item, including graphs, candle bars etc.

The Y coordinate isn't labeled because it is meaningless. It's only there to compare the different levels.

These indices are based on the most accurate data we can easily obtain: The ingame market history data. Specifically the average values, as I think those are the best representation of the overal price.

I left out the last 14 days as those always seem to be a bit unstable due to CCP still modifying the data it seems.

At this moment, this is probably the most scientific approximation for generating these kinds of graphs.


@Vaerah: Yes, a good idea. Will be just graph at first, but giving the same stats as an item would be interesting.

I've been curious too. No QEN but promise of smaller data packets more often, then more nothing.

I am willing to forgive a slip on the lead up to Crucible as I'm sure the good Dr. was analysing his @ss off with the changes. However, that's over.... it just seems he's forgotten.

I appreciate the efforts of those above trying to get this data together using uploaded data, I will be reviewing it too.

I do think the fact the market is such an integral part of the game mechanic, it should be afforded enough respect and resource to publish the QEN or the smaller monthly historical data and some comments on indices and curios only visible to those with access to the full data set.

To be quite frank, my patience is starting to fray with the lack of love us marketeers are getting.

The choice of which PLEX bundle is o(ISK / USD) enough to make it unimportant for a price analysis.

If PLEX = 500M and you pay $19.95 then you'd get 25.0626M ISK per dollar.
If PLEX = 500M and you pay $17.495 then you'd get 28.5795M ISK per dollar.

While a 13% variation is tangible it does not invalidate the one relevant trading information about ISKUSD going up or down.
It's just a fixed a coefficient, Callean could just put an edit box where you put the dollars you spent and the resulting graph would not change a bit, except for a parametric offset.
The choice of single PLEX is because it's the most available, "first pick", a term of comparison.

Second thing, Euro is bad for this kind of analysis because Euro volatility is up to 200+ pips a day and currently being manipulated. Plus Euro players have each of theirs countries doing WTF they want about VAT and whatever stupid other additional economy gimping initiatives they take. USD varies less and has less socialistic political garbage attached into it so it's a better term of comparison.




Once again, you want simplicity for these things.
In EvE it means Jita price, period.

In RL they chose London to fix prices on certain commodities, we see 2 (and not 5-10) listings for crude oil and so on.

Simplicity gives market analysis that works. Obfuscating price with complex variables creates unreliable analysis.

I.e. how much does low sec PLEX market actually affect "global price"? Who is the authority (since CCP won't do it) to exactly measure the effective traded volumes and thus how much to weigh low sec PLEX price vs Jita price?

In the end, once again, what we need is a tool to work with. It's not important whether we see 500M or 495 or 510M a plex but the fact that we reached a range market with double top.

The exact statistics are nice of course but they should not affect a currency pair. They would be workable with a specific for those who are interested in a certain niche. I.e. given parameter 1 = PLEX cost = 17.495 and area = low sec => create your analysis for that so you have it exact.
All the others will just see the super standard Jita PLEX price vs super standard 1 PLEX dollar value and can perform informed analysis that will cover what's needed: to buy low and sell high.

What about an aggregated currency based on the mean price of both USD/EUR weighted by the relative number of subscribers from each region....or is it getting silly now?

Working without caffeine yet this morning, but:

Using the market history data, would it be useful to graph out the total ISK value traded in Jita each day and see that as a standard "how healthy is the economy?" chart?

Maybe with a 2nd version that is based off of the (4) main market hubs (in total) and a 3rd based off of all empire regions (but not sure that there's enough good data for all empire regions to make this useful).

(I'm still curious how the various market regions stack up against each other on a regional basis, such as which are the top 10 regions for traded ISK value. And also which are the top 10 systems in terms of traded ISK value per day/week.)