This is an update on how The PLEX Experiment - Buying and Selling PLEX for Profit is coming along.
I've been slowly increasing my presence in the PLEX market, testing theories and trying different things to see how the market and the competition reacts.
This weekend I got extremely aggressive in the PLEX market, increasing both the prices I was paying and how many I was buying in each of 22 different regions. I wanted to buy and sell a lot more PLEX than I usually do and see what kind of effect greatly increasing my sales volume would have on profits.
It worked very well on the buying side. On Friday I bought 63 PLEX, on Saturday I bought another 108 for a total of 171 in 48 hours. It looks like I probably can buy 100 a day, at least on the weekends.
Unfortunately sales weren't nearly as good, I only sold 17 on Friday and 18 on Saturday for 35 in total. Once I started selling more than 1 or 2 PLEX at a time anywhere the no-lifers and bots quickly came out of the woodwork and began undercutting me constantly.
It didn't take long before sell prices were down into the low 800 millions in most places and even under 800 million in some places (Jita for one).
Of course if I can't resell PLEX at a profit quickly enough, I won't be able to buy 100 a day for very long before I'm out of cash and sitting on stacks of PLEX. Many competitors will happily sell PLEX for 12 million markup and some even less. It looks like the key to doing any real volume (selling more than a few PLEX a day in any one region) is going to be grinding faction and corporation standing even more to lower broker fees even further.
Unless of course those competitors are bluffing and can't keep up the undercutting game for much longer. In that case I should be able to sell all or most of my PLEX during the next week and buy more the following weekend.
Strangely enough, one place were my PLEX sales did do very well this weekend (much better than usual) was Genesis. For some reason the Malma bot backed off on PLEX this weekend, but not on other things.
I've noticed several patterns in PLEX sales, some seem to be natural and others manipulative. The main thing is there's a weekly cycle (often hidden by manipulation) where prices go down on the weekend and back up during the week.
Though I can't prove it, I'm quite sure this is due to more PLEX being purchased for real money on the weekends and sold quickly for ISK which tends to bring prices down. Then during the week, fewer new PLEX enter the market, prices tend to go back up and many of the PLEX purchased on the weekend are resold for profit.
It's also interesting how shortly after I ramped up my business and grabbed more market share prices dropped significantly. That's not the first time that's happened either. It happens every time I try to sell more than 1 or 2 PLEX in the same region, prices go down and undercuts become far more frequent. To me that's a strong indication bots are very active in the PLEX market.
Then again, considering how much prices have dropped over the last 2 days and how the blocking orders have disappeared again, it's possible the market might be starting to crash. In that case I picked a very bad time to increase my volume and could wind up losing some billions or even 10s of billions.
Showing posts with label Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reports. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 February 2015
Friday, 9 January 2015
The PLEX Experiment - Buying and Selling PLEX for Profit
Following up on my last post where I mentioned wanting to be a bigger player in the PLEX market I'm slowly increasing my PLEX market presence in 22 Empire regions. The following is a report analyzing all of my PLEX transactions on the 8th of Jan 2015.
I bought 27 PLEX for a rough average of about 770 million each and sold 19 for an average of more than 815 million each. 815 - 770 = 45 million spread. Assuming my costs to buy and sell 1 PLEX are 15 million each that would represent a profit of 30 million each. Actually my average cost is less than 15 mil (a bit more on some characters, much less on others), but 15 mil is a nice round number to work with.
So far today (09 Jan 2015 which isn't over yet) I've bought another 34 for around 775 mil each and sold 26 for close to 820 mil each. 820 - 770 = 45 mil, about the same average margin (45 mil) and same profit of 30 mil per PLEX.
That's roughly 3.75% profit (using round numbers 30 / 800 = 0.0375). 3.75% doesn't sound like much but it adds up with volume. Buying and selling 25 PLEX per day at 30 mil profit each equals 750 million a day, or 22.5 billion a month. Not too shabby when you look at it like that.
Double the volume (50 per day) and it comes out to 45 billion a month.
Of course 30 mil profit per PLEX is probably too much to expect over the long term, especially when dealing in greater volumes. Even 20 million profit might be too much but I shouldn't have any trouble averaging 10 or 15 million profit per PLEX in such low volumes.
The big questions are
1. How tight will margins and spreads get as volume increases?
2. Will it be possible to increase volume to 50, 100 or more without becoming a no-lifer and if so just how much time and effort will it take?
Assuming I can reliably (and without too much effort) move 50 per day at a profit of 10 mil each that'd be 500 million a day and 15 billion a month. Move 100 a day and the numbers double, 1 bil per day, 30 bil per month.
Over the next weeks and months, I intend to continue slowly increasing my presence in the PLEX market until I find the sweet spot between volume and profit margins where I make the most ISK without too much effort.
Several of my characters have 0 standings and better standings are definitely necessary to stay in the game when spreads drop under 18 million. I'll have to grind standings on all of those characters and doing it the quick way is going to cost 3+ billion per character.
If the experiment works out really well, I'll probably wind up dropping out of most of my current markets and whittling my list of items down to just the best of my current items (no more than 50, probably more like 25-30 or even less).
I bought 27 PLEX for a rough average of about 770 million each and sold 19 for an average of more than 815 million each. 815 - 770 = 45 million spread. Assuming my costs to buy and sell 1 PLEX are 15 million each that would represent a profit of 30 million each. Actually my average cost is less than 15 mil (a bit more on some characters, much less on others), but 15 mil is a nice round number to work with.
So far today (09 Jan 2015 which isn't over yet) I've bought another 34 for around 775 mil each and sold 26 for close to 820 mil each. 820 - 770 = 45 mil, about the same average margin (45 mil) and same profit of 30 mil per PLEX.
That's roughly 3.75% profit (using round numbers 30 / 800 = 0.0375). 3.75% doesn't sound like much but it adds up with volume. Buying and selling 25 PLEX per day at 30 mil profit each equals 750 million a day, or 22.5 billion a month. Not too shabby when you look at it like that.
Double the volume (50 per day) and it comes out to 45 billion a month.
Of course 30 mil profit per PLEX is probably too much to expect over the long term, especially when dealing in greater volumes. Even 20 million profit might be too much but I shouldn't have any trouble averaging 10 or 15 million profit per PLEX in such low volumes.
The big questions are
1. How tight will margins and spreads get as volume increases?
2. Will it be possible to increase volume to 50, 100 or more without becoming a no-lifer and if so just how much time and effort will it take?
Assuming I can reliably (and without too much effort) move 50 per day at a profit of 10 mil each that'd be 500 million a day and 15 billion a month. Move 100 a day and the numbers double, 1 bil per day, 30 bil per month.
Over the next weeks and months, I intend to continue slowly increasing my presence in the PLEX market until I find the sweet spot between volume and profit margins where I make the most ISK without too much effort.
Several of my characters have 0 standings and better standings are definitely necessary to stay in the game when spreads drop under 18 million. I'll have to grind standings on all of those characters and doing it the quick way is going to cost 3+ billion per character.
If the experiment works out really well, I'll probably wind up dropping out of most of my current markets and whittling my list of items down to just the best of my current items (no more than 50, probably more like 25-30 or even less).
Friday, 12 December 2014
PLEX Report 12-12-2014
As regular readers here must know by now, I've been monitoring and dabbling in the PLEX market for a long time. The last few months and especially since the announcement of the forthcoming multiboxing policy changes coming on 01 Jan 2015 I've been watching it a bit closer than usual.
IMO everything we've seen so far since that announcement is entirely based on speculation, the real and lasting effects of the policy changes won't be seen until after Jan 1st when the new policy actually goes into effect. Then there will be chaos in the markets (not just PLEX) and it'll probably take at least a month or two before things settle down enough that we can predict future PLEX demand and pricing with much confidence.
When news of the forthcoming changes first went public (or even slightly before) there was a sudden sharp drop in the price of PLEX. Some panicked and dumped PLEX, others tried to buy it all up while the price was down. Since then the price recovered somewhat and seemed to be slowly rising up again. Margins tightened up, there wasn't much profit in buying and reselling PLEX.
Figuring that was just the start with plenty of action left in the PLEX market before this is done yet, I put up guard orders on PLEX in 21 regions, sat back and waited to see what would happen next. Then today several guard orders in the high 700 mil to low 800 mil range got filled.
For example on Jita...
I did some checking on EveMarketData and found the buy price had dropped back into the low 800s just about everywhere, even lower in some places.
Here's a graph of PLEX prices on Jita over the last 3 months. You can see the big drop after the announcement of the policy change, a small recovery after that, followed by the start of another drop.
I still say we're due for a lot more chaos in the markets before this all done. In the end this is going to affect everything from PLEX, to mining and minerals, industry and trade. Nobody knows for sure exactly what's going to happen. We'll have to wait for Jan 1st to see what happens and even longer to know how it's all going to shake out in the end.
This is not bad news for traders, quite the opposite in fact, it's great news! Times of change are when ISK making opportunities abound and the more chaos there is the greater the opportunities are. Those who expect and anticipate chaos, are ready and willing to take action when it happens, stand to make fortunes.
This is not bad news for traders, quite the opposite in fact, it's great news! Times of change are when ISK making opportunities abound and the more chaos there is the greater the opportunities are. Those who expect and anticipate chaos, are ready and willing to take action when it happens, stand to make fortunes.
Monday, 24 November 2014
800 Billion
I haven't posted a financial report in a couple months because I haven't really been doing much lately. It took nearly two months to make what I usually make in one but I finally broke 800 billion over the weekend... Blew it away in fact!
Normally I spend an hour or two a day (on average) working the market for 30-40 total hours a month. When I do that fairly consistently (without skipping too many days) I make around 50 billion per month after expenses (with expenses of 10-12 billion per month).
Lately however, expenses have been up a fair bit due to grinding standings for lower broker fees. I've been spending billions buying pirate tags for Data Center mission turn-ins for faction standings and paying TSCA to grind specific corporation standings for me. That costs 600 mil - 1 bil per character depending on tag prices for faction standing and 2.75 bil per character for 0-8 corp standing. Lower broker fees will pay off over the long term but for the short term it's a one time sunk cost reducing short term profits.
More recently PLEX prices have gone up significantly but the increased cost there has been more than offset by the fact that I'm using fewer PLEX (none at all right now) for dual training than I used to. I used to pretty much always have at least 2-4 accounts dual training and sometimes more.
Most importantly though, I've been far less active on the market, spending only 10 or 15 hours at it in Oct and another 10 or so in the first half of Nov. Last weekend though I was almost back to normal and it shows in my bottom line. Total net worth went up by more than 25 billion over the weekend.
Of course that doesn't mean I made 25 billion in profit in just a few days, a lot of that sudden increase was due to stock that had been purchased weeks ago but I didn't get around to transporting and posting for resale until last weekend.
I probably won't continue spending an hour or two a day working the market for much longer though. Unless and until that changes I won't be making 50 billion a month and I won't be posting regular monthly financial reports either.
Normally I spend an hour or two a day (on average) working the market for 30-40 total hours a month. When I do that fairly consistently (without skipping too many days) I make around 50 billion per month after expenses (with expenses of 10-12 billion per month).
Lately however, expenses have been up a fair bit due to grinding standings for lower broker fees. I've been spending billions buying pirate tags for Data Center mission turn-ins for faction standings and paying TSCA to grind specific corporation standings for me. That costs 600 mil - 1 bil per character depending on tag prices for faction standing and 2.75 bil per character for 0-8 corp standing. Lower broker fees will pay off over the long term but for the short term it's a one time sunk cost reducing short term profits.
More recently PLEX prices have gone up significantly but the increased cost there has been more than offset by the fact that I'm using fewer PLEX (none at all right now) for dual training than I used to. I used to pretty much always have at least 2-4 accounts dual training and sometimes more.
Most importantly though, I've been far less active on the market, spending only 10 or 15 hours at it in Oct and another 10 or so in the first half of Nov. Last weekend though I was almost back to normal and it shows in my bottom line. Total net worth went up by more than 25 billion over the weekend.
Of course that doesn't mean I made 25 billion in profit in just a few days, a lot of that sudden increase was due to stock that had been purchased weeks ago but I didn't get around to transporting and posting for resale until last weekend.
I probably won't continue spending an hour or two a day working the market for much longer though. Unless and until that changes I won't be making 50 billion a month and I won't be posting regular monthly financial reports either.
Friday, 1 August 2014
Financial Report - July 2014
Financial report for the month of July 2014 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with an army of 24 traders covering 19 regions in most of empire space (everywhere except Aridia and Solitude). All of those traders are also Blockade Runner pilots, capable of doing their own transport (mostly on autopilot).
July was another slow month for me, I did even less than in June but still made a profit of over 47 billion after expenses. And that's in spite of buying and burning 25 PLEX (more than twice as many as I need to use every month). If I hadn't bought (and used) so many PLEX this probably would have been a record breaking month for me of near 60 billion.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with an army of 24 traders covering 19 regions in most of empire space (everywhere except Aridia and Solitude). All of those traders are also Blockade Runner pilots, capable of doing their own transport (mostly on autopilot).
July was another slow month for me, I did even less than in June but still made a profit of over 47 billion after expenses. And that's in spite of buying and burning 25 PLEX (more than twice as many as I need to use every month). If I hadn't bought (and used) so many PLEX this probably would have been a record breaking month for me of near 60 billion.
Current net worth is 688 billion with roughly half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired assets I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, with maybe 5 billion worth of ships and fittings I keep for my own use.
After a fairly lengthy hiatus I moved back into the PLEX market near the end of the month. PLEX prices were just getting too high so I'm doing my part to stabilize prices and maybe bring them back down a bit.
The high volume items I mentioned last month are still performing very well though prices are close to all time (since I've been playing anyhow) lows. In fact I attribute a 10+ billion / month increase in profits over the last several months to those items.
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
Financial Report - June 2014
Financial report for the month of June 2014 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 main trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 24 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 2 in another region, another 19 each covering a different region and a couple spare traders that are not actively trading.
June was a slow month for me, I didn't do very much but I still made a profit of 43 billion after expenses.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 main trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 24 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 2 in another region, another 19 each covering a different region and a couple spare traders that are not actively trading.
June was a slow month for me, I didn't do very much but I still made a profit of 43 billion after expenses.
Current net worth is 641 billion with roughly half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired assets I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, with maybe 5 billion worth of ships and fittings I keep for my own use.
The last several months I've significantly increased volume on ~20 high volume items and been playing longer term trends while spending less and less time at it every month. That's been working so well I'm considering concentrating on 20 to 40 items in even greater bulk, spending very little time at all on the rest and probably eventually dropping out of much of the rest completely.
The roughly 20 high volume items I'm working now are performing extremely well. There are at a least another 20 items that should perform similarly though with all the no-lifers and bots currently working those items it'll take a fair bit of work to inhibit their manipulations enough that prices begin to normalize and profit margins finally settle down to reasonable, reliable, steady levels.
Sunday, 1 June 2014
Financial Report - May 2014
Financial report for the month of May 2014 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 main trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 24 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 2 in another region, another 19 each covering a different region and a couple spare traders that are not actively trading.
In May, I made a profit of 54 billion after expenses (about 65 billion before expenses). That's a new monthly record for me!
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 main trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 24 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 2 in another region, another 19 each covering a different region and a couple spare traders that are not actively trading.
In May, I made a profit of 54 billion after expenses (about 65 billion before expenses). That's a new monthly record for me!
Current net worth is 598 billion with roughly half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired assets I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, with maybe 4 billion worth of ships and fittings I keep for my own use.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Financial Report - April 2014
Financial report for the month of April 2014 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 main trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 24 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 2 in another region, another 19 each covering a different region and a couple spare traders that are not actively trading.
In April, I made a profit of 38 billion after expenses.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 main trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 24 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 2 in another region, another 19 each covering a different region and a couple spare traders that are not actively trading.
In April, I made a profit of 38 billion after expenses.
Current net worth is 544 billion with roughly half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired assets I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, with maybe 4 billion worth of ships and fittings I keep for my own use.
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
Financial Report - Dec 2013
Financial report for the month of December 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 23 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 20 more with each covering a different region and a few more in training.
In December my net worth is up 22 billion after expenses. I also sunk another 12 billion into getting all my accounts subscribed 2-3 months in advance (into late Feb or March). Taking that into consideration I actually made 34 billion this month.
Continuing my trend of the last several months, I didn't spend as much time working the market as I used to. I have things down to the point now where I seem to be able to reliably make 30 billion a month with minimal effort (20-30 hours a month posting / updating orders). That's 1 - 1.5 billion per hour and seems to be my sweet spot for optimal ISK/hour.
I find spending more time working the market has diminishing returns, the more hours I spend at it, the less I make per hour. It's often better to just post things at a good price and leave them up until they sell even if it takes a while. I make a bit less but it's a lot less work and I can use the time I do spend on more profitable investments.
I have enough ISK now that I can afford to be patient and work longer term trends. I really don't need quick sales turnarounds and capital reinvestment to keep my income up anymore so I can let a lot of ISK sit idle in buy and sell orders for days or even weeks while waiting for prices to improve.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million dollars in total.
I buy and sell faction/deadspace/officer mods, ships, skill-books and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 23 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 20 more with each covering a different region and a few more in training.
In December my net worth is up 22 billion after expenses. I also sunk another 12 billion into getting all my accounts subscribed 2-3 months in advance (into late Feb or March). Taking that into consideration I actually made 34 billion this month.
Continuing my trend of the last several months, I didn't spend as much time working the market as I used to. I have things down to the point now where I seem to be able to reliably make 30 billion a month with minimal effort (20-30 hours a month posting / updating orders). That's 1 - 1.5 billion per hour and seems to be my sweet spot for optimal ISK/hour.
I find spending more time working the market has diminishing returns, the more hours I spend at it, the less I make per hour. It's often better to just post things at a good price and leave them up until they sell even if it takes a while. I make a bit less but it's a lot less work and I can use the time I do spend on more profitable investments.
I have enough ISK now that I can afford to be patient and work longer term trends. I really don't need quick sales turnarounds and capital reinvestment to keep my income up anymore so I can let a lot of ISK sit idle in buy and sell orders for days or even weeks while waiting for prices to improve.
Current net worth is 382 billion with about half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired stock I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, mostly ships and mods I keep in stock for my own use, maybe 4 billion worth and very recently a small stockpile of PLEX worth 5-10 billion.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million dollars in total.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Training Report - December 2013
Training report for 02 Dec 2013
30 Characters
27 Traders (19 finished training trade skills, 8 in various stages of training)
21 (out of 23 total) Empire regions covered by traders
5 Covert Ops pilots
15 Blockade Runner pilots (more in training)
2 Tengu pilots
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
30 Vigil pilots =)
16 PLEX per month (12 subscriptions with 4 accounts dual training)
I work a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling and courier contracts between regions. I'm always moving up market (dropping cheaper items and replacing them with more expensive items).
I train my traders for 305 orders with the following trade skills: Trade V, Retail V, Wholesale V, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV (6,716,785 SP). I consider them to be "finished" training trade skills at that point.
I've been cutting back on the number of accounts dual training (for a while I had 9 dual training) while building up wallet balances, escrow cash and inventory on the newer traders.
Future plans: Remain in the Int/Mem remap and continue training support skills on all 3 characters. In particular, Capacitor, Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills. Will probably train one into Industry eventually.
Jita Station Trader #2 - Finished training skills. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods. Not currently training.
New Trader - Newer trader, about halfway through training Trade skills. Has 128 orders with all money skills (Accounting, Broker Relations and Margin Trading) at V. Currently training Wholesale V.
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon), Tengu and is working towards Black Ops. Has Astrometrics V, all the rest of the astrometrics skills at IV and most shield, navigation, fitting, EW and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. Currently training Jump Drive Calibration V. Might train a few more Int/Mem skills yet but he's getting close to remapping Per/Wil to start training Missiles, Battleship and Black Ops skills.
Six accounts I started just before the news about dual training broke. They're all traders following the same training plan with the first two a day ahead of the next two and the last two roughly a week behind that.
All six are finished training trade skills and fly Blockade Runners now. Several still need another 2-3 weeks training to get Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills up to where I want them at.
All 6 accounts also have 2nd characters in various stages of training Trade skills. All but one of the characters on these accounts are following the same skill plan of training Trade skills (along with a few days worth of basic flying skills) first, then Blockade Runners and finally topping up Int/Mem support skills.
One character is following pretty much the same training plan, only training Block Runners and Int/Mem skills *before Trade skills for a change. That was actually a mistake, I accidentally remapped Int/Mem instead of Cha/Mem as intended but oh well whatever, I'd been thinking about trying that for a while anyhow. In some ways it makes a lot of sense, especially if I start basing more traders out of low and/or null.
First some numbers:
12 Accounts30 Characters
27 Traders (19 finished training trade skills, 8 in various stages of training)
21 (out of 23 total) Empire regions covered by traders
5 Covert Ops pilots
15 Blockade Runner pilots (more in training)
2 Tengu pilots
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
30 Vigil pilots =)
16 PLEX per month (12 subscriptions with 4 accounts dual training)
I work a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling and courier contracts between regions. I'm always moving up market (dropping cheaper items and replacing them with more expensive items).
I train my traders for 305 orders with the following trade skills: Trade V, Retail V, Wholesale V, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV (6,716,785 SP). I consider them to be "finished" training trade skills at that point.
I've been cutting back on the number of accounts dual training (for a while I had 9 dual training) while building up wallet balances, escrow cash and inventory on the newer traders.
Account 1
dual training active
3 fully trained traders, all flying Blockade Runners, covering Essence, Tash-Murkon and Verge Vendor Regions.
3 fully trained traders, all flying Blockade Runners, covering Essence, Tash-Murkon and Verge Vendor Regions.
Future plans: Continue training navigation, capacitor, shield and fitting skills higher on all three characters for another month or two. Possibly train Industry skills or Covert Ops after that.
Account 2
The traders of Amarr, Dodixie and Rens. All characters on this account are finished training trade skills. Two are Covert Ops pilots, all three are Blockade Runner Pilots.
Account 3
Lonetrek Regional Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Covert Ops and Blockade runner pilot. Not currently training.Jita Station Trader #2 - Finished training skills. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods. Not currently training.
New Trader - Newer trader, about halfway through training Trade skills. Has 128 orders with all money skills (Accounting, Broker Relations and Margin Trading) at V. Currently training Wholesale V.
Future plans: Continue training trade skills on the new trader. Will train Blockade Runners next after Trade skills are done.
Account 4
Jita Station Trader #1 - Finished training trade skills. Does nothing but station trade skill-books. This is the only character that still deals in very many items in the 1-10 million ISK range. Not currently training.
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon), Tengu and is working towards Black Ops. Has Astrometrics V, all the rest of the astrometrics skills at IV and most shield, navigation, fitting, EW and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. Currently training Jump Drive Calibration V. Might train a few more Int/Mem skills yet but he's getting close to remapping Per/Wil to start training Missiles, Battleship and Black Ops skills.
Future plans: Finish up Int/Mem skills, remap Per/wil and train for Black Ops battleships and Missile skills. Will eventually start a new character on this account. The Jita trader will probably eventually train Blockade Runners too.
Account 5
Dual training active
My Main - Covert Ops, Tengu, Rattlesnake pilot with all racial Battlecruiser and Destroyer skills at V. Concentrating mainly on Per/Wil combat skills, with particular focus on missile skills (nearly 11 mil SP in missiles). 125 orders, Wholesale IV, Accounting IV, Broker Relations IV, Margin Trading IV and all of the "remote order" trade skills at IV. He hasn't been involved much in trade for some time now.
Currently training Heavy Assault Missiles V
Orvolle Trader - Will be finished training Trade skills tomorrow. Currently training Visilbility IV. Will remap Int/Mem and start training Blockade Runners next
Currently training Heavy Assault Missiles V
Orvolle Trader - Will be finished training Trade skills tomorrow. Currently training Visilbility IV. Will remap Int/Mem and start training Blockade Runners next
Future plans: My main is finally nearly finished training Missile skills now (nearly 11 million SP in missiles). He can use T2 Light, Heavy, Cruise and Torpedo launchers now and will have Heavy Assaults in a few more days. I hate flying slow ships so battleships are low priority for me but I'll probably get Black Ops eventually. I might go for Recon Cruisers, HACs, Interdictors and HICs too. He'll be staying in the Per/Wil remap for a while yet and will get at least some Gunnery skills to IV or V before remapping. The Orvolle trader will start training Blockade runners tomorrow, once he has Blockade Runners I'll probably start a 3rd character on this account.
Account 6
Hek Station Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Covert Ops and Blockade Runner pilot. Not currently training.
Jita trader #4 - Finished training Trade skills. Handles the Jita implants market and dabbles a little in other markets. Not currently training.
New Trader - Just started actively trading in Devoid. Has all money skills at V and is currently training Retail V.
New Trader - Just started actively trading in Devoid. Has all money skills at V and is currently training Retail V.
Future plans: Finish training trade skills on the new trader, then train him into Blockade Runners. Eventually get BRs on the Jita trader too.
accounts 7 and 9 have dual training activeAccounts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Six accounts I started just before the news about dual training broke. They're all traders following the same training plan with the first two a day ahead of the next two and the last two roughly a week behind that.
All six are finished training trade skills and fly Blockade Runners now. Several still need another 2-3 weeks training to get Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills up to where I want them at.
All 6 accounts also have 2nd characters in various stages of training Trade skills. All but one of the characters on these accounts are following the same skill plan of training Trade skills (along with a few days worth of basic flying skills) first, then Blockade Runners and finally topping up Int/Mem support skills.
One character is following pretty much the same training plan, only training Block Runners and Int/Mem skills *before Trade skills for a change. That was actually a mistake, I accidentally remapped Int/Mem instead of Cha/Mem as intended but oh well whatever, I'd been thinking about trying that for a while anyhow. In some ways it makes a lot of sense, especially if I start basing more traders out of low and/or null.
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Financial Report - Nov 2013
Financial report for the month of November 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 23 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 20 more with each covering a different region and a few more in training.
In November I made 27 billion after expenses. I spent less time working the market than ever, logging in less frequently and spending less time updating orders too. I changed my inventory up quite a bit, dropping a number of cheaper items from my buy list and buying more expensive stuff (both buying more of the most expensive items I was already buying and adding a number of expensive items to the buy list).
Overall the total number of orders dropped quite a bit (most of my characters have 75 - 100 orders free now) but my escrow went up slightly (about 4 billion). Having more free orders is good, they come in really handy at times, for walling off bots with multiple orders for the same item and for selling off overstock when someone unexpectedly dumps a huge amount of stock on me.
I also sunk another 5-6 billion into getting all my accounts subscribed at least a month in advance (into late Dec or Jan).
Even though that's my lowest total in a quite a while I'm happy with this month. Considering all the inventory changes (making a big push up market usually means lower profits at first), the 5-6 bil ISK that went into subs and how things were looking going into the last week of the month, I only expected to make about 20 bil this month, maybe 25 biil if I was lucky.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
Note: I initially posted this as a 32 billion profit but later realized that was 5 billion too high due to API call refresh times causing information pulled from the API to incorrectly list a bunch of stuff (mostly PLEX) twice. Just because the API calls are all available for all accounts doesn't mean the info is completely uptodate on all accounts. Especially for the Assets API call on a 6 hour cooldown, it may list the same item(s) as being on the market and still in assets too, or after transferring items between characters as being in assets on both characters.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 23 active traders, 3 on Jita (one each for mods, implants and skillbooks), 20 more with each covering a different region and a few more in training.
In November I made 27 billion after expenses. I spent less time working the market than ever, logging in less frequently and spending less time updating orders too. I changed my inventory up quite a bit, dropping a number of cheaper items from my buy list and buying more expensive stuff (both buying more of the most expensive items I was already buying and adding a number of expensive items to the buy list).
Overall the total number of orders dropped quite a bit (most of my characters have 75 - 100 orders free now) but my escrow went up slightly (about 4 billion). Having more free orders is good, they come in really handy at times, for walling off bots with multiple orders for the same item and for selling off overstock when someone unexpectedly dumps a huge amount of stock on me.
I also sunk another 5-6 billion into getting all my accounts subscribed at least a month in advance (into late Dec or Jan).
Even though that's my lowest total in a quite a while I'm happy with this month. Considering all the inventory changes (making a big push up market usually means lower profits at first), the 5-6 bil ISK that went into subs and how things were looking going into the last week of the month, I only expected to make about 20 bil this month, maybe 25 biil if I was lucky.
Current net worth is 360 billion with about half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired stock I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. As I get bigger and spend less time updating individual orders I find myself carrying more and more of my net worth in sell orders. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, a few ships and some mods I keep in stock for my own use, maybe 4 billion in total.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
Note: I initially posted this as a 32 billion profit but later realized that was 5 billion too high due to API call refresh times causing information pulled from the API to incorrectly list a bunch of stuff (mostly PLEX) twice. Just because the API calls are all available for all accounts doesn't mean the info is completely uptodate on all accounts. Especially for the Assets API call on a 6 hour cooldown, it may list the same item(s) as being on the market and still in assets too, or after transferring items between characters as being in assets on both characters.
Sunday, 3 November 2013
PLEX Market - Update III
This is the third in a series of updates on my PLEX market venture which began 8 days ago on Oct 26 when I first started buying PLEX for resale.
I now have buy and sell orders up on several characters in different regions. To date I've bought 35 and sold 12 as shown in the JEveAssets Transactions screenshot below.
Besides the 12 PLEX that were resold another 10 were used to resub accounts, leaving 13 as yet unsold. I'll also need another 6 in about a week to resub more accounts. That leaves 7 more to sell.
I paid an average of 568 mil ISK each for the 35 I bought and sold 12 for an average of 616 mil ISK each. Or about 48.8 mil profit per PLEX sold. Before taxes and fees that is. After taxes and fees of roughly 12 mil each that leaves about 36 mil profit per PLEX or 432 million in total profits.
Assuming the other 7 sell for the same 36 mil after taxes and fees profit, that'd be 684 mil in total profits.
That's over an 8 day period, extrapolated over a full 30 day month, that'd be 2.65 billion per month. Considering I've barely gotten started in the PLEX market I should be able to do considerably better than that. There's still plenty of room left for expansion both in the number of regions I'm working and in the number of PLEX I buy in each region I am working. I haven't transported any PLEX between regions yet either, there's probably more profit to be gleaned that way too.
This is under the worst conditions, while PLEX prices are going down. Once prices stabilize and start going up again, my profit per PLEX might even go up. Note how the first ones I bought, which I paid the most for, also netted the biggest profits (68 mil ISK before taxes and fees on the very first one)
I'll be moving slowly but surely, continuing to increase my presence in the PLEX market until I have it maximized to net me the most profit for the least work.
I now have buy and sell orders up on several characters in different regions. To date I've bought 35 and sold 12 as shown in the JEveAssets Transactions screenshot below.
Besides the 12 PLEX that were resold another 10 were used to resub accounts, leaving 13 as yet unsold. I'll also need another 6 in about a week to resub more accounts. That leaves 7 more to sell.
I paid an average of 568 mil ISK each for the 35 I bought and sold 12 for an average of 616 mil ISK each. Or about 48.8 mil profit per PLEX sold. Before taxes and fees that is. After taxes and fees of roughly 12 mil each that leaves about 36 mil profit per PLEX or 432 million in total profits.
Assuming the other 7 sell for the same 36 mil after taxes and fees profit, that'd be 684 mil in total profits.
That's over an 8 day period, extrapolated over a full 30 day month, that'd be 2.65 billion per month. Considering I've barely gotten started in the PLEX market I should be able to do considerably better than that. There's still plenty of room left for expansion both in the number of regions I'm working and in the number of PLEX I buy in each region I am working. I haven't transported any PLEX between regions yet either, there's probably more profit to be gleaned that way too.
This is under the worst conditions, while PLEX prices are going down. Once prices stabilize and start going up again, my profit per PLEX might even go up. Note how the first ones I bought, which I paid the most for, also netted the biggest profits (68 mil ISK before taxes and fees on the very first one)
I'll be moving slowly but surely, continuing to increase my presence in the PLEX market until I have it maximized to net me the most profit for the least work.
Friday, 1 November 2013
Financial Report - October 2013
Financial report for the month of October 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 20 traders in total, 3 on Jita, one each for mods, implants and skillbooks, the rest covering 17 different regions.
In October I made over 29 billion after expenses. I spent less time than usual working the market. Pretty decent, considering Oct has been a slow month for sales with prices dropping radically on a number of items.
On the other hand, big price drops and the resulting losses aren't a big problem if you handle it right and act quickly. Just take the hit and lose money on 1, then make ISK on the next 10 bought cheap when most of the competition bails out because prices are low. They're stuck with capital tied up in stock they can't move at a profit and are reluctant to let it go at a loss while it's still just a small loss.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
Three blog posts in one day, that's a record for me!
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 20 traders in total, 3 on Jita, one each for mods, implants and skillbooks, the rest covering 17 different regions.
In October I made over 29 billion after expenses. I spent less time than usual working the market. Pretty decent, considering Oct has been a slow month for sales with prices dropping radically on a number of items.
On the other hand, big price drops and the resulting losses aren't a big problem if you handle it right and act quickly. Just take the hit and lose money on 1, then make ISK on the next 10 bought cheap when most of the competition bails out because prices are low. They're stuck with capital tied up in stock they can't move at a profit and are reluctant to let it go at a loss while it's still just a small loss.
Current net worth is 333 billion with about half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired stock I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. As I get bigger and spend less time updating individual orders I find myself carrying more and more of my net worth in sell orders. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, a few ships and some mods I keep in stock for my own use, maybe 4 billion in total.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
Three blog posts in one day, that's a record for me!
Monday, 28 October 2013
PLEX Market Update II
48 hours after the experiment began (1 day after the first update) I've bought a total of 6 PLEX in 3 different regions. I've sold 3 for 40 - 65 mil profit each, used 1 to sub an account and have 2 more up for sale. I have buy orders up in 4 or 5 regions now.
From what I've seen so far, I figure at least 10 day should be possible with that kind of profit.
As many as 20 a day might be attainable with profits in the same range but even that many might be pushing it a bit. Any more than that is probably only possible with lower profit margins around 20-25 million which won't leave much after taxes and fees.
I need to move PLEX purchases quickly because I expect prices to begin going down now. It's that time of year when prices have historically gone down anyhow and the Amazon pricing snafu yesterday will only help push things along.
From what I've seen so far, I figure at least 10 day should be possible with that kind of profit.
As many as 20 a day might be attainable with profits in the same range but even that many might be pushing it a bit. Any more than that is probably only possible with lower profit margins around 20-25 million which won't leave much after taxes and fees.
I need to move PLEX purchases quickly because I expect prices to begin going down now. It's that time of year when prices have historically gone down anyhow and the Amazon pricing snafu yesterday will only help push things along.
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Training Report - October 2013
Training report for 02 Oct 2013
23 Characters
21 Traders (17 finished training trade skills, 4 in various stages of training)
18 (out of 23 total) Empire regions covered by traders
5 Covert Ops pilots
6 Blockade Runner pilots (7 more coming in under 3 weeks)
2 Tengu pilots
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
23 Vigil pilots =)
16 PLEX/mo (4 accounts dual training)
I work a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling and courier contracts between regions. I've dropped nearly everything worth under 5 million and most under 10 million on all but one of my traders though there are a few cheap items I still buy on some characters (mostly high volume items I use myself).
I train my traders for 305 orders with the following trade skills: Trade V, Retail V, Wholesale V, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV. I consider them to be "finished" training trade skills at that point.
Some traders in smaller regions stop training Daytrading and Marketing at IV instead of V since that's all they need to cover the entire region (in fact a few of the smallest regions can be fully covered with III).
I'm cutting back on the number of accounts dual training (for a while I had 9 dual training) while slowly building up wallet balances and escrow cash on the newest traders.
Essence (Renyn) Regional Trader - Fully trained trader, blockade runner pilot. Not currently training.
Tash-Murkon (TM Prime) Regional Trader - Fully trained trader, currently training blockade runners.
Verge Vendor (Alentene) Regional Trader - Nearly finished training trade skills. Just needs to finish up Marketing, Daytrading, Procurement and Visibility. Currently training Marketing V.
Amarr Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed), Currently not training.
Dodixie Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot.
Rens Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.
Future plans: Remain in the Int/Mem remap and continue training support skills on all 3 characters. In particular, Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills. Maybe train one into Industry eventually.
Jita Station Trader #2 - Finished training skills. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods. Not currently training.
New Trader - Brand new trader, just started training less than a week ago. Has trained basic nav/shield/fitting skills and remapped Char/Mem. Currently training basic trade skills.
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon), Tengu and is training Int/Mem support/scanning/exploration skills. Has Astrometrics V, all the rest of the astrometrics skills at IV and most shield, navigation, fitting, EW and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. Currently training Jump Drive Operation V. It's a long ways off yet but eventually he'll fly Black Ops.
Five of them started out as secondary traders handling lower priced items in 5 different regions but I gave up on that plan (it was just too much work for the returns involved) and moved them all to new regions. It's far less work now and the returns are much better too.
All six are finished training trade skills, have remapped Int/Mem and are training for Blockade runners now. They'll all be able to fly Blockade Runners in 3 weeks or less. Once they can fly Blockade Runners they'll each spend another 2-3 weeks training Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills up to where I want them at.
In addition I've activated dual training on two of these accounts and started up yet another two new traders. As the original characters finish training Blockade Runners + support skills I'll start up new characters on the other 4 accounts too.
First some numbers:
12 Accounts23 Characters
21 Traders (17 finished training trade skills, 4 in various stages of training)
18 (out of 23 total) Empire regions covered by traders
5 Covert Ops pilots
6 Blockade Runner pilots (7 more coming in under 3 weeks)
2 Tengu pilots
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
23 Vigil pilots =)
16 PLEX/mo (4 accounts dual training)
I work a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling and courier contracts between regions. I've dropped nearly everything worth under 5 million and most under 10 million on all but one of my traders though there are a few cheap items I still buy on some characters (mostly high volume items I use myself).
I train my traders for 305 orders with the following trade skills: Trade V, Retail V, Wholesale V, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV. I consider them to be "finished" training trade skills at that point.
Some traders in smaller regions stop training Daytrading and Marketing at IV instead of V since that's all they need to cover the entire region (in fact a few of the smallest regions can be fully covered with III).
I'm cutting back on the number of accounts dual training (for a while I had 9 dual training) while slowly building up wallet balances and escrow cash on the newest traders.
Account 1
dual training active
Tash-Murkon (TM Prime) Regional Trader - Fully trained trader, currently training blockade runners.
Verge Vendor (Alentene) Regional Trader - Nearly finished training trade skills. Just needs to finish up Marketing, Daytrading, Procurement and Visibility. Currently training Marketing V.
Future plans: Finish training trade skills on Allentene, then remap Int/Mem and train Blockade Runners + support skills on Allentene too. Keep dual training active another month to finish training blockade runners + support skills on Tash-Murkon.
Account 2
The traders of Amarr, Dodixie and Rens. All characters on this account are finished training trade skills. Two are Covert Ops pilots, all three are Blockade Runner Pilots.
Dodixie Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot.
Rens Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.
Future plans: Remain in the Int/Mem remap and continue training support skills on all 3 characters. In particular, Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills. Maybe train one into Industry eventually.
Account 3
Lonetrek Regional Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Covert Ops and Blockade runner pilot. Not currently training.Jita Station Trader #2 - Finished training skills. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods. Not currently training.
New Trader - Brand new trader, just started training less than a week ago. Has trained basic nav/shield/fitting skills and remapped Char/Mem. Currently training basic trade skills.
Future plans: Continue training trade skills on the new trader for the next 3 months. Once she has at least Margin Trading V, Accounting V and Wholesale IV pick a home for her and start actually trading.
Account 4
Jita Station Trader #1 - Finished training trade skills. Does nothing but station trade skill-books. This is the only character that still deals in very many items in the 1-10 million ISK range. Not currently training.
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon), Tengu and is training Int/Mem support/scanning/exploration skills. Has Astrometrics V, all the rest of the astrometrics skills at IV and most shield, navigation, fitting, EW and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. Currently training Jump Drive Operation V. It's a long ways off yet but eventually he'll fly Black Ops.
Future plans: Continue training Int/Mem skills on the exploration/scout/scanning character. Long term this character will eventually remap Per/Wil to train Black Ops battleships and Missile skills. Will probably eventually start a new character on this account too.
Account 5
Dual training active
My Main - Covert Ops, Tengu, Rattlesnake pilot with all racial Battlecruiser and Destroyer skills at V. All by himself on his own account and concentrating mainly on Per/Wil combat skills, with particular focus on missile skills (nearly 10 mil SP in missiles now). 125 orders, Wholesale IV, Accounting IV, Broker Relations IV, Margin Trading IV and all of the "remote order" trade skills at IV. He hasn't been involved much in trade for some time now.
Currently training Combat Drone Operation V
Orvolle Trader - Relatively new trader, not doing a whole lot yet. Currently training Wholesale V.
Currently training Combat Drone Operation V
Orvolle Trader - Relatively new trader, not doing a whole lot yet. Currently training Wholesale V.
Future plans: My main is finally nearly finished training Missile skills now (almost 10 million SP in missiles). He can use T2 Heavy, Cruise and Torpedo launchers. I hate flying slow ships so battleships are low priority for me but Rattlesnakes interest me and I'll probably eventually get Black Ops. I might go for Recon Cruisers, HACs, Interdictors and HICs too. He'll be staying in the Per/Wil remap for a long time yet and will probably get a bunch of Gunnery skills to IV or V too. The new trader has another couple months of trade skills training to go and will likely train blockade runners after trade skills are done.
Account 6
Hek Station Trader - Finished training Trade skills. Covert Ops and Blockade Runner pilot. Not currently training.
Jita trader #4 - Almost finished training Trade skills. Handles the Jita implants market and dabbles a little in other markets. Currently training Marketing V.
Future plans: Finish training Marketing V and Daytrading V on Jita. Then start up a new trader up on this account.
Six accounts I started just before the news about dual training broke. They're all traders following the same training plan with the first two a day ahead of the next two and the last two roughly a week behind that.Accounts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Five of them started out as secondary traders handling lower priced items in 5 different regions but I gave up on that plan (it was just too much work for the returns involved) and moved them all to new regions. It's far less work now and the returns are much better too.
All six are finished training trade skills, have remapped Int/Mem and are training for Blockade runners now. They'll all be able to fly Blockade Runners in 3 weeks or less. Once they can fly Blockade Runners they'll each spend another 2-3 weeks training Navigation, Engineering and Shield skills up to where I want them at.
In addition I've activated dual training on two of these accounts and started up yet another two new traders. As the original characters finish training Blockade Runners + support skills I'll start up new characters on the other 4 accounts too.
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Financial Report - September 2013
Financial report for the month of September 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 20 traders in total, 3 on Jita, one each for mods, implants and skillbooks, the rest covering 17 different regions.
In September I made 34 billion after expenses. Down 6 billion from last month. I spent less time working the market including a 2 week period during the middle of the month where I hardly did anything.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 20 traders in total, 3 on Jita, one each for mods, implants and skillbooks, the rest covering 17 different regions.
In September I made 34 billion after expenses. Down 6 billion from last month. I spent less time working the market including a 2 week period during the middle of the month where I hardly did anything.
Current net worth is 304 billion with about half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired stock I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. As I get bigger and spend less time updating individual orders I find myself carrying more and more of my net worth in sell orders. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, a few ships and some mods I keep in stock for my own use, maybe 4 billion in total.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Financial Report - August 2013
Financial report for the month of August 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 20 traders in total, 3 on Jita, one each for mods, implants and skillbooks, the rest covering 17 different regions.
I play fairly casually and update orders infrequently, often going several days between posting/updating orders. Some characters get updated more often than others and I update sell orders more consistently than buy orders.
Expenses were up again due to doing 9 character moves (100-200 million per move just for lost deposits on cancelled orders) plus having 8 accounts dual training. That's about 4 billion right there. I also lost a bit over 2 billion to a gank while moving one of the characters.
I dropped most of my inventory worth under 10 million in all locations except Jita and under 20 million in many locations. I completely redid my quickbar lists for Deadspace and Faction mods and made many, many changes to my regional order strategy (exactly what I buy or sell and how much of in different regions). The end result being I bought and sold many more expensive items, far fewer cheap items and spent a lot less time flying around picking it all up.
I did spend nearly twice as much time on market related activity this month, about 40 hours in total. However the extra time was all spent on moving characters around and getting them setup in new locations. A fair bit of time was spent on the quickbar reorganization and regional order strategy changes too. All things I won't be doing every day or every month. The time spent on my usual day to day routine was only about 15 hours.
In August I made 40 billion after expenses. Pretty decent considering all the changes made. For a few days I was actually worried I may have bitten off more than I could chew and stretched my finances a bit too far but it worked out fine in the end. September should be interesting as I finish settling in at the new locations, get used to and become faster at working the new regional order strategy.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants with traders covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus secondary hubs in most other empire regions. I have 20 traders in total, 3 on Jita, one each for mods, implants and skillbooks, the rest covering 17 different regions.
I play fairly casually and update orders infrequently, often going several days between posting/updating orders. Some characters get updated more often than others and I update sell orders more consistently than buy orders.
Expenses were up again due to doing 9 character moves (100-200 million per move just for lost deposits on cancelled orders) plus having 8 accounts dual training. That's about 4 billion right there. I also lost a bit over 2 billion to a gank while moving one of the characters.
I dropped most of my inventory worth under 10 million in all locations except Jita and under 20 million in many locations. I completely redid my quickbar lists for Deadspace and Faction mods and made many, many changes to my regional order strategy (exactly what I buy or sell and how much of in different regions). The end result being I bought and sold many more expensive items, far fewer cheap items and spent a lot less time flying around picking it all up.
In August I made 40 billion after expenses. Pretty decent considering all the changes made. For a few days I was actually worried I may have bitten off more than I could chew and stretched my finances a bit too far but it worked out fine in the end. September should be interesting as I finish settling in at the new locations, get used to and become faster at working the new regional order strategy.
Current net worth is 270 billion with about half in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired stock I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. As I get bigger and spend less time updating individual orders I find myself carrying more and more of my net worth in sell orders. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, a few ships and some mods I keep in stock for my own use, maybe 4 billion in total.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Financial Report - July 2013
Financial report for the month of July 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus several regions that don't have a major trade hub. I play fairly casually and update orders infrequently, often going several days between posting/updating orders. Some characters get updated more often than others and I update sell orders more consistently than buy orders.
In July I made 22 billion after expenses (exactly the same as in June). Not bad considering the time I spent playing the market was way down, I lost 3 billion to an input lag induced typo and my expenses were up too.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus several regions that don't have a major trade hub. I play fairly casually and update orders infrequently, often going several days between posting/updating orders. Some characters get updated more often than others and I update sell orders more consistently than buy orders.
In July I made 22 billion after expenses (exactly the same as in June). Not bad considering the time I spent playing the market was way down, I lost 3 billion to an input lag induced typo and my expenses were up too.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Training Report - July 2013
Training report for all my characters as of 14 July 2013
My old training report format was becoming a bit unwieldy with so many characters so it's time for a change.
First some numbers:
12 Accounts
19 Characters
18 Traders (all but 2 with 269+ orders)
5 Covert Ops pilots (2 more in training with 1 and 2 weeks to go)
1 Blockade Runner pilot
1 Tengu pilot (another in training with 24 days to go)
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
19 Vigil pilots =)
15 PLEX/mo (3 accounts dual training)
I've been working a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling / courier contracts between regions for several months now. The Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek and Lonetrek traders have dropped everything worth under 5 million and secondary traders on those hubs are working those items now. Most of my traders have Daytrading V and Marketing V now, the few that don't will have them soon. Most of them also have Procurement IV and Visibility IV.
I started up 6 new accounts a couple months ago. Each account has one trader on it. All of them have Tycoon IV now and are working on either Tycoon V or Broker Relations V. They all have roughly another 1.5 months of training to go before they're finished. At that point I'll probably transfer several of them to other accounts to consolidate accounts and save a few plex.
The original plan for 5 of the new traders was to have them take over the skillbook business on Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek and in Lonetrek. I've already moved all skillbooks worth 5 million or less to the new traders but I've changed my mind about the rest of the plan for them.
I'm going to keep the high value skillbooks on the original traders and only work the cheapest books on the new alts. I'll probably wind up moving all skillbooks worth 10 million or less to them eventually, maybe even 20 million. I've started started buying some other low value items on them too, a few things they'll use themselves and a little dabbling in / experimenting with a few other odds and ends.
That way I'll have all the highest value / most profitable items on one character at each hub and all the low value items on another. The high value traders can be checked on and updated more often while the low value traders can work long term bulk trends with infrequent updates.
Or another option I'm considering is to drop everything under 10 or 20 million and have 1 trader work skillbooks and mods while the other works say implants and boosters.
The remaining new trader has taken over the business on Ichoriya from my main.
I'm getting Contracting IV on all my traders now too because it only takes 14 hours to train and I actually had one of my buyers run out of contracts once while transferring items scattered all around a region to another character for pickup!
Couster Regional Trader - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading IV, Marketing IV, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV. Currently training Marketing V.
Tash Murkon Regional Trader - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV. Finished training for now.
Jita Station Trader #3 - 125 orders, Wholesale IV, Broker Relations IV, Accounting V, Margin Trading V, DayTrading IV, Marketing IV, Contracting II. Buys inexpensive modules (T2 and meta 4) mostly for my own use. Currently training Wholesale V.
Dodixie Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot. Currently training flying support skills.
Rens Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot. Finished training for now.
Unless one of these characters moves to another station in low/nul they'll never need to train Procurement V or Visibility V. If they don't join a corporation they won't need more contracts either.
Jita Station Trader #2 - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Marketing V, Daytrading V and all other remote skills at IV. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods.
Jita Station Trader #1 - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Marketing V, Daytrading V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV. Does nothing but station trade skill-books. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon) and is training Int/Mem support/scanning/exploration skills. Has all Astrometric skills at IV, most shield, navigation, fitting and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. Currently training Recon V.
All of them have Tycoon IV, Accounting V, Marketing IV, Daytrading IV, either have or are nearly finished training Broker Relations V and are currently training either Tycoon V or Broker Relations V.
One of them runs the Ichoriya business, the other 5 are secondary traders for Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek and Lonetrek. The 5 secondary traders are currently just handling skillbooks worth under 5 million ISK plus buying a few mods for their own use. They have plenty of spare orders to start buying other things with.
My old training report format was becoming a bit unwieldy with so many characters so it's time for a change.
First some numbers:
12 Accounts
19 Characters
18 Traders (all but 2 with 269+ orders)
5 Covert Ops pilots (2 more in training with 1 and 2 weeks to go)
1 Blockade Runner pilot
1 Tengu pilot (another in training with 24 days to go)
1 Recon pilot
1 Rattlesnake pilot
19 Vigil pilots =)
15 PLEX/mo (3 accounts dual training)
I've been working a mix of regional and station trading with a fair bit of hauling / courier contracts between regions for several months now. The Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek and Lonetrek traders have dropped everything worth under 5 million and secondary traders on those hubs are working those items now. Most of my traders have Daytrading V and Marketing V now, the few that don't will have them soon. Most of them also have Procurement IV and Visibility IV.
I started up 6 new accounts a couple months ago. Each account has one trader on it. All of them have Tycoon IV now and are working on either Tycoon V or Broker Relations V. They all have roughly another 1.5 months of training to go before they're finished. At that point I'll probably transfer several of them to other accounts to consolidate accounts and save a few plex.
The original plan for 5 of the new traders was to have them take over the skillbook business on Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek and in Lonetrek. I've already moved all skillbooks worth 5 million or less to the new traders but I've changed my mind about the rest of the plan for them.
I'm going to keep the high value skillbooks on the original traders and only work the cheapest books on the new alts. I'll probably wind up moving all skillbooks worth 10 million or less to them eventually, maybe even 20 million. I've started started buying some other low value items on them too, a few things they'll use themselves and a little dabbling in / experimenting with a few other odds and ends.
That way I'll have all the highest value / most profitable items on one character at each hub and all the low value items on another. The high value traders can be checked on and updated more often while the low value traders can work long term bulk trends with infrequent updates.
Or another option I'm considering is to drop everything under 10 or 20 million and have 1 trader work skillbooks and mods while the other works say implants and boosters.
The remaining new trader has taken over the business on Ichoriya from my main.
I'm getting Contracting IV on all my traders now too because it only takes 14 hours to train and I actually had one of my buyers run out of contracts once while transferring items scattered all around a region to another character for pickup!
Account 1
dual training active
Tash Murkon Regional Trader - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Marketing V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting IV. Finished training for now.
Jita Station Trader #3 - 125 orders, Wholesale IV, Broker Relations IV, Accounting V, Margin Trading V, DayTrading IV, Marketing IV, Contracting II. Buys inexpensive modules (T2 and meta 4) mostly for my own use. Currently training Wholesale V.
Future plans: Finish training trade skills on all 3 characters. Then remap Int/Mem and work on flying support skills (mainly Navigation, Engineering and Electronics skills) one at a time. Will probably train at least 2 characters into Covert Ops eventually and might train one into Blockade Runners.
Dual training has allowed me to start training the "spare" Jita trader up too.
Dual training has allowed me to start training the "spare" Jita trader up too.
Account 2
dual training active
The traders of Amarr, Dodixie and Rens. All characters on this account have 305 market orders with Trade V, Retail V, Wholesale V, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Marketing V, Daytrading V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV and Contracting III or IV.
Amarr Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed), Currently training Covert Ops and relevant support skills.Dodixie Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot. Currently training flying support skills.
Rens Station Trader - 305 orders (maxed). Cov Ops pilot. Finished training for now.
Unless one of these characters moves to another station in low/nul they'll never need to train Procurement V or Visibility V. If they don't join a corporation they won't need more contracts either.
Future plans: I intend to train all three into Covert Ops and remap Int/Mem for support skills training next. After that I'll probably train one into something besides Trade (Industry maybe).
Account 3
Lonetrek Regional Trader - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Marketing V, Daytrading V, Procurement IV, Visibility IV, Contracting IV. Finished training trade skills and remapped Int/Mem. Cov Ops and Blockade Runner pilot. Currently training Int/Mem support skills.Jita Station Trader #2 - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Marketing V, Daytrading V and all other remote skills at IV. Does nothing but trade officer/deadspace/faction mods.
Future plans: Continue training Int/Mem support skills on the Lonetrek trader. Weapon skills don't matter, he's a trader not a fighter.
Account 4
dual training active
Exploration / Scout / Scanning pilot - Flies Covert Ops (Buzzard), Recon (Falcon) and is training Int/Mem support/scanning/exploration skills. Has all Astrometric skills at IV, most shield, navigation, fitting and exploration skills at IV or V. I don't plan on doing any serious trading on this character. He has 29 order slots, more than enough to buy things he needs and that's it. Currently training Recon V.
Future plans: Continue training Int/Mem skills on the exploration/scout/scanning character. Long term this character will continue following the Covert Ops line into Recon cruisers and eventually Black Ops battleships. Will eventually start a new character on this account or transfer a fully trained trader to it.
Account 5
My Main - Cov Ops, Tengu, Rattlesnake pilot. All by himself on his own account and concentrating mainly on Per/Wil combat skills, with particular focus on missile skills. 125 orders, Wholesale IV, Accounting IV, Broker Relations IV, Margin Trading IV and all of the "remote order" trade skills at IV. He hasn't been heavily involved in trade for some time now but does a little low maintenance trading (mostly selling) in various places. Currently training Tengu subsystems skills from IV to V (3 finished, 2 more to go).
Hek Station Trader - 305 orders, Tycoon V, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V, Daytrading V, Procurement IV, Visibility V and Contracting IV. Currently training Minmatar Frigates V.
Future plans: My main is concentrating mainly on Tengu and Missile skills. I'll probably get Recon and maybe Black Ops too. I hate flying slow ships so battleships are low priority for me though I'll probably get Caldari and Gallente Battleships to IV (both are at III now) for Rattlesnakes eventually. He'll be staying in the Per/Wil remap for a long time yet and will probably get a bunch of Gunnery skills to IV or V too. I'll probably eventually transfer a couple other characters to this account.
Account 6
Jita trader #4 - 305 orders, Tycoon, Accounting V, Broker Relations V, Margin Trading V. Daytrading V, Marketing IV, Procurement III. Handles the Jita implants market and dabbles a little in boosters. Finished training for now.
Future plans: Finish training Cov Ops + a few support skills on Hek then get Marketing V on Jita.
Six new accounts I started around 2 months ago with 1 character on each account (just before the news about dual training broke). They're all traders following the same training plan with the first two a day ahead of the next two and the last couple roughly a week behind that.Accounts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
All of them have Tycoon IV, Accounting V, Marketing IV, Daytrading IV, either have or are nearly finished training Broker Relations V and are currently training either Tycoon V or Broker Relations V.
One of them runs the Ichoriya business, the other 5 are secondary traders for Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek and Lonetrek. The 5 secondary traders are currently just handling skillbooks worth under 5 million ISK plus buying a few mods for their own use. They have plenty of spare orders to start buying other things with.
Monday, 1 July 2013
Financial Report - June 2013
Financial report for the month of June 2013 (last month). Trade oriented since trading is how I make virtually all of my ISK.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus several regions that don't have a major trade hub. I play fairly casually and update orders infrequently, often going several days between posting/updating orders. Some characters get updated more often than others and I update sell orders more consistently than buy orders.
In June I made 22 billion after expenses. I made over 16 billion in the first 10 days of the month and broke 200 billion. After that I lost most of my motivation to update orders and make courier contracts. I hardly did anything the rest of the month and only made another 4 billion for the last 20 days of the month. I still haven't gotten the motivation back to spend much time working the market yet and it'll probably be a while longer before I do.
Current net worth is 208 billion with the majority in cash and market escrow. Most of the rest is in sell orders and recently acquired stock I haven't gotten around to posting for sale yet. Very little is in assets I don't intend to sell soon, a few ships and some mods I keep in stock for my own use, maybe 2 billion in total.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
I buy and sell skill-books, faction/deadspace/officer mods and implants covering all 5 major trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, Hek and Rens) plus several regions that don't have a major trade hub. I play fairly casually and update orders infrequently, often going several days between posting/updating orders. Some characters get updated more often than others and I update sell orders more consistently than buy orders.
In June I made 22 billion after expenses. I made over 16 billion in the first 10 days of the month and broke 200 billion. After that I lost most of my motivation to update orders and make courier contracts. I hardly did anything the rest of the month and only made another 4 billion for the last 20 days of the month. I still haven't gotten the motivation back to spend much time working the market yet and it'll probably be a while longer before I do.
That's my actual current total net worth, I don't pad the numbers by counting ISK I've earned but have since spent and no longer have. That'd be like calling myself a real life millionaire because I've earned over a million dollars during my life when the reality is I've never had anywhere near a million in total.
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