Monday 24 February 2020

Broker Relations Changes

I was going to write a blog about how with a combination of storms Ciara and Dennis and real life disruption I've managed my first trade run in 3 weeks today (hauling a terrifying 84Bn ISK in a single cargo!) and that I'm not expecting much from this month as result.

CCP has also announced massive (if possibly temporary) reductions in the amount of resources in asteroid fields and anomalies across the game, which will likely drive the price of everything up.

All of that is interesting, and there is a lot I could say about it, but when I logged on the EVE reddit I saw this bombshell:

https://www.eveonline.com/article/q67fqo/broker-relations

This is, with no exaggeration, the biggest changes to the market since I started playing in 2009.

The cliff notes:

- Introducing tick size - a limit on price precision when creating/updating an order. An order's price can only be specified with a maximum precision of 4 significant figures.
- In Upwell structures, the minimum broker fee that can be configured by the structure owner increases from 0% to 1%, adding an ISK sink to these market fees by paying half of this incoming fee to an NPC.
- Increase the ISK fees that are charged when modifying an order. The fee includes a new additional component, the Relist Charge. This is in addition to the regular Broker Charge that covers the increase between old and new order value.
- Change the benefits (and name) of the Margin Trading skill - it becomes the Advanced Broker Relations skill. This will now give a reduction in the Relist Charge. The skill's old ability to create a Want-To-Buy order with only partial ISK escrow is removed, so all WTB orders will require 100% escrow to be paid up front.

I'll take that one at a time.

Tick size

You will now not be able to adjust an order by 0.01ISK, but to 4 significant figures. This means that for Tritanium, you will still be able to adjust by 0.01, but for something costing 1 million you can adjust by a minimum of 1000.

Upwell minimum broker fee

At the moment, if you create your own trade citadel the minimum broker fee is 0%. Most high sec trade hubs are about 0.5%. All of this goes to the citadel owner. After this change the minimum will be 1%, with half of that going to the SSC - an NPC corp, essentially disappearing, providing another ISK sink to the game.

Increase the ISK fees that are charged when modifying an order

Currently, when you modify an order it costs a base of 100ISK, The actual number is so small that I don't know what it is. Someone has done some Maths on Reddit, and worked out that after the change it'll be int he region of 1% to modify an order. For razor thin margin items like PLEX this is massive. Game changing.

Advanced Broker Relations skill

Probably the most controversial change. Margin Trading is going away to be replaced by a skill that gives a reduction in the amount you pay when modifying an order. This just went from a skill you'd only buy if you were station trading to make your ISK go further to a skill you'll want at V on every character that interacts with the market. Looks like my traders aren't finished any more!

Predicted affects

It is extremely difficult to predict how the market will look after this. The aim is to make it difficult for bots to sit there, updating orders by 0.01 every 5 minutes ad infitum. I suspect this effect will be achieved, at least until bot behaviour becomes much more intelligent. Hopefully most will be lazy and their bots will update orders until they're bankrupt! High volume thin margin item flipping will likely look radically different. I suspect people will utilise more smaller orders, rather than placing single large stack orders in future to try and circumvent the relist charge.

For my type of trading, buying from Jita, shipping elsewhere, putting up sell orders and adjusting once or twice a week, things will likely not change much. I'll have to pay more in taxes - sure, but my behaviour won't change much. My station traders I'm less sure.

Overall I'm predicting larger spreads on most items, and probably slightly lower trade activity overall. Hopefully we'll see more ISK leaving the game too. Makes me richer compared to everyone else!

A very interesting time, I'm actually looking forward to this!

Saturday 1 February 2020

February Update

I've managed a little more playtime this month, and crucially I've put a little bit of effort into my station trading, particularly trying to get my Amarr trader off the ground again. It's been a refreshing change and I've made a bit of progress, on top of my usual runs. My current position:


I currently have 595.3Bn ISK. That's an increase of 28.8Bn on last month. Exactly the same as December! I was on track to beat 1Bn a day until the last week when things slowed down massively. I suspect this is largely due to the ongoing DDOS and mitigation action related to that. Less player logging in, less market activity. I myself haven't been affected when I've logged in, but I understand a lot of people over in the US have.

I have 4 accounts, with 11 characters dedicated to trading:

Skill Point Trader

 Still grinding, a long way to go before this guy really gets going. I've completed the Caldari careers missions, and 1 of the 3 sets of Gallente. A long way to go here. This one really underlines how little time I get to play!

Jita Buyer

This is a character that sits in Jita and contracts items to my other characters. This character has little training, and mostly buys from sell orders and contracts the items to my other characters. I tend to have this character logged in to act as a real time price comparison whilst checking my other characters orders. This character also manages my long term investments, though that doesn't take much work. I am putting excess ISK into this venture, and watch delonewolf's EVE Talk to get ideas for things to invest in. Currently holding about 83Bn in orders and investments.

Amarr Seller

My main money maker, with ~158 Billion in active sell orders at the time of writing. Takes implants and faction/deadspace modules delivered by my Rens character and sells them in Amarr.

Dodixie Seller

Very similar to the Amarr seller, he sits in Dodixie, takes receipt of items, then set up sell orders. Currently has 118 Billion in sell orders. No news with this character.

Rens seller/Hauler

Like the other characters, this character takes items bought in Jita and sells them in Rens. Currently has 123 Billion ISK in active sells. He also hauls my goods from Jita to the other trade hubs in a Crane.

Hek Seller

Like the other high sec seller characters, he sits in a trade hub in Hek and sells items brought to him by the Rens seller. Currently on 80Bn in sell orders. Needs to pay for his own PLEX every month, which isn't too difficult.

Amarr station trader

Sits in a player owned Fortizar in Ashab, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a range of 1 Jump to cover Amarr. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 1 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 12.6 Billion. I've done a bit of trading on this character this month finally, and it feels like I'm making progress at long last.

Jita station trader

My more serious station trader. I have a character in Perimeter in a player owned Keepstar, with 0.5% broker fee that sits in one station, buys from buy orders and sells through sell orders with a reach of 1 jump.

Most of my items are bought and sold in the Jita 4-4 station. This character trades completely different items to the rest of my characters. I gave this character 10 Billion to start with, and he's currently on 66.7 Billion. I spent the time to get faction and corp standing up with this character, and this is my attempt to take station trading seriously. He also farms SP and sells injectors on the market.

Horde Station Trader

Station trading in the Horde Keepstar in R10-GN. I set him up with 1Bn and he's currently at 6.3Bn.

Tash-Murkon Region trader

A different strategy altogether. This character sits in a player owned Fortizar in Tash-Murkon prime, and set up regional buy orders for modules, implants and drones. When a lot of orders have been filled I fly around and collect it all to sell in Tash-Murkon Prime. I set this character up with 100mil to buy his own skills and get started, after skills he had 70mil to buy items. Currently at 6.4Bn. Can fly a Crane, which speeds up my collections immeasurably. I haven't touched this character at all this month. Another thing to correct. So much to do, so little time!

Manufacturing Character

My latest character, pretty new. Currently has 11 building slot and 10 lab slots. Also has 9 structure component BPs in research, they were at ME7, and are on a final run of research to get them to ME8. This one step is taking 51 days! At that point I definitely just want to get started producing. The plan will be to sell the items produced by this character in the 5 trade hubs I sell in.