October Update

Well this was inextricably a poor month. Let's get right to it.

My current position:

I have 490.9Bn ISK. That is a measly increase of 7.6Bn. Not 27.6, 7.6. My worst month for probably 2 years. What I struggled to work out is why?

I've managed to keep to 1 proper trade run (as described in a previous blog) a week, which isn't unusually low. I've barely updated orders in between then, which will definitely have contributed to less profit, but doesn't explain such a small increase. Even more strangely, this last week has been decent, almost all of my profits coming this last week. The preceding 3 weeks, despite some turnover, I wasn't making any money at all.

I looked and looked to see if I had made an accounting error somewhere (wouldn't be the first time) and couldn't find one. The price of PLEX tanked which I reckon accounted for a 2-3Bn lowering of value, I spent ~1.85Bn on PLEX for my 4th account, same as last month and I had to put up some orders which had expired again, which accounted for about 1Bn in broker fees. All that still comes to a pessimistic 6Bn ISK in costs, which would still be quite a low increase of 13Bn. I know it's summer, and the Chaos era may have hit activity, but I'm still surprised that this month my worth isn't starting with a 5. I guess I'll just have to keep trying and see if next month improves.

On the plus side, it looks like there's money to be made manufacturing, which I'm keen to get started with.

I have 4 accounts, with 10 characters dedicated to trading:

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 76Bn in orders and investments.

Amarr Seller

My main money maker, with ~154 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 84 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  89.5 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 53.9Bn 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 12.2 Billion.

Jita station trader

My more serious station trader. I have a character in Perimeter in a player owned Keepstar, with 0.3% 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 54.8 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.

Horde Seller

In a very similar way to the other selling characters, he takes items bought by the Jita Buyer, then contracts the items to "Valhalla Deliveries" (a delivery service for Pandemic Horde) to transport the items to the Horde Keepstar in R10-GN. He then sells them there for a profit. He trades primarily T2 modules, drones and scan probes. I set him up with 1Bn and he's currently at 3.4 Bn in sell orders.

I've done very little with this character this month again.

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 4.6Bn. Can fly a Crane, which speeds up my collections immeasurably.

Manufacturing Character

My latest character, pretty new. Not doing a huge amount at the moment other than training skills. Currently has 1 building slot and 5 lab slots. Research ME on 5 structure rig blueprints ready to start building from them in 27 days.