Update after 4 weeks in the challenge

 Where did I start from?

4 weeks ago I started a challenge with the goal of making enough ISK to be able to plex a completely fresh account in the MMORPG Eve Online by only doing regional trading as single source of income. 

I started with a total wealth of 75 million ISK, one character in Jita, one in Amarr and one in Dodixie.

After 11 days I reached my first milestone by having a wealth of more than 1 billion ISK.

What has happened during the last week?

Simply put: Competition is getting tougher where I sell (Amarr + Dodixie).

• For many items in the price range between 20 and 200 million ISK I see now 4 or more competitors updating orders at least daily.
  To stay competitive I need to update more often which cuts a huge chunk into my estimated profit.

• For items in the price range above 200 million ISK there is less competition. Nevertheless, these traders are active traders who update daily as well. And these updates are often not only one tick downwards but often times 10 million ISK or more at once.
  (Guess I found some items where I'm directly competing against Croda. Ouch!)

• I changed my requirements how often an item is being traded.
  For now I removed items that are traded on more than 80% or less than 20%.
  I calculate trading frequency by the formula: days where trades happened / specific time frame.
  An item which has 80 days with data of completed trades during a time frame of 100 days has a trade frequency of 80%.

• I experimented with different margins for initial sell prices, down to 35% (which is my absolute minimum required margin).
  Sometimes there are simply not enough items with a high enough margin to sell. Especially when looking for ones with few active competitors. 

• I also recognized I was competing against my Omega account in some items. So I stopped updating these items on my omega account. 

How are my numbers?

Past week:

• Revenue:
• In the last week I made sales of 3,34 billion ISK for a total of 45 orders.
  That makes an average sell price of 74,2 million ISK per order.

• Amarr generated 1,748 billion ISK revenue with 26 orders for an average sell price of 67,2 million ISK.

• Dodixie generated 1,591 billion ISK revenue with 19 orders for an average sell price of 83,7 million ISK.

• This is surprising as my feeling throughout the week was that Amarr is running a lot better than Dodixie.
  It was in terms of completed sell orders, but as we can see, number of completed orders is just one part of the equation. Average price is the other one.

• Costs:
• I paid  250,5 million ISK in Sales Tax which comes down to the expected 7,5% for an alpha character.

• I paid 341,7 million ISK in Brokers Fee which comes down to 10,2% of my inital sell order price. 
  As my base broker fee is 2,38%, the difference of 7,82% means I had - on average - to adjust prices 3,2 times before an item was sold.

• I paid out 55,0 million ISK in rewards for courier contracts.
  I pay 1% reward on the collateral which finally comes down to 1,6% of total actual revenue.

Since the beginning of the challenge (4 weeks):

• Revenue:
• I made sales of 8,413 billion ISK.

• Amarr generated 4,705 billion ISK with 109 completed sell orders for an average sell price of 43,2 million ISK.

• Dodixie generated 3,707 billion ISK with 84 completed sell orders for an average sell price of 44,1 million ISK.

• Costs:
• I paid  629,1 million ISK in Sales Tax which comes down to the expected 7,5% for an alpha character.

• I paid 850,7 million ISK in Brokers Fee which comes down to 10,1% of my inital sell order price. 
  As my base broker fee is 2,38%, the difference of 7,72% means I had - on average - to adjust prices 3,2 times before an item was sold.

• I paid out 139,4 million ISK in rewards for courier contracts.
  I pay 1% reward on the collateral which finally comes down to 1,7% of total actual revenue.

These are my current numbers:

I take a provision of 25% against sell orders and contracts to reflect the fees and potential price adjustments I have to make before finally selling an item. 

Week over week my total wealth grew by 3,9% or 88,4 million ISK. Less than expected and less than what I made on average in the past. 

Let's see if my adjustments will generate a higher profit in the upcoming week.


Happy trading and manufacturing to you all. Enjoy the game! o7