Trinkets friend
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Posted - 2011.07.15 06:26:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Tekota
Path 1 is arbitrage. That is find something cheap in one region, sell it expensive in another region.
No, arbitrage is far more complicated than simply buying low, hauling, selling high. Arbitrage would be the act of, say, finding a contract to buy an Archon for 1.2B in Derelik, and matching it with a contract to sell an Archon for 900M in Devoid, and matching the two up without ever having to touch the Archons yourself. Even using Red Frog Freight isn't pure arbitrage.
For a start, Arbitrage can't exist in EVE because of the basically fractured nature of the regional markets, and the fact that items are not tradeable between markets the same way they are in the real world. Eg, modern arbitrageurs play on fractions of percentages on currency markets by trading imbalances in exchange rate where, for example, the Yen/Euro, Pound/Euro and Pound/Yen ratios get thrown out of whack.
There is no situation in EVE where you can play arbitrage because, although the price of Trit may be different between Stain and The Forge, you would have to still transact in the commodity, move the commodity, and transact in the commodity again resulting in time-expense (hauling), opportunity cost (in time to haul), let alone the sales tax costs or contract costs, plus a massive layering of risk.
Originally by: Tekota
Path 2 is flipping, or station trading. -snip-
The pertinent skill for playing the market like this is, firstly, Accounting (aka tax avoidance). This can reduce your tax from 10%. The next skill, when you start edging into puts and calls territory as much as EVE is able to cover this, requires the Margin Trading skill. But remember that either way you can get burned.
Originally by: Tekota
Path 3 is speculation.
This is also known as getting your portfolio of investments nerfed by CCP when they try to rebalance their latest market rebalancing attempt (cf noxcium, mexallon crashes), and trying to anticipate the FOTM. That said, i made about 500M on guidance systems when PI came out based on analysis that a P3 item wouldn't stick at 100 ISK forever.
My perspective, as I pull in a good 1.2B a month from trading, is that nothing beats actually knowing your market. You may believe that trading cap 800's is the way to riches, and have trade alts, contracted hauls via Red Frog to shunt your stuff to the target market, etc, but if you don't understand who is buying and why they are willing to pay a premium, you won't make a single ISK cent.
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