Trading and Golfing, A New Experiment and an Update

Trading is Just Like Golfing
I was having a discussion with other traders in the GoblinWorks channel last night, and at some point, someone pipped up and said:

"This market stuff is driving me insane because it really isn't that complicated. I just can't seem to put the methods to work."

That's because trading is like golf (or any other sport): it's simple in theory, but practice is something else entirely.

Let's think about golf for a little bit. If you read up on it, it look quite easy. Wikipedia defines it as "a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players (or golfers) use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes". Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? Just hit a ball into a hole with a club, using the fewest number of strokes. But if you're like me, you don't know what the fewest number of strokes is, because you stop counting at 25.

Trading is very similar. It's basically an activity where you buy goods or services at a price and resell it at a higher price in order to make a profit. But there are many different strategies to make that profit, such as station trading, hauling, manufacturing, research and invention, etc, and each of these has their own little sub-market.

If any aspiring traders read this blog (because I think I still only have one reader, bless his heart), it would be this: do read as much as you can about trading, not just the Trading 101 articles, but also every document that contains any strategy about trading. Then go out and try it. You will find it very difficult at first, and you will make mistakes, so don't stake your entire wallet on trades at first. Eventually, you will understand what this trading think is all about. Then you'll be making the real big money.


A New Experiment

I received an email from CCP, telling me that I could re-activate my account for 30 days at a pretty good discount. I get these every once in a while, and I usually ignore them, because I already run two accounts. However, I took them up on their offer this time. I have one alt slot left, and I was considering creating a new alt. I have a business opportunity I wanted to investigate, and I would need another alt, as my three Nates are busy doing other things, and I need three alts for this business.

But instead of creating new alts, I thought it would be more efficient to resurrect Tori. He's got lots of piloting skills and other support skills, so I don't need to divert skill training time from others to get him moving. So 30s of a new account seemed like a pretty good deal. I'll move him to my main account at the end of the month. But when I first logged in, I noticed that he had nothing. No ships, no ISK, just skills. And that got me thinking of another experiment I've always wanted to try.

I keep hearing players complain they have no money because "it takes money to make money", and I've always thought that was a poor excuse for not having ISK. I've always wanted to start a character with absolutely nothing, and see if I could make decent ISK very quickly. This is the perfect opportunity. So what's my starting point: 1.15 ISK, an the Concord care package for capsuleers that have lost absolutely everything: an Ibis (Caldari rookie ship), a Civilian Miner, a Civilian Gatling Gun and one Tritanium. My objective is to get myself into a T2-geared BattleCruiser, exactly like I had when I left the game. Tori isn't getting any support from his corpmates, and he isn't benefiting from a privileged tax rate, since FGW has a 10% tax rate.

Wish him luck!


Business update
Nate and Nate are progressing well.


Assets
------
Cash                           5,354,057.66 ISK
Sell Orders                   77,193,259.00 ISK
Escrow                                 0.00 ISK
Contracts                              0.00 ISK
                              -----------------
Total Current Assets          82,547,316.66 ISK

(I know most people don't get excited about balance sheets, but this is mostly so I can keep track of progress. I'll keep the updates at the bottom of my posts, so readers can skip this part if they're not interested).