Pricing

For those of you that were wondering if someone could corner the market on a world and then make a real killing, the answer is no. These are the reasons why:
1. If there is a shortage of an item C3s will begin to make corporations to build them.
2. If there is a real big shortage, the GM inserts product into the market.
3. The pricing is not based on demand, if you look at most of the pricing graphs you will see that the pricing follows a pattern: Down, Down, Down, Up, Down, Down, Down, Down, Up and repeat. I looked at several items that never got below a 500,000,000 unit shortfall and the pattern was the same.
So even if you could get around #s 1 and 2, you still could not make enough of a profit to make it worthwhile.

So if you have heard rumors that a group of people were trying to do this, I would not worry much...

1. Yes but C3s don't actively close old corporations so most of the time there is no room for new ones
3. It is based on demand but once it goes to the max or min price it goes to that pattern

Its possible to corner the markets, plenty of people have done it before (including me, plastic ftw!) and not all of the giant influxes are from the GMs. The price variations allows for large profits ex. min price for plastic ~600 max ~1500

Kudos to DuGalle.

Look for that to continue to proliferate. I'm guessing within 6 months real time, factory utilization benchmarks will be useless as an indicator for start-ups. (at least in several key markets).

On a related note, is there any interest for a suggestion to add a hyper-link to each world market from a space station/dock? Could come in very handy.

Regards,
M. Ney

It is correct that players have cornered markets of various types in this game many times and will continue to do so.

However, players have never been able to sustain these maneuvers long-term to the point of continued market destabilization.

If there is a group of them attempting this as has been rumored, they will crash some markets, make some money, then move along feeling as if they accomplished something worthwhile.

They will have accomplished something worthwhile - increasing their wealth. And the higher that climbs, the more opportunities they have to manipulate the world markets. I'm hedging my positions in oil, services, ht services, and fmu's.

Warmest regards,
M. Ney

There is certainly nothing wrong with making money in the game. I concur with my friend Marshal. Buying low and selling high is part of the game.

I am looking at it, concerning a concerted effort to destabilize the entire economy, as an accomplishment that is distasteful and not worthwhile.

That is what I believe this rumored group is attempting to do; disrupt and destroy.