Market Milestones - 30b in One Month

After bringing in 18b in January, I expected trade profit in February to drop down to a more average 10b or so. However, with the introduction of skill injectors--combined with more time to play and a few trading side-projects that proved profitable--I ended up bringing in 33b for the month. That's not bad for only trading on one character, or just 300 orders! -The basics of the month are:

1. Skill injectors obviously made up a good portion of the trade profit for February. The margins have mostly fallen to 10-20% now, but I expect skill injectors to be a staple of my trade habits for some time. It is not so much the margins on injectors that makes for good trading, but the sheer volume:

Alright, so the 36k and 33k traded in skill injectors during the first two days is definitely a lot, but the initial hype was to be expected. What's really surprising, though, is how high the quantities have stayed a full month later. The quantity of injectors has yet to drop below 5k, and has in fact stayed closer to an 9k average (in Jita). That volume is higher than the PLEX volumes traded in Jita during the same period, which makes an unprecedented opportunity for traders. The point is, an initial rush of injector trading was expected, but a month later it seems that players have gotten used to occasionally using injectors. They seem to have become a regular part of the game for many players, something much like multiple character training or level 5 implants, that players want to grind isk for and use on multiple occasions. (E.g., I just used another 3 the other day to finish a level V skill I wanted to use. It is a habit now, just like training a month on an alt here and there.)

The real questions I am interesting for skill injectors at this point are:


     I. What will the lowest quantities be pre-Citadel release? Will they stay above 5k per day?
     II. What kind of spike will the Citadel release bring to the injector market?
     III. During the next period of "Stagnation" for the game (maybe late summer of 2016?) how 
     low will injector quantities fall?

I am interested in how these questions will play out over the next 6 months, if only for science.

2. Because I had a bit more time at the computer, I also did a bit of station trading in Jita. Spoiler: I traded in SKINs, as they are very low volume but very high margin. I made roughly 10b isk in the month I traded them. However, just a few hours of station trading here and there made me realize how much I cannot stand it. Not only do I not like updating orders, but I don't like having to remember to do it. The reason why I like regional trading is because I can update orders when I feel like it and then not think about the orders for a day or a week. Regional trading uses considerably less cognitive resources (because I can and do simply ignore it), which for me is just as valuable as time. But for anyone looking for some casual station trading, SKINs are a potentially worthwhile market. (Yes, players do sometimes sell them to incredibly low buy orders. I have no idea why, but it happens.)

3. Some trading side-projects have also proven decently worthwhile. Basically, I expanded where I trade to a null sec hub--maybe 12 items or so that are bought pretty frequently. Here's another spoiler: it is in P-Z, the very convenient Red Frog freeport in Querious. However, I was able to stock this location at first because I found a wormhole in system directly to HS. I stocked it on another occasion by flying a hauler through null, mostly for the fun of it. I don't yet know if I will be able to reliably stock this location, short of scanning for a wormhole every day or buying a jump freighter. The JF likely would not pay itself off for a few months, though, so it would be a risk (and time consuming) venture. This freeport has also seen an influx in station camps as well (I didn't know Rote Kapelle, who just moved in, did a lot of station and gate camping, but apparently they do), and there's always the possibility some group will entosis the station out of freeport sooner or later.