Explanation for Rapid Economic Fluctuations?

[stoicfury]

I understand the economy in this game isn't entirely driven by players, in fact it's largely not driven by them. Still, a handful of players can make noticeable differences in the value of a commodity repeatedly traded over time. I noticed that sometimes though there is a surge in availability or a massive drop in the course of just a few minutes. Is this intended, or just a byproduct of a trading system that is in its nascent stages?


Superconductors dropping supply from 650k to 320k in about 13 minutes. (Traffic reports indicate only a handful of ships at this station in the last 24 hours)

 

[_Flin_]

You should write a post in the bug forum about that one.

Either bug or:
- a state influencing demand ending or starting (like Boom ending and lowering demand)
- manual change by the devs
- some other thing like a community goal starting or ending

This wasn't players. Not 300k demand in 13 minutey. Thats 600 Type 9s unloading.

 

[Twelvefield]

That's an interesting find. I doubt it's a bug, but probably an automatic system function to correct the market. Don't forget that there's no "crafting" in the game to build these things, it's just Obamanomics: let's build currency out of thin air. And what has been built can be unbuilt as well.

Still, if you need a narrative reason for this, Zorgon Peterson trades futures on superconductors, maybe they're contracted for space station repairs for an entire faction. ZP put a bid on a batch of them, and the bid came through. The superconductors are still at the station, they've simply been taken off the market by the planetside ZP purchasing agent.

 

[ste]

NPC trading is also thrown in to the calculation.

But to be honest I think theres alot of questionable happenings when it comes to the economy. Its so bad random would be more believable most of the time.

 

[NullAndVoid]

I've seen that before in a couple of stations with no active state, notice the numbers fluctuate by exactly 50%. Must be a bug imo as it can change between market refreshes (approx 10 mins).