I just started doing some serious trading with the new tools, and I'm confused. I'm seeing things in the market where the demand over is 300, but these items are not flagged as "high demand". However, other items with a demand of 60 is considered high demand. Is this bugged? I've been using the filter for high supply / demand, only to find out that I'm missing some of the best deals because things seem improperly marked. Would a sales manager please report to cash register B!
High demand is relative to the total demand for the product, and the (fairly small) effect of the demand curve on pricing depends on the relative amount not the absolute amount.
So, for example, Copper gets used in everything, and has a total demand of around 300t per economic unit [1]. Progenitor Cells, on the other hand, you only need a few grams per treatment, so a tonne of them lasts for ages [2], and the demand is around 0.3t per economic unit.
So an Industrial market with 100 economic units of size would have an expected peak demand of around 30,000t of Copper and 30t of Progenitor Cells. If some of this demand had been met, and the remaining market had a demand for 15,000t of Copper and 28t of Progenitor Cells, this would be high demand of Cells (28/30) but only medium demand for Copper (15000/30000)
[1] As a first approximation true of
most stations, a market has economic units equal to the square root of its population.
[2] Unless you happen to be a techno-undead creature thought destroyed in an explosion but kept alive solely by vast quantities of them. Ahem.
Oh, and how is it I can sell things to the market where there is zero demand and yet still make a profit against the galactic average?
The market average assumes BGS state "None" and in that state most goods will make a loss at 0 demand especially if bought from a market at low supply.
If the price is boosted by BGS states then it can end up way over the galactic average even at zero demand.
(I'd rather the demand curve was the big effect and the BGS states were the fine-tuning, rather than the other way round, but that's how it is)