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Markets were mixed, some up, some down with downward pressure still overwhelming.

Raw materials held prices despite some inter-day drops. There's still a world-wide downward pressure on prices. This writer bought weapon raw material in eCanada at .05cc. Last night there were several countries selling raw materials for .02cc less than we see this morning. Expect the downward trend to continue once big buyers fill their warehouses with cheap raws. The Raw Material Index holds at its record low of 26.67.

Food prices jolt lower as all levels lose ground. The Food Index tumbles 3.29 to a record low of 72.05.

Weapons recover as most quality levels improve, at least slightly. The Weapon Index rises 0.54 to 71.38.

Wages hold steady leaving the Wage Index at 103.39.

Gold again pushes higher moving the Gold Index to 122.17.

The Index:


The 1600 AU Index
Based off of the amount of gold a player could earn in a year by working at market wage, selling 20 weapons, 200 food (both Q6) and 1750 raw materials (split 50/50 food/weapons) the 1600 AU Index drops to a record low of 268.21. Markedly lower food prices & higher offset the small rise in weapons.

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The multiplier

Yesterday's 1600 Index noted the relationship between the quality level and Q1 prices. The 1600 Index noted that the market self-corrects: each quality level is roughly its multiplier of Q1. In other words a Q2 is about two times a Q1 price; a Q3 is about triple the Q1 price; a Q4 is quadruple the Q1, etc.
We here at The 1600 Index like to do two things: refer to ourselves in the third-person, and make charts & graphs. And not proof-read. (We'll stop there lest we slide into a Monty Python bit). Here's a nifty graph showing that price multiplier relationship over time (since, you guessed it, Day 1600):


This is weapons. The 1600 Index notes that the multiplier relationships holds together fairly well (at least for Q2-Q5). Q6 starts to wander off its 6x multiplier around Day 1616, and crosses 7x on 1644. One would hold that Q6 has broken the pricing structure.

The 1600 Index has one for food, too:


More interesting to note how overvalued Q1 is relative to Q2-Q5 as of late. There was a big spike in Q1's price on Day 1641 and Q2-Q5 have all been under their multiplier line. Also interesting to note that Q6 food has spent quite a bit of time around the 7x multiplier, much more so than Q6 weapons has.

A another overvalued / undervalued chart:



Moving Averages

For those unfamiliar with a "moving average", in the following charts, the blue line represents the market price at 3:00 eRep time. The red line in the 5-day moving average (average of the last 5-days) of market prices. What that tells us is whether prices are trending downward (the market price is below the moving average) or trending higher (the market price is above the moving average).

Back to the bottom where we all start Q1 & Q2. Food first-

Interesting curve there. The spike in Q1 prices pulled it the 5-day higher, but it didn't last long and now Q1 is in a downward trend.


No spike. Just a steady drumbeat of down.

And weapons:



Both have recent big drops and a recovery today. Lines don't often go up.



Note: prices are reflective of a percentage of Day 1600's price (Hence the "1600 Index"). In other words if an index is quoted at 88, that days price is 88% of the price on Day 1600. Except the 1600 AU Index which represents an amount of gold one can buy given market conditions as noted in that section.

Methodology on prices: prices are taken at 3:00 eRep time. The price is the average price of buying 1,000 Raw materials, 500 Food, 100 weapons (at each quality level), and 8 gold, plus the market wage less any fraction of cc (so 240, rather than 240.1). All qualities are standardized to Q1 (per hit or per health).

Sic transit gloria mundi