What to buy today
"What to buy" is a browsing table of the best station-trading positions in the selected hub today. EVE Mercator filters for items with a live two-sided order book and ranks them by a deterministic live-market score that folds net margin (after fees) and turnover into a single risk-adjusted return on capital per day. It is not an LLM and not financial advice: every number is computed by code over region-wide ESI history and the current order-book snapshot. Station trading here means placing a buy order just above the bid and a sell order just below the ask in one hub and earning the spread minus fees; cross-hub hauling lives on the separate "Arbitrage" screen.
Net margin is computed on effective fees: sales tax of 7.5% at Accounting 0 (cut from 8% in a March 2025 patch) and down to ~3.4% at Accounting V; broker fee ~3% at Broker Relations 0, ~1.5% at V, and a floor around ~1% with standings. As a result a full cycle breaks even at roughly ~14–15% margin on base skills and about ~7% trained. The relist discount is 50% at base and up to 80% at Advanced Broker Relations V. Fair value is the VWAP over region-wide ESI history; price history runs up to 90 days, which feeds the rich/cheap-versus-fair read and the confidence badge.
The table is personal: each position carries position sizing — how many units to take against your free ISK. The budget comes from your wallet (ESI sync) and can be overridden by hand in the UI; sizing is computed per item (concentration per position versus market absorption), so rows can be filtered, sorted and paginated freely while the total bar honestly flags "within budget" or "over budget". The list covers all 5 hubs — Jita IV-Moon 4, Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek. Guests see the ranking, but buy quantity is sized after login; Free shows the top 5 positions and the full list is on Pro. Mercator is a fan project for EVE Online, not affiliated with Fenris Creations.
- Station trading
- A buy order just above the bid and a sell order just below the ask in one hub; the profit is the spread minus fees. Cross-hub hauling is "Arbitrage", a separate screen.
- Live-market score
- The deterministic ranking key: net margin after fees and turnover folded into a risk-adjusted return on capital per day. Not an LLM, not advice.
- Net margin and fees
- Margin after effective fees: sales tax 7.5% at Accounting 0 (cut from 8% in March 2025), ~3.4% at V; broker ~3% at Broker Relations 0, ~1.5% at V, floor ~1% with standings. A full cycle breaks even at ~14–15% on base skills and ~7% trained.
- Relist discount
- The discount on re-listing an order: 50% at base, up to 80% at Advanced Broker Relations V.
- Fair value
- VWAP over region-wide ESI history; price history runs up to 90 days. Drives the cheap/rich read and the confidence badge.
- Position sizing
- How many units to take against your free ISK: the lesser of per-position concentration and market absorption. Budget comes from the wallet (ESI) or by hand; computed after login.
- 5 hubs
- The trade hubs of EVE Online: Jita IV-Moon 4, Amarr, Dodixie, Rens, Hek. Hauling capacity ranges from ~4–5k m3 on a Blockade Runner to ~1M m3 on a Freighter.