[STO] Dilithium Tracking 9/27/12

Well, its now been 4 weeks tracked! My first month! And, as such, I’m finally getting a view of the “bigger” picture. It was rather nice to get up, log on, and see the 64 Zen I placed for sale at 1:165 had sold, leaving me with a nice sum of over 10,000 Dilithium. Knowing that when rates go back down I’ll be able to make a small profit on that is even better.

I know, I know, you want charts, don’t you?

	Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
8/27/2012			160	165	161	156	158
9/3/2012	157	157	157	156	153	152	153
9/10/2012	154	153	154	154	154	154	154
9/17/2012	155	156	155	155	155	154	155
9/24/2012	154	155	159	165

And we see that spike again! But why? What I think is:

• We’re at the end of the month and almost the end of the week. So, there’s a good chance people are holding back right now, waiting for payday. Bills are coming due and all that.
• People are waiting for their stipend. I suspect, for the reason above, that most people have their subscriptions renew or bought their Lifetime account around the middle of the month. You’ll notice Zen:Dilithium is at its lowest (ie, best to buy Zen) starting at the end of the first full week of October and really ended last week (see dates in blue).

So, if you’re planning to sell Zen, you might get the most bang for your buck around this time of the month (past performance does not guarantee future results). Conversely, if you’re trying to sell Dilithium to buy Zen, right now isn’t the best time to do so. Its not horrible, mind you! I think the market is currently very pro-Dilithium seller, even at these prices.

If you’re playing exchange rate games, well, now is a good time to sell with hopes/expectations the prices will drop again later. Overnight I sold 64 Zen at 1:165, getting 10,560 Dilithium. Trick being, I bought all that at 1:154 and lower, so a 9,856 investment has got me 704 Dilithium profit.

While I’m trying to buy Master Keys and other items, there are plenty of goodies in the Dilithium Shops ranging from ships, weapons, and advanced fighters. So, if you can hold on to any Zen you may have, saving it for this time of the month to buy Dilithium may be well worth your while. A 500 Zen stipend can buy 77,000 Dilithium when the rate is 1:154, but 82,500 at 1:165. A 5,500 Dilithium difference isn’t something to sneeze at! That’s a 35 Zen difference in buying power!

[Update] And, a friend told me I missed the Z:D rate hitting 1:170! Wow!