What is "Current value" in Trade Info good for?

[Capt Nemo]

I have looked a bit at prices, to see where I can make the best profit. But in "Trade Info" there are two prices for each Main Trade Item, when you look at a port. They are called "Current price" and "Current Value".

I have just looked at the price for Spices in my port Goa. At the trading post it says value 1548 £/ton (number A) and profit 239 £/ton (number B).

When I look in the Trade Info for MTI for "Main trade item values" it says for spices 1787 £/ton (number C). When I look for spices at "Prices in ports that produce this item" it says for Goa "Current price" 1547 £/ton (number D) and "Current value" 1427 £/ton (number E).

1) The value in Goa (A) agrees with the Trade Info "Current price" (D).
2) The value and profit in Goa (A+B) 1548+239=1787 agrees with Trade Info "MTI value" (C).

So far all OK, numbers A to D agrees. But number E is left alone. What is the meaning of this number?

 

[unmerged(153936)]

I've wondered this myself, look forward to the answer.

 

[Ksielvin]

I don't have access to my copy of the game right now but this shouldn't be too complicated. (Famous last words.)

At any port, Price is what you can buy the trade item at, and Value is what you can sell the item at. Notice how they make you pay higher price than the actual value they consider the item to have? Bastards!

Price and Value are dynamic, hence the "current".

When looking at a Main Trade Item (MTI), the numbers you're usually interested in are the Price at current port and Value at home port. Value at home minus Price you have to pay now results in... profit! The Profit listed in Trading Post UI is the amount you'd get right now if you bought the goods and they somehow teleported home to be sold immediately.*

Looking at the letters you assigned, A and D are the same thing: the current price for the item at that port. While you were changing between port window and the Trade Info screen it the game time went forward slightly and it changed by a pound. Only ports that have the item for sale have a price for it. Every port should however have E: the current value for the item at that port. You can always sell your stuff anywhere, even if it results in a loss for you. If you buy at Price and immediately sell at Value at the same port, the difference is naturally how much money you loose.

* P.S. Regarding that profit (per ton) listed in Trading Post UI. By the time you ship the items home the demand may have gone up so you'll get the amount listed or more unless you first go and sell another shipment of the same item at home port, which could cause the demand and value to be lower when these latest ones arrive. Buy and sell in big batches to get low prices and high values.

 

[Forster]

I would say that is a pretty fair summary of the situation.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Thank you, PekkaR, for your detailed answer! If I had bought spices in Goa for 1547 £/ton, as in my example above, and then had changed me and sold it back again in Goa, then the price had been this "Current value" of 1427 £/ton and I had lost 1547 - 1427 = 120 £/ton.

To my astonishment I can see that it seems to be possible to get some profit this way, if "Current value" is higher than "Current price". When I check the price for tea in Cochin, current price is 1090 and current value is 1134. If I buy some tons of tea and immediately sells it back again, I will have a profit of 1134 - 1090 = 44 £/ton! I have not tested it yet, so I cannot say if it works. Is it some kind of bug that "current value" can be higher than "Current price"?

 

[Forster]

Possibly your purchase reduced the supply enough that the value went up. Simple supply and demand equation for the port I imagine.