• The player gains access to the stock market through Stock Exchanges.   Local Stock Exchanges are limited to the sectors encompassed by the Stock Exchange while Corporate and Company Indexes are additive increasing the number of available shares based on the number of stock exchanges unlocked.

Local Stock Exchanges

• Range between an Index value of 200 and 0
• An index of 100 represents a stock value of the minimal price for the ware
• An Index of 50 represents a stock value of the average price for the ware
• An index of 0 represents a stock value of the maximum price for the ware
• Index value = (Supply/Demand)*100 (therefore an index of 200 = a Supply of >2*Demand)
• Supply = the sum total of the ware on all ships in the Stock Exchange region that is not equipped and in storage on selling stations (stations that both buy and sell included) in the Stock Exchange region
• Demand = the sum total of all capacity for the ware on all buying stations
• Share Price = Minimum Price+[(Maximum Price-Minimum Price)*{1-(Supply/Demand)}].  
  • Example1: Disintegrator Rifles in a Stock Exchange Region with only a Pirate Base and no other stations demanding the ware and 6 in stock on the pirate base.   The share price would be 19,945+[(33,959-19,945)*{1-(6/(20)}] = 19,945+(14,014*0.7) = 19,945+9810 = 27,955 credits
  • Example2: Energy Bolt Chainguns in the Grand exchange region with 4 on the Military Outpost in Merchant Haven and 2 on a Rapid Response ship.   The share price would be 129,984+[(172,304-129,984)*{1-(6/8)}] = 129,984+(42,320*0.25) = 140,564 credits
• Shares available for purchase = 2*(unequipped ware number in Stock Exchange region)
• Wares only show on the stock exchange if an NPC station demands the ware (player equipment docks and trading ports do not count) or there is a factory producing that ware
• Wares being produced in a Stock Exchange region with no demand will flip between and index of 100 and 200 with a single copy of the ware but always have the minimum share price

Natural

Stocks based on hidden quest related wares (players will be familiar with them from the main plot and random missions of X3: Reunion, X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude) found on NPC ships.   Stations also have a hidden demand for these wares making changes in stock price random but quantitative based on ships entering and leaving the Stock Exchange region and ships spawned and destroyed.   Due to the completely random nature of their creation, shares of these wares are often volatile.

Other Wares

Stocks based on wares produced by factories and spawned on Rapid Response ships.   NPC stations consume wares (even trading stations slowly deplete stocks) and ships transporting them get killed draining wares from the economy while factories produce them and rapid response ships spawn with them.   This means that the availability of wares can be predicted based on the number and distance of suppliers compared to consuming stations.   It also means enemy activity can cause sudden spikes in certain wares by triggering fleets of Rapid Response ships full of that ware to jump in.   As the player can purchase and remove wares from the presence of the Stock Exchange region it is possible manipulate the stock market for several wares.

Profit able to be earned in this part of the stock market is equivalent to 2 times the profit that could be earned by trading the ware (and the player gets to keep any wares of that type owned).

Corporate and Company Indexes

• Based on the value of assets owned by the corporation/company
• Number of shares available are based on the number of Stock Exchanges unlocked
• (formulae required) 

Corporations

Value based on wares in owned stations and the number of owned stations and ships out of a desired maximum.   The number of owned ships in the X-universe can be seen under Owned Ships on the headquarters for the corporation while stations are always built in the same place.   The loss of ships and stations combined with the depletion of wares from stations reduces the value of shares.   By the player intentionally destroying assets of the corporation it is possible to manipulate the index values. 

Companies

Most NPC ship spawned (including civilian ships) are assigned to a company, although, there is no way to identify which.   Like corporations the destruction of ships owned by companies affects the index value. 

Stock Market Manipulation

The stock market can be profitable but unreliable so whereas luck is good, control is better.   As the stock index of wares in local stock exchanges is in part dependent on those held in the holds of ships, it is possible for the player to induce an artificial increase in supply by flying a ship into the stock market region even if there is no intent to sell the wares to meet demand.   It is then possible to further increase monopoly of supply by purchasing all available copies of the ware in the Stock Exchange region.   This enables the player to leverage stocks by flying a ship through a single gate into a Stock Exchange region to fully reduce the price of stocks (index of >100) for a specific range of goods before flying the ship back through the gate to increase the prices (ideally an index of 0) for a large profit margin.   As the number of stocks available are dependent on the number of the ware in the region having a TL full of the ware(s) can easily generate numbers of stocks worth tens of millions to over a billion credits profit per transaction.   By overtuning the ship used for stock market manipulation with Pandora Tunings, this process can be performed several times per minute not only making the player extremely wealthy but also gaining Trade Rank at insane rates.

Factors favouring wares for stockmarket manipulation are:

• Low but existent demand (very hard to leverage goods like Sunrise Flowers where demand is in the 10,000s requiring several full TLs to leverage)
• Demand for the same ware in adjacent Stock Exchange regions (allows the player to cut a profit each time the ship is ordered)
• A large difference between the maximum and minimum price (means more profit per share)
• A small volume (means more can be put on a single ship generating more shares)
• Few nearby suppliers (CLS MK2 can negate but Construct Station missions can be counterproductive)(this makes the Grand Exchange and Gaian Star Stock Exchanges good for manipulation)

Recommended wares for manipulation:

• Space Fuel (produced at a rate of 375/h by factories so it is easy to fill a TL but not found in the Grand Exchange and Gaian Star Stock Exchange regions allowing the player to cut both ways)
• Disintegrator Rifles (spawned pirate bases can introduce demand so by late game most stock exchanges will want this and it only needs 20 to leverage while NPC factories are few and barely able to supply their local area while player owned ones produce 3.75/h)
• Recon Drone (only demanded in Queen's Retribution Stock Exchange region but has high leverage value and low cargo volume with only 2 NPC factories in existence and a production rate of 3.6/h)
• Energy Bolt Chaingun (only needs 8 to leverage and Grand Exchange is always low while the ware itself has the highest leverage to volume ratio

Recommended ships:

• Atmospheric Lifter (large cargo and good speed but needs to be Boarded to obtain)
• Aran (if used as a player ship and overtuned can be quite fast while the capacity for 30 TS+ ships and even other Arans gives this ship near unlimited storage)