Is there a way to set up a buy order that activates when a sell order is placed under a certain price ?
A buy order already does that. The only limitation is that your order must be the highest buy order in order to be fulfilled first.
Placing a buy order means all sell orders for =< your buy order price that meet all other criteria (like quantity and distance from buy order station) will fulfill your buy order - provided no qualifying buy order exists that is a higher price.
Say you need to buy 500,000 units of tritanium and you are willing to pay up to 8 isk per unit. There are a variety of sell orders within 1 jump for prices ranging from 7 isk to 9 isk, in varying quantities, and the higest current buy order is 5isk each. If you place a buy order for 500,000 units at 8 isk each within 1 jump, the market will start fulfilling your buy order from qualifying sell orders, up until either there are no more matching sell orders or your buy order is fulfilled. If you have quantity remaining outstanding, the remaining units will be listed as a buy order.
This is suboptimal from a money perspective (since you pay 8 isk each regardless of listed lower price, and pay broker’s fee for the entire buy order - you could have saved money manually buying up the sell orders) but is a fast way to mass buy from the market. So if speed matters over price, it’s an efficient way to mass-buy.
Thank you for the explanation.
So, inversely, if I place a sell order at 100isk and there is a buy order at 110isk, the market will make the transaction at 100 isk, right?
No, the market will give you the buy order amount of 110 isk instead of your sell order request of 100 isk. It’s basically a windfall for the seller; the buyer pays their stipulated amount regardless of the actual seller price.
It was SUPER confusing for me the first few times I had stuff sell for more than my assigned price - it’s most common with high-volume low-quantity sell orders like ammo or minerals/ore, but sometimes you’ll benefit off someone buying modules en-mass for doctrine ship fittings.
I made the test and when I placed a buy order higher than the lowest sell order, the market made the transaction at the higher price (my price) and the seller got the sale at a higher price than he listed.
When I placed a sell order at a lower price than the highest buy price, the market made the transaction at the lowest price (my price) and the buyer got the buy at a lower price than he listed.
Interesting, might just be an order of operations thing then as to which price is used for each. Though I can’t recall ever getting an escrow refund on a buy order that later was sold to for less than the asking price.
Maybe the broker keeps the difference 
Worth checking out though.
Anyway, thanks for the enlightening.
It somehow never occurred to me that the market would make operations on its own.
I thought a player had to act on your buy or sell order for it to be processed.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.