I didn't think it was possible, but the the global trade hq has gotten shockingly worse. The absolute frustration of finding an item you want to purchase only to have to visit the purchasing city (with no kind of "reserve" on the item you pressed), only to find it gone or the unfunny new message about an accounting error when you go to purchase it 99.9% of the time is an embarrassment to EA and the developers behind it. Stop using "optimistic" algorithms and fix this problem the right way. Get some people who actually understand how to deal with high volume reserve/confirm transactions like is done with event ticketing and you might have a chance.